High Places @ Brudenell Social Club

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CHINCHILLA FESTIVAL 8

WEEKEND TICKETS £10
(including Fri 7th with: Marvin Cowtown Spectrals Kogomaza - Tickets usually £5 advance for Friday)

Saturday tickets only £8

Saturday 8TH May -


BILGE PUMP (Leeds) - http://www.myspace.com/bilgepump
Gringo, Troubleman Unlimited, Unlabel, Jonson Family, Obscene Baby Auction, Noisestar, Run of the Mill Records.

Bilge Pump have a disturbing ability to be better than any band they play with. Imagine a boiling-over bastard concoction of all the best bits of The Jesus Lizard, Led Zeppelin, The Fall, Blue Cheer, Funkadelic and King Crimson. A thick broth of art-punk fractured progressive noise, condensed into atonal pop songs free of power chords. Nitro-fuelled avant-jazz rhythms create enough structural form amongst the twisted guitar and off-the-cuff witticisms to provide an uncanny ability to incite dancing! It doesn't matter how wired or weird Bilge Pump get; behind the progressive noise there are clear, distinctive, memorable songs: a rare and winning combination! Formed in Leeds during the murky depths of the mid 90s, it didn't take too long for the NME to churn out their now infamous declaration that Bilge Pump are "unlistenable guff"; so far, so good. It took them 7 years to produce their first album, 'Let Me Breathe', released by Gringo in 2002. It has took another 5 years for their second album to arrive, but in that time they have probably played with, dismayed and blown away all your favourite bands (take your pick from Lightning Bolt, Erase Errata, Part Chimp, Trans Am, The Mars Volta, Hella, Foals, Get Hustle, Les Savy Fav, Enon). They have been involved with bands such as Polaris, Red Monkey, Propulsion Family Picnic, HiM, Snail Racing, Mask, Diesel Versus Steam, Baby Harp Seal, Quack Quack, Enablers. They recorded several John Peel Sessions (in which Peel is chomping at the bit for more - only very rarely did I hear him quite so enthusiastic). Joe makes custom valve amps for the likes of The Fucking Champs. Brian Chippendale from Lightning Bolt admitted he's a one-trick-drum-pony compared to Bilge's Neil Turpin in a Pitchfork interview after they played together in 2006. Bilge Pump will probably make you want to quit playing music, but you'll get over it. They may not have done an interview in a magazine for you to read. But they probably are the best thing you've ever heard, and if you haven't heard them, they probably are the best thing you've never heard, and if you've never heard them, you probably should, and here's your chance! Brace yourselves, lock up the liquor cabinet, and throw logic out the window... Chinchillafest essentially began as a reason to give Bilge Pump a guaranteed good gig, and so, quite rightly, it's Bilge Pump who are comin' atcha to lay rest to the memorable, beautiful, stressful, stupid and happy times we've had over the last 8 years of festivals! Not bad!


HIGH PLACES (New York, USA) - http://www.myspace.com/hellohighplaces
Thrill Jockey, Upset the Rhythm, Mistletone Records

High Places are a less-is-more duo of polyrhythms and densely layered gorgeous harmony, evoking Byrne and Eno tooling around with meta-statements about making music. Except there is no statement to it - no sociology paper waiting to be boringly birthed. High Places lacks a quick and fleeting way to grab a listener, no wink-and-nod gimmick hooks (and that's also a good thing - less is more, you see?). They write about the universe, dinosaurs, birth, psychedelic floods and doom clouds, but their lack of pretence is very much a very good thing indeed. Simultaneously intimate and all-encompassing digital and natural dancefloor soundscapes that are voluminous and frilly, like swimming through oceans of lace or walking in the woods with twigs crunching under foot and chirps overhead. High Places use pre-recorded tracks, live percussion and processing to recreate their sound, successfully evolving the somewhat sticky ground of making sequenced music work in a live environment. One of the few internet hype bands to out-live the hype through constant improvement, High Places are total music for the existential dance party. Carribbean!


ZUN ZUN EGUI (Mauritius, UK, Japan, France) - http://www.myspace.com/zunzunegui

Undoubtably fresh faced from their American tour leading to appearances at SXSW, Zun Zun Egui wrap up their year of hefty touring with Chinchillafest fun! The loosely-based Bristol outfit make a sound that should be impossible to conjure with four people, two guitars, keys and drums. Immense, everywhere, crystalline and personal so that it doesn't just spin off into the ether, though it teasingly threatens to. Big clean rhythmic blocks of post punk guitar, Malian jangle sprint and crushing volleys of bouncy castle metal swallowed up by swirling, mind-bending psychedelia. The answers to universal secrets tripping over themselves. The peachy, keenest elements of traditional devotional musics and a high regard for contextual fidelity. A hypnotic global blare-out sound that is making a joyful noise, on the corner, off it's head and a blast. This is "tropicalism" but with a influence of subterranean shaped rock edges and quick edits, Japanese progressive epicness and a heavy dose of Fela Kuti inspired eternal groove. East African guitar hotwired to Zappa like subversions, underpinned by a thumping rhythm section... sounds hot! This is where the wild music lives on! Political, inspirational and... dance...


