CHARALAMBIDES + Steffen Basho-Junghans + Pumajaw

Sat 8th Jul 2006

Upset The Rhythm presents
CHARALAMBIDES
+ Steffen Basho-Junghans
+ Pumajaw

Doors 8.00
£7 via WeGotTickets

To say that the words "unique" and "singular" are over-used in describing music is to state the obvious. Yet to apply these words to the sounds created by the Texan duo Charalambides (aka Christina Carter and Tom Carter) over the last decade plus would be an understatement. They have surely broken new ground in the primitive / folk / mystic / improv / psych valley in which they toil. As The Wire put it; "Here is a truly 21st Century experimental ethnic music that explores quietness and stasis... in the same way that musicians in the second half of the 20th Century discovered amplification, noise and speed."
A brand new album 'A Vintage Burden' is due in May on Kranky and is their most cosmic and beautiful album to date.
Based in Berlin and Thuringia in Germany, Steffen Basho-Junghans is a painter, composer and free author, as well as one of the most spirited guitarists working in the western raga sphere. Over the last two decades, Stefenn's work with six and twelve strings has put him on much the same plane as free fingerpickers such as Jack Rose or Sir Richard Bishop, along with trailblazers of the genre like Fahey, Kottke and Basho, from whom Steffen takes his name as a creative talisman. Steffen's exceptional work has been documented over nine solo records for labels such as Strange Attractors Audio House. Steffen is currently working on a full-length for Locust Music designed as companion disc to their Wooden Guitar compilation, to which he dedicated two stunning pieces.
Pumajaw is the latest incarnation of the Perthshire acid-folk duo previously known as Pinkie MacLure & John Wills. Following an incredible debut LP 'Cat's Cradle' last year, the pair have just returned with 'Becoming Pumajaw', a magnificent body of work almagamating the darker side of traditional British folk music with more modernist sonic textures and explosions of noise. Through the music's rich instrumentation - concertina, dulcimer, bodhran, melodeon, lyre, synthetic beats and all shades of guitar - Pinkie's velvety vocals evoke images of smoky Parisian nightclubs as much as the usual wilderness myths associated with folk music. This is Pinkie & John's second UTR performance, following a truly mesmerising show with My Cat Is An Alien last summer, and we're ecstatic to have them return.

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