British Wildlife

Canaya

2012-05-21T17:26:00.001+01:00

British Wildlife Presents...
Canaya
Secta Rouge
Himself
Friday 22nd June 2012
The Packhorse

I am very much pleased to be putting on Canaya and friends once again, and this time at one of Leeds' very finest venues The Packhorse, this will indeed be a banger. And not only that, our friend Owen http://or8design.com/ has prepared an amazing screen printed poster that will be available at the gig so you can treasure it forever more!

A Grand Day Out 2012

2012-05-04T17:31:00.003+01:00

If at first you don't succeed...

Sat 23rd June

British Wildlife Presents...

A Grand Day Out (Facebook Event)

featuring...

Post War Glamour Girls

Juffage

T.O.Y.S

Yugoslavian Boys

Moody Gowns

The Otley Courthouse

Post War Glamour Girls
Website | Bandcamp | Facebook
Leeds based Post War Glamour Girls, four screaming charmers formed in late 2010. Heavy hitting and dry witted, they create songs which swell up and boil over into brooding, thumping masterpieces reminiscent of Tom Waits, Grinderman and ‘Moon and Antarctica-era’ Modest Mouse. Wearing their hearts firmly on their sleeves, PWGG live shows are a gripping affair. The sets are laced with reckless abundance as songs tinker into a clatter and clatter into a roar before collapsing in a proud heap on top of the audience. Post War Glamour Girls are picking up pace fast and are most certainly one to watch.

Juffage

Website | Facebook | Bandcamp
Juffage is Jeff T. Smith, a solo sound artist and multi-instrumentalist from Leeds, via Chicago, Illinois. He is often seen in bars, art galleries, and basements with a band’s worth of instruments.

A recording enthusiast at heart, he has spent time in some of Chicago’s finest studios including Engine Studios (w/ Brian Deck), and Electrical Audio (w/ Steve Albini). Live shows see him coming up with inventive new ways of bringing his multi-layered recordings to the stage. Through the use of cassettes, drums, guitars, and assorted other loop-pedals and gadgets, Juffage creates complex, yet surprising catchy pop songs.

Juffage performances have been compared to a synthesis of Lightning Bolt’s rhythmic ferocity, Radiohead’s lush pop sensibility, King Tubby’s manipulative production, and Andrew Bird’s ability to make a good loop. The result has been described as a loud, frantic, and beautiful “hyperactive and technically accomplished display”.

He has also recently exhibited multichannel sonic art works for the University of Leeds and Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, utilising ambisonics, live looping, portable cassette players, and Max/MSP.

In June 2011, his new album 'Semicircle' was released on 12″ vinyl and digital download by Function Records in the U.K.

T.O.Y.S

Listen to them on Soundcloud

T.O.Y.S are a band made up of Leeds residents Dave Frank, Eddy Lines and ex Leeds resident Adam John Miller. They play great catchy scratchy synth 'n' bass driven noise pop a bit like The Rapture or The Feint.

Yugoslavian Boys

Facebook

Leeds' Yugoslavian Boys are simply one of the most thrilling, fun, dumb, angry, plain odd live acts around right now. Their furious punk sound is made with organ, bass and two drums - no guitar - a set-up which makes the usual rock 'n' roll tropes feel unusual in their hands.

Totalling your drum kit is just a sad rock-star indulgence when it's expected. The way Yugoslavian Boys do it felt almost heroic while still being very silly.

Moody Gowns
Moody Gowns are a captivating rigmarole who create an eclectic mash of sounds both catchy and clever. Descending upon the Yorkshire moors each of the bands members were brought together by the dysfunctional directions of one Mr Nathan Moseley who sought out like minds to offer their own quirks and musical fancies to form the bands eclectic mash of sounds. As a result the band take influence from a variety of sources, ranging from Stanley Holloway's light hearted musical monologues depicting pre-WWII Britain, to the genre bashing musical melting pot perpetrated by Ian Dury and the Blockheads

British Wildlife 'Goes West'

2012-04-10T15:06:00.001+01:00

British Wildlife Goes West
Sunday 3rd June 2012 | The Night & Day Cafe, Manchester
3pm - Late | £5 otd
Venue Website | Facebook Event

Since January 2006 British Wildlife has brought an array of thrilling bands from all over the world to the city of Leeds. And now, on the weekend of the Queen's Diamon Jubilee, Night & Day is delighted to announce that their annual festival is coming accross the Pennines to Manchester! It'll be a right royal she-bang!
Amidst a huge range of UK bands British Wildlife has put on artists from; USA, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Argentina, Israel, Japan and New Zealand. Artists who've played British Wildlife shows include: Shield Your Eyes, Oxes, Pseudo Nippon, Foot Village, John Maus, Action Beat, Bobby Conn, MV&EE and many, many more.

