Hi TINH - am v tired now, but here's a run-down on what I caught:
Friday
Peeesseye - Good, solid psych improv racket from these native New Yorkers.
Rat Bastard - One man pissing around with an open-E tuned guitar doing lots of "ironic" guitar poses, soon turned a lot better when two women came on with noise boxes and created a fun and deafening row for the last 5 minutes.
Skaters - Excellent. I saw them last June, and they were incredibly bad, but they have improved immeasurably since then. The first part was a nice and hamornic organ "drone" piece, which then developed into a very atmospheric and enveloping sound.
Leslie Keffer - Cracked-DIY electronic babble and rhythmic "dance" moves from Ms Keffer, who provided some entertainment by dragged her friends up to dance on stage with her. It needed to be a lot louder for the dance element to really work, though.
Saturday (only saw 2 things! Too busy chatting and socialising
)
In Camera - a duo of Christoph Heeman and Timo van Luijk, doing a very eerie and atmospheric electronic piece. They were playing in a marquee tent in the garden, and the slightly swinging chandeliers and pounding rain (added w/the sounds) gave the impression of being stuck on a ship like the Marie Celeste. A lenghty and impressive performance from them - reminiscent of Nurse With Wound at their best.
Skullflower - feat. M Bower, Stuart Dennison on drums, plus another guitarist and violin player. They did one piece of improvised "rock", and....well, to be frank, I thought it was pisspoor - lazy, boring, and predictable all round. Looks like I was the only person who thought this, though.
Sunday
Black To Comm - a German based three-piece, their brand of electronic based improv racket was pretty good, I think. Kinda had a stop-start sound at first, but then built up from there.
Muscletusk - a four piece from Edinburgh - with a drummer, two guitarists and an electronics geezer - a improvised loosely "rock" based sound that was going a similar direction to Skullflower's, but was WAY better - they had a direction, passion and force that SF's set simply lacked. Great name, too!
Hockey Night - a last minute-stand in for Neil Campbell & Karl Bauer (who were unable to attend), this Finnish four piece injected no small amount of humour to the proceedings, with their use of sound toys (moo!), a non-po faced approach to sound manipulation, an excellent drummer, and a funky sax player. They actually listened to each other, and created a piece that was both fun and engrossing. Thumbs up for them - and they're nice people too!
Vole - As a contrast, this 4 piece used guitar, xylophone, horns and keyboards to create a sound that was part "quiet" imrpov, and part film-noir soundtrack. It was certainly pleasant to listen to, and made a nice change from having one's ears bludgeoned.
Dave Phillips and G*Park - this Schlimpfuch-aligned duo played in complete darkness, and by utlising found sounds such as animal noises, field recordings etc, created a creepy yet compelling atmosphere, with moments of creaking quietness mixed with genuinely shocking blasts of controlled sound. As a friend of mine rightly pointed out, very reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle circa "Journey Through A Body", but an excellent performance nonetheless.
Weirding Vessels - a collective of various Brighton groups (members of Blood Stereo, Bowlide Awkwardstra etc), these gals and guys created a seriously crazy and ecstatic sound, using percussion, sound makers and so on. Dressed in costumes and masks, their group-trance banging, noising, vocalising and screaming was both hilarious and captivating. One of the members was dressed in a white dress and devil horns, and she was especially great in her screaming and energy. Imagine Amon Duul I running amok after consuming too much Red Bull, and you'll begin to get the picture. One of the hits of the weekend all-round for all who saw them.
Thurston Moore/Chris Corsano/Bill Nace - a very-low key intro from Messrs Moore, Corsano and Nace soon erupted into a blistering and
ferocious wall of "free-rock"/improv, which didn't let up once. The guitarists attacked their guitars with drumsticks first of all, then leapt of their seats and writhed around in a whiplash ecstasy dance. Chris Corsano was on fire 100% of the way - his drumming is always nothing less than impeccable, and he too met the challenge and delivered an incredible percussive onslaught which at the same time totally meshed with Thurston and Bill. Both guitarists leapt into the audience, pushing against audience members and the stage as their guitars howled with feedback and distortion. Back on stage, Bill threw his guitar to the floor, Thurston buckled against his amp, and Chris C whacked his drums with a bare hand (brilliant sound, that). The piece came to a close that was very together, showing how all concerned were listening to each other too. I was COMPLETELY bowled over by this, and they got a huge cheer of appreciation from the audience.
So there you have it from me. I look forward to hearing from the other boardies to see what they thought!