London 15th April
Make sure you get there early enough to catch Hal Hutchinson's set it's going to be storming. Exciting news to follow about the BBBlood / Pollutive Static live collaboration in April.
Manchester 16th April
This is the first ever UK date for Texas noise legend Richard Ramirez playing as Werewolf Jerusalem. Co-headline with Skullflower (full-band line-up).
Werewolf Jerusalem
Werewolf Jerusalem is one of the multitudes of names that the absolutely legendary noise artist Richard Ramirez records under
Richard Ramirez is an American noise music artist from Houston, Texas, recording and performing both as a solo artist and as part of several groups and the "static noise" solo project Werewolf Jerusalem. He is notable for being one of the earliest American harsh noise artists.
Ramirez, though extremely prolific, draws a distinction between his relatively few professionally printed CDs and LPs and the many CD-Rs and tapes he produces for smaller record labels. He has done collaborations and split releases with many figures in the noise field, including Merzbow, Emil Beaulieau, Skin Crime, Marc Broude and MSBR.
Ramirez's work tends to consist of long, slowly changing or static tracks of heavily distorted low- to mid-range noise, with a gradual move over the last several years toward more drone-influenced sounds in addition to his harsh noise work. Parallel to this evolution has been a shift in thematic concerns, with album covers, titles, and general themes changing from more typical noise music concerns such as violence and war (largely borrowed from Industrial culture) to a focus on homosexual themes and gay porn artwork. In addition to his musical work, Ramirez also runs the noise and experimental music label Deadline Recordings.
Skullflower
To the uninitiated, Skullflower is one of the better-known bands that originated in the early 1980s power-electronics / noise scene, and one of the few to achieve any real recognition outside their homeland, especially in the United States . Unlike most of their contemporaries (such as Whitehouse, Con-Dom, Grey Wolves, etc.), they are an actual band (as opposed to one or two musicians employing a mix of instruments, synths, and tapes), and retained just enough of rock's basic structure to attract the attention of people beyond the power-electronics genre.
Skullflower's roots are in the European power-electronics / noise scene taking place in the early 1980s. A number of experimental musicians and bands who had grown bored with punk began experimenting with a more confrontational brand of volume-dependent artistic expression. Bands like Whitehouse, Final, Napalm Death, Con-Dom, Throbbing Gristle, The Grey Wolves, and the like were pushing the boundaries of sonic assault, employing damaged synths, guitar noise, unsettling tapes, and extreme volume to confront audiences. Swiping a page from punk's DIY manual, most of them were also releasing their own material (and in some cases, the material of a great many others) on cassette and (when they could afford it) vinyl, to be sold at shows or by mail order.
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