Stand by for Supersonic

This year sees the return of some of the most popular names from previous festivals, in particular BATTLES, the then unheard of surprise hit of 2005's festival who make a triumphant return, and in the grand tradition of Supersonic, a cult underground band playing their first ever show on European soil.

This year the honour goes to HARVEY MILK, Athens, Georgia's seismic sludge titans.

A truly International affair, also already confirmed to appear are: EFTERKLANG, HARMONIA, NOXAGT, EARTH, WOODEN SHJIPS, THRONES, OXBOW, JUSTICE YELDMAN, DALEK, ORTHODOX, BLACK SUN, THE OWL SERVICE, MAX TUNDRA, MAGNETAPHONE, PCM, EINSTELLUNG and GUAPO. With many more acts to announce for over the weekend, stay tuned for more news as I get it.

Tickets go on sale Mid March from http://www.ticketweb.co.uk.

Here's the lowdown on this year's acts:

Battles:
New York four piece Battles comprise of Ian Williams (Don Caballero), John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk), Dave Konopka (Lynx) and Tyondai Braxton (Prefuse 73 collaborator and notorious avant-jazz solo musician) Battles have created a genre of their own...

Harvey Milk:
Too heavy to be post rock. Too weird to be metal. Too everything to be anything, Harvey Milk are unconventional and wholly unique, both structurally and sonically. Harvey Milk crafted inconceivable slabs of mesmerizing, ultra dynamic sludge, as well as precious moments of effortless grace and restraint. The Singles delivers all the hard to find moments of their career and is at once hypnotic, repetitive, jarring, unpredictable, exhausting and perplexing.

Harmonia:
Comprising of three of Germany's experimental music heavyweights, Michael Rother, Dieter Moebius and Hans-Joachim Roedelius - all of whom played in the stars of Krautrock namely Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster. The group was only together for three years (1973-76) and produced two albums; amazingly their sound is as experimental as it must have been 33 years ago.

Earth:
Earth are an American drone band based in Seattle, Washington, formed in 1990 by Dylan Carlson, Slim Moon, and Greg Babior; the band took its name from the first incarnation of Black Sabbath. Although they have played various styles of music, they are best known as pioneers of a minimalist, long and repetitive form of heavy music known as drone. To a lesser extent their sound is referred to as doom metal. Earth, however, have little to do with metal in their current sound. Their early albums could be seen as a variation of the experimental doom-influenced metal of The Melvins.

Wooden Shjips:
"More of what we love, a relentless, never-ending blown out fuzzy groove, all warm whirring organ, fuzz guitar, and throbbing bass, the drums a super solid motorik framework, the vocals sort of sung / spoken, reverb and delay everywhere, the strangest addition is the haunting horns on the A side, that drift and moan ghost like over the fuzz jam below. One song spread out over two sides, by side 2, the band have locked it in and sound like they are never gonna stop. A looped cyclical minimal fuzzrock jam that sounds almost like some crazy crossbreeding of the Doors and Spacemen 3, which should appeal to Circle, Salvatore and Magyar Posse fans as much as all the druggy psychrock dronesters out there." -Aquarius Records

Efterklang:
Ten-piece Danish ensemble Efterklang, a band whose name translates literally to "after-noise" but more loosely to "reverberation" or "remembrance." All of these translations are in one way or another appropriate descriptors for the wondrous music created by the group, which settles beautifully into an open area somewhere between the elegant minimalist orchestrations of Max Richter, the electronically-enhanced chamber music of Rachel's albums like Systems/Layers, and the more contemplative moments of Godspeed! You Black Emperor.
The most obvious characteristic that separates Efterklang from these other artists is their extensive use of vocals to augment their spacious orchestral sound. The band are signed to the British The Leaf Label

Noxagt:
Dangerous dirge blasts out of the tail pipe of Norway's ghost rider band Noxagt, their viola player replaced by Anders Hana (of Ultralyd and Moha!) on spring-loaded guitar.

