Crushing Death & Grief @crushingdeath - Tumblr Blog

THE HORSE LOOM + RACHEL WATKINS

Tue 29th Jul @ NCI Centre Doors 8pm, tickets £10 adv from here and here

THE HORSE LOOM

The Horse Loom is the name given to the music made by Northumbrian singer and guitarist Steve Malley, who you might best know as the driving force of the corruscating power trio The Unit Ama. Malley's solo work sits adjacent, but somewhat in opposition, to his band output - adding his work with intense post-hardcore bands Crane and Four Frame.

Channelling the same extended, exploratory, on-the-edge quality of his guitarwork through an acoustic setting, he uses this to frame a portfolio of truly extraordinary songs that combine mysticism with a very rooted, earthy reality. Added to that his rich, unaffected voice and you have something unique and special, and which has made The Horse Loom a word-of-mouth phenomenon to compare with fellow Tynesiders Richard Dawson and Nev Clay.

https://lowpoint.bandcamp.com/album/the-horse-loom

RYAN DAVIS & THE ROADHOUSE BAND

Sun 24th Aug @ The Blue Moon Doors 7:30, £14 adv from here and here

RYAN DAVIS & THE ROADHOUSE BAND

We've been big fans of Ryan Davis for a fair few years, and we're not the only ones. Maybe the the most spot-on songwriter coming out of the Midwest of the US right now, he's got slack melodies that linger and mazy lyrics that thrill. His songs are like classics Simpsons episodes - you never quite sure where they're going next, and every line is a knockout blow. We first encountered him as the leader of niche beard-rock artisans State Champion, but with the release of his solo debut, 2023's Dancing On The Edge, it felt like the rest of the world caught up on his creative presence. The follow up, New Threats From The Soul, lands this summer. The records reckons mightily with the perplexities of human efficacy and agency in an absurd and debased world. This probably sounds hopelessly plodding and severe. It is not—not remotely. It’s a shit-ton of fun. The songs are all earwigs; the arrangements genuinely thrilling, enlivening efforts by the crackerjacks that comprise the sprawling Roadhouse Band. Each trip through the record reveals more of the depth and breadth and tangle of its tapestry. New Threats From The Soul is a masterclass in reducing the sublime to the prosaic, immensity to infinitesimally, and vice versa [the trick can only work both ways].

https://sophomorelounge.bandcamp.com/album/ryan-davis-the-roadhouse-band-new-threats-from-the-soul

BEAUTIFY JUNKYARDS + FENLAND DRONE WORKSHOP

Tue 23rd Sep @ NCI Centre Doors 8pm, £14 adv from here and here

BEAUTIFY JUNKYARDS

Lisbon-based psyche-masters BEAUTIY JUNKYARDS visit Cambridge for the first time, bringing their celestial take on acid folk, electronica, and Tropicalia. Since 2013 the group have been developing a distinctly languid and hazy caldeirada of giallo soundtracks, wyrd folk, chamber pop, and spectral synth. Latest LP, NOVA, is their third for hauntological gatekeepers Ghost Box Recordings. It's an eerily timeless collections of tunes that shimmer and float through the ether, augmented by cameo contributions from Jesse Chandler (of Midlake & Mercury Rev), Dorothy Moskowitz (of United States of America), and (most surprisingly) Paul Weller.

https://beautifyjunkyards.bandcamp.com/

TASHI DORJI + RADICAL ELSEWHERE

Sun 5th Oct @ The Blue Moon Doors 7:30, £12 adv from here

TASHI DORJI

Tashi Dorji grew up in Bhutan, on the eastern side of the Himalayas, listening to classical and flamenco music via shortwave radio and collecting bootleg cassettes from India. After moving to Asheville, North Carolina in 2000, he encountered the music of Albert Ayler, Derek Bailey and John Zorn.