Travel Info (Leeds)
Manchester is roughly 40 miles south west of Leeds, there are about a berjillion trains an hour going there and getting back aint too much of a hassle either, directions to the venue here.

Travel Info (Manchester)
It's right on your doorstep dummy!

Lineup in alphabetical order (times tbc)

Bearfoot Beware
Facebook | Website | Soundcloud | Twitter

Bearfoot Beware are a three piece alternative band. Their aim is to produce unpredictable, dynamic music, taking a progressive stance on traditional norms.

FFO: Battles, At The Drive-In, Talking Heads, Foals, Blakfish, Maps and Atlases,

Their newest release ''BASS LANE'' will be available on 01/03/12.

Cowtown
Myspace | Last.fm | Bandcamp

A three piece sing-a-long space-station of scratching, prodigious guitar rock fused with electric lemon Casioisms and 1977 Korg Micro Preset, tightly pinned to the floor by stadium-sized drums without the expected cheeseball outcome; Prince and Devo fanatics Cowtown make tasty and poisonous anthems. A brand new album out now on their own City Hands label.

Galaxians
Soundcloud | Facebook

Galaxians combine elements of classic New York boogie, early 1980s electro and synth-funk in songs such as 'Fire And Magic' and 'Electroads', to create a contemporary version of something which lovers of all things dance music would describe as old-school or familiar. Galaxians' sound combines 606, 808 and 909 drum machine percussion, hand claps and snare drum sounds, programmed synth basslines, analog synth melodies played in real time and live acoustic drums. The result is unashamed party music.

Mucky Sailor
Myspace | Last.fm | Bandcamp

Dad and Lad Gus & Steve wear inappropriately tight white clothing and make mental synthy noises with clattering drums and a whole load of noise. Just think: in a parallel universe, the theme tune to Deal Or No Deal sounds like this. Get down the front to see their custom made ship’s wheel synthesiser in action, it really has to be seen to be believed! Mucky Sailor also contribute man power to psyche kraut-rock ensemble Nope.

Well Wisher
Bandcamp | Facebook

Well Wisher are five guys who have been forcing people to dance inappropriately since 2009. Born from the ashes of other rowdy bands, this time the rowdiness is tinged with sweet pop jams. D-beat pop if you will.

"Music to make you thrust a claw skywards with one hand!"

$lam Island

2012-04-05T13:13:00.001+01:00

British Wildlife Presents...
$lam Island
DJs Include...
Adam Nodwell (British Wildlife, Super Luxury)
Christobel Jacobs (Super Luxury, Yugoslavian Boys)
Whiskas (Forward Russia, Honor Before Glory)
Nick Simcock (Oporto, Dead Young Records)
& More
Oporto, Call Lane11pm - 2am
Free Entry
Facebook Eventism

$lam Island is a no holds barred ultra fun clubnight launching on Tuesday 17th April. Expect to hear anything from 90's Dance Party Anthems like Haddaway or 2 Unlimited to classic rock anthems by AC/DC or Thin Lizzy. From 80's Television Theme Tune Mash-ups to eighties underground hits and some more 'modern' stuff thrown in for good measure!

Here's a selection of Artists from our playlist...
Gary Numan / Liquid Liquid / Snap / Kenny Loggins / Michael Jackson / Talking Heads / Yes / Cameo / New Order / Depeche Mode / Thunder / Adebisi Shank / Cowtown / That Fucking Tank / Taylor Dayne / Chic / Men at Work / Thin Lizzy / Seal / Motley Crue / Jock Jams / Orange Juice / Tim & Eric / Flight of The Conchords / Hot Chocolate / Huey Lewis & The News / Prince / Jan Terri / Battles / Kriss Kross / Toto / Salt 'n' Peppa / Disasteradio / Kraftwerk / Billy Ocean / B52s / The Human League & many many more!!!

This night immediately follows an awesome British Wildlife gig: Ben Butler & Mousepad, Two Minute Noodles and Mucky Sailor! more info on these nights here.

Ben Butler & Mousepad

2012-04-05T12:48:00.001+01:00

British Wildlife Presents
Tues 17th April 2012
Ben Butler & Mousepad
Website | Bandcamp | Soundcloud | Facebook
Two Minute Noodles
Facebook
Mucky Sailor
Bandcamp | Facebook
Oporto, Call Lane
Facebook Event

Ben Butler & Mousepad is Joe Howe, currently based in Glasgow, Scotland. He has produced weird, complex, fun, synth-led music under a bunch of aliases, including GAY AGAINST YOU and GERMLIN. The last few years have seen Joe producing an album for MOMUS, working on an Opera in Berlin about WENDY CARLOS and rocking festivals, residencies and clubs through Europe, as well as remixing BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB, DEERHOOF, FULGEANCE, KLAXONS and THE CHAP (amongst others). As Ben Butler & Mousepad, he plays solo or in duo with Bastian Hagedorn on drums, under a proper prog-rock influence which doesn’t forget fun.

