BURNT FRIEDMAN & JAKI LIEBEZEIT (Germany)

Jaki Liebezeit and Burnt Friedman share a preference for so-called Secret Rhythms, which means that the rhythms are not hidden but less common, often foreign to western culture. The artists have consciously turned away from Western European, Anglo-American regulated rhythm (based on 4) in order to enrich their vocabulary with all globally relevant rhythms.

Jaki Liebezeit: “It possibly incorporated many elements of this earth without featuring any specific elements. The individual elements have been made abstract, no ethnic or national character remains, there’s nothing typical to Seville or Istanbul, but the properties held in common by all types of music have been abstracted and processed.” If it is still possible to establish a link with his past as a member of CAN, then it lies in the spirit with which he seeks, then as now, new musical forms. The post-CAN Liebezeit not only created his own cycle-based drum system but also developed an innovative drumset that concentrates on the essentials and permits a mode of playing that was already theoretically honed to be physically implemented in optimum fashion. 

Friedman’s programmed or played sequences and placeless sound particles adhere to the same understanding of rhythm, allowing the two heterogeneous sound generators to perfectly intermesh and form a unit – both acoustically and electronically, in terms of improvisation and concept alike.

Friedman and Liebezeit came together in Cologne in 2001, having recognized that they were on the same musical wavelength and exploring the territory beyond the current style reproductions, that is to say: working remote from retro or recycling !

http://www.myspace.com/burntfriedmanjakiliebezeit

Jaki Liebezeit spent the early part of his career in Barcelona playing Jazz with Chet Baker amongst others as well as studying Flamenco and Arabic music. In 1968 he was a founding member of Can, one of the most influential bands of all time, which helped to define what has become known as Krautrock. Since Can?s last performance in 1977, Brian Eno, Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, Eurhythmics and Bill Laswell amongst many other international artists have requested his inimitable groove. He developed his own projects such as "Drums Off Chaos" in 1982 around the time of his first meeting with Jah Wobble with whom he has worked on many occasions since. In 2001 Friedman and Liebezeit started touring and recording together.

Navigating an atypical musical expedition, Burnt Friedman?s unusual trajectory curved its way through an adolescent obsession with drums and a singular dedication to amassing a self-recorded audio-library dating from 1978. What followed in the late 80ties was a period of art academia, then immersion in the first flurry of collaborative music projects. Since 1993 he released records under various names, such as Nonplace Urban Field and began working as Flanger with Uwe Schmidt aka Atom™. As a result of annual travels to Australia and New Zealand the Nu Dub Players took shape in 1997. In the year 2000 Friedman founded his own record label, Nonplace, to ensure continuity for independent musical adventures like collaborations with Jaki Liebezeit or The Nu Dub Players. Besides, Friedman just started a collaboration with David Sylvian.

http://www.myspace.com/berndfriedman

http://www.burntfriedman.com/

PIVOT (Australia)

Pivot are a 3 piece band based in Sydney / London / Perth.

Pivot were formed as a 5 piece in Sydney 1999 by brothers Richard Pike, and Laurence Pike with pianist Adrian Klumpes, bassist Neal Sutherland and turntablist Dave Bowman. The band spent the subsequent four years working on their debut, with guitarist Richard Pike producing.

Pivot released their debut album, Make Me Love You, in August 2005. It was well-regarded, receiving widespread radio support on alternative radio and being nominated for a J Award by national youth broadcaster Triple J. In late 2005, the band added Perth (and now London) electronica artist Dave Miller, omitting the old members from their line up.

In 2008, Pivot signed to legendary UK label Warp Records.

The first EP 'In the Blood' was released on May 18th in UK /Europe, and May 24th in Australia in 12" / Digital format. The video was directed by Alexander Orlando Smith (Coldplay, Futureheads).

Pivot's first international release O Soundtrack My Heart came out August 9th in Australia, and August 18th in the UK / Europe. It was tracked at BJB Studios Sydney, Australia, with Scott Horscroft, and mixed with John McEntire (Tortoise/The Sea and Cake), at Soma Electronic Music Studios in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Richard Pike - guitar, bass, keyboards, production
Laurence Pike - drums, keyboards, percussion
Dave Miller - laptop, production

http://www.myspace.com/pivotpivot

Видео In the blood, O Soundtrack My Heart - Official Video

DEERHOOF (USA)

Like all the best pop music, Deerhoof has always been strikingly new and yet strangely familiar. Melodic beauty, as if out of a half-remembered dream, is set against flashes of brilliant innovation that seem to be as much of a surprise to the band as to the listener. With Deerhoof every song is an adventure. Classic rock, J-pop, jazz, classical, and noise suddenly become inseparable, as if no stylistic barriers had ever truly existed. This is reflected in their equally wide following: Ask five fans to pin down Deerhoof's sound and you'll get five completely different answers.

Their mid '90s debut saw them being branded "too noise for pop" and "too pop for noise." But even as this combination eventually proved basic to the sound of contemporary indie rock, lifting the band out of obscurity in the process, Deerhoof has remained a genre unto themselves. From the cartoon surrealism of Milk Man (2004) or Friend Opportunity (2007) to the gritty realism of Apple O' (2003) and Offend Maggie (2008), they have invented their own instantly recognizable way of writing, playing and recording a song.

