+ DJ set from QUOCKENZOCKER (Synaesthesia Records)
@ The Old Blue Last, Great Eastern Street
£5, 8pm
JUSTICE YELDHAM:
Biography:
"What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is the unique work of Justice Yeldham who has an obsession with using sheets of broken glass as his musical instrument. He become enamored with the sonic possibilities of glass during a sound-check in 2003 and has been having a love affair with the material ever since. Amplifying the sheets using a high end transducer designed for grand pianos, he presses his face against the surface whist employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries. Helped along with the addition of various signal processors to create a wild variety of noises that are surprisingly controlled and oddly musical.
Justice Yeldham is the latest alter-ego for one Lucas Abela, whose past sonic experiments were conducted under monikers like Dj Smallcock & Peeled Hearts Paste. Initially he was classed as an experimental turntablist, although his early work rarely resembled anything in the field. Early feats, saw him stab vinyl with Kruger style stylus gloves, bound on electro acoustic trampolines, perform deaf defying duet duels with amplified samurai swords, hospitalized by high powered turntables constructed from sewing machine motors, record chance John Peel sessions with the Flaming Lips, & be Otomo Yoshihides' favorite entry into his Ground Zero remix competition; 'Consummation' even though instead of sampling the CD he destroyed it using amplified skewers! He also founded and still runs dualpLOVER (recording label, cd/dvd replicators, distributor and promoter of gigs and tours) in 1995.
Essesntially live audio artist he's been performing professionally for the past 12 years, since Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim stumbled across his late night radio performances in 1994 and asked him to play their 2nd What is Music? Festival. Since he's conducted 9 international tours, performing in over 30 countries."
Testimonials:
"Yeldham's live performance consists of grinding his face into a sheet of mic'd up plate glass. It is hideous for a variety of reasons. One is that the transparency of the glass means you get to view his face all squished up against the other side of the glass like a kid on a special bus wiping his nose down the window as you overtake them on the motorway. Another reason is the sound really is quite nasty. The resonant properties of the glass means as he yells onto/into it and then pulls and squeezes at the sheet, the pitch of his voice wildly varies and wavers and this in turn is run through some truly ugly processing that makes it sound like a Dalek in it's death throes."
- Chris Summerlin on 151105 nottingham
"A writhing, contorting, nauseating, sensational screamingfuckingbloodymess, the 33-year-old Australian glassjaw who performs as Justice Yeldham And The Dynamic Ribbon Device has a show so visceral, so alive, that it can move a room full of the most jaded noisenrrds to gaping-mouthed wonderment. The pock-marked bloke born Lucas Abela, mischievously takes the stage of Denver avant-loft/noisenik playhouse Monkey Mania wearing a belt surrounded by distortion pedals and a single contact mic limply dangling from a wire. He squeezes a tube of KY Jelly all over his weathered mug and into his mouth. He clicks on the pedals and presses he face to a triangle of glass. Hideous black garglescuzz pours out of the speaker, each yelp, hum and fart matching his face..s disgusting rubbery contortions. The sounds are inhuman, but their patterns are most definitely familiar, a hyper-distorted screech-tantrum howling in bone-rattling harmonies, all set to the bittersweet aroma of warm lube. He leaps into the crowd, face twisted into apoplectic distortions, and begins seizuring. And here is where everyone starts flipping the fuck out. Abela gnaws on the glass like a lion gutting an antelope. Each sickly crack jettisons through the distortion pedals, blorts out the amp and is followed by the screams of shock, fear, joy and various combinations of the three. The glass comes smashing down on his face. He waits, panting, for the cheers and screams to die down. His cheek is oozing blood from a sharp red line. His earlobe is sliced open and spitting a steady stream down his neck onto his KY-soaked shirt."