They’ve just toured the US with Deerhoof and have played alongside MSTRKRFT, Max Tundra, Mahjonng, Errors, Lucky Dragons and at festivals including Novafest (NO), OFF Festival (PO), Pictoplasma (DE), Sonic City (BE), Cimatics Festival (BE), Once upon a festival (BE). Solo festival shows include Glasgow International Art festival (UK), Glasgow Film Festival (UK), Glade (UK), TDK Cross Central (UK), OYE (NO), Futuresonic (UK), Numusic (NO),ZXZW (BE).

Support comes in the form of two freaky Leeds duos Two Minute Noodles and Mucky Sailor, not a guitar in sight for this gig!

This gig is followed by our brand new free entry clubnight $lam Island! more on that here.

Photos by Giles Smith

2012-03-09T10:54:00.002Z

Here is a link to some truly amazing shots of British Wildlife Festival. Giles is a nice man who came and took lots of photos at the festival.

Fear & Loathing in British Wildlife

2012-03-07T09:57:00.001Z

Saturday 31st March
Fear & Loathing in British Wildlife Part III
The Rock & Roll Circus, Armley (Directions)
9pm - Late | £4 otd | Last.FM | Facebook

Fear & Loathing is an all night mega party at the Rock and Roll Circus; A Practice Studio just off canal road in Armley. As well as a heap of great bands performing in two rooms we will have some special guest DJs playing some fine ass hits right into the night!

We also will be manning our own lovely DIY bar. Feel free to BYOB, but we have ice and we will be cheap and all profit goes towards Age UK!

Stage Times This Saturday!!!!

Don Van Vliet Lounge (The Big Room)
22.30: Super Luxury
23.30: Shark Teeth
00.30: Galaxians
01.00: DJs

The Doldrums (The Wee Room)
22.00: Pifco
23.00: Halo Halo
00:00: Float Riverer

Halo Halo (London)
Bandcamp | Blog

Halo Halo. Currently the toast of the London underground pop scene, this awesome three-piece features Rachel of Trash Kit on electric banjo. Their sound, as demonstrated on their debut 7" Manananggal (Savoury Days Records) sits somewhere between the repetitive chamber pop of Electrelane, with whom the band share an affiliation, and the crazed whooping/hollering of Bow Wow Wow or Adam & The Ants. Vocals are shared between Rachel and drummer Jack, who create fractured harmonies that soar over the heavy foundations laid down by bass/keyboard player Gill.

Float Rivera (Manchester)
Bandcamp | Blog

Float Riverer. This Manchester duo, formed in 2010 while hitch-hiking across the UK, delivers all the hooks, punishing the audience with a relentless, venomous, catchiness. Drummer Kate (also one third of grrrl-punk heroines Hotpants Romance) pounds her two drums in a repetitive, motorik style. Her vocal has the rasp and depth of a Holly Golightly and, when she screams, well, she SCREAMS! Guitar player Nick (also known as singer/guitar player in Beach Fuzz and I Had An Inkling) mangles shrill, rhythmic repeato-riffs out of his Telecaster and spits out his lyrics in with a high-pitched androgynous stutter. The band just released their first album on Golden Lab to rave reviews (see below) and have also completed a six-week European summer tour with Turn To Crime, hitting 11 countries and over 5,000 people.

"My only complaint about The White Stripes was that the band weren’t composed of two Meg Whites. My one complaint with Float Riverer is that they haven’t played Australia yet. Is that a Scout Niblett influence I detect? Oh, I do hope so. Great fucking guitar line, one riff and one riff only is easily enough to achieve whatever it is they’re achieving. Consistency. Repetition. Hypnotism. Dance-trance. Spacemen 3 as heard through a very narrow filter indeed. They just get straight down to it, 10 seconds in and you could be 10 hours in. I’d like to hear that, actually: Float Riverer playing the same riff for 10 hours straight, the vocals sometimes dropping out. (Songs of course actually last only a few too-brief minutes.) Ain’t their fault they ain’t played in Brisbane, leastways. Only formed in Manchester end of last year, and every song sounds roughly, brutally, gloriously the same. Fucking great stuff." Everett True, -Collapse Board

Pifco (Leeds)
Myspace | Spotify

Pifco are a trio from Harehills, Leeds, England, playing raggedly hummable tunes in a Trumans Water, Sonic Youth, The Fall and Coachwhips kinda way. Mary plays keyboards and drums whilst Steve sings and plays a rather splendid Rickenbacker guitar. As of late a third member called Martha has joined them on keys.

Shark Teeth

Facebook | Bandcamp

Your new favourite mixed-sex indie pop band' - Rough Trade.

