Cutting edge live electronic and electro-acoustic music, audiovisual installations, performance art, music PR & consultancy and lecture / seminar sessions.
Neil Landstrumm is available for live sets. Please email agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.
Electronic music mainstay Neil Landstrumm has switched up gears with his new collaborative project “Doubleheart” in partnership with JD Twitch of Optimo. As the titanic Non Plus label picks this first offering up, scene bellweathers such as FACT Magazine and XLR8R begin to ramp up the hype. Now booking for Landstrumm live sets in 2012.
Essentially a hardware based live artist, Neil Landstrumm has released many records on some of electronic musics’ finest labels over last two decades. Highlights include Peacefrog Records, Tresor Records and in recent years the influential Planet Mu label from the UK. Neil has released nine LP’s to date and was recently chosen as the only artist to remix DJ Shadow’s new project for Island Records. The other constant throughout his illustrious career has been the Scandinavia label which is a signature attached to all of his works.
Neil has toured internationally and also lived for a number of years in New York but is now based back in Edinburgh where he runs the ‘Witness Rooms’ studio. His signature sound is created with a marriage of cult analogue gear and digital production techniques honed over the years. A pioneer of new electronic styles, often copied and imitated he is a unique artist always at the spearhead of experimental, low frequency electronics.
Bong-Ra is available for live sets outside the Netherlands. Please email agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.
For those who aren’t acquainted with Bong-Ra’s sound will be in for a pleasant surprise. As one of the pioneers of the Breakcore genre, Bong-Ra has managed to mix all his musical influences into a furiously energetic style. No remorse and no concession. Where other artists stick to their musical blueprint, Bong-Ra never stops the pursuit of musical development, hoping to catch his listeners off guard every single time.
Bong-Ra, Jason Köhnen’s electronic alter ego saw life in 1996. Hailing from The Netherlands, Bong-Ra initially started out as a DJ, but quickly focussed his priority on producing his own music in 1997. Djax Records signed Bong-Ra in 1998, proceeding to release the debut album ‘New Millennium Dreadz’ and the 12-inch series ‘Darkbreaks’ Volumes 1 and 2. Bong-Ra at that time was accompanied by MC Guzman on vocals.
In 2001 Clash Records (a hardcore jungle orientated 7-inch label) was set up. In that same year on the 12th of February John Peel invited Bong-Ra to do a ‘Peel Session’ which was released on UK label Deathsucker Records. Several vinyl releases followed in the period between 2001 and 2003. From 2001 to 2004 the ‘Breakcore a Go-Go!’ parties were run and organised by FFF and Bong-Ra becoming one of the first (bi) monthly regular Breakcore nights in Europe. ‘Bikini Bandits, Kill! Kill! Kill!’ the second full length album was released in 2003 on Supertracks Records. This album saw an audiovisual co-operation with US based film company Gyromart. The track ‘666MPH’ was used on the Bikini Bandits DVD and the videoclip to ‘666MPH’ aired on MTV. The Bikini Bandits audiovisual project became an exposition in the Museum of Modern Arts in Arnhem, The Netherlands. That year Bong-Ra also appeared on some of Holland’s biggest Festivals : Lowlands, Metropolis and Eurosonic. Also a small UK tour with DJ Scud and Soundmurderer followed.
In 2004 Bong-Ra set up his second label Kriss Records, focussing on edgier breaks (mostly combining metal and breakbeats, releasing amongst others : Drumcorps, Scotch Egg and Venetian Snares). That same year the Center for Electronic Music (CEM) in Amsterdam asked Bong-Ra to produce a special 4 track EP solely using vintage equipment in the CEM studios, resulting in the ‘Colony of Electric Machines’ EP on the Vynalogica label. The ‘Monsters of Mash Up’ European Tour in 2005 with Shitmat (UK) and Enduser (USA) and a Japanese Tour with Parasite (UK) was followed by the third full length ‘I am the God of Hellfire’ released on Very Friendly and Ad Noiseam and the jungle/raggacore CD compilation ‘Warrior Sound’ on Supertracks (NL). In 2006 a special 4 track remix EP of Venetian Snares’ ‘Rossz Csillag Allat Szuletett’ and the debut of Bong-Ra’s main side project The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble were released on Planet Mu (UK). The politically charged album ‘Soldaat van Oranje’ was released on Sublight Records (CAN). Bong-Ra returned for his second Lowlands Festival, becoming one of the highlights of the Festival (according to Dutch magazine OOR).
A second European tour and split 12-inch with Enduser ‘The Kill’ and a memorable muddy Glastonbury Festival highlighted 2007. In 2008 Bong-Ra released his 5th full album entitled ‘Full Metal Racket’ containing the 12” ‘Grindkrusher’ and ‘SickSickSick’ both released on Ad Noiseam, a 12” on Zhark Records followed entitled ‘Vitus Blister’. Bong-Ra continued his non-stop performances covering mostly all of Europe and establishing himself as one of the best performers in hardcore electronic territory. His tri-monthly events in Utrecht (Rebeltronics) and Arnhem (Megatronics) continue to flourish succesfully. A small production pause was taken during late 2008 and practically the whole of 2009 for his other important project ‘The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble’. Focussing on the second full length album ‘Here Be Dragons’. Succesfully venturing into the darker side of jazz and electronica.