They are a study in contrasts. Vocalist/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki's light, cool delivery, and the laser beam clarity of her melodies, create a magical tension with her bandmates' ragged power and hyperexpressivity. Underlying any seemingly mythic tendency in the lyrics is a very human concern with worldly love and friendship. And while they can pull out all the stops with some breathtaking songwriting sophistication and virtuosic sparkle, always present is an unpretentious Deerhoofian joy. Ultimately their only rule has been to throw away the rules. As successful as they've become, they are an inspiration to their ever-growing audience because they've stayed DIY, stayed positive, and stayed pure. fourpawsmedia.com/deerhoof/

http://www.myspace.com/deerhoof

Видео1 Видео2 Видео3

ZENI GEVA (Japan)

ZENI GEVA is a Japanese prog-hardcore band, led by singer and guitarist KK Null, one pioneering group of innovators and legends.

ZENI GEVA was founded in Tokyo in 1987 and quickly found a dedicated fan base in Europe and the US. Their popularity in the west enabled ZENI GEVA to be one of the first Japanese bands to tour in Europe and the US with bands like Bastro, Crash Worship, Dazzling Killmen, Don Caballero, Eyehategod, Melvins, Neurosis, Pain Teens, Shellac and more.

Steve Albini rates ZENI GEVA as one of his favourite bands. He
highlights the band's wide range of influences for keeping the ZENI GEVA sound diverse and challanging. Steve also admires the way ZENI GEVA embrace the Japanese culture in their sound rather than trying to Westernize it.

Subsequent tours have comprehensively covered Europe, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, proving a fast emerging worldwide audience.

ZENI GEVA has released 12 albums (5 out of them produced by Steve Albini) on Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles, Null's self label NUX Organization, Skin Graft, Neurosis' Neurot Recordings and more.
Also ZENI GEVA recorded twice for John Peel Session on BBC.

And now, ZENI GEVA is coming back with the new drummer Tatsuya Yoshida to tour in Europe coming April 2009.

Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei and many more) once was the drummer of ZENI GEVA in 1989-90 and recorded ZG's 1st CD "Maximum Money Monster". Also, Yoshida was playing with KK Null in the bands such as
YBO2 and GEVA2 in the early '80s to '90s. Now he came back in the right place at the right time.

KK NULL - vocal, guitar, synthesizer
http://www.myspace.com/00kknull

Mitsuru TABATA (Acid Mother's Temple & Cosmic Inferno, etc) - guitar
http://www.myspace.com/tabatamitsuru

Tatsuya YOSHIDA (Ruins Alone, Koenjihyakkei, etc)- drums
http://www.myspace.com/magaibutsu

http://www.myspace.com/zenigeva

KK Null (Japan)

KK NULL (real name : KAZUYUKI KISHINO) was born in Tokyo, Japan. Composer, guitarist, singer, mastermind of ZENI GEVA and electronic wizard. One of the top names in Japanese noise music and in a larger context, one of the great cult artists in experimental music since the early 80's.

In 1981 KK NULL studied at Butoh dancer, Min Tanaka's "Mai-Juku" workshop and started his career by performing guitar improvisations in the clubs in Tokyo. He continued by collaborating with MERZBOW for two years, and joining the band YBO2 (with Masashi Kitamura, the chief editer of "Fool's Mate" magazine and Tatsuya Yoshida, the drummer of RUINS) and starting the improvised noise/rock trio ABSOLUT NULL PUNKT (with Seijiro Murayama, the original drummer of Keiji Haino's FUSHITSUSHA), and also GEVA2 (GEVA GEVA) with Tatsuya Yoshida (RUINS) and Eye Yamatsuka (BOREDOMS).
In 1985 he established his own label NUX ORGANIZATION to produce & release his own works and subsequently the bands such as MELT-BANANA and SPACE STREAKINGS. He also produced the series of "Dead Tech" (compilation albums by Japanese bands) which heralded Japanese alternative music boom internationally from the early 90's to date.

In the early 90's he gained world-wide recognition as the mastermind, guitarist and singer of the progressive hardcore trio ZENI GEVA.

All the while, KK NULL has worked on his solo career and collaborated with other musical innovators such as Z'EV, CHRIS WATSON, DANIEL MENCHE, KEIJI HAINO, SEIICHI YAMAMOTO, JON ROSE, BILL HORIST, PHILIP SAMARTZIS, ALEXEI BORISOV, ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI, FRED FRITH to name a few.

After playing the guitar as his main instrument for some twenty years, KK NULL has gradually moved towards a more electronic approach. In recent years he has concentrated his efforts on his solo & collaborative recordings, exploring the outer territories of electronica, creating intense clashing wave of noise, structured electro-acoustic ambience, broken down rhythmics, scattered pitch sculptures, droning isolationist material which could be described "cosmic noise maximal/minimalism".