'Upbeat, contagiously catchy indie pop' - Artrocker

'Intelligent, ideas packed pop music' - SoundsXP

Galaxians

Soundcloud

Matt Woodward and Jed Skinner met in June 2011. Armed with a shared love for the output of classic disco and house labels such as Salsoul, Prelude, Sleeping Bag, artists such as Patrice Rushen and Herbie Hancock, and DJs / producers such as Walter Gibbons, Larry Levan, Giorgio Moroder and Francois Kevorkian the pair began writing music as Galaxians in July 2011.

Galaxians combine elements of classic New York boogie, early 1980s electro and synth-funk in songs such as 'Fire And Magic' and 'Electroads', to create a contemporary version of something which lovers of all things dance music would describe as old-school or familiar. Galaxians' sound combines 606, 808 and 909 drum machine percussion, hand claps and snare drum sounds, programmed synth basslines, analog synth melodies played in real time and live acoustic drums. The result is unashamed party music, from the behind-the-beat proto-Miami funk of 'Mermaids Of Miami' to 'Fire And Magic (extended version)' which seeks to emulate classic post-disco tracks such as Patrice Rushen's 'Get Off (You Fascinate Me)'.

Super Luxury (Leeds / Sheffield)

Facebook | Website | Twitter

Super Luxury are a real band. Described as 'Alan Partridge & Phil Collins crashing a dodgy blues jam night and amping it the fuck up', this 'whatever' piece are a bunch of adequate musicians playing balls out stadium party noise rock. So basically they sound like AC/DC or The Cult mixed in with Big Black, US Maple or Pissed Jeans or something. It's extremely difficult to write about your own band in third person without looking like a big headed fool, but it's also easy to get on the bill for your own gig. Swings and Roundabouts I suppose.

Bad Fotography footage from Friday

2012-03-06T12:16:00.000Z

Our friend over at Bad Fotography got some great shots of Divorce, Ultimate Thrush and Super Luxury on Friday, and also wrote some nice things, take a look!

Bad Fotography Blog | Facebook

Big BIG Thankyou!!!

2012-03-05T11:04:00.000Z

Hello, All

This is a BIG thank you to everyone who came and got involved with British Wildlife Festival!

Props to all the bands and DJs who played, Nathan Clark and all the staff at the Brudenell Social Club, Nick Simcock at Oporto, Archie, Pete Devine, Tom Goodhall, Ollie, Dan Standish, Karolina, All the chaps who put up bands at their place, anyone who took photos and made videos to document the event (please send them to me!), Matt Gringo, Test Space, Matt Woodward, Lumin Leeds, Ric Vowden, Ben & Paddy, Jumbo and Crash Records, anyone who I am still bound to forget, and YOU!

Oh, and we managed to raise £48 for Age UK on Sunday!

Obviously British Wildlife Festival is not the be all and end all, we still have some brilliant gigs coming up this summer including Volcano The Bear, TV Buddhas plus some non Leeds gigs in Otley and Manchester, and 2012 will also see the return of Fell Foot Sound in September.

keep checking back for more info on all this soon, plus if you havn't already join our Facebook page and Twitter!

Thankyou again!!!

British Wildlife Festival: Special Guests Announced!

2012-03-01T21:46:00.003Z

Klaus Kinski (Manchester)

Myspace | Facebook | Twitter

Returning to Leeds by popular demand this is the post gay wave five-piece witch flop outfit Klaus Kinski (their words). These lads played a right banger at the Foot Village show at the Brudenell in July and an awesome show at Milo in September and it would be a fucking sin not to have them play British Wildlife Festival so here they are again, ENJOY!

British Wildlife Festival: Rainbow Road

2012-02-27T12:51:00.000Z

Rainbow Road DJs
Facebook Page

British Wildlife is pleased to announce the involvement of Rainbow Road, who will be DJing on Saturday in the Brudenell - here's a quick introduction courtesy of Equilateral Blog

