Looking for some people to review/generate interest in this gig - see below - let me know if you are interested (freebies may be involved)...

Tuesday 16 October
The Croft, 117 – 119 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RW. 0117 9874144
£8 (£7 adv.)
8pm

James Marriott, founder member of Human Sacrifice II (a name he devised) died tragically on Saturday 28th July. He was instrumental in organising this gig and therefore it will be dedicated to his memory.

YOWIE (St. Louis, USA) (Skin Graft Records)

Yowie sounds like Einstein discovering the theory of relativity while hopped up on meth and psilocybin -- genius ideas of how everything connects spewed raw and uncontained, formulae and fact swirling in broken code, riding between rational thought and complete breakdown."
- Riverfront Times: Best Of St. Louis

Yowie, a dual-guitar and drums trio from St. Louis, have been stunning audiences with their incomparable barrage of sonic kung fu. They accelerate the progressive-rock rhythmic sensibilities of RUINS and MAGMA and mutate them with the shriekier side of BIG BLACK and SLAYER. The band incorporates many variations in time signature, tempo, and tuning, to create a virtual audio maze, but no matter how complex things get their compositions remain cohesive and compelling.

"Damning with Faint Praise" is the second full length release from Yowie. This album surpasses the girth and intensity of their debut, "Cryptooology," an album that few have learned to decipher (or pronounce). "Damning with Faint Praise" moves through an array of multidimensional shifting structures, while inexplicably maintaining cohesion, and even, yes, grooves.

YOWIE COME RECOMMENDED IF YOU LIKE:
King Crimson
Ruins
Cheer Accident
The Flying Luttenbachers
Hella
The Locust
Fantomas
Trio Convulsante
Battles

The strength of Yowie's live show garnered them a nomination in The Riverfront Times' 2004 St. Louis Music Awards, alongside local acts as diverse as Nelly and Chuck Berry to Jay Farrar and Chingy. The Yowie has yet to be found in Australia, but can be found touring the U.K. and Europe this year. The band forged a strong Midwest following based solely on their astounding live shows, performing with the likes of: CHEER-ACCIDENT, THE FROGS, WESLEY WILLIS, THE CHINESE STARS, THE FLYING LUTTENBACHERS, and X27, to name a few.

Press Quotes:

"The climax of rock music. This is outsider music for our entire dimension. No band has had this sort of vision since Beefheart marinaded us with tales of Big Joan's anatomy. In the dozens of times I've listened to this album I've never heard the same album twice." - Loving Peter Cetera

"Watching them live is like witnessing a reptile birth a human; utterly perplexing, yet amazing." - KDHX Radio

"Yowie are the spastic, elastic-limbed progeny of the forefathers of prog, purveyors of a heady mix of energetic fervor and intelligent complexity." - Dusted Magazine

"Like watching the capuchin monkeys of Saskatchewan beating a piñata with lengths of the province's indigenous bamboo. Imagine the glee with which they anticipate delicious banana taffy melting in their mouths. Imagine their screams of terror when the papier-mâché bursts and releases millions of giant, hissing cockroaches that devour them all. Who's the taffy now, monkeys?" - RFT Weekly

"In the band's three-year history, Yowie seems to have done everything in its reach to make things as difficult on itself as possible. It is in this constant self-challenge that one can see a sort of intellectual nobility shining through songs that often sound as if they'll spin out of control and whiz off into the ether. O'Connor's drumming is a befuddling barrage of 32nd notes, jarring stops and cymbal splashes that defies simple description, often calling to mind the rhythmic mayhem of the music of Raymond Scott, the composer of scores for countless cartoons from the 1940s. And the dueling, microtonally tuned guitars of Wonsewitz and Hagerty engage in sonic relationships that don't seem to want to exist, often creating dissonance that's oddly compelling. It's high-velocity music of intense discipline, rigid structure and focused force; Yowie's kung fu is very good. The aural ass-whupping they so effortlessly throw down energizes, excites and amazes further with every listen. It's an ululating tribute to human potential through music, a testament to the fact that we as humans have much further to go. If music is the history of the human spirit, Yowie proves that musicians could start being a little more honest with themselves by seeking out every remote nook and cranny in the mind and bathing the darkness in an unrelenting light If it's possible to explain Yowie in one sentence, Hagerty has at least come close, if not nailed it beautifully: 'The point is to free the material and the given tools from each other."
- The Riverfront Times

"An incomprehensible blend of tightly wound math rock composition, but played with 'expressive' guitars, making them sound more like blood brothers to bands like U.S. Maple or Arab On Radar rather than Don Caballero. Each song packs more composition than an entire album from most (bands)... I've heard the future of music and my ears are still bleeding.
- Crackle Pop Journal

"Yowie is the best band St. Louis has ever seen."
- stlpunk.com

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birdbath (Bristol, UK) (Ingue Records)

Formed 1994. First album Birth took ten years to produce (1997-2007). Second album And Then... came out in 2007. On the verge of releasing a split 7" with Trumans Water and new album Black My Light, recorded at Toybox studios (PJ Harvey, Future of the Left, Scout Niblett) and mastered by Carl Saff (Grails, Oxes, Silver Jews, Unsane). Taking cues from tight Chicago post-hardcore bands like Tar and Big 'N and mixing it with the progressive unpredictability of Cheer Accident, adding the indie sensibility of Cable and a.c. acoustics: birdbath give you a complex aural ass kicking tempered by a security blanket.