QUACK QUACK (Leeds) - http://www.myspace.com/thisisquackquack
Run Of The Mill Records

Quack Quack have been around for a fair few years now, touring the country with the likes of Pit Er Pat (Thrill Jockey), Polar Bear and Fulborn Teversham, two hungrily received releases in the form of a 7" and EP, and soon cause to celebrate the long, long, long awaited album! On the surface, Leeds trio Quack Quack seem to exist in some animated part-prog, part-post-rock indie hinterland, but closer inspection reveals a tight-knit instrumental trio who, in absorbing and acknowledging everything from dub, jazz, funk, and electronic music, subvert all tidy enclosures of prog-this or post-that. Keyboardist/drummer Richard Morris (also of Two Minute Noodles and CHOPS), bass player Stuart Bannister, and veteran drummer Neil Turpin (also of Bilge Pump, Polaris, Snail Racing, HiM, Enablers, etc) are the core unit of players/engineers whose music - typified by chirpy synth, droning rumbles of bass and a keen sense of groove -- explores dynamics and refined interplay with a ceaseless, sprightly invention. The trio build upon a series of deceptively-simple ideas and offer intuitive responses, their individual contributions often subverting and off-setting (though never overwhelming) each other. And yet, their experiments are far more playful than studious, always respectful to the core elements of rhythm and sound while investing the whole instrumental (albeit guitar-less) "rock" shebang with a rare sense of fun!


CISSY (Leeds) - http://www.myspace.com/cissysound

Cellars. Unreliable electrics. Polyrhythms on Ludwig drums. Bleep Bloop midi talk and mikroKORG arppegiator. Angular guitar, sometimes fucked up on purpose. The bass guitar is in your stomach and feels FUNKY. Cissy includes people who also currently play, or have played, in The Dragon Rapide, Tigers!, The Lapse, Origami, Hey Little Cobra!, Factotum and Beards. Cissy has played with some other ace bands, such as James Chance et Les Contortions, Cryptacize, Cowtown, Das Boton, Fulborn Teversham, Origami, 7 Hertz, The Violets, Experimental Dental School, Team Gina, etc. Cissy is the sound of the East & the West, BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Synthpunk, Postpunk, NoWave, Donuts, Coffee, Amphetamines, Cats & Dogs, The 1970s, The 1980s, Colours, Sounds, Peoples, Fela Kuti, Kraut Rock, Electro, Kisses, Jumping, Dancing, Fun and Zombie flick obsession.


CHEN SANTA MARIA (Oakland, USA) - http://www.myspace.com/chensantamaria
Zum, gssd, Shit On Records

Formed in the winter of 2005 when the two solo acts (Megaweapon and Fun Santa Maria) of Oakland duo Chen Santa Maria were thrust together on a West Coast tour. An ever fluctuating instrumentation and dedication to computer-free improvising has been the only consistent factor since inception. Buffalo native Steven Santa Maria has made copious CDR noise releases under the names Fun Santa Maria and collaborated with Randy Lee Sutherland in Jah No Dead. George Chen has played in the bands KIT (who you might have seen play with their friends Deerhoof at The Irish Centre a few years ago), 7 Year Rabbit Cycle, Boxleitner, Vholtz, Grey Daturas (as touring bassist), Must Have No Magic, and Common Eider King Eider. Having shared stages with Yellow Swans, UsaIsAMonster, Hair Police, Sic Alps, YACHT (etc) at home in the States, Chen Santa Maria make their first journey to European shores.

A MIDDLE SEX (Manchester) - http://www.myspace.com/amiddlesex
Carnivals, Blackest Rainbow, Slightly Off Kilter Records
Triumphantly returning after pouring treacle into the ventricles of Chinchillafest 2009! Swirling loops of drone and wailing feedback act as a canvas for layered tribal drums, cattered vocal chants and some sinister guitar wailings of the best kind. Consistent and valiant efforts to cover all bases, wandering from rapturous outpourings of sound and rhythm to static drones, drifting ambience and 'almost' pop friendly bliss. Comparable to the Boredoms, Black Eyes and (to an extent) Liquid Liquid for their ability to successfully merge uplifting ambience with thunderous assaults of rhythm. Awesome!

EUROPEAN SPIRITS (Leeds)
The prototype launch of an expansive and massive, borderless universe collided through laser-cut DRUMS, Library explorations of Pure-Tone Analog Frequency, focussed phase and pulsating patterns of inverted disco phrasing. Endlessness never seemed so warm and inviting; a celebration of life compressed into gems, simultaneously gloriously precious, fragile, solid and strong; minimalist landscapes of refracted gasses cruising the interstellar waves of time-shattering atmoic explosions. A social experiment of friendship and communication, riding high on the vibrant cultures created by such seemingly empowered yet realistically inconsequential conscious life. Eyes and minds wandering the stars, hearts grounded on a terrorised planet of deep geological foundations, protected by the magnetic shield of dense molten iron, lost in the cosmic mist of astronomical proportions. At home near the sparkling springs of the freshest cool bubbling waters of the hydrological cycle, Fire-Wired footage of alien beaches of paradise; irresistably exotic, unrealistically distant; but worth celebrating nonetheless. Brand new offerings from the creators of current and past musics of Cowtown, CHOPS, 2010, Inecto School, EYE HAI, Tigers!, Brown Owl, The Dragon Rapide, Double Six Flight Team, etc.

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