Back in October of last year I put on a new clubnight called Rainbow Road at the then-newly-opened Wharf Chambers cooperative, and wrote for Equilateral about some of my experiences in putting on independent clubnights. Since then the trials that Wharf Chambers has gone through with its licensing as a venue have illustrated precisely some of the problems I wrote about back then. Essentially, Leeds council have made a number of demands about how Wharf Chambers needs to change in order to hold a full private members club licence – with the right to serve alcohol, put on gigs and clubnights etc. – and for various ethical and financial reasons, the good people who organise Wharf Chambers are trying to avoid having to implement the council’s requirements. This has meant appealing against the council’s rulings and holding a campaign to get the people who have enjoyed using Wharf Chambers in the past to write in in support of that appeal. Personally I left a particularly gushing comment on the council’s website about how it was the nicest, least dangerous venue in the city centre and was run by responsible and considerate people, unlike the 95% of other venues in Leeds City Centre. No idea whether that will sway the decision of the steely-hearted bureaucrats at City Hall but it’s worth a try. The upshot of this is that things are still up in the air for Wharf Chambers, and at the moment it’s still relying on Temporary Events Licenses to put on any kind of events.
Luckily, however, they were kind enough to ask me to put on another edition of Rainbow Road using one of these Temporary Events Licenses, so on Friday of this week (tomorrow in fact), I will be playing at being a DJ with a laptop again at Wharf Chambers. We’re expecting a better turn out than last time, I think largely thanks to the decision to subtitle the event ‘Episode 2 – Taking Choco Mountain By Strategy’*. On the Saturday the 18th Wharf Chambers is also doing an all-day mini-festival kinda thing, with a range of great bands on from 2pm til late. If you’re in Leeds on Saturday afternoon I’d really suggest going down and checking that out, since entry is free before 7pm and it will be generally ace.
So, for the time being Wharf Chambers’ future as a venue is uncertain, but they’ve got some great events lined up this weekend and are certainly not giving up without a fight. Inspiring stuff.

British Wildlife Festival: Wooderson

2012-02-27T12:20:00.000Z

Wooderson (Sheffield)
Bandcamp

Wooderson was 3 friends who were having an amazing time playing music together.
Wooderson is now 4 friends who are having an amazing time playing music together.

British Wildlife Festival: That Fucking Tank

2012-02-26T18:08:00.002Z

That Fucking Tank (Leeds / Bradford)
Website | Facebook

That Fucking Tank was formed in 2004 for a one-off performance by friends-since-school Andy Abbott and James Islip who met over an owl. Andy plays a specially tuned baritone guitar through guitar and bass amplifiers, James plays a minimal drum kit. Their novel name, energetic performances and manish volume saw them play all over Europe and the UK with brain-mangling regularity, sharing stages and tours with bands including Hella, Q and not U, Lungfish, Oxes, Unsane, Kid Commando, GI Joe, Chevreuil, Grabba Grabba Tape, Poltergroom, US Maple, Neptune, Whitehouse, AIDS Wolf, Vialka, Nervous Kid, Don Caballero, The Fucking Champs, Hoover and the like. The EP 'A Document of the First Set' and the album 'Day of Death by Bono Adrenalin Shock' (both Jealous records) capture this era.

Relentless touring, emigration from Leeds 6 and growing responsibilities outside of music saw the duo playing gigs at a more regular pace in 2007, and the entrance of old pal and Kill Yourself band-mate Giles Bailey who adds singing and physical-visual stimulation when possible. In 2008 That Fucking Tank fulfilled a teenage fantasy by playing on a bill with Metallica at Leeds and Reading Festivals.

The newest That Fucking Tank album gathers songs from the last two years of activity, with more extended grooves, progressive structures and pop hooks for Reef's Gary Stringer to sing along to. The album is called 'Tanknology' and was released by Gringo records in March 2009. Tanknology received smatterings of mainstream press attention and has been the spine of the duo's live sets for the last year or so. New songs will, at some point, be written and recorded.

That Fucking Tank is a band that operates on DIY principles; booking gigs, recording records and making music in a way that contributes towards the creation of alternative spaces to the boring mechanisms of 'industry', and challenging the assumption that 'good' music has to be made 'professionally' (i.e as a job).

Praise for Tanknology

'A two-man barrage of drums and guitar that sounds like war … contains the most righteous sound ever committed to tape. Lightning Bolt and Death From Above 1979 might have been rocking the bro beats’n’strings dynamic a few years back while That Fucking Tank were still largely unknown, but it’s our boys from Leeds who look set to be victors in the longer campaign.'

NME 8/10

'Chances are your heart rate will peak at fuck me, this is mighty.'

Clash music 8/10

'This new album is huge fun and could (but hopefully won't) have them on Jonathan Ross and a tour of Academy Venues by the end of the year.'

Whisperin' and Hollerin' 9/10

'Petitions should without doubt be circulated, then submitted to the UN, if this does not become a staple of indie discos across the UK upon its release.'

The Skinny 4/5

'Tanknology’ reminds us of the base joy of listening (and dancing) to riffs and drums played fast, over and over… It’s fucking nuts and they’re fucking brilliant.'

Die Shellsuit Die 9/10

‘Brutal but also intricate, this is singularly riotous.’

Rock Sound 8/10

'It is seriously good! it'll give your neck riff-ache!'

Nath of The Brudenell Social Club via Twitter

'A band you could easily imagine wearing tight-blue faded denim jeans and matching jackets.'

Supersweet

'Get in that fucking tank, trundle down south towards the West Country, search out Gary Stringer, dangle a microphone off the end of the gun barrel and encourage him to start singing… sharpish!'