At present KK NULL has more than 100 titles of recordings released (inc. solo, bands, collaborations, compilations).

http://www.kknull.com

RUINS Alone (Japan)

Tatsuya Yoshida is a Japanese musician and composer who is the only consistent member of the renowned progressive rock duo Ruins, as well as Koenji Hyakkei. Outside of his own groups, Yoshida is renowned for his tenure as drummer in the indie progressive group YBO2, a band also featuring guitarist KK Null, and he has played drums in a late edition of Samla Mammas Manna. He is cited as the "indisputable master drummer of the Japanese underground", a "rhythm section gone ballistic" , and the best and largest hope for continuing the Christian Vander-made genre of Zeuhl.

He has been collaborate with JOHN ZORN, FRED FRITH, DEREK BAILEY, KEIJI HAINO, YOSHIHIDE OTOMO, etc...

http://www.myspace.com/magaibutsu

http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~ruins/

http://www.skingraftrecords.com/

Z'EV (USA)

Since the 1970's, the currently Uk -based text/sound artist Z'EV has been at the forefront of the movement that became known as "industrial".
A precursor even to Neubauten, his brand of scrap-metal/found object percussion originates in intense musical training and background. Beginning with his days at the California Institute of the Arts, Z'EV has studied techniques such as Balinese Gamelan, EWE (Ghana), Tala (south India), and Vou Dun (Hati).
Incorporating these traditional methods into his distinctly personal musical vision of sound, Z'EV has consistently produced vital examples of his craft for a host of noted labels including Soleilmoon, C.I.P, Touch and Die Stadt and a commissioned piece for John Zorn's "Radical Jewish Music" series on Zaddik. His record "Bust This" was chosen in 1988 by The Wire as one of the greatest 50 percussion albums of all time.
Z'EV has graced the stage and created installations for an immense variety of venues in Europe, the US and Japan. The list of his collaborators over the years includes such luminaries as Keiji Haino, David Jackman, Francisco Lopez, KK Null, Stephen O'Malley, Charlemagne Palestine, Genesis P 'Orridge and Chris Watson.
In 2007, Radon presents 'Bust This', the premiere full-on American tour by Z'EV. These appearances will be his
first state-side performances (excluding NYC and LA)in well over 20 years.
The concerts will occur in a mixture of conventional venues as well as delving into underground contexts which few artists of Z'EV's history and stature have explored. The return of Z'EV to the United States is highly anticipated in the wake of his recent activity. A new generation of listeners have come to the realization that much of what they consider to be the original wave of avant garde music, owes a huge debt to the creative pathways forged by Z'EV.

from Brainswashed by Lucas Schleicher:"The instrument used on this side is incredibly beautiful and at times sounds like an incredibly low steel drum that emits the most powerful of sounds. At times it seems as if the rhythm is weaving like a snake through Z'EV and his hands. This is undeniably a kind of work that I have never heard from anyoneelse. Z'EV's music is unique beyond compare and his complete mastery of texture and sound only adds to the unique character of his drumming."
from The Wire:"Who else calls up Gods? Z'EV uses his array of hanging metal objects to invoke moods which are more than just moods: to charge the airspace he's working in with the spirit he's saluting. This is an old idea, maybe the oldest in drum-lore, but almost everyone else has lost sight or sound of it, behind a tradition of art-directed technique. A torrent, a clatter, a tulmult, a vast, endless ringing"
from Music Sound Output by Norman Weinstein: "Z'EV is a one-man percussion orchestra. Using a battery of industrial discards, Z'EV makes perhaps the only thoroughly literal heavy metal music on earth. By creating 'drums' out of materials like stainless steel, he creates stunningly fresh and emotionally uncategorizable mini-symphonies."

http://www.myspace.com/rhythmajik

Optical Machines (SHIFT) (The Netherlands)

New performance by Optical Machines in which homemade equipment is used to built up an abstract play of light. The soundtrack is created in an interactive play with the intensity of light.
The first (untitled) performance by Optical Machines made an impression thanks to the way in which image and sound were created. Rikkert Brok (image) and Maarten Halmans (sound) do not like to take a static position behind flashy laptops, but prefer to allow the spectator a glimpse behind the scenes. A kind of laboratory setup of modified record players, pattern models, lamps, cameras and an analogue synthesiser linked to them was used to make a both hypnotic and amusing show.
For their new performance (SHIFT), this approach has been retained more or less the same. The way in which the two men work can also easily be followed and is a significant part of the performance, while the equipment is again manufactured by them. A kind of Pandora's Box, an ingenious case with a battery of lights, forms the basis of a play with interfering patterns and abstract animation.
(SHIFT) is a real live show with light images that are generated, manipulated, mixed and projected on the spot. The interaction between image and sound is twofold: the soundtrack influences the image and vice versa.

Rikkert Brok
Is fascinated by light and projections. By experimenting with lamps and lenses etc. Rikkert develops projectors with an unique view on moving images. The equipment is often as important as the projected images. Therefore Rikkert chooses for an open construction so the spectator can view the origin of the images. Rikkert studied at the Interfaculty Image and Sound in Den Haag and graduated in 2002.