-christopher r. weingarten on 030405 denver
"It was louder than anything that had preceded it, and it had an organic quality that demanded my attention - so I took a look. The Australian stood in the middle of a semi-circle of onlookers, the DJ and a hospital gurney behind him. He wore a belt of effects peddles about his waste which were wired to a contact microphone affixed to a three foot long triangular piece of plate glass that was balanced on one shoulder and pressed wickedly against his face with both hands. It was like some perverse facial ham press. He blew into the glass like a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe, sliding the glass back and forth across his face to change the pitch, vibrating and adjusting pressure to alter the tambour. The sound was a combination of the vibrations created by his manipulations and the feedback from the amplification, and he truly played it like an instrument. In totality, it was kind of like a cross between a dental vacuum and a jet engine - two of my favorite sounds. The first cuts I noticed were on his shoulder where hewas supporting most of the weight of the glass. His tee shirt had been sliced in two or three places, and a little bit of blood was starting to show. It was evident that this was going to be more than anyone had expected, and to drive that point home, he stuck the narrow end of the triangle as far into his mouth as he could fit it - and bit down. Breathing through barred, clenched teeth, a whole new sound appeared and then the glass gave way, shattering in his mouth. Quickly spitting out what he could, the larger, unbroken section of glass was again up against his face - smaller now, higher in pitch and somehow more urgent. His mouth was bleeding, and the distorted image of his face took on a new aspect of horror as the blood formed an organic liquid gasket between man and instrument. The intensity of the noise had not let up one bit, and with a few quick twists of the knobs on his belt any sense of waning was replaced by a new level of sound and violence. He bit the glass again, removing another big chunk, and then returned to the "first position," now with a piece of glass less than half it's original size. Again, the sound advanced to a new intensity, and at this point his entire face was red with blood that was mixing with his saliva and mucus to drip in tendrils from his hands, chin, and of course the glass. By this point, he was completely unable to stand still. The focus and control of is initial stance was replaced by a twisting, stomping, arching tangle of odd dance moves clearly inspired by the drive to continue the performance to it's conclusion. The final moments of the performance are hard to describe - suffice it to say that there was no piece of glass remaining that was larger that two inches in size. I was definitely left with an awareness that I had seen something that was totally for real - and I know that I've been a better person for it in the three days since."
JUSTICE YELDHAM - Live in London
Monday the 16th of June
JUSTICE YELDHAM & THE DYNAMIC RIBBON DEVICE
http://www.myspace.com/justiceyeldham | http://www.dualplover.com/justice.htm
INSEMINOID
http://www.mutant-ape.co.uk
QUEEN OF SWORDS
http://www.myspace.com/queenofswordssound
GREEN MIST
http://www.myspace.com/greenmist
+ DJ set from QUOCKENZOCKER (Synaesthesia Records)
@ The Old Blue Last, Great Eastern Street
£5, 8pm
JUSTICE YELDHAM:
Biography:
"What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is the unique work of Justice Yeldham who has an obsession with using sheets of broken glass as his musical instrument. He become enamored with the sonic possibilities of glass during a sound-check in 2003 and has been having a love affair with the material ever since. Amplifying the sheets using a high end transducer designed for grand pianos, he presses his face against the surface whist employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries. Helped along with the addition of various signal processors to create a wild variety of noises that are surprisingly controlled and oddly musical.
Justice Yeldham is the latest alter-ego for one Lucas Abela, whose past sonic experiments were conducted under monikers like Dj Smallcock & Peeled Hearts Paste. Initially he was classed as an experimental turntablist, although his early work rarely resembled anything in the field. Early feats, saw him stab vinyl with Kruger style stylus gloves, bound on electro acoustic trampolines, perform deaf defying duet duels with amplified samurai swords, hospitalized by high powered turntables constructed from sewing machine motors, record chance John Peel sessions with the Flaming Lips, & be Otomo Yoshihides' favorite entry into his Ground Zero remix competition; 'Consummation' even though instead of sampling the CD he destroyed it using amplified skewers! He also founded and still runs dualpLOVER (recording label, cd/dvd replicators, distributor and promoter of gigs and tours) in 1995.
Essesntially live audio artist he's been performing professionally for the past 12 years, since Oren Ambarchi and Robbie Avenaim stumbled across his late night radio performances in 1994 and asked him to play their 2nd What is Music? Festival. Since he's conducted 9 international tours, performing in over 30 countries."
Testimonials:
"Yeldham's live performance consists of grinding his face into a sheet of mic'd up plate glass. It is hideous for a variety of reasons. One is that the transparency of the glass means you get to view his face all squished up against the other side of the glass like a kid on a special bus wiping his nose down the window as you overtake them on the motorway. Another reason is the sound really is quite nasty. The resonant properties of the glass means as he yells onto/into it and then pulls and squeezes at the sheet, the pitch of his voice wildly varies and wavers and this in turn is run through some truly ugly processing that makes it sound like a Dalek in it's death throes."
