Sunday night’s performance of the reunited Goblin brought Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival to a close, a fitting conclusion to a great weekend for me and Jurgen.

Goblin - Supersonic 2009

One of the special things about Supersonic that we noticed was how much time the musicians from the various bands on the bill spent hanging out in the crowd and watching other bands -- something very similar to Roadburn. It felt like a comfortable, familiar scene, especially on Friday and Saturday. The friendly atmosphere led to some great exchanges of energy and inspiration. Along with the fact that it all took place in Birmingham, of course. It is the birthplace of metal, after all!

It was also incredible to see how certain bands responded to each other, with one great performance spurring another, especially on Saturday night, cumulating in the majestic, enthralling and crushing set of Japan’s very own Corrupted.

Thorr’s Hammer, featuring Stephen O Malley, Greg Anderson and Norwegian goddess Runhild Gammelsæter brought some monolithic, gut-wrenching doom. The band totally lived up to the high expectations surrounding this widely anticipated reunion.

Seattle’s Master Musicians of Bukkake got into some uncharted Hawkwind, Gong, Magma territory with Alejandro Jodorowsky at the helm. Crazy!

Highlights on Sunday included Jarboe, backed by members of Esoteric and Black Sun. She held the main stage totally enraptured during her performance. Head of David is still very much the industrial / noise / post punk powerhouse. Then of course there were the cosmic freakouts of Earthless, buzzing away like it was Friday night all over again.

Our ears were still ringing from the battle for decibel domination waged by Sunn 0))) and Scorn, also among the absolute highlights of Supersonic 2009. Or should we say Scorn 0)))? It was pretty amazing to hear Sunn 0)))’s low end assault with Scorn’s industrial dub step on top of it. The sonic clash that birthed this imaginary band could only be experienced in certain locations around the venue!

Many kudos to the Capsule girls, Lisa Meyer & Jenny Moore (and their wonderful staff, of course) for curating such an amazing event. We will be back next year for sure.
Walter on behalf of Jurgen & Roadburn.

Supersonic 2009

Supersonic 2009

We are currently gearing up for our sonic pilgrimage to Birmingham’s annual Supersonic Festival.

Louise of Terrorizer.com recently conducted an interview with promoter Lisa to find out more about their aural annual adventure. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

What is Supersonic Festival all about?
We aim to put on an exciting festival for ‘adventurous’ audiences. The festival features bands that we not only feel are doing something interesting, but who we are actually fans of and being fans of a broad range of music a Supersonic line-up will feature anything from electronica and metal to jazz, folk and post rock.

What kind of people does this festival attract?
The Supersonic audience are open-minded and friendly folks, its very much about bringing a global community of like-minded people together – not unlike Roadburn Festival. The music is a backdrop to a fun-filled party weekend of excess.

Please read the full article here.

Supersonic’s Friday night tickets have sold out. Limited weekend + Sat/Sun are still available from The Ticketsellers UK.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or find anything slower than Agoraphobic Nosebleed “a bit dull and uninteresting”, you’ve probably heard that legendary doom troupe Thorr’s Hammer (the Thorr’s Hammer that gave us drone daddys Stephen O’Malley and Gregg Anderson) have reunited to play this year’s Supersonic Festival (24 – 26 July at Birmingham Custard Factory).

Thorr's Hammer

Sufficed to say we were a bit excited, so naturally we bombarded the University Of Oslo with phone calls and emails until we got hold of Dr Runhild Gammelsæter to get the lowdown on the whys, whens and hows from the vocalist extraordinaire.

People often have a quite cynical view of bands getting back together (and rightly so), so why was now the right time to do this?

“We didn’t want to do a reunion previously because we thought it sort of cynical, not ‘cult’ and not ‘true’ as we say in metal. All members of TH are old friends, I still call Steve when I have a broken heart. I love those guys to death. But we are getting old, people are having babies, careers, living all over the world, rarely seeing each other. We loved the idea of having an opportunity to fly everyone in, spend time together and experiencing the vibe between us again. It may be the last opportunity we have to do that.”

Please read the full article at: SIGN OF THE HAMMER | Terrorizer.com.

Goblin

The soundtracks of Italian horror films of the 1970s’ are epic examples of filthy, psychedelic, synthy, lucid prog rock. Teamed with gratuitous nudity, bad dubbing, excessive violence and lurid fake blood, it’s a recipe for a golden age of cult cinema. One band synonymous with this type of music is Goblin.

Dazed Digital caught up with keyboardist Maurizio Guarini to see where he and the other Goblins have been lurking.

Dazed Digital: Goblin has just begun playing live again after a 32 years absence – why now?
Maurizio Guarini: It just happened. After spending more than one year gigging together in the mid seventies, each of us started playing live with other bands/singers as session men. It happened that some of us played together live over the years, but not the whole band and not as Goblin. Since, we just didn’t have a chance to put the band together until now…

Please read the full interview at: Dazed Digital | The Return of Goblin.

Rose Kemp - Supersonic '09

We’re going to attend Birmingham’s very own Supersonic Festival in July: “As British music festivals go, Birmingham’s annual Supersonic event is the best kind of mixed musical bag, a dizzying assortment of avant rock textures and Heavy Metal thunder on a bill which swings from the sublime to the ridiculous without once seeming ostentatiously eclectic” –The Wire.

Capsule the brains behind Supersonic Festival are curators, promoters and fans of the finest music, revealing the otherwise indescribable connections between contemporary music and art, crafting extraordinary events for adventurous audiences. Now in it’s 7th year, the event will once again take place at the Custard Factory in the heart of Digbeth utilising a number of spaces for music, art, film and cake.

“We are thrilled at what is shaping up to be our best line up yet, with unique performances from such influential artists as Italian legends, GOBLIN,  their first show in the UK in 20 years, the reformation of the original line up of HEAD OF DAVID, who bring their driving bombast to proceedings for the first time in 23 years, the notorious Japanese band CORRUPTED who have yet to play on UK soil as well the reawakening of Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley of Sunn 0))) maiden voyage into darkeness: the cult  black doom act THORR’S HAMMER.”

“Not to mention splatter rock band THE ACCUSED, unruly trio MONOTONIX, the expansive drone-noise of GROWING; Brighton’s prog adventure, DIAGONAL; the wild avant futuristic jazz of ZU; the stoned pysch of EARTHLESS, the Virginian sludge rock of PONTIAK, the industrial experiments of 65 DAYS OF STATIC, the immense duo that is FLOWER/CORSANO DUO, occult noise act SKULLFLOWER, also joining the line up is SCORN aka Mick Harris (king of the blast beat)  and the new project combining Russell McEwan of Black Sun &  the electronic-vocal attack of Lea Cummings (Kylie Minoise) in the form of ATOMIZED, added to this are the power violence duo IRON LUNG and one of the finest folk vocalists NANCY WALLACE will be featured in the line-up, once again highlighting the highly eclectic booking policy of the festival.”

Tickets for Supersonic 2009 are on sale NOW.

Master Musicians of Bukkake - Totem One

Drawing its incredible original two-figure jam line-up from Seattle’s celebrated music scene, the current (with a modest seven people) incarnation of Master Musicians of Bukkake features Brad Nowan, ex of cult doom extremists Burning Witch and current of Asva, and Don McGreevy and Milky of drone stalwarts Earth.

With  Totem One, the first of a trilogy out through Conspiracy Records and a UK debut at Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, it was high time we had the tangled threads of this story laid flat by collaborator and Asva man Randal Dunn.

via PSYCHEDELLIC COLLECTIVE MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE BECOME… ACTUAL BAND? | Terrorizer.com.