Maarten Halmans
Started in the early 90's with electronic music and developed a great interest in analogue synthesizers. To be able to design his own analogue synthesizers and interfaces he went to college to get a degree in electronic engineering in 1999. After working two years for a theater company he started a business in design and production of electronics for the art sector.

http://www.opticalmachines.nl
http://www.myspace.com/opticalmachines 
video "Todays art festival"

SIR ALICE (France)

Sir Alice is one of the most anticipated solo artist ever to release material on Tigersushi and The Perfect Kiss. At only 27, here is a case of extreme
artistic schizophrenia that has Daquet partake in an incredible array of
art ventures ranging from multimedia installations to body art
performances, including the usual implication with an angst-ridden guitar
band when she was a kid, and all of this without the character loosing the
slightest of its rage.

Alice’s pedigree is somewhat extraordinary with her numerous vocations
as IRCAM (world famous musical research institute) music scientist,
artist performer, and rock n’ roll power monger colliding into one of the
year’s most endearing sound clash. If there ever was a thin line between
brain dance “а la Warp” and abrasive punk rock (Mйtal Urbain), she’s the
one walking on it with unbeknownst mastery.

She already released an EP (‘1’) a mini album (‘2’) and has now
completed her recording debut ‘?’. She’s also featured on forthcoming
releases courtesy of Patrick Pulsinger and Chicks on Speed records. Her
featuring on high profile projects such as Nouvelle Vague or Avril’s
second coming Members Only have already caused quite a stir.

Sir Alice is a true performer, her live performances are based on a live PA and integrate several act interpreted with the music. It’s never the same show and she can equally perform in festive sweaty clubs (the
Pulp in Paris, Caviar Lounge in Moscow) as well as Contemporary Art Centres (Fondation Cartier in Paris, Vooruit in Ghent, Festival Observatori Valencia) and open air huge stages (Benicassim, Astropolis
in France, Astigmatic in Poland...). She incarnates her music. As manipulated by her owns creations, she sacrifices herself and becomes the media helping to understand her music. Alice committed to the embodiment of new art and sonic limits. Alone or in conjunction with established artists and performers, she breeds a truly global body of work.

http://www.myspace.com/siralice

Frode Gjerstad & Stale Birkeland (Norway)

Frode Gjerstad is one of the few Norwegian musicians playing modern improvised music outside the 'ECM-school'. He has chosen to play with foreign musicians because there is no tradition in Norway for free improvised music.
His relationship with John Stevens which started in 1981 and lasted up until Stevens' death in 1994 was of great importance both musically as well as on a personal level. Through Stevens, he became acquainted with the playing of some of the finest British improvisers. His longstanding group with Stevens, 'Detail', started as a trio in 1981 with keyboardist Eivin One Pedersen, though Johnny Mbizo Dyani came in on bass in 1982 and Pedersen left later that year. The group played mainly as a trio until Dyani's death in 1986, though they did invite occasional guests to fill out the lineup; they undertook a tour of Britain in 1986 as a quartet with Bobby Bradford on cornet. Bradford did another tour with Detail with Paul Rogers on bass and then one with Kent Carter on bass; a quartet tour of Norway was organised with Billy Bang in 1989. The group then continued as a trio with Carter till 1994 when Stevens died.
Frode Gjerstad has also been active, running a group of very young Norwegian musicians, Circulasione Totale Orchestra, where he is dealing with electric instruments and modern rock-oriented rhythms. He has used the band to present his own compositions as well as a workshop and place for young people to get to know free improvisation. The band presented a commissioned work at the Molde Festival in 1989 with a 13 man band combining free improvisastions, compositions as well as rapping and scratching (three horns, three bassists, three drummers, accordion, guitar, a rapper and a scratcher).
His current groups include: the Frode Gjerstad Trio with William Parker, bass and Rashid Bakr, drums; the Circulasione Totale Orchestra with young Norwegian musicians; and a quartet completed by Hasse Poulsen, guitars, Nick Stephens, bass, and Louis Moholo, drums. Frode Gjerstad has received several grants from differnt foundations and has been very active in the Norwegian Jazzmusicians Federation as well as in the committee for the Norwegian Contemporary Music Federation. He runs his own label, Circulasione Totale.

http://www.frodegjerstad.com/

Stale Birkeland was born in Voss, Norway, in 1981. He started playing the drums in a local school band at the age of nine, but got seriously hooked on music from the age of sixteen when he started performing with various big bands and smaller ensembles in the Bergen area.
In 2000, he decided to specialise in jazz after years of being involved in various projects in Norway, such as a Philharmonic Orchestra, big bands and a Bulgarian Folk Music Ensemble.
Stale moved to the UK in 2002 to study music at Leeds College of Music, completing his BA in jazz in 2005, and his MMus in jazz performance 2006.
Since coming to Leeds, he has been active in the music scene and studied with a range of highly qualified teachers, thereby the Norwegian composer and trumpeter Didrik Ingvaldsen, Indian tabla player Bhupinder Singh and the Cuban violinist Omar Puente.
His recent musical activity includes festival work at the Norwegian jazz festivals Maijazz in Stavaner and Nattjazz in Bergen, touring/ recording with the legendary American saxophonist Dave Liebman (who toured with Miles Davis 1970-1974, recorded with Elvin Jones, and is still a highly active musician touring and recording all over the world), theatre work 2004, Prominades, at The Quarry Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, instructed by Ninon Foiret and Sarah Punshon, as well as being involved with the organization 'Leeds Improvised Music Association' where he is an active member working with musicians such as Matthew Bourne, Chris Sharkey, Dave Kane and Petter Frost Fadnes, and playing at various local venues such as the Wardrobe, Hi-Fi Club, Hyde Park Social Club, The Packhorse, The Adelphi, Holy Trinity Church, as well as national venues like The Red Rose Club in London.