Sonic Dice 2/6

“Have you ever sat at home after taking loads of drugs and spent an hour or two scanning randomly through Classic Rock channels on the radio so at the end you have a vague recollection of some really catchy, rocking moments, but you’re not sure if they really happened? That’s what That Fucking Tank is like at the moment”

Pablo, Barcelona

British Wildlife Festival: Test Space

2012-02-23T09:45:00.003Z

Test Space
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Flickr

Test Space is a creative agency; working as event producers, promoters, artists and curators and have been invited for a one day stint at British Wildlife Festival.

Test Space develops innovative opportunities and outlets for creative talent to showcase work; brokering professional opportunities with businesses, venues, studios and other artists. Their work includes rapid exhibitions, pop up kitchens, cross-city showdowns, design weekenders, live art events, concept stores and showcase gigs; working with venues ranging from grade one listed buildings to guerilla pop up shops to independent record stores, and music festivals!We are very pleased to announce that Test Space will be appearing at British Wildlife Festival with the Test Space: Store. Opening Saturday Afternoon the Test Space: Store is a unique temporary art space selling work by some of the Norths most original and exciting artists, designers and makers.

The Test Space: Store will be selling a whole range of one off and limited edition prints, cards, t-shirts, books, ‘zines, canvases and more.

Artists include:
Matt Ferres
Godisdad
Drew Millward
dots
Spin Cycle Complete
Mild Peril
Stephen Langdon
memo
Kitschen Sink
Sophie in Disguise
The Beating Arts
Art School Wank
Ollie Redding
Debi Holbrook
Sean Mort
Jay Cover
and many more.

British Wildlife Festival: Norman Records DJs

2012-02-22T11:24:00.003Z

Norman Records DJs
(Leeds Online Independent Record Store)
Website

The Lads from Norman Records will be playing some of their favourites on the Saturday of the Festival. Norman Records is one of the best online Records shops and it will be great to have them playing some very interesting stuff from their fountain of knowledge, I assure you that you might not leave without purchasing one of their records!

British Wildlife Festival: Juffage

2012-02-16T19:25:00.001Z

Special Guest #1 Announced:
Juffage (Chicago / Leeds)
Website | Facebook | Bandcamp

Juffage is Jeff T. Smith, a solo sound artist and multi-instrumentalist from Leeds, via Chicago, Illinois. He is often seen in bars, art galleries, and basements with a band’s worth of instruments.

British Wildlife Festival: Silent Front

2012-02-13T20:24:00.002Z

Silent Front (London)

Myspace | Facebook | Bandcamp | Website

London's long-standing DIY stalwarts Silent Front have been hawking an abrasive blend of post-punk and hardcore for over a decade. The last 2 years has seen SF recruit a new drummer, release a split 7" (with Shield Your Eyes) and a full length (Dead Lake), start a record label (Triplejump) and tour Europe and the UK extensively - playing the Camden Crawl and Moorfest as well as shows with the likes of The Hope Conspiracy, Black Elk, Pneu, Hey Colossus, Bilge Pump and That Fucking Tank.

"D.I.Y. in its sound and approach, uncompromising and awkward, 'Dead Lake' is all you could want from a real punk record" Rock Sound 8/10

I dreamed I dream - Silent Front by Whitehorn_1British Wildlife Presents...

British Wildlife Festival: Sauna Youth

2012-02-13T19:52:00.000Z

Sauna Youth (London)
Bandcamp | Blog | Facebook

British Wildlife Festival: Double Muscle

2012-02-13T18:37:00.001Z

Double Muscle (Leeds)
Bandcamp | Facebook

Three-piece, loud band from Leeds, UK. Big fans of Japanese footballers, science, Wu-Tang Clan and Dinosaur Jr.

British Wildlife Festival: Zun Zun Egui

2012-02-08T16:30:00.001Z

Zun Zun Egui (Bristol via Mauritious, Japan & UK)
Web | Facebook | Myspace

Formed in the libertine and verdant undergrowth of Bristol’s cultural side streets (members Kushal Gaya and Yoshino Shigihara first met at an improv session at notorious DIY cinema The Cube Microplex), Zun Zun Egui started out playing up and down the UK to hardcore and party crowds ready to be let loose by music. They self-released a limited editon CD-R and then, on the back of a snowballing word-of-mouth live reputation, started to be invited to play shows all over the world at festivals, squat cafes, hotel lobbies, art centres and other unlikely spaces. Meanwhile they recorded two white-hot slabs of 12” vinyl at their Bristol-based studio lair for Blank Tapes.

