Featuring Martin Tetreault , Otomo Yoshihide, Janek Schaefer, Lepke B, Paul Hood, Steve Noble, Marina Rosenfeld and Martin Ng in a rotating avant octet - with visuals by Ninja Tunes live video artist Ben Drew
Curated by Montreal-based turntablist of international renown Martin Tetrea ult, the tour brings together a shifting octet of deck-hands doubtless as to the position of the turntable as both musical instrument and playback device. Tetreault himself began his career as a visual artist before moving into sound and the esteem in which he is held stems from both his solo projects and collaborations with Otomo Yoshihde, Philip Jeck, Ikue Mori, Kevin Drumm and countless others.
It would of course be difficult to do the title Turntable Hell genuine just ice without the inclusion of seminal Japanese improviser Otomo Yoshihide. Otomo himself curated the (also CMN-promoted) Japanorama tour in 2001, rightly spearheading an expose of the cutting edge of Japanese sonic exploration. Lauded for his work in free jazz, guitar, electronics and especially turntablism, Otomo is, perhaps alongside Masaki Akita aka Merzbow, regarded in Europe as the leading Japanese exponent of modern music devoid of boundaries, particularly through his recordings with Ground Zero and ISO.
Janek Schaefer first came to the attention of no-fi ears several years ago with his contribution to Fat Cat's split series. A dust-caked collection of forgotten half-melodies and otherworldly spits, drones and cracks, plus the intrigue aroused by his self-built Tri-phonic Turntable, made the idea of seeing him live irresistible; consequently, this will be the third time we've had the pleasure of seeing Janek perform in Newcastle. His Triphonic turntable has since been recognised by the Guinness Book Of Records as 'the world's most versatile record player'. Anyone who saw him at last year's Fat Cat showcase at The Cluny will testify to the sense of overwhelming physical envelopment triggered by his performance.
Also appearing are:
Lepke B
(famed for his work as part of Die Trip Computer Die, a stalwart of London's underground 'new music' scene, and commissioned by the PRS to compose a new vinyl-based composition for this tour);
Paul Hood
(organiser of London's Instant Music Meetings, collaborator with Pat Thomas, Steve Beresford and many others, and curator of the Spitz Gallery's 'Japanese Records Found in Flea Markets' exhibition last year);
Marina Rosenfeld
(collaborator with Ikue Mori, Kaffe Matthews, Kim Gordon and Alan Licht amongst others and renowned for, amongst other things, her composition and performance for the 17-woman 'sheer frost orchestra');
Martin Ng
(Malaysian-born, Sydney-based electronic artist and turntablist, founder of gcttcatt with Farmers Manual's Mathias Gmachi, and regular collaborator with Oren Ambarchi, Jim Denley and Robbie Avenaim);
Steve Noble
(widely regarded as one of Europe's top improv players, has worked with Derek Bailey (and Company), Pat Thomas, Simon Fell and more).
In the words of the LMC's Ed Baxter,
"the players here are variously concerned with erasure and absence; magnification; fragmentation; abstraction; distortion of scale or perspective, even wilful destruction.
The musical centre is transformed into the margin and vice versa. Hence the absence of dance rhythms, reiteration and the notion of continuity. Hence instead digressions, the audible presence of dust, scratches, broken styli, surface noise. A complex rhetoric of pauses, elisions, false starts and shattered themes. Familiar content is distorted as its contents are vastly magnified and we get just a little too close".
DATES:
Tue 14 May
STIRLING The Tolbooth
01786 274000
Wed 15 May
NEWCASTLE Arts Centre
0191 261 0293
presented by no-fi
Thur 16 May
HULL Adelphi Club
01482 216446
presented by Hull Time Based Arts
Fri 17 May
MANCHESTER Band on the Wall
0161 237 5554
Sun 19 May
COLCHESTER Arts Centre
01206 500900
Mon 20 May
LONDON Queen Elizabeth Hall
020 7960 4242
presented by sbc
Tue 21 May
READING 21 South Street Arts Centre
0118 960 6060
Wed 22 May
BRIGHTON Concorde 2
01273 325440
presented by Melting Vinyl
Thur 23 May
FAREHAM Ashcroft Arts Centre
01329 310600
Fri 24 May
EXETER Exeter Phoenix
01392 667080
London South Bank QEH ticket notes:
"For the first time ever, Turntable Hell brings together an international cast of nine of the world's most extreme DJs/performers who reinvent the art of the turntablist and explore its outer limits. Cut and paste virtuosity on the decks combines with surface noise and ambient improv all set against a backdrop of wild video collage.
Cast/Performers
Martin Tetreault, Otomo Yoshihide, Janek Schaefer, Steve Noble, Lepke Bukwater, Paul Hood, Marina Rosenfeld, Martin NG, Ben Drew.
