SPK were an Australian industrial music and noise music group formed in 1978. They were fronted by mainstay member, Graeme Revell on keyboards and percussion. In 1980 the group travelled to the United Kingdom where they issued their debut album, Information Overload Unit. In 1983 Sinan Leong joined on lead vocals. The group disbanded in 1988. Two years later Revell and Leong relocated to the United States, where Revell works as a Hollywood film score composer. According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane, SPK were "at the forefront of the local post-punk, electronic/experimental movement of the late 1970s ... [their] music progressed from discordant, industrial-strength metal noise to sophisticated and restrained dance-rock with strange attributes".
Choking Victim was an American punk band formed in New York City, which lasted from 1992 to 1998. They played a mix of hardcore punk and ska. Following the breakup of the band, which occurred the same day as the recording of their only studio album No Gods, No Managers, members went on to form Leftöver Crack and INDK, among others.
Richard Youngs is an English musician based in Glasgow since the early 1990s. His catalogue of solo and collaborative work formally begins with Advent, first issued in 1990. He plays many instruments, most commonly choosing the guitar, but he has been known to use other instruments including the shakuhachi, accordion, theremin, dulcimer, a home-made synthesizer and even a motorway bridge. He also released an album which was entirely a cappella.
The Undead is an American horror punk band formed in 1980 in New York City's East Village by Bobby Steele, Chris "Jack" Natz (bass) and Patrick Blanck (drums). They were one of the pioneers in the New York hardcore scene.
Ashtray Navigations is an English experimental music group centred upon Phil Todd and active since 1991. Colloquially referred to as "Ash Nav", the group operates out of Todd's home in Stoke-on-Trent, from which he also ran the record labels Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers and, subsequently, Memoirs of an Aesthete. The project has also released music through labels such as Siltbreeze, Jewelled Antler, American Tapes, Fargone Records, Menlo Park, E.F. Tapes and Freedom From.
Alex Neilson is an English drummer, percussionist and singer who is based in Glasgow but grew up in Leeds. He is a founding member and main songwriter of folk-rock group Trembling Bells (2008-2018). He is also known for his continuing collaborations with Alasdair Roberts, Will Oldham and Richard Youngs, and for his work with elusive American singer/songwriter Jandek.
Steven R. Smith is an American musician, instrument-builder, and printmaker often associated with the Jewelled Antler collective. Born in Fullerton, California and based in San Francisco and, more recently, Los Angeles, he has been musically active since the mid-1990s. His main instrument is guitar, both acoustic and electric, although other instruments, including the hurdy-gurdy, bouzouki, fretted spike fiddles, and assorted ethnic instruments, have been incorporated into his work.
Michael Chapman was a British singer-songwriter and guitarist who released 58 albums, displaying a "fusion of jazz, rock, Indian and ragtime styles [that] made him a cult hero". He began playing with jazz bands, mainly in his home town of Leeds, and became well known in the folk clubs of the late 1960s, as well as on the progressive music scene. Having celebrated fifty years as a professional musician in 2016, he continued to regularly tour the UK, Europe and US.
Simon Scott is an English musician, mastering engineer and sound artist, best known as the drummer in Slowdive and formerly of Lowgold and The Charlottes. He also fronted Inner Sleeve/Televise, and has released ambient music as a solo artist.
Jozef van Wissem is a Dutch minimalist composer and lute player based in Brooklyn. In 2013 Van Wissem won the Cannes Soundtrack Award for the score of Only Lovers Left Alive at the Cannes Film Festival.
Hush Arbors is the primary musical project of American musician singer/songwriter/guitarist Keith Wood. His music uses traditional folk merged with elements of country and psychedelic music. Along with releasing solo material Wood is also a current member of Chelsea Light Moving. He has toured with and worked with musicians including Current 93, Six Organs of Admittance, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Jack Rose, Wooden Wand and Voice of the Seven Woods.