Always with a desire to connect, ZZE and Qu Junktions cooked up their own colourful club night called “How Come…” in Bristol and had tour mates like The Ex and Sun Araw pull up and play as well as Michachu And The Shapes, Bass Clef, Krar Collective and AJ Holmes. Now Zun Zun Egui have dreamt up their debut album proper, and it’s one to savour. Recorded in the Welsh wilds and produced by bassist Luke Mosse, ‘Katang’, is released on Bella Union/Yep Rock in autumn 2011 with singles in advance.
Everything about “Katang”, from its 50 minutes of freerange rock music to the wonderful fifth-world visual feel conjured up by keyboard player/singer Yoshino Shigihara, emits a weird, kinetic and contagious energy that could only have come from these four individuals coalescing as personalities and players, carving out an intuitive musical lexicon that, whilst far removed from rock’s lingua franca, finds its own way to connect on a direct and universal level. Away from the tribal sprawl of modern music culture and what they call “the realm of ideas”, “Katang” finds Zun Zun zoning in on the heart of the matter.

British Wildlife Stage Times

2012-02-07T18:50:00.000Z

Stage Times
Friday 2nd March | Brudenell Social Club

23.25 - 23.50 DISASTERADIO
22.40 - 23.20 DIVORCE
21.50 - 22.20 ULTIMATE THRUSH
21.00 - 21.30 BAD GUYS
20.00 - 20.30 SUPER LUXURY

19.30 - 00.00 NORMAN RECORD DJS

Sat 3rd March | Brudenell Social Club
23.00 - 00.00 ZUN ZUN EGUI
22.00 - 22.30 BLACKLISTERS
21.00 - 21.35 HOOKWORMS
20.00 - 20.30 COLD PUMAS
18.50 - 19.30 TEETH OF THE SEA
18.00 - 18.30 PSEUDO NIPPON
16.50 - 17.30 THAT FUCKING TANK
15.50 - 16.20 AZORES
15.10 - 15.40 HUMAN HAIR
14.30 - 15.00 SAUNA YOUTH

19.00 - 00.00 RAINBOW ROAD DJS

Sat 3rd March | Royal Park Cellars
22.30 - 23.00 THESE MONSTERS
21.30 - 22.00 CANAYA
20.30 - 21.00 SILENT FRONT
19.30 - 20.00 NITKOWSKI
18.30 - 19.00 YUGOSLAVIAN BOYS
17.30 - 18.00 DOUBLE MUSCLE
16.20 - 16.50 ASHTRAY NAVIGATIONS

Sun 4th March | Oporto
22.30 - 23.00 GUM TAKES TOOTH
21.20 - 22.00 KLAUS KINSKI
20.20 - 20.50 WOODERSON
19.30 - 20.00 BEARFOOT BEWARE
18.40 - 19.10 GALAXIANS
17.40 - 18.10 JUFFAGE
16.50 - 17.20 STRANGER SON
16.00 - 16.30 MAGNAPINNA

+WEKNOWENO DJS

British Wildlife Festival: Nitkowski

2012-01-31T22:06:00.002Z

Nitkowski (London)

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You like walking in bad weather? 'Stay In The Home You Love' is a great accompaniment for that. You get soaked, you get cold, then you get really pissed off at God or Probability or whatever, then eventually you don't care; you're wide awake and king of all that you survey. #What a glorious feeling#. Catharsis. Nitkowski harness the feral math-punk of debut 'Chauffeurs' and take it a step further into deep left-field with more unconventional arrangements and angular discord.
This ambition is tempered by sonic austerity measures that cut right back on effects and processing. It gives the album a physical impact that helps us negotiate its cerebral maze. I can feel strings cutting into fingers, blisters forming, splinters firing off. There are builds and climaxes that undoubtedly rock, but they resist the temptation to stress impact with distortion or overdrive. If there's an angry bit, I sense they just hit their guitars harder and sometimes employ unique sub-bass drops to add force. I'm not talking dubstep or deathcore here, this is more like the sound of a WWII prototype subsonic weapon on a low setting.

In case it wasn't already clear, this is not romantic, nor does it offer fists-to-the-sky drinking anthems. It is indisputably miserable, sometimes unsavoury and cannot be trusted. Touch ► and it blows out jagged shards in various shades of grey that form a Byzantine canopy of desolate beauty in my head. The skittish'Crisp clean sheets and bright bright sunshine' starts in a fitful jazz-out before a bouncy-ball drum break leads into cacophony, with a dislocated hardcore yell relatively low in the mix. Had the lo-fi dictum been only selectively employed, the more conventionally pounding 'You Alone Have Understood Me' is the one track I think would actually have benefitted from being 'beefed up' a little. The tempo and mood constantly shifts; eerie arpeggiated figures unravel, nasty chords spasm, muted strings scratch and scrape in percussive sympathy with the drum clatter. The mournful intro to the closing 'Harbours' builds in gripping fashion, offering the album's most openly emotional access point.
There are rich moments of subtlety that offer melancholic diversion from the anxiety and harshness. Syncopated, minimal picking coalesces with atmospheric horns on 'Strike the Last Flare'; Collar up, it disappears into the grainy distance in a cloud of cigarette smoke before spontaneously combusting in a hail of stripped-down mosh parts. 'Pall Flag for the Bunting Tosser' is like a post-punk interpretation of paranoid Jeff Mills techno counter-rhythms, while “Shut up and Swallow” summons the spirit of Crass andThrobbing Gristle; all tension and texture beneath a snarled manifesto declaring “A new paradigm for justice and order.”