Performed in the bands: The Geordie Approach; LIMA Orchestra; Punch Drunk Bitch; DeBezenac/Birkeland Duo; Marvar.

http://www.myspace.com/staalebirkeland

Kania Tieffer (Belgium)

Kania Tieffer (her name is a flat french joke) is a girl doing faces obsessed by otters and creating short songs in her Brussels’ laboratory since 2005 with cheap keyboards for children, an old computer and an electric guitar.. sounding like fake nonsense r’n’b or whatever lofi disturbed electropop. Absolutely not serious.
After some web-eps, 7” singles & tracks in a few compilations, she released her debut album on Wwilko records (Bordeaux, France) She’s also working on her own new label called “Uhh Records”promoting “almost danceable funny music”.
Miss Tieffer ottermaster is also touring a lot: first appearances in 2005-2006 on tour twice with Dada Swing (Cochon Records) in Europe & UK, and for some electronic events with artists such as Felix Kubin, Puyo Puyo, Bruno & Michel are Smiling + Skipperrr, Gay Against You, Kap Bambino, Gangpol Und Mit... And more recently played in France, Holland, Germany, Poland and Estonia.. always with her blinking “guirlande de loutres” and “The Final Countdown” by Europe, for your pleasure.

http://www.myspace.com/kaniatiefferagainstthemachine

OvO (Italy)

OvO is a project involving music and life. Stefania Pedretti (also singer of Allun and solo performer aka Alos) and Bruno Dorella (also performing in bands as Ronin and Bachi da Pietra, former drummer of Wolfango and Bugo and manager of Bar La Muerte Records), together in life as well, decided to create OvO. Actually, OvO is first of all a tour band, a specific choice which made them moving throughout Europe and North America from 2001 until present, with stops in Mexico and Turkey, performing more than 500 concerts in 6 years. Their first album “Assassine” (2001) and the second “Vae Victis” (2002) as well were produced by Bar La Muerte and could boast the contribution of guests and friends. After the splits with Rollerball and KK Null, OvO definitively became a duo and the change was marked by the issue of their third album “Cicatrici” (2004), a co-production of Bar La Muerte and Ebria Records. In 2006 the work “Miastenia” was released under the prominent American label Load Records, the crowning achievement of several tours in the States.

Stefania Pedretti: vox, guitars, violin, harmonica, dreadlocks
Bruno Dorella: snare, ride, floortom, bass guitar

http://www.myspace.com/ovobarlamuerte

8Rolek (Poland)

8rolek is the solo-project of Bartek Kujawski (born in 1978), Poland.

His debut 'Ptak Mechaniczny EP' (means 'mechanical bird') released by mik.musik.!. was acclaimed as the best polish electronic debut, one of the records of 2001, sparkling spring on provincial desert etc etc. Actions were fun.

The music consists of subtle shifts of synchronic and asynchronic rhythm layers, of small irregular looping segments, noisy reverbs and a non-direct stereophonic play. In his approach Bartek is using not only regular laptop way of constructing music on stage, but is involving also accordion and small toys for very unique effects. Second album "Dziewiata gratis" came out in 2002 showing new, more focused, more consequent and communicative approach. The newest CD titled "umpomat" was released in january 2005. With no doubt this is the most matured eightrolekian construction till now, taking essence from the whole multiplex world of Bartek's questions, in almost "proverbian" way is giving us a crossing point on the road between informatic approach, programme-programmistic and the path of pure humanism, or, even, its traces are clearly humanitarian.

http://www.myspace.com/8rolek

BAABA (Poland)

Baaba was founded at the break of the centuries, firstly by Bartosz Weber alone. After the first record filled with electronica, the project started to evolve from a studio concept into a live band. After six years and four albums it has been described as the Polish underground supergroup joined by the famous jazz and underground musicians and producers.

Already since its first form (2002), the band has had enthusiastic welcome and won a large fan base around Poland. Baaba has given concerts in Poland and Europe (France, Germany), in clubs and at respected jazz and electronica festivals (Warsaw Summer Jazz Days, Astigmatic, Les Nuits Europeeenes (Strasbourg), Terra Polska -Berlin, JVC Jazz Festival).

The new record („Poope Musique") saw the light of day in June 2006. It includes premiere compositions as well as live performance in a Cracow club Alchemia. The album gained enthusiastic reviews.