- Chris Summerlin on 151105 nottingham
"A writhing, contorting, nauseating, sensational screamingfuckingbloodymess, the 33-year-old Australian glassjaw who performs as Justice Yeldham And The Dynamic Ribbon Device has a show so visceral, so alive, that it can move a room full of the most jaded noisenrrds to gaping-mouthed wonderment. The pock-marked bloke born Lucas Abela, mischievously takes the stage of Denver avant-loft/noisenik playhouse Monkey Mania wearing a belt surrounded by distortion pedals and a single contact mic limply dangling from a wire. He squeezes a tube of KY Jelly all over his weathered mug and into his mouth. He clicks on the pedals and presses he face to a triangle of glass. Hideous black garglescuzz pours out of the speaker, each yelp, hum and fart matching his face..s disgusting rubbery contortions. The sounds are inhuman, but their patterns are most definitely familiar, a hyper-distorted screech-tantrum howling in bone-rattling harmonies, all set to the bittersweet aroma of warm lube. He leaps into the crowd, face twisted into apoplectic distortions, and begins seizuring. And here is where everyone starts flipping the fuck out. Abela gnaws on the glass like a lion gutting an antelope. Each sickly crack jettisons through the distortion pedals, blorts out the amp and is followed by the screams of shock, fear, joy and various combinations of the three. The glass comes smashing down on his face. He waits, panting, for the cheers and screams to die down. His cheek is oozing blood from a sharp red line. His earlobe is sliced open and spitting a steady stream down his neck onto his KY-soaked shirt."
-christopher r. weingarten on 030405 denver
"It was louder than anything that had preceded it, and it had an organic quality that demanded my attention - so I took a look. The Australian stood in the middle of a semi-circle of onlookers, the DJ and a hospital gurney behind him. He wore a belt of effects peddles about his waste which were wired to a contact microphone affixed to a three foot long triangular piece of plate glass that was balanced on one shoulder and pressed wickedly against his face with both hands. It was like some perverse facial ham press. He blew into the glass like a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe, sliding the glass back and forth across his face to change the pitch, vibrating and adjusting pressure to alter the tambour. The sound was a combination of the vibrations created by his manipulations and the feedback from the amplification, and he truly played it like an instrument. In totality, it was kind of like a cross between a dental vacuum and a jet engine - two of my favorite sounds. The first cuts I noticed were on his shoulder where hewas supporting most of the weight of the glass. His tee shirt had been sliced in two or three places, and a little bit of blood was starting to show. It was evident that this was going to be more than anyone had expected, and to drive that point home, he stuck the narrow end of the triangle as far into his mouth as he could fit it - and bit down. Breathing through barred, clenched teeth, a whole new sound appeared and then the glass gave way, shattering in his mouth. Quickly spitting out what he could, the larger, unbroken section of glass was again up against his face - smaller now, higher in pitch and somehow more urgent. His mouth was bleeding, and the distorted image of his face took on a new aspect of horror as the blood formed an organic liquid gasket between man and instrument. The intensity of the noise had not let up one bit, and with a few quick twists of the knobs on his belt any sense of waning was replaced by a new level of sound and violence. He bit the glass again, removing another big chunk, and then returned to the "first position," now with a piece of glass less than half it's original size. Again, the sound advanced to a new intensity, and at this point his entire face was red with blood that was mixing with his saliva and mucus to drip in tendrils from his hands, chin, and of course the glass. By this point, he was completely unable to stand still. The focus and control of is initial stance was replaced by a twisting, stomping, arching tangle of odd dance moves clearly inspired by the drive to continue the performance to it's conclusion. The final moments of the performance are hard to describe - suffice it to say that there was no piece of glass remaining that was larger that two inches in size. I was definitely left with an awareness that I had seen something that was totally for real - and I know that I've been a better person for it in the three days since."
-micheal SMITH on los angeles 050305
Videos:
Sydney (+ interview) - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fbM38VghFnk
Switzerland - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Rx2T7dW0WuU&feature=related
Philadelphia - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fi-SMeZt2YY&feature=related
Beirut - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lRQebkWt-7w&feature=related
Columbus - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2APaLDpfcwg&feature=related
Stirling - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aNVpS7DLOXA&feature=related