A
gig
held at The Cube
on Saturday 14th May. The event starts at 20:00.
Damon & Naomi w/ Kurihara
+ Richard Youngs + Silver Pyre
The Cube Cinema, Bristol
Sat 14th May - £8adv - 7pm
An amazing bill of artists that have played in a bundle of sublime incarnations but have their own true voices, sounds and perfect weirdness.
Damon & Naomi are very famous from being in Galaxie 500 as well as their pursuits in the written word and duo work. Tonight they play with stellar axe man Michio Kurihara from Ghost / Boris. Richard Youngs has one of the most naturally spectacular and irreverent back catalogues, his beautifully warped oeuvre taking in folk songs/tape noise/cosmic electronic, sheer pop and savage prog. Tonight Damon joins him on drums. This pairing playing together is a night to get Cubed for.
Damon & Naomi celebrate their 25th year as performers together this year, and nothing displays that celebratory spirit more than their new album'False Beats and True Hearts' .. after re-issues, comps and the re-releases of all three seminal Galaxie 500 albums, there's been a lot of looking back. It's therefore appropriate that the first song off False Beats and True Hearts is"Walking Backwards, " an ode to the joy of nostalgia and warmth of reflection. The song is cross stitched by Michio Kurihara's elegant guitar playing - a thick and resonating psych sound that has been a part of Damon & Naomi's music since their collaboration with the Japanese band Ghost (With Ghost from 2000) - and a Death Of A Ladies' Man-style backing chorus of female vox and horns.
False Beats and True Hearts has some unlikely origins, given the band's reputation for contemplative melancholy. With a working title of Ants In Your Pants of 2011, a reference to the Preston Sturges film'Sullivan's Travels, ' where an artist attempts to escape the expectations of his audience, the album is unexpectedly upbeat and strident. While lyrics portray true introspection, the melodies are ambitious and far-reaching. Naomi's new passion for piano playing circles the album like a starry night, capturing the immediacy found in the finest Plastic Ono Band recordings.
"Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang have slowly, steadily, stealthily made themselves into one of the most consistently interesting cultural juggernauts on the contemporary scene. ' -- Byron Coley and Thurston Moore, Arthur
"Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang are acid-folk's under-sung progenitors" -- Keith Cameron, Mojo
Richard Youngs is thoroughly and unimaginably invigorating and unnerving. If you don't know him come hear, come here. He turns up on this bill most unexpected (as is his style) but welcome one of the most exquisite song & music writers that I HAVE EVER HEARD. He shines so soft that he disappears into a landscape of his own making, partly of these British Isles, sometimes floating to stellar regions and often making trips to the worlds of pop or prog or a secret lab on the moon where they practise the art of re-wiring preconceptions and making perverse electronics. I CAN'T EXPLAIN RICHARD YOUNGS. Search him out.
Silver Pyre - the work of Gary Fawle, imbuing deep, rich westcountry drones with flickering Detroit textures, loading up rural-meets-urban anthems from his forthcoming debut album proper.