After once more going on hiatus in 2010 birdbath have returned once again with their intense and unpredictable live show, having shared stages (ranging from Bristol's Carling Academy to the back of a lorry) with Trumans Water, Cove, The Bugs, The International (feat. members of Part Chimp & Kling Klang), Hreda, Theo, Everyone to the Anderson, Nitkowski, Kid Pang and Shield Your Eyes.

Press Quotes:

"Time signatures are unpredictable, fucked about with in a way I'd liken to math-rock were in not frequently so frickin' heavy. The guitar work powers from the swampy stop/start QOTSA thrash of opener 'silence is the new heavy metal' via the glorious Mogwai-do-Ride swell of 'ich komme' to the insistent Pixiesy chug and whine of final track 'how to make a shitload of money using guns'. Hard to tell if the distant , lo-fi sound is product of cheap recording kit or a deliberate scuzz-chic aesthetic, but no matter- if supertight, slow build guitarscapes are your thing, dip a wing in birdbath"
- Venue

"Slightly itchy rather twitchy lo-fi indie post-rock [...] Birdbath have a little edge of their own and just when you think you have them worked out, they go and throw in a nice little alternative rewarding curveball or two"
- Organ

Birdbath formed in the years between 'Dirty' and 'Messenger in the Camp', and appear to have disbanded, reformed, restarted, resigned, gone on an extended hiatus, and decided to give it another go so many times, you'd be within reason to expect them to have progressed beyond sounding like 14 year olds who all sound like they wanted to be drummers but settled for the other parts instead. Nah. Some of the snaking basslines are evidently played by people with meat on their bones, and the knowledge they discovered Shellac before you did, mind.
- Play Louder

At once laden with emotion yet as cold and sparse as Arctic tundra. Spiky but strangely comforting, like being attacked by a duvet. It’s a hazy, smoky, stoned mash of everything from Mogwai and Shellac to Sonic Youth but rarely anything but itself.
-New Noise

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Eftus Spectun (Bath, UK) (Public Eyesore Records)

The time-signature-jugglers from Bath who are wowing audiences with their unique blend of 'angular pop'. Often branded as 'better than The Beatles' and once described as 'a chimp with Bob Hope's face'.

Confusing, divisive, totally focussed and totally uncompromising, Eftus Spectun began as an angular math-pop trio but have since evolved. Their unique compositions are often short, genre-shifting, tempo-changing works of superb musicianship. A multitude of musical influences can be heard throughout their albums, including Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention, Mr. Bungle, Naked City, Tom Waits, U.S. Maple, The Cardiacs, and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Eftus Spectun's initial incarnation in 1999 was structured around a quirky quartet performing avant-pop and experimental music. The band now continues with it's core members Olly White [Guitar & Vocals], Sam Langley [Lead Vocals & Bass] and Kieran Shehy [Drums]. A trio of eccentric Englishmen producing a humourous concoction of intricately timed music.

Eftus Spectun's sound collides dislocated rhythm and nonsensical lyrics with contagious melodies. Their music has featured on Resonance 104.4 FM and Xtreme Radio 1431 AM, broadcasted worldwide alongside Japanese duo Ruins, Danish metal group Düreforsög, and San Francisco's Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Eftus Spectun continue to make guest appearances at their favourite venues - London's Vertigo, Bath's Moles Club, Bristol's The Louisiana and The Cube Cinema. The trio featured on the line-up for the Glastonbury Festival 2004. Eftus Spectun have also supported special live shows with Garlic, Jim Fear, and Melt Banana.

Press Quotes:

Eftus Spectun possess an incredible seven albums within their music portfolio. Admittedly, most of these independent releases are extremely rare and can only be purchased at their insane live performances. Audience favourites are "At The Saveloy", "Pre-aydrical Hud", "And Ottler Spoke...", plus "Chank" from their debut public-release "Mild Friend", and the infamous "Birthday Song". The ultimate Eftus experience is seeing them perform live in front of a intimate audience, at a small club with a two-drink minimum. Future releases from Eftus Spectun are anticipated on U.S. label Public Eyesore Records.
- xtrememusic.org

I can't really decide whether the blurb saying that this is 'not for those wanting instant gratification' is patronizing or not, but in any case this 15-minuter isn't chock full of catchy riffs and hooks. It is full of lovely, spacious, Shellac-esque drum work with slow, clangy chording and occasional gentler post-rock picking in a slow-moving improv workout that's both interesting and atmospheric.
- Norman Records

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Human Sacrifice II (Bristol, UK)

info@inguerecords.com
www.inguerecords.com