Institute of Contemporary Arts

The Experiment: July 2008

There's a distinctly Californian vibe for the Experiment in July. The Los Angeles based duo known as Alien Soundtracks offer up a future vision of dystopian sounds. Then from the outskirts of L.A we have the tribal drumming and explosive dynamics of Foot Village, a group whose national language is drumming and national pastime is screaming.

Bobby Brown (not to be confused with the well know R'n'B star of the same name) was a frequent traveller along the Californian coast in the 70s performing his one man band from beach to beach. A track taken from his lost psychedelic gem The Enlightening Beam of Axonda reissued on Italy's Akarma records is sure to conjure up memories of summers past.

This month we are also featuring the labels Death Bomb Arc and London-based Kaleidoscope records. Death Bomb offers up the controlled chaos of Yuma Nora and the colliding drones of Tres Quatro, as well as the aforementioned Foot Village. Kaleidoscope gives us the warbled folk-in-reverse of Champange Diamond/The Brilliant Light, the concrete-tinged live electronics of Roj Stevens and another taste of California via the beautiful voice of Jocelyn Noir, who records as Alas Alak Alaska.

Finally, we have the mesmerising and unusual voices of Phil Minton and Lichens. Phil provides us with a few feral blasts of his free form vocal improvisations from his latest solo outing No Doughnuts In Hand, whilst Lichens brings a track of pastoral beauty and delicate piano into the mix courtesy of the good folks at Kranky records.

Enjoy!

The Experiment is a monthly podcast commissioned by the ICA and presented and produced by Kevin Quigley and Jim Hammond.

www.myspace.com/aliensoundtracks
www.philminton.co.uk/
www.kranky.net/artists/lichens.html
www.myspace.com/footvillage
yumanora.gq.nu/
www.myspace.com/Deathbomb
www.k-is-for-kaleidoscope.com
www.myspace.com/alasalakalaska
www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomeclipse
www.myspace.com/cdtbl
www.myspace.com/tresquatro

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