As a result of these formative and later influences, Dorji developed an improvised playing style unbound by tradition, yet with a direct line to intuitive artistry. Using harmonics, prepared guitar and open tunings, his recordings feature improvisations that spasmodically grow along tangential, surprising paths. All references break loose during a composition, as Dorji keys into his own inner world through a labyrinth of warbling tones. The experience for listeners is equally disorienting and reflective, in which Dorji’s musicianship evokes both haunting beauty and mindfulness.

https://tashidorji.bandcamp.com/

SACRED PAWS + THE HEALING POWER OF HORSES

Wed 14th May @ NCI Centre, CB4 Doors 8pm, £12 adv from here

SACRED PAWS

Glasgow/London duo Sacred Paws return to the fold after a five year hiatus, with new album ‘Jump Into Life’ (Rock Action Records). The new record takes the roots of the project and breathes fresh life into it as it blossoms into something even more colorful than before—a skewing of the duo's recognizable sound that feels wildly thrilling.

With their signature sense of fervor, Sacred Paws continue to hurtle forward, jumping into life, embracing that forward motion rather than lingering in the shadows of life’s messiness. Full of endearing energy and buoyed by new sounds, textures, and character, Jump Into Life is a callback and an evolution, unafraid to reveal its warm and heavy beating heart, even with all the anxiety that entails.

When the band broke through with their debut record “Six Songs EP, they did so with firm intent and rousing success. The duo of Ray Aggs (Trash Kit, Shopping) and Eilidh Rodgers (Golden Grrrls) have their roots in the punk world which they wound together with a myriad of influences, from Afrobeat, through pop and post-punk, to create a glorious and unique hybrid. https://sacredpaws.co.uk/

ABSTRACT CONCRETE + BELL LUNGS + PETE UM

Fri 23rd May @ NCI Centre, CB4 Doors 8pm, £15 adv from here

ABSTRACT CONCRETE

Abstract Concrete is another big step for UK underground heavyweight Charles Hayward (This Heat, Camberwell Now), joined by some of the most exciting and forward-thinking young London players from a diversity of European underground and experimental scenes: Agathe Max, Roberto Sassi, Yoni Silver & Otto Willberg.

Combining sweet chamber pop hooks with dubwise bass, plaintive Balearic guitar licks, and a blend of folk and jazz-informed post punk, accompanied by lyrics that bend from the political to depressed toilet cleaning apparatus, Abstract Concrete follows a continuum of such melodic art school innovators as The Kinks, Brian Eno, Robert Wyatt and Penguin Cafe Orchestra, as well as Hayward’s own experimental post punk past, all the while nodding to a childhood spent listening to folk and pop.

https://abstract-concrete.bandcamp.com/

MILKWEED + THE SILVER FIELD + FENLAND DRONE WORKSHOP

Tue 20th May @ NCI Centre, CB4 Doors 8pm, £12 adv from here

MILKWEED

Possibly the most curious group in the currently burgeoning British folk re-revival, Milkweed are an obscure duo making self-described "slacker-trad". Using abstract old texts as lyrical source the pair create a genuinely weird mixture of lo-fi sampling, traditional instruments, and jarring cut-ups that has a strong flavour of the found sounds of folk horror.

https://linktr.ee/mlkwd_

THE SILVER FIELD

The Silver Field is a sound world of Coral Rose Kindred-Boothby. Voice, tapes, bass, samples, synthesis, strings, reeds, drums, small sounds, big sounds, sunlight, moonlight, a lot of water. Using her modular synthesiser and other self-built electronic instruments, she weaves together song-soundscapes, creating a rich and dream-like tapestry of sound that draws from folk music tradition, experimental electronics and psychedelia.

https://thesilverfield.co.uk/

FENLAND DRONE WORKSHOP

Shadowy men from a shadowy lode = Fenland Drone Workshop. Cryptic jams augmented by field recordings and captured in ancient structures.