„The studio recordings of Baaba are closer to electronics but what we listen to at concerts is postmodern play with sounds mainly with use of traditional instruments. The specter from jazz – rock melodies through psychedelic down tempo to dancey funk tunes was audible throughout the concert. The band knew how to excite the audience throwing quotations evident like pop tunes or subtly suggesting genres through rhythmic or melodic solutions. All this happened in an aura of exciting fun or sometimes ironic mocking at stage poses copied from rock mainstream of the 80’s. Baaba has a chance of a knockout when developing their formula” Maciej Kozlowski , i-krakow.com

The current line – up includes: Tomasz Duda (saxophones, flute, sampler), Bartosz Weber (guitar, sampler), Piotr Zabrodzki (bas ), Macio Moretti (drums).

http://www.myspace.com/baabapoopemusique

PUSEH PUSEW (Latvia)

PUSEH PUSEW (or “1/2H 1/2W”, or “Halfinfixed”) is an esoteric music for avant-garde theatre.

The music represents overall nihilism and absurdness of material existence. Mentally influenced by Hinduism and post-war period academic dadaism but by its own creativity cultivates self-supposed direction as DOWNISM that expresses it self with overact emotionality, non-prospective mood shift and imitation. The soundscapes mostly are created in improvisation manner disregarding most of the musical laws and borders. Frequently accepting musical principles that are within fully controlled, particular sound flow that in result creates a fatal feel of chaos, nonsense, emptiness or meditative and peaceful state of soul.

http://www.myspace.com/pusehpusew

SHOGUN KUNITOKI (Finland)

Shogun Kunitoki is a band from Helsinki, Finland, with a mission to help electronic music regress back to a more human state, the time of the tube organ and the ring modulator, the spring reverb and the test oscillator.

Shogun Kunitoki's debut album, Tasankokaiku, released by Fonal in early 2006 came out of nowhere and established the previously unknown band as one of the most original instrumental groups to have emerged after the post rock boom. Tasankokaiku's psychedelic mix of minimalist form and maximalist sound that draws equally from the academic avant-garde and the left-field rock canon from the 60s to the present day has won the group a small but fervent fanbase.
The roots of Shogun Kunitoki go back to the late 1990s. After a few years of creating hypnotic, churning drones with Commodore 64 computers the group grew frustrated by the restrictions of the 8-bit universe and started experimenting with more expressive sound sources. Slowly, Shogun Kunitoki moved away from computer-based music, and was eventually reborn as a real band with live instrumentation and a new, organic sound.

With Tasankokaiku, Shogun Kunitoki cemented their newfound sound that was immediately recognized by reviewers and music fans as a compelling cocktail of accessibility and ambitious aspirations where edgy 8-bit bleeps and soft-focus psychedelia shake hands on seven kaleidoscopic trips. The record received favourable reviews from such established publications and websites as Wire Magazine, PopMatters, Stylus Magazine, Exclaim!, Dusted Magazine, and Pitchforkmedia, where it was even tagged as 'recommended'.

Shogun Kunitoki's concerts, accompanied by entrancing Super 8 -projections, have been rare occasions, especially outside their native Finland.

http://www.myspace.com/shogunkunitoki

Mujuice vs Dzhem (Russia)

MUJUICE (Roma Litvinov) was born in 1983 in Moscow. He started his musical adventures in early childhood, composing little piano pieces. Having no musical education he combined playing in guitar hardcore band with his first electronic music experiments. Soon computer composing started to prevail over group music making. Roma's first tracks were made mostly by sampling methods, and until now he prefers sampling to cold digital sound synthesis. Roma denies being a strictly electronic producer, he believes contemporary artists should use all available resources.He takes electronic music production as an opportunity to break digital composing stereotypes, creating eclectic music from almost everywhere - from acoustic jazz and pseudo symphonic music to experimental clicks'n'cuts, microsampling and glitch tech. Roma is also a student in graphic design and works professionally in this field.

After a year of silence Mujuice releases long-wated and unexpected CD - Cool cool death. Gentle and sharp, refined and sincere, fragile and aggressive; inlaid sharp, but warm breaks, an openness in lyrics and the careful attitude to a word. Eclectic aesthetics of psychedelic punk and hard-ho of the 90es, dream pop and grunge. Glitch rock from splinters of the information, poetics digital massages, a decadence, pop art and magics.
44100.com

Mujuice - the masterly Moscow electronic musician, whose gentle sensitive and nervic music on advantage has been estimated by listeners and critics. Mujuice - the microsurgeon from music. His techno-tracks made as a mosaic, from thousand small slices, it is improbable hipnotical. Thus in them is absent death so peculiar to minimalism, it is replaced with the frozen current of a night Moscow life.
housemusic.ru

http://www.myspace.com/mujuice
http://www.myspace.com/how2make

AVASPO (Lithuania)

Avaspo (a venemous audiovisual poetry snake) is a symbiotic poetry and music project launched in 2008. Initially conceived as a creative collaboration between young Lithuanian poet and playwright Gabriele Labanauskaite (text and vocals) and three musical creators – Vladas Dieninis, Antanas Dombrovskij and Aivaras Ruzgas – Avaspo has outgrown its boundaries and will take shape at the end of the year in the form of a dual disc “There’s no Ocean” with both audio and visual versions (the release of the disc is sponsored by Lithuanian Ministry of Culture).