2010 saw a return of Bong-Ra 2.0. A new EP on Ad Noiseam entitled ‘Monster’, a 12” of the Peace Off dubstep sister label Ruff with two dubsmashers ; Megasaurus and Gargantuan! the adaptation of Hecq/Exilion’s Spheres of Fury. Also Clash Records saw light with Bong-Ra’s jungle alias Killahman Machine, releasing Clash 013. In a few months, the new 6th full length Bong-Ra album will be released on Ad Noiseam.
Raoul Sinier is available for live sets. Please contract agency@thecentrifuge.co.uk with offers stating date, location, budget and other artists on the bill.
Biography
Raoul Sinier is without doubt a unique artist. He juggles music, illustration and animation with a freewheeling talent. The race of fantastic creatures that escape from Raoul Sinier’s imagination seem to be characterised by the same wavering reason found in human beings. The artist breathes absurd and derisory life into whale-men, animals, robots and other creatures in a dark and twisted world.
His music captures emotions and nails then down somewhere, on a familiar door. This kidnapping curiously liberates the listener and enables their penetration into the very sophisticated musical universe of the musician.
The power of the inspiring alchemy is ever increasing with its captivating melodies and ultraviolent rhythms. Films, animation… the videos he conceives and directs invent a wild form of multiplexing into which are plunged atypical images and music which follow an improbable script.
But beyond the fury of monsters and the screaming music is the exacerbated sensitivity of a demanding individual, totally refractory to the intellectual arts world. For several years now the artistic activity of Raoul Sinier has been gently spreading its way across the borders of Europe…
Press Excerpts
Rockarolla
Radiohead may have made their own, angsty ter- ritorial pissings over the genre of existential glitch pop with Kid A, but Raoul Sinier presents a genuine challenge to their throne. The stereotype of the electronic musician meekly hunched over a laptop is squashed by a Pythonesque giant foot, so epic are some of these tracks.
The Wire
This blend of the whimsical and the disquieting characterises the album as a whole: fairground flourishes are knitted to brooding industrial shades by crisply sculpted breakbeats and vintage keyboards trace out imperiously ascending prog patterns. Sinier is based in Paris and his music belongs to same strange corner of the French imagination as the film Delicatessen.
XLR8R
Raoul Sinier, the Bo Jackson of the multimedia world, is the epitome of a hardworking man. In addition to producing intricate, gritty sound structures that fall somewhere at the meeting point of IDM, hip-hop, and breakcore, the Paris-based artist also happens to be damn good at illustration and animation as well. WTF!
Liability
Le succès critique est d’ores et déjà présent sur le net. Ailleurs, on peine à lui ouvrir les portes. Pourtant, Raoul Sinier est surement l’une des meilleures choses qui est arrivée à la musique électronique hexagonale. Tremens Industry en est la preuve vivante. Album complet et sans vraiment de faiblesses, il s’impose à nos oreilles comme une évidence. Encore faut-il que ce soit le cas pour tout le monde.
Goûte mes Disques
Raoul Sinier vient de frapper un très grand coup dans la fourmilière électronique, jusqu’à parier sur Tremens Industry comme le disque IDM/electronica de l’année. Absolument essentiel.
Inpress Magazine
The joy is that you never really know where Ra is going to take you next, at one moment drawing upon melancholic Boards of Canadaesque wisps with cute synth lines, the next fracturing the same tune up into digital chaos. Inspired and original, there is not one false step on Raoul Loves You.
BBC.co.uk
(…) and sound-masher Ra unleashes one of the most brilliantly heavy and strangely funky pieces of electronica we’ve heard in ages on the picture-disc-only Ev.Panic (Planet Mu).
Cuemix-magazine
“Huge Samurai Radish” is what I expected from Raoul Sinier, but don’t get me wrong I expected that he astonish me again and again. A brilliant album – that leaves with more appetite and a roaring stomach.
Raoul Sinier is an absolute breathtaking phenomenon. His music is made to loose words – and words aren’t made to describe his all-embracing art. I think the secret behind his genius is that he thinks about every move he make and while he thinks about his moves he acts.
PopMatters
Sublight managed to pull over a few names from Britain itself, including The Gasman and Somatic Responses. Ra, a visual artist and musician hailing from Paris, is not only one of the latest examples, but one of the more promising new arrivals.
Make no mistake, Brain Kitchen announces the presence of Raoul Sinier in the league of Miguel Depedro (kid606) and Guillermo Scott Herren (Prefuse 73, Savath + Savalas) as leaders of the circuit bending fusion of hip-hop bravado and broken electronics.
