Author: Spirit of Gravity

Next radio broadcast on ResonanceExtra FM: Sunday 25th August – 8.00 to 10.00pm

Gravity Waves and the Spirit World

Sunday 25th August 2024 from 8.00 to 10.00pm on ResonanceExtra FM, DAB radio or online at extra.resonance.fm/

This edition features new recordings from the orbit of the Spirit of Gravity including Sealionwoman, Ugly Animal, Keith Seaton & Thomas Stone, plus archive releases from BBBlood & the Dizzy Tiger label, plus the 5th mix from Spectral Transmissions: Out of Office Holiday Special:
Gravity Waves: Sealionwoman – Butchers Broom / BBBlood – untitled track from September 2009 / Ugly Animal – Hammered / Thomas Stone – host 2 / Stay Out Forever – Cars (Rashamon’s first mix) / Frontier Telegraph – AX / Keith Seatman – Jumbled Letters / Thomas Stone – host 5 (Bias C) / Ugly Animal – Drift back and Forward

The Spirit World: Spectral Transmissions # 05: OUT OF OFFICE HOLIDAY SPECIAL

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The July edition of the Spirit of Gravity Radio show is available on the ResonanceFM Mixcloud page:
www.mixcloud.com/resonanceextra/gravity-waves-and-the-spirit-world-above-us-the-waves-21st-july-2024/
This show includes the Spectral Transmissions Research Unit Edition # 04: Above Us the Waves, plus sneak previews and friends – an upcoming guest, an upcoming release, and some local friends including collective members Dan Powell and Andrew Greaves:

New release on the Spirit of Gravity BandCamp label: Screaming Alice – A Game of Three Halves

Another release from Spirit of Gravity lands on 22 August – a recording debut from Screaming Alice, entitled ‘A game of three halves’. Recorded live in one take, this is a bubbling and hypnotic slice of improvised electronica from this Brighton-Hove duo (and Spirit of Gravity collectivists) Andrew Greaves and Howard Spencer. Three long form pieces of contrasting shape and texture evoke a sense of moving through an ever-changing sound landscape. There are hints of motorik rhythms, a looseness and a loucheness; you may even wish to move your feet.
Stream or downloaded from today at: spiritofgravity.bandcamp.com/album/a-game-of-three-halves

Thursday 1st August at the Rossi Bar: Meljoann / Simon Pyke / Marienbad

Meljoann: Disturbing R&B, hyper-capitalist video testimonials
Simon Pyke: Presents high fidelity 4/4
Marienbad: PlunderDSP xenoarthropod ambience

Former Skam and Warp artist Simon Pyke revisits the Spirit of Gravity with a side step to his regular abstractions with a set of slow burning 4/4 dance floor meditations.
Simon has contributed to a diverse array of projects. These includes collaborating with Hans Zimmer on a surround sound installation for BMW, soundtracking a projection show at the Sydney Opera House, and complete television rebrands for SKY TV and MTV. Additionally, he has soundtracked major multi-room exhibitions, such as the Universal Everything Lifeforms show.
Simon emerged onto the scene during the wave of innovation within electronic music in the mid-1990s. During this period, he released music on various labels, including Warp Records, and graced live stages at iconic venues such as the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Sonar Festival in Barcelona. He last played at The Spirit of Gravity about 18 months ago.
simonpyke.bandcamp.com/
www.freefarm.co.uk/music

Meljoann is a hyperjack producer from Ireland. Her sound pits soulful vocals against spiky lyrics; lush synths against industrial noise. In the US, her tracks have been championed by Pitchfork, Beats Per Minute, XLR8 and KEXP radio. Since moving to Brighton, UK she’s been supported by Gemma Bradley at BBC, Dummy Mag, HMUK and the Arts Council of England. Irish endorsement includes Dan Hegarty, Cian Ó Cíobháin and Tara Stewart at RTÉ radio, Irish Times, Nialler9, and Hot Press.
www.meljoann.com/
faircamp.meljoann.com/

Marienbad: elements of noise, glitch, ambient, drone, field recordings and the like heavily processed.
marryinbed.bandcamp.com/

Chris [Symmetrical Forces] creates live visuals for each performance using his own lo-fi footage, dusty VHS tapes and obscure videos from the internet to create futuristic images from the past overlayed with out-of-reach memories and vague fragments of lost visions.

The Rossi Bar is a small grade II building, and they are restricted with how they can improve access for anyone with mobility issues. The live music venue is located in the basement, which can only be accessed by a short spiral staircase. More accessibility information and images of the venue are in this document:
spiritofgravity.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/The-Spirit-of-Gravity-at-The-Rossi-Bar-for-audience-members.pdf

If you can’t make it to the Rossi Bar, you can now live stream all of our gigs on our new Owncast platform at stream.gravitons.org/.

“The Spirit of Gravity: making experimental music a threat again – since 2001”

Thursday 1st August 2024 | 8pm – 10.30pm | £5 (cash only)
Downstairs @ The Rossi Bar
8 Queens Road, Brighton, BN1 3WA

Circulatory somnambulism

August 2024
The Rossi Bar

Marienbad
Someone in the audience described them as like being tuned into every radio station in the world at once. It certainly starts with a static-y screechy pulsating loop, dial spinning shortwave blasts of voice and tumbling notes. There’s a constant shift, one second glitching repetition , the next a spool spinning churn through the entire universe. And just as you’re used to that they’ll settle on something, letting it run for a while doing its thing – whatever that is – before disrupting it with squeaks or burbles or a shard of noise, a spurt of tone. It all sounds very tape based but is in fact sourced off a laptop. There’s even a short burst of “The BBC has shut down” sinusoidal tone, which they are far too young to actually know first hand. For a brief period we actually have a rhythm, a pseudo repeating pattern of bass drum, beep and grind. The set ends with a call to revolution.


MelJoann
Plays another intricately arranged AV set, integrating inspirational videos from her Mustics wellness cult into backing video for the songs. She also plays a keytar for part of the set. The songs are a mix from her past centring around “Assfuck the boss” from her first album “HR”, we’ve got a couple from the as yet unreleased new album. The second Mustics break channels the 80s adverts from the Sigue Sigue Sputnick album really nicely (the drum sounds and stabs are amazing). Mel looked confused when I mentioned this. Anyway if you haven’t seen MelJoanns disturbing RnB nightmare of modern life I really can’t describe it – I’ve tried and failed the last two times she played – watch the video.


Simon Pyke – Four Flex
Interesting software, it would have been good to have this displayed on the projector. Not Ableton, that’s for sure. Before his set he has something odd just shifting about in the air for about 15 minutes. Then his set proper starts. Beats, 4/4. Loops as texture, wind whistling witters. An odd take on techno, based on repeating sounds and textures: field recordings, tones, delays. Clatters in vast rooms. Vamps. La Dusseldorf in a new context. Some interesting use of pure sounds being wiped around the ears. The beat is front and centre, but there’s some really odd things going on around that, then you get some “nice” keyboard parts that distract you from the odd choirs, and tortured sea-life. The white noise slurs, and peculiar bass tonalities.