Micah Smaldone is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist based in Maine. He was a member of several New England area bands, and is best known for the solo music made under his given name, Micah Blue Smaldone.
The Mojo Club is a music club and live venue in Hamburg, Germany located on the city’s famous Reeperbahn. Founded in 1989, it is considered to be a pioneer in the field of modern breakbeat-oriented sounds such as acid jazz and had a major impact on dancefloor jazz. Located in a former bowling alley at No 1 Reeperbahn, the old venue had to make way for a landmark new high rise development and closed its doors in 2003. Following a 10-year hiatus, The Mojo Club re-opened on 2 February 2013 in the same location, underneath the "Dancing Towers", designed by Hamburg-based architect Hadi Teherani, it entrance set into the forecourt of No 1 Reeperbahn,.
Peter Walker is an American folk guitarist, known for his skillful performances that blend Indian classical and Spanish flamenco music traditions. He gained recognition primarily for his recorded work during the late 1960s. In recent years, his reputation has seen a resurgence among younger American and European outsider folk artists. He is now regarded as a prominent figure in the company of established American finger-pickers such as Sandy Bull, John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Leo Kottke. This renewed recognition has provided him with new opportunities for touring and recording.
Meg Baird is an American musician based in San Francisco, California, United States, who, in addition to her solo career, is known as a founding member, lead vocalist, and drummer for Heron Oblivion, along with members from Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound and Comets on Fire. She was also a guitarist and the lead female vocalist in Philadelphia psychedelic folk rock band Espers, and played drums in Philadelphia punk band Watery Love. Baird frequently collaborates with the Los Angeles-based harpist Mary Lattimore.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is a multi-instrumentalist and an ambient/experimental musician from the United States. He co-founded the drone and ambient label Root Strata.
Mike Tamburo, also known as Brother Ong is an independent musician, sound explorer, music educator, filmmaker, musical instrument builder, interdisciplinary sound artist, gong enthusiast, storyteller, writer, meditation teacher, installation artist, painter, currently living in New Kensington, PA. He is a well known multi-instrumentalist and plays the hammered dulcimer, gong, shahi baaja, swarmandal, autoharp, the crowned eternal, tuning forks, guitar, percussion, electronic instruments, bulbul tarang, bass gopichand, gulbulgar, singing bowls, bells and clarinet. He runs 2 small labels called: New American Folk Hero and Sounds Eternal. He teaches Kundalini yoga, Nāda yoga, sound therapy and Experimental Instrument Building. Early in Tamburo's career he gained notoriety for his string playing. In many of his early performances he began to enter into altered states of consciousness and have out of body experiences while performing. In order to understand these experiences he went into years of self study; exploring Kundalini Yoga, energy work, the therapeutic use of sound and how sound effects consciousness, human perception and self healing. His love for long sustained overtones and psychoacoustics led him to working with multiple gongs and other tuned metal instruments as well as exploring the healing power of mantra and toning. He has traveled the United States extensively, performing over 1500 shows in his career. He writes about many of his adventures in an ongoing collection of stories called Without Beginning, Middle Or End. He has also curated 3 years of the Fantastic Voyagers Music Festival. He performed and recorded for several years with Crown Of Eternity with his ex-wife Galina Haralambava.
Sharron Kraus is an English singer, songwriter and musician with strong ties to the US. Kraus was born in New York but grew up in Leicester, England. She has lived in Philadelphia and collaborated with American musicians, including Meg Baird, Helena Espvall, Christian Kiefer, Tara Burke (Fursaxa), and Gillian Chadwick.
Kraus is a New Zealand experimental musician and composer. The New Zealand Listener called him "a national treasure" and "one of the most quietly important and interesting people making music in New Zealand". His music crosses the boundaries of electronic music, post-rock, no wave, space folk, noise pop, punk rock and martian stomp.
Tompkins Square Records is an independent record label producing new and archival releases of gospel, blues, jazz, and country music.
