Zun Zun Egui

From Bristol, UK, everywhere and nowhere comes the wildfire sound of Zun Zun Egui, toting their debut album ‘Katang’ – out on Bella Union in October.

Kushal Gaya – vocals/guitar – Matthew Jones – drums – Luke Mosse – bass – Yoshino Shigihara –keyboards/backing vocals/artwork

Everything about “Katang”, from its 50 minutes of freerange rock music to the wonderful fifth-world visual feel conjured up by keyboard player/singer Yoshino Shigihara, emits a weird, kinetic and contagious energy that could only have come from these four individuals coalescing as personalities and players, carving out an intuitive musical lexicon that, whilst far removed from rock’s lingua franca, finds its own way to connect on a direct and universal level.

The “Katang” tour marks the chance to catch them in their full-blooded element, as honed at international festivals big and small including Roskilde, SXSW and Incubate, at the concert halls of London in support of David Byrne and Antibalas, and at their monthly Bristol club night with friends including Micachu and The Shapes, Bass Clef and François & The Atlas Mountains. Wild multi-lingual vocal incantations and splenetic, world-wise guitar licks mingle with zig-zag splashes of keyboard colour, while heavy, heavy bass and drums offer the crucial undertow that commits any foot with feeling to the dance. Sometimes the songs never end.

SVRS.

It’s been a long time coming, but after nearly 3 years of writing, rehearsing, recording, experimentation, mixing, mastering, and arguments about gates and compressors, the new album by Nottingham’s Souvaris is finally done. This show with Zun Zun Egui will mark the occasion as the official launch of the record, entitled “SOUVARIS SOUVARIS SOUVARIS”.

Souvaris have been recording and touring for over 11 years, and in that time have become one of the UK’s most dancingest instrumental rock bands. They cheerfully throw together the krautrock motorik of Neu! and Can, the dreamy pop hooks of Bedhead and Yo La Tengo, and the rad, bad jazz of Tortoise and Battles. Intricate rhythms are complimented by playful yet simple melodies, creating textures that are at once minimal and complex, yet all the while fixed firmly on the groove.
In common with the most exciting instrumental bands of the last thirty years, Souvaris realise that wordless music need not be po-faced nor grandiose, and that fun can be clever too.
Having played countless shows with bands ranging from Polar Bear to Dälek, Kieran Hebden to old friends Explosions in the Sky, Souvaris deliver a live show that is as entertaining as it is subtle, as direct as it is layered.
Souvaris Blog – Gringo Artist Page

Johnny Crump is a Nottingham based artist, composer, musician, producer and scratch Dj. Currently on his 4th release “The Order To Come”, an audio-visual collaboration with Dj Rubbish aka Shaun Pubis, Johnny is set to emerge as a prominent sculpter of the Avent-Garde.

Johnny Crump has also played along side The Gza of The Wu Tang Clan, Dreddy from ‘Sons of Man’, DJ Mathematics, Sole, Dalek, Kid Koala, Grand Buffet, RJD2, Buck 65, Ugly Duckling, Fingathing, Cappo, Doc Brown, Abdominal and Format, Mr Lif, Sway, Braintax, DJ Noise, Tiger Styles, Taskforce, Phi Life Cypher, Scorzayzee and more recently delivered a prime time set on BBC Radio 1 alongside Mr Jam.

GRINGO RECORDS is a record label. Approaching fifteen years of age and based in Nottingham for the last eleven, Gringo is still hopped up on DIY and in too deep to stop releasing music.

Label Manager Matt Says; “It is too late at night for me to try and explain what the concept of DIY means to me, but catch me tonight after a few too many pale ales and I’ll probably go off on one.”

“Of course, at the heart of all good music is one thing: LOVE. If you believe in love, please invest some of your hard-earned in the music we release.”

Dave Morecroft – Piano/Keys // Tim Ower – Saxophones // Raphael Clarkson – Trombone // Conor Chaplin – Bass // Neil Blandford – Drums

Winners of the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award 2010, WSP formed in 2009, and have quickly laid down impressive live credentials at some of the country’s top venues and festivals, as well as being recently featured as “Taking Off” (Jazzwise, August 2010). The group is centred around the compositional eccentricity of pianist Dave Morecroft, who delights in meddling with jazz in its many guises.

Described as “…infectiously enthusiastic music…” (Chris Parker) the group draw from a wealth of musical experience in jazz, funk, free-improvisation, punk and contemporary classical music.

Combining lyricism with burning intensity, unruly progressions and flowing melodic phrases, WSP create edgy and experimental music with a smile on its face.

Website and full listings

Matthew Halsall (Trumpet) Nat Birchall (Saxophones), Taz Modi (Piano), Rachael Gladwin (Harp), Gavin Barras (Bass) Gaz Hughes (Drums)

“’Kind Of Blue’ meets The Cinematic Orchestra …With hypnotic grooves, and a meditative slow-build to his solos, Halsall’s music is saturated in a life-affirming glow”. Time Out

“Rain-streaked spiritual jazz from Manchester.” The Independent on Sunday

“Grooving through time on the spiritual sunship.” Mojo Magazine

“If you like dreamy groovers with drifting melodies, you’ll love this.” BBC Music Magazine

Manchester based trumpeter Matthew Halsall is one of the UK’s brightest talents. A gifted trumpeter with a beautiful, expressive tone, his music draws on his love of thetranscendental spiritual and modal jazz of Alice and John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, as well as the glories of ‘60s British jazz, and has won him fans from Gilles Peterson and Radio 3’s Late Junction to MOJO and BBC Music Magazine and even BBC 6 Music.

His latest album ‘On The Go’ (Gondwana Records), is a love letter to the jazz of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and drawing on the evocative sounds of Miles Davis legendary soundtrack to the Louis Malle film ‘Lift To The Scaffold’ and the soulful hard bop recordings of Art Blakey and Max Roach, But while imbued with a sense of history, the young trumpeter and DJ’s music nevertheless brings a contemporary bounce to his music and his live shows are as likely to feature a Cinematic Orchestra or Soil and Pimp cover, as his own soulful originals or beautiful explorations of the music of Alice and John Coltrane.

His superlative band, as heard on his latest album, On The Go, features some of Manchester’s finest musicians including wonderful saxophonist Nat Birchall, rising star pianist Taz Modi, bassist Gavin Barras and drummer Gaz Hughes. The addition of Rachael Gladwin’s harp brings a sense of liquidity to the modal explorations, and Halsall’s own beautiful playing lingers long after the music ends.