May 2013
2 posts
Poster design by Pearly Sandman. Click here for tickets
Only recently, we warned you that young people in their hordes are dabbling in the Dark Arts. Here’s more evidence to support that claim. Occult Hand are Isablood and Henry, two horror film obsessives whose ectoplasm-drenched music incorporates elements of noise, found sound and improvisation. They may well be Brighton’s most exciting new outfit but that doesn’t excuse their...
April 2013
3 posts
The Outer Church put together a mix for the terrific Kit Records website along with a few words on spectral milkmaids, rattling doorhandles and rural psychedelia. Click here
It’s an undisputed fact that more and more young people are getting involved in the occult. But are they aware of the dangers inherent in asking a Shadow Person back to their house for a glass of cream soda or playing Knock Down Ginger in a registered thin place? Possibly not. So when we encountered the music of Swedish duo Death And Vanilla we were immediately concerned that their sweet but...
Poster design by Tim Scullion. Click here for tickets
March 2013
2 posts
Ohio-based label Rano debuted late last year with the subterranean hum of the Paradiba EP by Polish producer Synek. We described it as “a crawl through the long dark ventilation shaft of the soul.” This was followed by Keep Sheila On Acid’s You Will Be The Same Tomorrow As You Were Yesterday and dsic’s Tiamat/Taniwha. Though the physical editions of all three releases have...
The music created by April Larson is by turns sinister, violent, mournful and disorientating. It creeps like the night stalker. It hovers like a low fog. It shudders like a spooked infant. It crackles and vibrates with a weird energy comparable to that of Hacker Farm - with whom Larson has recently collaborated - but it has its own unique spectral identity. The official word? To wit: “April...
February 2013
3 posts
The Outer Church stumbled into the waterlogged world of North Yorkshire’s Raining Leaf via their split release with the incomparable Paper Dollhouse. This was followed by the icily melancholic Frozen Landscapes EP and the ambitious 55-minute composition And Elohim Created - both released, like the split, through the artist’s own Chapel Yard imprint. Powerfully atmospheric and...
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Somerset’s Hacker Farm have been taking things apart and putting them back together all weird since 2009. Their new album UHF (Exotic Pylon Records) has gained considerable acclaim for its unique strain of confrontational DIY electro-rural noise, while its self-released 2011 predecessor Poundland is equally worthy of investigation, not least for its excellent use of crows. What a carrion!...
January 2013
3 posts
A recent conversation with South London based artist and electronic composer Paul Snowdon turned to the subject of formative influences: what arcane sounds kicked off the process that would culminate in the birth of his horological alter-ego, Time Attendant? On discovering that Snowdon’s creative secretions were initially stirred by the extreme end of early 90s Metal - not so unlikely when...
You may already be aware that February 16th edition of The Outer Church at Caroline Of Brunswick in Brighton will include live performances from West Country frictioneers Hacker Farm, Kemper Norton and IX Tab. In addition, we are very proud to announce that the event will also incorporate a special midnight screening of writer Leo Whetter and director Will Hutchinson’s zero-budget...
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“It’s very hard to get lost in America these days, and even harder to stay lost.” - Heather Donohue, The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The music of North Carolina duo Lost Trail evokes the Mythic America glimpsed in such films as The Blair Witch Project, American Movie and Cropsey - a haunted landscape steeped in folklore, as unknowably vast as imagination itself, and every bit as...
December 2012
7 posts
Paper Dollhouse (Astrud Steehouder and Nina Bosnic), Angkorwat (Niamh Corcoran) and Embla Quickbeam (Rowan Forestier-Walker) recently collaborated on a new piece of music entitled Unicorn. The track was specially commissioned by The Outer Church and given away as a free download to everyone who attended the event on 17.12.12. You can listen to it here
Over the past decade, Washington DC emigre James Ginzburg has released a plethora of material under assorted pseudonyms, co-founded Bristol’s Multiverse organisation (with Rob ‘Pinch’ Ellis, Paul Jebanasam and James Fiddian) and established low-frequency research unit Emptyset (with Paul Purgas). In Spring 2013, Ginzburg will reveal a hitherto undisclosed talent for psych-pop...