One moment radically troubled and displaced, the next locked into a violent sense of purpose, 'Stay In The Home You Love' necessitates listening commitment. It is hard work; the rewards are plentiful.
Writer: Darren Bibby

British Wildlife Festival: Hookworms

2012-01-31T21:42:00.001Z

Hookworms (Leeds)

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The background: Hookworms are a Leeds band but the new Pigeon Detectives/Kaiser Chiefs they are not. In fact, to prove the point, Julian Cope – less a fan of bumptious indie than freakbeat, psych and krautrock – has been colourfully extolling the virtues of the five-piece's debut EP, calling it "an epic 26 minutes of sub-Zabriskie Point ambient road-movie heat haze-on-the-road sonic wipeout of the post-Loop variety" and praising the "dronehead guitars" which are, he considers, "designed to plateau then rise then plateau then rise, on and on and fucking on". Finally, he decides, they're the shoegazing Lynyrd Skynyrd, which is quite a claim, but what the hell, this is Julian Cope, and this is freakbeat.

Well, the interzone between freakbeat, psych, kosmische, space-rock and whatever the phrase is that neatly captures the atmosphere of a band intent on some serious wigged-out jamming. We don't really get the allusion to shoegaze, although to be fair this stuff is closer to that sort of fx-laden guitar daze action than it is, say, to the laddish neo-Britpop of the Pigeon Detectives. Hookworms, who formed in 2009 and only want to be known by their initials, use two guitars, bass, drums and keyboards/vocal/sequencers to create a series of slow-building wah-wah-scapes that variously reference the psychedelic forays of late-60s London and Los Angeles as well as the krautrock experiments of early-70s Cologne, Dusseldorf and Munich.

More than anything or anyone, they remind us of those late-80s purveyors of garage-infused drone-psych, Loop and Spacemen 3, as well as Pete Kember's Spectrum, Jason Pierce's Spiritualized, and early Verve. Teen Dreams, one of the tracks – and these are tracks, not songs, wild feats of wanton extemporising, even though they are, length-wise, models of concision, coming in as they do at between five and eight minutes – features a motorik pulse, organ shimmer, and declamatory vocals that offer the impression of someone yelping in tongues, a conduit for demented forces. Medicine Cabinet is aptly named because it sounds as though they've been raiding one. I Have Some Business Out West is based on a guitar figure that approximates the filthy rev of a motorbike engine, and Resolution is loose, but with a structure, if that's not a contradiction in terms. We've heard some of their live set from the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds and it is very Spacemen 3/Loop, from that era when nouveau longhair hippie-rockers reclaimed the alternative scene from the clean-cut anti-rockist new pop kids of the early 80s. It's untamed, untrammelled stuff, not "tight", with none of those exigencies for economy or precision. It lasts for 30 minutes although it could have gone on for 30 hours or 30 days: the effect – trippy, immersive – would have been the same. Careful with that axe, EG
- Paul Lester, The Guardian

British Wildlife Festival: Bearfoot Beware

2012-01-31T21:30:00.000Z

Bearfoot Beware (Leeds)
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Bearfoot Beware are a three piece alternative band. Their aim is to produce unpredictable, dynamic music, taking a progressive stance on traditional norms.

FFO: Battles, At The Drive-In, Talking Heads, Foals, Blakfish, Maps and Atlases,

Their newest release ''BASS LANE'' will be available on 01/03/12.

Their newest record, “Tending to the Slim Pickings on the Floor//Stepmother” a 7'' split Limited Edition Vinyl w/ Moody Gowns, will be available on 21/04/12 (Record Store Day).

British Wildlife Festival: Hey Colossus

2012-01-31T18:08:00.002Z

Hey Colossus (London)
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Hey Colossus are, as it stands, 8 'men' from London and Somerset.

Peter Kemp is the best journalist in the country and will take you through their latest record here.

"First song on the second side is called Almeria, Spain but doesn't sound too Spanish it just sounds like noisy electric guitars but that's good. I have been to Spain, I liked it very much because it's nice and hot over there and we saw models made of sand and the beaches were lovely. The next song does sound a bit more Spanish as it starts with a guitar which sounds like a Spanish church bell and a deep voice which sounds like somebody praying and another voice which sounds like somebody dying."