Thrones:
What can you say about Mr. Joe Preston? Legend. If you have listened to any music that is considered heavy in the last 15 years then you have heard Joe howl, previous outfits include Melvins, Whip, Earth, Sunn o))) and High On Fire, but none of them could prepare you for the stench that is Thrones. The sound is intense, mixing heavily distorted vocals, bass heavier than any before it, ridiculously mucked up, raw programmed drums, samples and keyboards. In lesser hands this would be a disaster but Preston is the sum of his parts, verging from a din inducing sludge racket to beautiful lulls of quiet sweetness, weird and wonderful, this rare UK performance promises to be very special indeed.

Oxbow:
The provocative San Francisco-based quartet Oxbow formed in the late '80s around vocalist Eugene Robinson, guitarist Niko Wenner, bassist Dan Adams and drummer Greg Davis. Combining the squall of bands like the Birthday Party with elements of free jazz and musique concrète, the group debuted in 1990. Last year's Supersonic festival saw a very special performance with the Oxbow Duo and friends (Stephen O'Malley, Justin Broadrick, Dave Cochrane and Chipper), this year the whole band return to both scare and delight.

Justice Yeldman:
What's been described as "a trumpet player trapped in a two dimensional universe" is the unique work of Justice Yeldham who has an obsession with using sheets of broken glass as his musical instrument.
He become enamored with the sonic possibilities of glass during a sound-check in 2003 and has been having a love affair with the material ever since. Amplifying the sheets using a high end transducer
designed for grand pianos, he presses his face against the surface whist employing various vocal techniques ranging from throat singing to raspberries. Helped along with the addition of various signal
processors to create a wild variety of noises that are surprisingly controlled and oddly musical.

Dalek:
Dalek has rightfully gained iconic status as one of the finest alt-hip hop bands of our time. Until recently resolutely "underground", Dalek methodically undermines every idiom perpetuated by mainstream rap, choosing instead to blend assaulting hypnotic rhymes with a corrosively atmospheric, electronica-infected hard rock sensibility. The duo effortlessly embrace genres from hip hop to jazz, from jazz to metal, from metal to punk, from punk to noisecore, from noisecore to hiphop.

Orthodox:
Orthodox hail from Seville in Spain, their musical influences (Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Melvins, Earth, Sleep) get mixed with their peculiar perception of the south-Spanish religious folklore. The result is a lethargic music with obsessive repetitions, minimalism, feedback, distortion and endless drones creating a primitive trance-inducing atmosphere.

Black Sun:
Black Sun was formed in Glasgow by Russell McEwan as a solo, sample-based project inspired by Scorn at the end of his involvement with 'krautrock experimenters' Macrocosmica. Shortly after followed the recruitment of guitarist Kevin Hare, the line-up solidified with the addition of bass guitarist Graeme Leggate.

The Owl Service:
The Owl Service formed through a mutual love of British films and television of the 1960s and 70s, the great outdoors and {of course} the sound of the English folk revival. No retro obsessives, The Owl Service simply believe that music production peaked around 1969 and they merely seek to perfectly encapsulate the influence of the greatest albums and artists of that time. Beautiful music, simply arranged, exquisitely executed and captured on tape with authentic warmth - prepare to be enchanted by The Owl Service.

Max Tundra:
Ben Jacobs aka Max Tundra was lucky enough to grow up in a house with a piano. As a child he protested about the lessons in which he was forced to learn the music of the famous (dead) composers. "I used to prefer sitting at the keyboard at home and playing TV theme songs and music from adverts", remembers Ben. Eventually he realised that this expanse of black and white keys could be turned to his own advantage and he began forming his own musical inventions. His work has been described as "Intriguingly bonkers", and "Ludicrously enjoyable".

Einstellung:
Featuring former members of Godflesh, Sally and Kat Bjelland's Katastrophy Wife among their number, Einstellung make incredible music that combines the motorik rhythms and sensibilities of Krautrock with the primal riffing more readily associated with their hometown of Birmingham through the likes of Sabbath. It's the sound of Lemmy jamming with Neu! on a hot day in hell.

Guapo:
Guapo is a force of nature; an infinitely expanding climax, a controlled catastrophe, a sun forged in sound. It can be shaped, controlled, even tamed; but the strain of trying to contain it is etched into the contorted faces and flailing limbs of those brave and foolish men who take it upon themselves to do so.
Exposed to Guapo in a confined space, members of an audience will tend to do one of two things. Some will immediately seek the nearest exit, while those left behind turn to face the music, transfixed like prey engulfed in a tiger's roar.