Wharf Chambers, Leeds – Stay Assessment

Heinous Whining Presents:
Evicshen | Territorial Gobbing | Lyn Vegas | Error Management
Wharf Chambers, Leeds
thirteenth November 2024

In a daily evening of gigs – typically on the progressive cultural hub of Wharf Chambers – former Thank member (and Territorial Gobbing) Theo Gowans introduces audiences to a miasma of eclectic ambient, noise, minimalist, and different experimental acts. This version revolved across the first two genres, comprising daring and provocative genres of aural depravity.

Wild. Spontaneous. Unhinged. These are only a few key phrases from the quick however sickeningly candy Error Management, lasting an ideal period of round twenty minutes (given the wickedly torturous but cathartic high-frequencies and stuttering oscillations). Blindfolded all through, the evident disorientation added to the unpredictability; a lot in order that the strains between intentional and unintentional weren’t simply blurred however disintegrated. This was particularly notable when it was making an attempt to inform whether or not the change from tabletop to ground efficiency was deliberate, the leather-clad artist ably assisted in reducing the gear to the ground. The scenes of panic solely added volatility to proceedings, nevertheless, exhibited by a shout of “it’s more durable than it seems when you possibly can’t see…the place’s the mixer?” The frantic pacing to seek out the right pedal or button, in addition to the second the place toes have been used as a substitute of palms, had equally hysterical and piercing outcomes.

The abominably heavy set was principally a tidal, screaming, and sputtering Merzbow squall, however different genres arose: a quick, arousing blast of psychedelic rock squeezed by; melodic gabber was birthed from the noise chrysalis. It was shortly subsumed by the hellish wormhole that beforehand commanded the set.

Lyn Vegas cut up the set into three equally mesmerising phases. Starting with sample-heavy noise, intoning in a Northern accent, and utilizing screeching swampiness near the earlier act, hymnal keyboards and throbbing bass then reigned, bridging a spot between melancholic and foreboding tones; lastly, darkish and mildly glitchy ambient entered the fray. 

The primary of those levels was ominous, carried out by the way in which the electronics submerged the samples, which got here to the floor solely when the squall subsided. This was in sharp distinction to the second half, probably the most euphonic second of the evening, gliding by elegiac, church organ-style keys and IDM bass. The variation and drone depth ensured your entire efficiency was mesmerising. 

The ultimate section was much more lachrymal, prioritising synths stained with Aphex Twin’s most melodic and emotive work. The set ended with one other pattern in an identical Northern accent – a real illustration of the artist’s deft gauge of discordant and mellifluous tones.

Territorial Gobbing is the prolific dadaist digital noise mission of Theo Gowans, the character behind the Heinous Whining Nights. His set started with a collection of cassettes rapidly inserted into two piled-up tape machines, issuing discombobulating, heady, hazy noise. Odd bits of melody popped out – however your entire factor was a demonic set from the college of Nurse With Wound, an expressway of pattern and synth-heavy improvised glory.

It appeared fully spontaneous, exhibited by him wandering off from the desk early on. Because the queasy synths and pedals whirred, bellowed, and commenced unusual rhythms, his music additionally hardly ever stayed in a single place for lengthy, maybe a window into his freewheeling thoughts. A service bag of tapes was ransacked continuously, trying to find a particular sonic collage, the wild abandon manifesting in mentioned tapes being strewn everywhere in the ground and attendees. Future digital wizards may have been germinated right here, had they collected them. The cassettes have been additionally spat out in fury, foreshadowing the spitting of a vocal delay machine which introduced unusually beguiling gurgles into the already sci-fi-ish environment.

Among the many sounds aboard this Digital Specific have been a number of moos and a handful of pigeon coos, exemplifying its once-in-a-lifetime side; one other efficiency would seemingly characteristic barely any of tonight’s components.

Later, accordion-style wheezes blared round digital squawks and vocal wailing, after the delay’s twine was eliminated resulting from frenzied actions. Gowans, beer in hand, retained a coolness all through, even whereas howling on the moon. He additionally adjusted the whale-song-type electronics with a service bag in hand, coming throughout as a model of Mark E Smith had he developed a penchant for bizarre noise acts. Samples have been additionally performed by way of his cellphone, introducing an enigmatic but private tone, and a uncommon trace of melancholy.

The aforementioned darkish ambient overlords apart, there are few different names to liken this excessive artist to, just because Territorial Gobbing is incomparable. Identical to the remainder of the set, vaguely just like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop tackling a Physician Who episode directed by David Lynch, the ultimate section confirmed this gorgeous hefty assertion. Torch firmly in mouth, beeps proceeded on a loop, adopted by stumbled manoeuvres at midnight (no orchestras right here, although) – fading out on more and more quiet and raspy breaths, producing each giggles and applause.

If the opening act was remotely Merzbow-like, Evicshen was totally drenched within the offshoots of the influential drone artist. It will be unjust and inaccurate, nevertheless, to say that Evicshen – the moniker of San Francisco avant-garde noise artist Victoria Shen – was something however exemplary in her distinctive, transcendent model. This utilized each sonically and visually; the vinyl scratching bedlam that started the set was accompanied by stylus needles connected to her fingernails. 

This methodology, the revolving information have been each brandished and bitten towards the needles, was simply one-way Evischen obliterated preconceptions of noise-making. Different objects included: a violin bow, a horn and a whip. Virtually no object was off-limits – even the desk her tools rested on was shoved to provide judders within the affecting digital fog. Extra tabletop acrobatics ensued when the noisenik clambered onto the desk, prompting a rumbling bass thrum akin to Sunn O)))’s primordial purr.

Shen’s wriggling bodily frenzies grew to become a becoming mirror to the summary sounds from a coil protruding from her mouth, contorting the ragged patterns like a butcher tenderizing meat. Evicshen was simply as a lot of a destroyer of audience-artist obstacles as Territorial Gobbing, persevering with these sermons to the mesmerized crowds at ground degree. This concerned quickly swapping the vinyl by way of percussive slabs of steaming scorching aural gore, earlier than attaching a sequence to her boot and elasticating it with a violin bow in rhythmic, elongated strokes. The approach grew to become barely extra standard however retained the noise edges for a gripping impact, the observer unable to detach their gaze. A horn was utilised with the barking information, touchdown someplace within the area of The Contortions or modern-day avant-jazzers O., enhancing the discordant cacophony at its core. 

Lastly, the viewers have been instructed to duck, staring in surprise on the remaining trick: a snaking whip that, with its silencing spine-crack, was simply as surprising because the earlier occasions.

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Future Heinous Whining nights could be discovered right here:

All images by James A Mumby.

Assessment by James Kilkenny. Learn extra of his Louder Than Struggle Articles right here.