Boards
Venn Festival
Could people who know more about music than I do tell me who I should go to see?
A HAWK AND A HACKSAW with THE HUN HANGÁR ENSEMBLE
Eastern European folk, gypsy song, Mexican fanfare and cinematic flourishes.
ADRIAN ORANGE AND THE CHILD SLAVE REBELLION
Imagine Will Oldham being backed by an afrobeat ensemble. He is gonna sing at you, and you will want to sing back because these songs are wonderful.
ALEX NEILSON
Performs a rare solo vocal show of traditional folk songs, for which he has the utmost high regard. Playing skins with Motor Ghost later in the day.
ANNI ROSSI
Is a virtuoso experimental viola player from Minnesota, who boisterously foot stamps, hand taps and tongue clicks her way through energetic viola concertos and minimal guitar solos leaving audiences agog.
ANTHONY PATERAS
A longstanding avatar of Melbourne's experimental scene. Technicolour electronics generated and manipulated on the fly, with an album out on Editions Mego.
ARRINGTON DE DIONSYO
Legendary as the singer for swamp rock deconstructionists Old Time Relijun. Playing bass clarinet, jaw harp, and throat singing he enwraps rooms with resonant sound and mythic vibration.
AUFGEHOBEN
Are, hands down, one of Britain’s most exciting bands. Double drummer attack, scorching electronic shock therapy plus amazingly rhythmic guitar freak Gary Smith on guitar.
BABY DEE
Proudly inhabits that strangely fertile hinterland between chaos and beauty. A transgender veteran of catholicism, freak shows, tree climbing and New York street performance.
BELLATRIX
I s Bristol based and a seriously dexterous Beatboxer (the only female at the UK beatbox championships).
BRONNT INDUSTRIES KAPITAL
The desolate sonics of debut 'Virtute Et Industria' have received a dual visitation from the spirits of Fabio Frizzi and Thomas Dinger, and their new sound marries thundering krautrock epiphanies to the disco-funk of the catacombs. Not New Rave, but Neu! Rave.
CHEEBA
Is the genre-twisting turntablist at the forefront of crack Bristol promotional sleuths The Detectives of Perspective.
CHIPPER
A cellist that processes her music with a laptop. Has recently been touring with Crippled Black Phoenix.
COOPERJONES
Sophie Cooper and Kelly Jones have recently rediscovered their psychic guitar rapport. Recklessly crafting progressive shards of tightly-knitted, swirling steel-strung folk.
DAN LE SAC vs SCROOBIUS PIP
Irresistable invective and explosive cut-up beats from the country's hottest leftfield properties. Thou shalt steal a subversive march on the mainstream.
DIRECTORSOUND
Café accordion ambience, rustic campfire hues, the sloshing of melody and lazy afternoon vibes with beautiful melodies and whispery instruments.
DJ CESSPIT
Is the mask wearing darklord Denim and this is where the night begins to get stranger and yet more enjoyable.
DR JOEL
Infuses Ivor Cutler, Shelia Chandra, John Lennon and Bugs Bunny into his airy Indian/English songs.
EXTREME NOISE TERROR
Terminal purveyors of ultimate UK grindcore. Hard, fast and KLF affliliated.
FAUST with COLIN POTTER
The incendiary, the legendary, the originals get a live sonic reshaping from Nurse With Wound's key collaborator.
FERENC KOVÁCS
Is a Hungarian renaissance man: a martial arts master, sculptor and cook, today he does what he is most famous for - playing violin and trumpet.
FREEZE PUPPY
Bristol mix of Moondog, Mr Bungle and Tiny Tim.
FUZZ AGAINST JUNK
Containing members of The Heads, Robert Plant’s band and Ian Green’s cosmic mind. The ultimate jam band.
GHOSTIGITAL EXCLUSIVE
Dadaist electronic punk with Einar Orn of The Sugarcubes. ‘In Cod We Trust’.
GOODIEPAL
Is a maverick sound or environmental artist and/or a composer.
GREEN GARTSIDE
Also known as 'Scritti Politti'. From lo-fi-Marxist punk-squat roots, through sweet pop and hip-hop, this is a 'beloved outsider with supreme pop instincts'.
HELENA GOUGH
Is an exciting sound artist from Birmingham whose work takes everything possible from the tiniest element - striving to create something from nearly nothing.
IGNATZ
Is a Brussels-based musician who beams in blues from another planet, incorporating out-tuned guitar, slap back echo, howling vocals and swathes of feedback.
ISLAJA
Has released three extraordinary dreamy and soulful albums on Fonal..
JACK ROSE
12 string and slide guitar raga-time from one of the most revered modern folk-blues players.
JASON FORREST
Practically invented breakcore as the copyright-dodging Donna Summer. Now he's just Jason, and he has a new band. They sound sort of like a cross between Run DMC and Deerhoof, but with more disco.
JEM NOBLE
Sub-bass installation in darkness.
JUSTICE YELDHAM & THE DYNAMIC RIBBON DEVICE
Is sonic bloodletting of the most literal and gut-turning kind. This unforgettable Australian performer (you WILL NOT forget him) gives himself a free noise facelift for the benefit of a tide of open mouths.
KTL (Stephen O’ Malley from Sunn O))) (Southern Lord) & Pita (Mego)
The ultimate doom and electronics face-off.
LAWRENCE (Novamute/Ghostly International/Kompakt)
Sparkling 4/4 narratives from a German house/techno prodigy, also known to play with abstract hip hop and ambient guitar.
LEVENSHULME BICYCLE ORCHESTRA
Is another fluxed up gem rising from the British squat art movement. This one-off spectacle from Manchester coax mesmerising noise cycles from...bicycles.