https://fenlanddroneworkshop.bandcamp.com/

RICH(ARD) DAWSON + LUKE COWAN

Sat 14th Jun @ Mumford Theatre (ARU) Doors 7:30, £23 adv from here

RICH(ARD) DAWSON

The incomparable Rich (just Rich) probably needs no introduction. A rare, truly singular voice in the landscape of rock & roll, he is a conjurer of new myths that stand alongside asute contemporary observations. Drawing on the elemental and sublime, along with the everyday and ephemeral, Dawson creates songworlds that can swing between stormy chaos and intimate reflection organically and engagingly. Always weird and thrilling, his work draws from an encyclopedia of sources, including traditional English folk songs, free jazz, VR gaming, allotments, Japanese psyche, tales of pre-medieval Northumberland, avant-metal, and sporting fathers.

https://richarddawson.net/

GURGLES + LOCAL HOTELS

Thu 6th Mar @ The Boathouse Doors 7:30pm, £8 adv from here

GURGLES

Psycheprogpop cosmonauts from the Bradford Oblast re-enter orbit in Cambridge. Totally far-out pop tunes driven by cosmic organ, jazzy drums and swell harmonies, all with a nod and a wry smile. Fronted by the current "fourth Saint Etienne", Gurgles are a fine addition to the tradition of erudite, emotive, and very English songsmithery peddled by XTC, the Kinks, Robert Wyatt, and (honoury limeys) Sparks. Latest album, Sogs And Songs, is an excavation of childhood flights of fancy into new disco directions, featuring songs about love, loss, fashion, fish and storm outflows, communication through church bells, x-rays and the building of Bradford’s Broadway shopping centre.

https://gurgles.bandcamp.com/

LOCAL HOTELS

Appropriately local abstract chat and dubbed indierock. As if ACR traded in their dancing shoes for Dr Martens.

http://localhotelsband.com/

TICKET LINKS BROKEN

Hi all. Tumblr is doing something weird and links to tickets within the posts have suddenly stopped working. Either go to the Tickets link on the right hand side of this page, or copy and paste the following:

https://wegottickets.com/crushingdeathandgrief

KNOWN FOR + THE ORGIES + I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU

Sat 8th Feb 2025 @ The Blue Moon Doors 8pm, £8 adv from here

Something of a celebration of minor Cambridge musical weird rock history; two groups filled with members of former Cambridge bands now plying their trade elsewhere and another re-emerging after 35 years of suspended animation.

KNOWN FOR

Known For you may recognise from bands such as Culture CT, The Bodies or Ill Murray, their new EP Catching A Stray is four tracks of taut heavy post punk, all jagged riffs and explosive beats. The aural equivalent of bottomless brunch at the Abbey Stadium. https://knownfor.bandcamp.com/

THE ORGIES

The Orgies comprise former members of Prison Whites and The Wytches now inveigling their way into the Sheffield DIY scene. Fuelled by a love of underground garage punk and those weird little French beers you get in Aldi, these men will bring you heartfelt tales of defiant philosophers and eternal friendships. https://theorgies.bandcamp.com/

I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU

Ex-neophytes I Thought I Told You are a mysterious crew from Cambridge's past, suddenly reappearing from the mire. Unhampered by any form of musical competence or quantifiable popularity, they are primed and ready to reaquaint the city with non-standard post-punk tales of sinister naiveity. NO ONLINE PRESENCE, OK?

DAVID GRUBBS + SECLUDED BRONTE + C JOYNES

Tue 18th Mar 2025 @ NCI Centre, CB4 Doors 8pm, £14 adv from here

DAVID GRUBBS

Chuffed to get a swift return from the titanic, iconic David Grubbs - this time in support of Whistle From Above, his first proper solo album since 2017. Developed from a lockdown spent playing "a shit-ton of guitar," and inspired by visiting old Gastr Del Sol tapes for 2024's compilation box set, it's a collection of keenly insightful instrumentals, with occasional help from collaborators including Rhodri Davies and Nate Wooley.