At the moment “There’s no Ocean” involves the creation of eleven people – a vocalist, five musicians and five video artists, but only five of them are making a concert tour. We’ll evaluated in different Lithuanian Contemporary Art festivals AVaspo is already invited to represent it’s creation in various Musical and Art Festivals in Europe. At the moment, you can listen to the early fruits of Lithuanian creation in the first released single “Postcard to Alaska.” The three distinct paths of musical styles reveal not only the individualism of the aforementioned composers, but also the varied possibilities in the presentation of a poetic text.

Gabriele Labanauskaite - poetry, vocals
Vladas Dieninis - drums, percussion, programming, keys
Antanas Dombrovskij - programming & experiments/all

http://www.myspace.com/avaspo

STELLA (Estonia)

Stella from Tallinn was created in the end of year 2005 and is closing in on getting a legendary status in the Estonian underground scene mostly thanks to it's eccentrical live performances. Stella mixes psychedelic synth-pop and disco in a very unique way and they have been named as the creators of a new, yet nameless genre. Stella's music could be compared to a cosmical mindblowing coctail, which consists of a discogroove rolling out of a beat-machine (Kati), supported by the drums (Mammu), passionate eletric violin (Carmen), a guitarist with a mind of its own (Tauno) and the victorious vocals of Lotte, Estonia's most manic frontwoman, competing to the high pitched sound of a violin.

If the term psychedelia is now being used indiscriminately by many musicians in their self-description, then in the case of Stella from Tallinn, Estonia, it is not beside the mark. They play powerpop with psychedelic, trashy and harsh attitude. Sure you have heard it all before? Not really. While, say, Chicks on Speed have made an army of replicants, Stella is not one of them and reach further back to postindustrial and new wave movements, are perhaps less social, less provocative but more stripped in sound and more direct in style. 

They do sound bold and brave enough to be compared with icy and noisy punkdisco acts like The Gossip, Glass Candy and Les Georges Leningrad to name a few.

http://www.myspace.com/stellatallinn

MOREMONEY (Russia)

Moscow duo became the main opening of 2008 on the local indie scene. The collective combines electronics, singing a capella, hip hop beats.

Nadya Gritsevitch - vocal

Ivan Kalashnikov - electronics

Dmitry Pitkin - bass

http://www.myspace.com/moremoneyband

CASSIOPEIA (Belarus)

Cosmic synthy-pop. Insane art of sane people. Blazing paranormality. Founding Fathers of Belarusian freak scene and native quazitresh-modern.

Electronic alternative pop-music withlyrics filled in with slightly absurd poetics of the texts closer to Russian cult band “H.O.M”

However there is no brutality specific for the latter – naive infantile male vocal performs songs–stories in a lofty airy manner. Either scarily (about a black hand, throttling everyone or a black hole instead of a heart), or philosophically (that unfortunately autumn does not inspire poets for writing poems any more).

"Genius indie-underground band leaded by Alexander Liberzon, well known as "Raspilil y Vibrosil" project member and for his wild and dangerous collaborative work with Boris Shtern" says Belarussian media

"Afisha" magazine: "They perform in inflatable costumes with the thorns playing freaky synthpop that reminds you about Animal Collective, Alexey Ribnikov musicals and Coil mystical experiments"

Alexandr Liberzone -- keyboard, vocal
Iliya Cherepko -- guitar, vocal
Sergey Sokolov - guitar

http://www.myspace.com/cassiopeja09

raindear?(Russia)

To express themselves raindear? use the following stuff: Rhodes, FAEMI 1M, kindergarden electro-organ, melodicas, glockenspiels, Elektron drum machine, sampler, acoustic and bass guitar, drums and lots of folk instruments like ocarina, saw, birdlike pipes, shaker and more.

"The music of Saint-Petersburg's debutant duo rainder? does resemble the transparent sketches on the record's cover. Melodic lines like accurate strokes which form the silhouette and some details. The tracks are so fragile and delicate that you start to think that raindear? are afraid to disturb their listeners. Main parts are played on vintage analog synthesither, acoustic guitar, melodica, xylophon plus field recordings. Sergei Dmitriev and Danila Holodkov tend to define the genre of their project as folktronica, but if we go deeper the traces of Iceland's mum, Viennese Kristian Fennesz and - when the bass appears - the tenderest tracks of Yo La Tengo..."

http://www.myspace.com/raindearvalley

OTOMOTO (Russia)

While this four musicians are performing there is something out of this world on stage. It's the theatre of the absurd : they are screaming, wriggling, making tricks, talking to public, they do video experiments and theatrical sketches on stage, immersing you into an outrageous indie, noise, latino, fank, rock and hip-hop fusion. “Now Otomoto is a tangle made out of immense variety of original ideas, influences, adoptions and references” - says Roman, the vocalist of the band.

Roma – vocal
Medvejonok Kiki-Boy – guitar, back vocal
Yura Smirnov – bass
Yan Lemskiy – drums, percussion

http://www.otomoto.ru/

www.lastfm.ru/music/Отомото

EJECT (Russia)

Eject was born in 2006 as a sideproject of member of DADAZU. At start it was oriented on post-rock or psychodelic kraut sound, but
soon this way was left and the band turned to experiment with different kinds of extremal-experimental stuff - noiserock,
drum-n-noise, braincore, mathrock, lo-fi, etc., mixing rock riffs and unsimmetrical rythmic structures with the sounds of analog
devices, feedbacks and radionoises. Eject`s music can be harsh and sharp, and at the next second - shrilly melodic, it combines
adjustimented mathematical parts with uncontrolled improvisation cascades, extremly quite and top loudness.