LUKE VIBERT (Ninja Tune/Warp/Rephlex)
UK dance music’s premier chameleon, freerange multidimensional f***ed up groove.
LUOMO
The playboyish but super deep house is an artist that has released on Force Tracks, Mille Plateau and Chain Reaction. Luomo is simply the most sensual, sonically aware house music you will ever shake a hip to.
MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ
Revolutionary and humble pop from Japan. Kings and Queens of the skewed melancholic song.
MANYFINGERS
This Bedminster boy has slowly honed his own modus operandi, one that sees him forge incredible loop tapestries woven from layer upon layer of guitar, chinese harp, cello, drums and more before your very ears.
MONKEY STEAK
Make rude and skewed bashment, dubstep, and jungle meshing in mental samples and wrong musik.
MORNINGSTAR
Are the kings and queens of Bristol (now Paris) arthouse rock. Tender and heartfelt songs encased lovingly in rocking blues guitar and simple but enthralling arrangements.
MOTOR GHOST
Is the hair raising new project from Motor /vocalist Alex Neilson and multi-instrumentalist Ben Reynolds.
MR_HOPKINSON
Mr_Hopkinson’s Computer Sings + The Audrey 3000™ doubles up on a lovey, dovey date of a third kind.
MY TWO TOMS
Duel Banjo good times from this un-troublesome pairing.
NORMALISE
Are DJs Puffin Jack, Harry Glazebrook and Luke Malcher, who are usually to be found peddling loose electronic dance music at their fortnightly parties.
OCTOPUSSY
Are a threesome DJ/VJ team with serious low-end pressure control.
PAAVOHARJU (Fonal)
A very rare performance from this stunning psych/Bollywood-tinged folk collective from Finland.
PAUL BRADLEY
Is an unprepared offthecuffist, he normally faces the loving audience in pure terror.
PRINCIPAL PARTICIPANT
Tries to make simple electronic music that reminds you of the Deep Heat tapes your elder sibling played in their walkman, and likes to imagine that he’s from Detroit.
QUADRODE
Experimental Goldfrapp/Portishead side project. Analogue heaven.
RICHARD CARNAGE
Be it DFA, Dopplereffekt, delayed disco or dubstep, this man has his needle on the pulse of everything satisfying about modern dance culture.
ROBERT LOGAN
Plays on the new Grace Jones album and has worked with Brian Eno. A 19-year-old whose dense asymmetrical live electroics resemble Photek or Ken Ishii in their patterns and ability to shake the speakers.
ROBIN FOX
Is a seasoned denizen of the Australian electronic music scene, performing an A/V set with an audio-controlled laser.
SAFETY SCISSORS
Is Matthew Patterson Curry, a Minnesotan forefather of wonky house and one-man cabaret revue of pop-savvy errorfunk.
SILVER PYRE
Is the sound of the deep and distant west, feral windswept drones and yearning melodics.
SJ ESAU
Signing to Californian label Anticon is the best Bristol music news of the millennium, and it screams such perfect sense: few artists in the world more vividly echo the US collective’s idiom of ‘being yourself in your bedroom with a beat running’.
SLEEPING STATES
Are a London band whose songs transfix you with their languid urban wisdom, dreamily swaddled in delay and homestead trickery. Music to not quite wake up to.
SPRING HEEL JACK with MARK SANDERS & J SPACEMAN
Heavy electro-acoustic juxtapositions with the Spiritualized main man and some big jazz/electronic/avant players.
TED MILTON
Performs ‘Odes’with Sam Britton (Icarus). What a Venn pairing. Cult hero to many, Ted Milton has been doing his thang for 25 years as Blurt, the no-wave rock 'n' roll poet.
THE GOLDMUNDS
Passionate, poetical promoter/DJs from Berlin.
THE MASTER CHAYNIIS
Are the nu-song heroes of Bristol indie scene.
THE ONE ENSEMBLE ORCHESTRA
Folk textures, cinematic gestures and wild card moves from this amazing avant-chamber group performing a specially commissioned piece called ‘Other Thunders’.
THEE, STRANDED HORSE
Is the solo project of Yann Encre, whose band Encre cut an adventurous swathe through French leftfield rock. In contrast, T,HS is desparately soulful music for voice and kora.
THIS IS THE KIT
Folky charms from Whalebone Polly and Morningstar member Kate Stables.
TRIMSOUND LIVE
Trimsound's kinetic live sets use a combination of hardware loop sequencing, DJing and live bass guitar to create an exciting funk inflected sound laced with freaked vocal snippets, jazzy chords and crunchy, shuffled-up percussion.
VEXKIDDY
Victorian time travel acid house with no masks.
V.I.
Is a sage study in high/low-end dynamics, set to be performed in complete darkness.
VLADISLAV DELAY (Huume, Chain Reaction, Mille Plateaux)
Finland’s don of deep abstracted dub electronix - also performing a set as LUOMO.
VOE
Is the rarely-sighted solo incarnation of Bristol brass master Pete Judge (The Blessing, Organelles, Limbo).
WITHERED MAN
Is a vehicle to release a kind of grim suffocating, black noise. Conceived by arch Bristol music legend Fat Paul.
YELLOW SWANS
Organic noise immersions from Portland, Oregon. Playing a full-on electric set and a withering acoustic set. Be warned.
ZUN ZUN EGUI
A truly Bristol creation of wild ideas, disparate sounds and party.
If you actually want to know when they're performing, the timetable is here: http://www.vennfestival.com/timetable/index.html
So far I'm excited about A Hawk And A Hacksaw, who else should I be excited about?