Thursday, October 9, 2008
8:00pm until 11:30pm
the BORDERLINE BALLROOM this month builds an appropriately star-studded nest for the burning phoenix of one of the giants of the NZ underground, Birchville Cat Motel, who after this gig’s last rumbles have shaken the Media Club’s crumbling walls, will henceforth be known by another name entirely. Making dark and ecstatic merriment among the ashes are fellow Wellingtonian, Pseudoarcana label boss, and Jewelled Antler alumni Antony ‘AM’ Milton, with his first Christchurch performance in 12 years, and the first return NZ performance by UK expatriate drone luminary and Chc prodigal son Peter Wright, whose homecoming, if one were being romantic, probably underlines something fairly undeniable about the burgeoning coming-of-age of NZ sound culture. Come and celebrate the never-to-be-repeated with us…
BIRCHVILLE CAT MOTEL (wgtn)
Billowing clouds of metal filings and superheated carbon signal the closing of the Birchville Cat Motel chapter of Campbell Kneale’s unmusical career at the Borderline Ballroom on the 9th of October. The long time conjuror of all things godallmighty kisses goodbye to the name that has served him well over the past decade and graced more album covers than there are Jimi Hendrix compilations.
Known amongst bedroom nerds, collector-scum, and fugitives from taste for a brand of slumberpunk hung heavy with firepower yet lighter than dreams. Birchville Cat Motel has worn the sharp edges of audiences
hearing range all over the world… and now it’s Christchurch’s turn to wake up in a world without reverb.
http://www.myspace.com/ourlovewilldestroytheworld
ANTONY MILTON (wgtn)
New Zealander Antony Milton has been making records, exhibiting sound installations and performing live under various nom de plumes (A.M, The Nether Dawn, Paintings of Windows, Mrtyu etc) since the early 1990s. He is also the curator of the PseudoArcana record label, and
besides playing solo is a member of the bands The Stumps, Glory Fckn Sun and With Throats As Fine As Needles. A recurring theme in Milton’s work is an investigation of ‘place’ and ‘presence’ and the ways in which these function within the representational realm of recorded sound. Favourite recording environments include abandoned WWII military bunkers, caves, and overlooked urban wildernesses. With releases on underground labels such as Jewelled Antler, Last Visible Dog, 20 Buck Spin and Celebrate Psi Phenomenon Milton’s work is situated at some weird junction between electroacoustic composition, folk music, and the more psychedelic end of the ‘noise’ spectrum…
Using predominantly analogue sources (tape loops, field recordings, amplified resonant objects, voice and guitar) Milton’s performances have a high degree of intimacy and commonly range from the gestural and nuanced through to the visceral and ecstatic.
http://www.myspace.com/antonymilton
PETER WRIGHT (UK / chc)
Over the course of a decade, Wright has etched his name in glass in the annals of drone-world superstardom. Alongside Phil Nilblock, Robert Horton, and Tom Carter, Peter Wright is on top of the drone music world, both in the sheer amount of astounding music he creates,
but also the effortlessly way he makes sounds that are completely indecipherable but strangely familiar.
Words like ‘atonal’ and ‘avant-garde’ come to mind when contemplating Wright’s sound but such terms are misleading when his music remains so accessible despite its experimental character. Wright first started playing music semi-seriously in Christchurch during 1990, recording un-tutored noise-pop on a four track. In 1991 he formed TMA-1 with Jaemz Robinson and Richard Calder, and this group started the cassette label kRkRkRk which issued TMA-1 and associated recordings to the general ignorance of much of the Christchurch population for many years. Following several song-based solo projects Wright’s music started to take a more abstract hue around 1996, finally culminating in a more refined guitar-based drone sound that he has worked with almost continuously since the late 90s. After several self released CDrs on his Apoplexy label, Wright moved to the UK and had his first ‘proper’ CD release in 2003 on US label Last Visible Dog, followed by a string of CDs issued on various US and European imprints. In this first performance since returning to NZ, Wright will continue to explore lengthy smudged and distorted drones using open chord electric 12 string guitars and an array of effects and environmental field recordings. Two new albums of material are scheduled for release in 2008-9 on US label Ultra Hard Gel.
http://www.myspace.com/distantbombs
Thurs 9 October
8:00pm
$10
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