A central figure in the development of avant-garde rock music since the 90s, Grubbs was a key member of the groups Gastr del Sol, Bastro, and Squirrel Bait. His collaboration with Jim O’Rourke in Gastr del Sol in essence invented the concept of post-rock. He has since released fourteen solo albums and appeared on more than 200 releases. He has performed with Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, Luc Ferrari, Will Oldham, Loren Connors, Royal Trux, the Red Krayola, and many, many others. https://www.dragcity.com/artists/david-grubbs

JON COLLIN + JACK COOPER + VISIT ME

Tue 11th Feb 2025 @ The Blue Moon Doors 8pm, tickets £10 adv from here

JON COLLIN

DIY beyond-guitarist, Jon Collin, is a creator of music and non-music based on accidental sounds, droning strings, frictional forms, and natural sonics. Found in a third place, triangulated from post-Takoma guitar and free improv, Collins creates some kind of sonic equivalent of Jim Ede-style arrangements of high and low forms. The brains behind essential Swedish minimalist label Early Music, and formerly of tape project Winebox Press, he's released a plethora of essential releases on these labels and beyond, as well as collaborations with Demdike Stare, Bill Nace, Sarah Hughes and James Toth. https://joncollin.bandcamp.com/

JACK COOPER

Best known as the driving force behind the shape-shifting folk-pop-jazz unit, Modern Nature, Jack Cooper works across a wide range of musical forms. From singer-songwriter to improv guitarist, to aleatoric contemporary composer, he is a bottomless well of musical ingenuity. What will we get from him this evening? Great question! https://modernnature.band/

VISIT ME

Wandering organ, lurching loops, and processed buzzing vocals. Devotional hauntology drifting between Cambridge and Cornwall. Most interesting recent addition to the Cambridge musical milieu? We reckon so… https://visitme.bandcamp.com/

DANCER + YOKE + JOE KENYON

Sun 2nd Mar 2025 @ The Blue Moon Doors 7pm, tickets £10 adv from here

DANCER

DANCER are a crew of folks assembled in Glasgow who you might have encountered in bands like The Wharves, Current Affairs, Nightshift, Order of the Toad and Robert Sotelo. That's a fine pedigree, endorsed by some of Britain's finest DIY labels - we're talking Tough Love, Gringo, Soft Power, and Upset The Rhythm! Armed with all that context, you'll be unsurprised that Dancer come ready-fitted with taut energy, elastic riffs, and slanted sentiment. Only formed a couple of years back, they've already released a whole bunch of Dadist tales of nemeses, self-propelled flight and former Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, pushed into your ears by a tightly tumbling and insistent collection of springy hooks and rolling rhythms. You want comparisons? Let's say that from the top of Dancer hill you should be able spot Pavement, Trash Kit, Swell Maps, and Life Without Buildings on the horizon. https://linktr.ee/dancerareaband

YOKE

Beware the YOKE mind virus. These horticulturally-minded, pop-chug fans of bakelite organs, group singing, and leisure buildings should be familiar to you by now, having turned up at a myriad of CB gigs, playing with Objections, The Unit Ama, Rachel Love, and, er, Cud. Not to be confused with all the other bands called Yoke currently knocking about.

https://oooyokeooo.bandcamp.com/

JOE KENYON

We don't know much about JOE KENYON, other than his bandcamp contains a bunch of tunes that make us reckon he's been listening to a load of Elliot Smith, Alex G, Mt Eerie, and Kevin Ayers.

https://joekenyon72.bandcamp.com/music

Sadly, both Model Village and The Plan have had to pull out of this one - hopefully they'll be around some other time.

