AUDIOSCOPE16 lineup announcement

We are thrilled to unveil the lineup for this year’s Audioscope show, which takes place on the evening of Friday 4 November at The Bullingdon, Oxford.

As ever, this show is unmissable for anyone who likes their music alternative, forward-thinking and just a little bit different.

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Nøught

Featuring Thurston Moore’s guitarist and erstwhile Oxford legend James Sedwards, Nøught are one of the most incredible live bands you will ever witness. Hardcore, jazz, math-rock and pretty much everything else blended together into a seamless, uncompromising display of musicianship, intensity and imagination.

This show means a lot to us, as Nøught performed at our second festival way back in 2002, and it’s a pleasure to bring them back to Oxford for a very rare performance.

“There’s something exhilarating about hearing music that refuses to yield to simplicity yet maintains an absolute vision of where it’s going, pulling the listener along in its wake.” – Julian Cope

“The first person who’s not a footballer that I’ve been jealous of.” – John Peel on guitarist James Sedwards

Tomaga

Fresh from rave reviews for the release of new album The Shape of the Dance, Tomaga – comprising half of The Oscillation – make music like no one else. Freeform, gliding synths and scattering percussion, one moment propulsive and direct, and the next abstract and discursive, it’s never less than compelling.

“Lysergically loose and adroit psych explorations… a strange beauty” – Boomkat

“Searching for the right words to describe Tomaga’s music isn’t particularly easy.” – The Quietus

Ben Duvall (Ex-Easter Island Head)

An extremely rare opportunity to witness a new piece from Ex-Easter Island Head mainman Ben Duvall designed for prepared guitars, FM radio and vibration speakers.

Rhys Chatham’s “Guitar Trio” presented by The Oxford Guitar Orchestra

A unique, one-off live experience for tonight only. A hand-picked lineup of Oxford musicians will perform Rhys Chatham’s legendary no-wave guitar piece “Guitar Trio”.

Written in 1977 and a defining point in Chatham’s career as one of the pivotal figures in avant-garde music, “Guitar Trio” went on to become one of the most enduring works in the composer’s catalogue, droning through a single chord, it’s the ultimate statement in punk minimalism.

The lineup will be a band formed for the occasion made up of figures from Oxford’s diverse local music scene – lineup to be announced soon.

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As you’ll see, the other news is that there is no all-day Audioscope festival this year. This is our Audioscope 2016 event – so please buy a ticket enjoy the music and help us raise money for Shelter!

AUDIOSCOPE15 lineup announced – Plaid, Gazelle Twin and more!

When we started out in 2001 with the idea to fill one day with as much amazing music as we could find, we didn’t even know there’d be a second edition, let alone that we’d be celebrating our our FIFTEENTH birthday. 

And here we are, ready to announce the lineup for AUDIOSCOPE15.

The show will be headlined by electronica legends Plaid, while The Quietus’ Album of the Year 2014 Gazelle Twin will be performing this intimate show for us just days before her headline date at the Barbican.

At the noisier end of the lineup, we have a rare show from the UK’s loudest band Part Chimp (who plaid the loudest AUDIOSCOPE show in our history at our warmup show in 2004), prog-kraut veterans Guapo, the hypnotic grooves of Kogumaza (with three-times AUDIOSCOPE veteran guitarist Chris Summerlin) and necro-psych Londoners Taman Shud.

We’re delighted to bring back Thrill Jockey’s latest signing Dave Heumannwho will be performing as part of his debut European solo tour with members of Trembling Bells and his former band Arbouretum (one of the stars of AUDIOSCOPE in 2012). We’re also pleased to have Demian Castellanos of long-standing favourites The Oscillation, who will present his solo work blending Indian ragas with enveloping electronic drones and pulses.

On a break from new work in the studio, Manchester-based ambient innovators Marconi Union – authors of ‘the world’s most relaxing song’ with the British Academy of Sound Therapy – will perform an exclusive improvised set just for us.

One of the hottest new local prospects on the block, Oxford’s Kone promise ‘art music for guitars’, and deliver on the idea that pop music can both move the heart and stimulate the brain.

 

Since 2001, more than 200 artists from across the UK and beyond have supported Audioscope, raising almost £29,000 for Shelter.

Audioscope 2015 takes place at The Bullingdon, Cowley Road, Oxford on 21 November 2015. Tickets are available now for £15 in advance from www.wegottickets.com/audioscope.

AS15

 

 

Earthling Society added to Audioscope14 lineup

If the glorious lineup for this year’s festival wasn’t enough, we’ve added the fantastic Earthling Society – one of the most ambitious and exploratory bands out there reaching for the limits of guitar noise, tracing a line from the krautrock of Ash Ra Tempel to the head-nodding hypnotism of Wooden Shjips. They’ve played with Julian Cope, Damo Suzuki, White Hills and Hawkwind and take elements of each of those acts, weaving in elements of raga and jazz to create something entirely their own. Their extraordinary version of Alice Coltrane’s classic ‘Journey in Satchindananda’ achieves lift-off to another planet entirely.

So the full lineup for Audioscope14 is:

  • Public Service Broadcasting
  • Silver Apples
  • Matt Elliott (Third Eye Foundation)
  • Wrangler (Cabaret Voltaire/Benge/Tunng)
  • Earthling Society
  • The Doomed Bird Of Providence
  • You Are Wolf
  • Circle Traps
  • The Neon Violets
  • Kid Kin

We strongly recommend getting your ticket sooner rather than later as the show is proving very popular (of course!). Tickets are available from We Got Tickets.

We’ve also put together a playlist for Q Magazine if you want to listen to some of the bands and get excited!

 

AUDIOSCOPE14 lineup announced – Public Service Broadcasting, Silver Apples and more!

After months of working behind the scenes, the time has come to announce the lineup for the fourteenth Audioscope festival!

We are very proud to have the amazing electro-archivists Public Service Broadcasting as headliners, following electronica legends Silver Apples, one of the most influential electronic artists of the past sixty years.

But the surprises on this year’s bill don’t stop here. We will also have Wrangler, the exciting new band from members of Cabaret Voltaire, Benge and Tunng; breakbeats, noise and folk all in the same set from Third Eye Foundation’s Matt Elliott and experimental shoegazers The Telescopes (who played Audioscope 10 years ago and ended up drilling a guitar on stage!). There will also be cutting-edge electronica from Circle Traps, dark tales of Australian history from The Doomed Bird of Providence and extraordinary multi-layered vocal gymnastics from You Are Wolf. In addition, The Neon Violets and Kid Kin, two of Oxford’s most thrilling discoveries, will bring their lysergic psych-rock and crystalline electronics to the stage.

The festival takes place at The Jericho in Oxford on Saturday 8 November. Tickets are available now for £15 in advance from www.wegottickets.com/audioscope and as usual, all profits go to support Shelter’s vital work and campaigning.

With your help and support, we’ve raised more than £27,000 for Shelter so far. Since 2001 we’ve brought leftfield and alternative musical artists to Oxford – Four Tet, Wire, Explosions in the Sky, Damo Suzuki (Can), Clinic, Michael Rother (Neu!), Grumbling Fur and Deerhoof are just some of of the names. We are very excited about this year’s lineup, and we hope you are too!

The full lineup is:

Public Service Broadcasting

Silver Apples

Matt Elliott (Third Eye Foundation, Flying Saucer Attack)

The Telescopes

Wrangler (Cabaret Voltaire/Benge/Tunng)

You Are Wolf

Circle Traps

The Doomed Bird of Providence

Kid Kin

The Neon Violets