BUY TICKETS – Doors 8pm – Music 8.30pm
Debut LP, following a cassette, by Mark Cunningham’s latest unit, Blood Quartet. Based in Barcelona, the mostly-instrumental band plays insanely great avant-garde rock music, with Mark’s electro-Miles trumpet spread across the top like brass icing.
Cunningham has been based in Spain for many years now, and his groups there (Raeo, Bestia Ferida, etc.) have been excellent, but Blood Quartet seems like the apex of a musical quest he started with Don King, following the dissolution of his legendary NYC band, Mars. The music they play has a similar cinematic scope to the material Mark composed for his solo LP, Blood River Dusk (FTR 098). But where that album created an ominous soundtrack for living, Blood Quartet makes an explosive syncretic fusion. Angular no wave guitar lines weave through bass-heavy rhythms, and Mark’s trumpet achieves something akin to what Chet Baker might have done if he’d flipped out and gotten into the French acid scene in ’68. Light, strangely wound tones that really don’t sound like anyone else I can name.
“Candid Coll’s post-tongue vocals, and the synth work by both Kike Bela and Lluis Rueda completely flesh everything out in a spectacular way. The music on Deep Red starts off sounding subtle, but it grows in power with every spin, and will eventually suck you down into its magnificent vortex. Bitchen.”
– Byron Coley, 2016
Their first EP “Dark Energy” was released in May 2015 on cassette (Boston Pizza) and online (Jacquard Recs, Hang the Dj! records) in Spain. Their first LP – Deep Red out now on CD (Hang The Dj!) and transparent red vinyl (Feeding Tube Records)
Mark Cunningham – Trumpet, Guitar
Lluis Rueda – Guitar, Korg MS-10 (B1)
Kike Bela – Bass, Korg MS-10, Guitar(B1)
Candid Coll – Drums, Voice
Mark Cunningham
Former member of the pioneer ‘70s No Wave group Mars, on bass and guitar, Mark Cunningham has continued to experiment using trumpet and electronics from the ‘80s until now, and more recently picked up his old guitar. Mars’ original output was quite small (four tracks on the seminal 1978 compilation No New York, a single and an ep) but now includes several live albums released in the US (Feeding Tube LPs), as well as the complete studio recordings (Important records LP, No More CD).
Since Mars disbanded, Cunningham has participated in countless collaborations with fellow avant-gardists such as Lydia Lunch, Arto Lindsay, Christian Marclay, Etant Donnes or Pascal Comelade, alongside of his own projects Don King in New York and Bèstia Ferida, RAEO, or Convolution in Barcelona, where he’s lived since 1991.
His records and collaborations amount to more than 30 releases, including his solo album Blood River Dusk (Por Caridad CD, 1997 – Feeding Tube LP 2014) .
Murnau b.
Is a noise art rock trio, based in Barcelona.
They have played numerous shows and festivals such as Primavera Sound as well as tours of England and Germany. The lineup is Lluís Rueda (guitars and vocals), Kike Bela (bass and synthesizer) and Càndid Coll (drums and vocals), who have all played with representative bands from the Catalonian alternative scene of the last 15 years, including El Petit de Cal Eril, Zeidun, Autodestruccio, and Le Fou. Murnau b. create dense atmospheres through particular and unusual tunings, obscure rhythms and dissonant distortions.
Their fourth album (La història d’un home bò) was released in July 2015 (Jacquard recs).
Press Quotes:
“If you find noise rock and experimental improvisation too formless, then you’ll enjoy the rhythmic anchor that gives a semblance of structure however far out Blood Quartet go. If you find jazz too abstract and ‘noodle-y’ then you’ll appreciate the jigsaw-like precision with which all the parts fit together. But if you enjoy experimental noisemaking and ‘out there’ rules-free jazz, you’ll discover no end of freedom in the playing; especially live. Put simply, Blood Quartet seem to pull off a very tricky balancing act with no apparent effort: it’s foot-tapping, beard-stroking, and head-shaking all at the same time.” (A Jazz Noise – blog)