Oscillating between tenebrous witch-folk and bleak electronics, Paper Dollhouse are the musical equivalent of a hologram projected from a frostbitten tree trunk. The solo project of Rayographs guitarist/vocalist Astrud Steehouder recently became a duo with the incorporation of longtime collaborator Nina Bosnic, whose contributions can be heard on the limited edition Rituals & Practices release...
The Outer Church first encountered Wizards Tell Lies via their second release for the First Fold label, 2011’s The Occurrence EP. A strange concoction of makeshift radiophonics, witchy atmospherics and post-Liars rhythms, it sounded bewilderingly unlike anything we’d ever heard. Their new full-length album The Failed Silence marks a considerable evolution, benefiting from a broader...
3 tags
2012 has been an astonishing year for music. Here are some of the releases we’ve loved at The Outer Church, in no particular order: Production Unit There Are No Shortcuts In A Grid System (Broken20) Alexander Tucker Third Mouth (Thrill Jockey) Pye Corner Audio Sleep Games (Ghost Box) Oren Ambarchi Sagittarian Domain (Editions Mego) Black Bananas Rad Times Express IV (Drag...
6 tags
Manchester-based label The Geography Trip made an auspicious debut this year with the sunken coastal drone of Now Wakes The Sea’s Hot Cygnet Tape. The Outer Church received its copy with a rather fetching postcard, now firmly pinned to the notice board in the narthex. More recently the label hooked up with OC ally oh/ex/oh and will release the shadowy British producer’s beautifully...
November 2012
5 posts
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A Venezuelan artist living in Brussels, Ernesto Gonzalez came to the attention of The Outer Church via the recommendation of Norm Chambers aka Panabrite. Subsequent investigation led to Gonzalez’s latest album as Bear Bones, Lay Low (El Telonero, Kraak Records) becoming one of the OC’s favourites of 2012. We have a thing about crackling analogue electronics and bubbling lysergic...
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The Fog Inside The Outer Church… Robin The Fog presents a complete recording of his DJ set from The Outer Church at Caroline Of Brunswick, Brighton, 23.11.12.
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US filmmaker Graham Reznick’s feature length debut I Can See You (2008) attracted considerable acclaim for its hallucinatory take on the backwoods horror subgenre. Indeed, this ‘psychedelic campfire tale’ is so revered here at The Outer Church that we’ve screened it twice, most recently as part of Dublin’s Darklight Festival. I Can See You is certainly visually...
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Kiran Leonard is a 17-year-old musician from North West England who already has several albums of dizzyingly ambitious progressive-psychedelic pop under his belt, which must be uncomfortable ha ha. The recently remixed and remastered album Bowler Hat Soup serves as a fine introduction to his body of work. Leonard also makes hip hop as Beat Nurse and electronic music as Pend Oreille. The...
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When Pittsburgh synth-rock duo Zombi emerged in the early 2000s they sounded remarkably fresh and distinctive; it’s only in hindsight that we can appreciate how prescient their blend of kosmiche synth sequences, prog rhythms and horror/sci-fi soundtrack dynamics would prove to be. Though coming from a rock background (and indeed their music bears traces of tech-rock titans such as Genesis,...
October 2012
9 posts
4 tags
The Outer Church presents a guest contribution from one of its most valued advisors, Brighton’s own scholar of celluloid insalubriousness, Matthew Wackett. This morbid individual’s encyclopedic knowledge of sinister cinema is second to none - as you’ll be able to experience when he unveils his forthcoming website. Until then, scroll down for a few well-chosen words from the...
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10 tags
In the grim, gristly days when The Outer Church was merely a parasitic thought-form spiralling its way through the void in search of a host, the future Sounder Of Clarions chanced upon a paper-clad disc entitled i) in a London audio boutique. Credited to Silver Pyre this intriguing object conjectured a form of hypnotic folk-infused music which eschewed both hirsute cosiness and post-industrial...