WOLF EYES + LOULA YORKE + WELKIN

Tue 8th Apr 2025 @ The Portland Arms Doors 7:30, tickets £17.50 adv from here

WOLF EYES

Thrilled to bring psycho jazz titans and contemporary memelords Wolf Eyes back to Cambridge for the first time in nearly two decades. Now a duo of John Olson and Nate Young, over nearly 30 years Wolf Eyes have laid waste to the American midwest and beyond with a dizzying range of punishing noise, alien soundscapes, warped blues, grindhouse ambient, power psyche, and new age skronk. Over a crushingly vast discography of lathe cuts, CDrs, handmade tapes, and the occasional "regular" release, they've pushed instruments and listeners to the limit, frying circuits and minds in equal, incalculable numbers. Always ingenious, always inscrutable, always revelatory, Wolf Eyes are consistently essential but never predictable. True underground DIY heroes of our age! https://wolfeyes.xyz/

LOULA YORKE

A composer and improviser, primarily working with modular synthesiser, Loula Yorke takes a discrete and deliberately meditative approach to electronic sounds, creating fluid, kaleidoscopic works in the liminal space between personal and political. Winner of a prestigious Oram award in 2020, Suffolk-based Yorke takes a monastic, meticulous methodology to her own work, whilst extending her practice outwards running workshops such as the femme-centred synth-building workshop, Atari Punk Girls.

https://loulayorke.com/

WELKIN

Welkin play with elemental forces. Named for the vault of heaven, the group encompasses a deeply textured and constantly evolving sound. Between them, Dominic Lash and N.O. Moore (guitars) and Dave Fowler (drums) have collaborated with the likes of Tony Conrad, Eddie Prévost, and Adam Bohman. A trio of improvisers, they utilise the language of sonic heaviness to enlighten the sky, drawing on a tradition that runs from Blue Cheer to Fushitshusha to SUMAC and beyond.

BIG|BRAVE + MJ GUIDER

Tue 22nd Apr 2025 @ The Portland Arms Doors 7:30, tickets £17.50 adv from here

BIG|BRAVE

Creators of some of the most delicate, and simultaneously weighty, sounds of recent years, BIG|BRAVE have become supreme practitioners of transcendently heavy vulnerability. From gentle, folkish roots, the trio have transmogrified into a unit of minimalist approaches to colossal sounds. Marrying multifaceted, ragged distortion and feedback to explorations of sonic space, BIG|BRAVE’s singular potency is the perfect counterfoil to Robin Wattie’s translucent voice, telling tales drawn from history’s forgotten and marginalised experiences. Working by themselves, or with collaborators including Tashi Dorji, Marisa Andersen, and The Body, BIG|BRAVE’s intimate dynamicism rips up everything you know about heavy music and reconfigures it into their own, searingly challenging contrivance. http://www.bigbrave.ca/

SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE + ABLE NOISE

Sat 15th Feb '25 @ NCI Centre, CB4 Doors 7:30pm, tickets £14 adv from here

SHOVEL DANCE COLLECTIVE

Shovel Dance Collective are a group of nine musicians brought together by a communal passion for the folk music of the British Isles, Ireland and beyond.

They nurture and synthesise this material with sensibilities drawn from drone, free improvisation, contemporary classical and metal, weaving this through with a deep sense of the ways in which traditional music holds queer histories, proto-feminist narratives and the voices of those who by their labour create the wealth of the world. The group favours instruments that conjure a deeper and stranger antiquity; hammered dulcimer, bowed cittern, mountain banjo, pump organ. They are simultaneously traditional and experimental, seeing folk music not as an archaeological artefact to be unearthed, but as a living communal activity, inviting and generous to those it speaks to.

www.shovel.dance shoveldancecollective.bandcamp.com/

ABLE NOISE

The cryptically-named Able Noise are a baritone guitar and drums duo inconveniently based based between The Hague, and Athens. Originally a strictly live-only concern, they have since moved on to commit a collection of vehemently non-rock synecdoches to tape, cramming in atypical technique, loops and fragments of external sounds, and ghosts of songs past. Still they retain a commitment to attendant performance, taking pre-existing pieces and reshaping them in the context of the space to create something remorselessly new with each appearance.

ablenoise.bandcamp.com/

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