Pasha Mikheev (DADAZU, Project 503) - drums, electronix
Dima Bibikov - bass
Maxim Pozin (BIMKA) - electronix
Offsay - voice
VJ Ira Ra

http://www.myspace.com/ejectyourcd

GDEVA (Russia)

It was 2005 when GDEVA appeared as an improvised kraut-rock trio honoring classical german canons. They took the ideas of the legendary Swedes TRAD, GRAS och STENAR (Trees, gras and stones) as well as AGITATION FREE, САN, ASH RA TEMPEL. GDEVA recorded their first album at
moscow independent lable R. A. I. G. This release became a turning point for the band. Psycho-rock ideas were replaced with instrumental post-kraut rock forms. Trio turned to quartet. The elements of Space rock and hawkwind mixed with phyco ideas of Guru-Guru and Green Milk from the Planet Orange appeared as well as trip-hop and noise-rock themes.

Band members:
Andrey Petrov – guitar
Andrey Alekseev – keyboard, noise, atmosphere
Valeriy Berestov – bass
Alexey Kravtzov – drums

http://www.myspace.com/gdevapage

OBSHEJITIE (Moscow)

«Obshejitie» (Russian for community, hostel, common space)

..the first name of the group was The Wood. That's important. «Obshejitie» is some kind of union of people, animals, trees and different objects. The group also shares a post-rock concept of depersonalising of music so pesonalised in rock-n-roll times, so that on the box of the first album of «Obshejitie»l there aren't any names of musicians.

«Obshejitie» follows the idea of 60's psychodelic music, NY downtown avantguard music, industrial music and different ethnic traditions. Texts are written in a visionary and surrealistic style. Sometimes they look like an ancient poem, or like a symbolistic poetry.

«Obshejitie» consider the disunity, the fragmentation of everything in the art and in the world at all as a big tradegy and perfoms some kind of a rush to the Whole, to the integrity, to the deepest roots of being. You see that philosophy is their cup of tea..

«Obshejitie» was founded in 2004 in Russian city Oryol despite the fact of Moscow is their native city. Nowadays the group is quite famous in Russian indi scene and considered as a distinguishing musical phenomena by some influencial journalists.

http://www.myspace.com/obshejitie

YOBKISS (the Netherlands)

YobKiss started in 2006 as a performance with Antistrot, sawing laptops in half and composed music on oversized powerbooks. Working in his studio in The Hague he created a extreme mixture of electronic music and live drums best described as "the end level of a computer game"

In 2006 YobKiss started doing his solo performances in Japan, playing live drums with his game-like composed sounds and colaborating with Jason Forest, Bogulta and Maruosa. In 2007 he did a bigger tour in Japan playing with Bogulta (Zuinosin) Maruosa, Suzuki Junzo, Doddodo OvenaxX Mandog, Oshri Penpens and many more. Other concerts in Europe and New York were also done in 2007 and some festivals like Wasted, State X and Gocha Matsuri. Currently YobKiss is invading Russia. For his new CD which will be released on the Japanese label "Macaroni Records" YobKiss invited people to do vocals on his tracks. Some from Japan: Nani of Bogulta, Toxic Lipstick, K Spit, Maruosa, Michiel of Nothing Done (Rotterdam) and remix by Jason Forest (Berlin).

http://www.myspace.com/yobkiss

http://www.youtube.com/yobkiss

188910 (Russia)

188910 was formed in Primorsk and took it's name from the postcode
of this Leningrad region town. It's a small picturesque place
near the Finnish border, where the Mannerheim line divides the
Karelian isthmus and where waves and pine-trees are the only
source of noise. There underneath the spire of the early 20th
century Lutheran church, an architechural monument turned into
the local House of culture and Museum of regional studies, the
band organised their first improvised rehearsals. They had avantgarde and psychodelic character and made interesting use of the old analogue hardware which produced experimental electronic
sound.

Just two members remained from the initial lineup - guitarist
Dubrovin and drummer Belkov, both sharing the first name Sasha.
One was recording sound waves on a cassette deck in his cottage
near the forest putting guitar, voice, TV and radio programs through a reverberator and getting very unusual results. The other drummed with chopsticks on a five-litre water canister copying the rhythms of acts like Aphex Twin. They were later joined by a local percussion player, Artyom Karnaushenko.

On the eve of 2006 they met Belarussian exile, singer, song-writer and keyboard player Galia Chikiss who arrived in Primorsk in search of brothers in mind - and found them in the snow-covered provincial town. That started the period of their collaboration which also gave birth to Galia's side project «Chikiss» which had similar personnel but very different approach to songwriting.

The music is a mix of psychodelic rock and brutal disco, broken rhythms and beautiful, heart-breaking melodies, with all the noises and special effects produced by an old reverberator the knobs of which are turned by the drummer - who doesn't stop playing the drums. The band's lineup includes guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, drums and reverberator.

http://www.lastfm.ru/music/188910