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London-based label Public Information concerns itself with new and archive music from a variety of genres including electronics, noise, psych, industrial, house, dub and techno. The label’s latest release is a striking collection of tracks handpicked from the vaults of Canada’s Parry Music Library entitled Tomorrow’s Achievements. Here, PI mainman Alex Wilson presents an...
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Christopher Horne was a member of Boards Of Canada alongside Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin before striking out on his own as Christ. Under this name, Horne has released a series of evocative, characterful albums and EPs including Blue Shift Emissions, Pylonesque and Distance Lends Enchantment To The View. His latest work is the soundtrack to Stefan Larsson’s animated science fiction film...
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Dublin-based musician Niamh Corcoran debuted her Angkorwat project in 2010 with the haunted, claustrophobic Early EP. She has played live alongside Panda Bear, Xiu Xiu, Nite Jewel and Dan Deacon, and will be one of three acts performing at The Outer Church in Brighton on December 17th. Read on for an illuminating interview with the artist and an exclusive mix entitled The Pitiless Wave....
September 2012
11 posts
Happy Birthday Trish x
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Robin The Fog is a radio producer, DJ and founder of the gloriously unusual web label The Fog Signals. He is also the creator of the acclaimed album The Ghosts Of Bush which was “created entirely using the natural acoustic sounds of Bush House, the iconic home for the past seven decades of the BBC World Service which closed its doors for the last time on July 12th 2012.” Here Robin...
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Peter Strickland’s remarkable second film Berberian Sound Studio is a psychological thriller which follows the progress of an unassuming sound engineer from Dorking who finds himself submerged in the murky world of 70s giallo cinema. The film’s soundtrack is by influential British outfit Broadcast. James Cargill of Broadcast spoke to The Outer Church about his part in making Berberian...
Toledo-based artist Jessica Bailiff released her debut album Even In Silence in 1998. Since then - as a solo artist and in collaboration with the likes of Flying Saucer Attack’s David Pearce (as Clear Horizon), Odd Nosdam, Rivulets, Boduf Songs, Rachel Staggs (as Eau Claire) and Annelies Monseré - she has continued to develop a signature style in which effects such as distortion and reverb...
In order to mark the live assembly of the Spectral Alliance at The Outer Church on September 26th, Sone Institute, Tidal and Time Attendant have collaborated on a brand new piece of music entitled ‘Lithium Bone Worm’. Download it for free here.
Alternative poster design for the Sept 2012 edition of The Outer Church. Get tickets here.
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Pye Corner Audio live at The Outer Church in Dublin 25.08.12.
Many thanks to Pye Corner Audio, Black Mountain Transmitter, Kemper Norton, Ian Maleney, Niamh Corcoran, Niamh Ni Shuilleabhain, Teresa Dillon and the staff of Subground 43.
August 2012
5 posts
Abul Mogard was born in Belgrade. An ex-factory worker, he began his career in electronic music following retirement. His remarkable debut album (see below) was recently released on C60 cassette via Steve Moore and Anthony Paterra’s excellent VCO Recordings label. Mogard agreed to talk to The Outer Church about his life and music.
What goods did your factory produce?
“It was a...
6 tags
Tidal is London-based musician Jimmy Billingham, who also records under the name Venn Rain (as namechecked in the OC’s recent interview with Norm Chambers aka Panabrite). The music of Tidal is oceanic, dreamlike and enveloping, and much of it has been released on cassette tape. Here Billingham presents some thoughts on the magical properties of that format along with an exclusive mix...
The unedited transcript of an interview with Gary Numan on the subject of his 1979 Number 1 single ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’. Excerpts of this interview appear in Mojo #226.
What influenced the sound of the song?
“I just had what I had, really. There wasn’t a massive amount of synthesizers around at the time and there was only a few that we could afford to rent anyway. I...
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The mysterious traveller known as oh/ex/oh recently decamped from the Pacific Northwest of America to the North West of England. The material so far attributed to this individual - Entropic and Tokyo Field Recordings - will presently be supplemented by a lengthier missive entitled Extant. Here, the enigmatic purveyor of elegiac crackle and hum offers some words on entropy and dislocation...