Gothtronic
What do you get when apparant opposites such as breakcore and downtempo are merged and topped with abit of glitch? Ra aka Raoul Siniers from France knows the answer and fully expands on this on his second album. What he shows here is truly phenomenal.
With this album Raoul earned himself a place between people like Kid606 or Venetian Snares for real. A masterpiece of modern electronics.
Excaim!
Ra has no regard for traditional song structures, a technique that’s rampant in underground electronic circles, but one that he’s definitely mastered the nonchalance of.
Trax
Un long maxi pour prouver – une nouvelle fois – combien Raoul Sinier est l’une des plus fines lames de l’electronica. L’ensemble est gavé d’imagination et le style immédiatement reconnaissable. Rarement chez ceux qui ont fait du flou musical un signe d’intelligence, on trouve la charge émotionnelle de ces fresques noircies à la chaux.
dMute
Toujours ambigu, Wxfdswxc2 fait donc passer les échafaudages de Raoul loves you en 3D et fascine par sa largesse de vue. Le visionnage et l’écoute achevée, on est comme revenu d’un voyage mythique, chargé de sensations mélangées, que seule une nouvelle séance permettra de resaisir.
PopNews
Plus de deux ans après, avec “Wxfdswxc2″, un disque plus réussi encore, il complète la démonstration. Raoul aime la noirceur, la rudesse et les aspérités, il ne se contentera jamais d’une mélodie lisse, d’une nappe immaculée, d’un fond méditatif. Avec lui, ça glitche et ça dérape, ça sautille et ça pare en vrille, ça rabote le cortex et ça ramone les oreilles, c’est plein de guitares sales et d’électronique mal élevée. Mais tout ce bruit n’est pas un cache-misère. Les sons sont vraiment bien, ils ont du sex-appeal.
Sutemos
I just love geniuses. This album is meant for those who are sick of everyday banality, boring melodies, fake art and artificial tenderness. Master Ra will take care of you.
Mowno
Un peu plus loin, caché derrière un amas de caillasses, Ra l’attend, couché, l’oeil dans le viseur, prêt à lancer quelques-unes des plus belles batailles d’une guerre contre le formatage et la facilité. Non pas que ce disque soit difficilement audible, loin de là, plutôt que son univers n’est pas aussi accueillant que sa musique est dangereusement addictive. (…)
Beaucoup croient avoir tout entendu du mélange musique électronique et hip hop. “Wxfdswxc2″, et son malin plaisir de faire sonner le moindre détail à la juste cause d’un univers si particulier, pourrait bien leur faire revoir leur jugement.
Ra n’est pas encore le nom que l’on donne à un petit Dieu. Mais cela pourrait bien venir. “Raoul Loves You” est un premier album époustouflant de créativité et de maturité. Parions que dans un futur proche, Sieur Sinier saura sans aucun doute poser son empreinte sur la scène électronique française. Pas de mal lorsqu’on manie le sampler comme le pinceau…
According to his press bio, Global Goon’s Johnny Hawk is a former shepherd from Liverpool who earned a recording contract after moving to London and rooming with Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) for a time. Hawk had worked in the capital for a multimedia company while making music on the side; after moving into a shared house with James, he released his first album Goon on Rephlex in 1996. Rumors that Goon actually was Aphex Twin persisted even after the release of Cradle of History 4 years later.
Planet Mu / We Me Records Syntheme project is a recognised alias of Global Goon and his recent live / DJ performances exhbit his tweaked-up take on acid house, techno and disco.
Chevron is electronic music producer Jonathan Valentine. After experimenting with synths and samplers at school in Blackpool, he moved to Brighton where he lived with Shitmat and Tim Exile, and naturally became involved with the infamous Wrong Music crew. He now resides at his studio in central London.
His music is a melting pot of a wide range of dance styles from acid and ambient to dubstep, garage and jungle, with a large dose of electro, rave and techno. Intricate rhythms, interesting time signatures and quirky poppy melodies are a characteristic of his sound. His debut album “Everything’s Exactly The Same” on Mike Paradinas’s Planet Mu label received praise in DJ Mag, I-DJ, Rock Sound and The Wire. Releasing original music over the years on 030303, Ad Noiseam, Acroplane, The Centrifuge, Planet Mu and many more led to great reviews at BBC.co.uk, Boomkat, and Vice Magazine. His music has been played on radio stations worldwide.
Recently Chevron has been honing his live performance, which involves live use of the genre-defining TB-303 bassline synthesizer, modular synthesis, live sampling and analogue drum machines. His long-awaited forthcoming album “Obstacles” is to be released late 2011 complete with remixes from Altern-8′s Mark Archer, DMX Krew, Luke Vibert and EOD.
Electronica heavyweight The Gasman needs no introduction! Having delivered 10 top quality albums on Planet Mu, Sublight, The Centrifuge, Gasman Music and elsewhere we are pleased to have him on The Centrifuge’s UK roster. Come catch him tear it up at our live shows with his “gaylord” breakbeat rave and chopped up micro-organ flurries. Keep your eyes peeled for more tasty morsels from the maestro in 2011.
