ISSUE and Pioneer Works present a FREE outdoor party of experimental electronics and noise in Red Hook headlined by the Kentucky-based psychedelic noise trio Hair Police. This all-day event features “Scumbag Electronics” from Chris Goudreau AKA SICKNESS, the electronic noise/punk band White Suns, Boston-based five-piece noise/punk ensemble Guerilla Toss, noise composer Bob Bellerue, and the muscular saxophonist Tamio Shiraishi with Cammisa Buerhaus on a Soviet synthesizer.
Doors open at 2pm, performances run from 3pm-8pm.
Pioneer Works will be grilling BBQ all day.
A free ferry from Manhattan to Red Hook stops a short walk from the venue.
Working with traditional rock instrumentation as well as electronics, tape manipulation, and oscillators, Hair Police builds demonic walls of sound for a result reminiscent of Throbbing Gristle, early Black Dice, and Wolf Eyes. Hair Police formed in Lexington, KY, in January of 2001. The original lineup included Matt Minter and Ross Compton, but the group soon settled on Mike Connelly (guitar, vocals, tapes, noise), Robert Beatty (electronics), and Trevor Tremaine (drums, vocals, tapes). "Mercurial Rites", released earlier this year on Type Records, is the trio’s first proper full-length since 2008. This is unsettling, punishing sound that revels in its own abstraction, yet every clank is so meticulously placed, every screech of feedback so pointed that at times you forget the layers of distortion and fog altogether. We’re simply left with sparse vignettes of darkness, and in the empty silence in-between the blasts of synthesizer or white noise there’s more horror than you could possibly imagine.
Chris Goudreau’s musical activities started out as an experimental tape loop project around 1986-88. Disillusioned with the music projects he was involved with, Goudreau began to experiment with tapes, homemade pedals, and feedback in this solo effort. With the release of several limited tapes on his self-run label, Ninth Circle Music, Goudreau’s project SICKNESS grew from a hobby to a fully realized solo sound effort. Evolution in sound and approach is key for Goudreau as the muddy homemade tape loops gave way, pedal chains, custom electronics and sheet metal and then to the quick, cut-up, blasted and varied heavy electronics of current full modular synth setup and laptop. Goudreau has been bringing his dissonant but composed brand of “Harsh Electronic Purity” and “Scumbag Electronics” through each phase even if it’s kicking and screaming. Over 25 years later Goudreau has toured extensively in Europe and Japan, played with tons of bands, been included in festivals from Beyond Music to No Fun Fest, and had releases on labels from RRR and Self Abuse to Hospital and Freak Animal. Starting to expand work under his own name, Goudreau continues to explore and expand what is expected of his work.
White Suns explore the intersection of electronics-based noise and punk rock. The formal freedom of the former and the physicality of the latter are both radically employed in their music. Their soundscapes are a barrage of cannibalized electronics, abused guitars, and effects-laden drums. Kevin Barry, Dana Matthiessen, and Rick Visser have been honing their craft in New York since 2006. The band has released albums on Load Records and Weasel Walter's UgExplode label while extensively touring the U.S.
A brilliant band of lunatics out of Boston, Guerilla Toss is a five-piece ensemble that mixes noise, improvisation, complex composition and song forms with a punk rock aesthetic that verges on madness. Known for their intense live shows, they have garnered a cult following in the underground rock scene. Their eponymous CD on Tzadik (2013) captures all the intensity, control and insanity of their spectacular live performances. A fabulous ride to Bedlam on a new musical express train, this is extreme and absolutely essential for anyone interested in the outer edges of creativity!
Founding member of the legendary noise unit Fushitsusha, saxophonist Tamio Shiraishi has had a storied career performing alongside some of the most significant contemporary musicians. In USA, he has performed with Crash Worship, No Neck Blues Band and many more. He currently performs in subway stations after midnight. Cammisa Buerhaus is a sound artist and sculptor whose work is rooted in embodied action, and utilizes sculpture to explore the body in space. She is known for her Chroma Color Organ, a custom made wooden pipe organ that she built herself. Tonight she plays a Soviet synthesizer.
Bob Bellerue is a noise composer and experimental musician based in Bushwick NY. For more than twenty years he has been involved in a wide range of creative activities; beginning with drum circles and junk metal jams, moving into soundtracks and studio experimentation, then live electronic music and sound installation. He performs regularly as a solo artist, in KILT (with Raven Chacon and Sandor Finta), and in collaboration with various artists in erratic amounts (Z'EV, Telecult Powers/Mister Matthews, Francisco Meirino, and Circuit Wound among others). Bellerue's work has been presented by the Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival, Centre de Cultura Contemporanea de Barcelona, New Genre Festival, CEAIT Festival, ISSUE Project Room, SASSAS, Diapason Sound Gallery, Roulette, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver Noise Festival, Olympia Experimental Music Festival, PDX Noise Festival, Radio Epsilonia (Paris), WFMU, WKCR, WNYC, KFJC, KXLU, East Village Radio, Stanford University, Oberlin College, The New School, UCSD, and UCLA.
