Saturday 18 May 2024, 7.30pm
Fourth Dimension Records and its sister label join hands to bring together a few of the artists/groups they have been working with during the last few years. This is the third such event in London for Fourth Dimension Records since late 2018, where the debut was also hosted by Cafe OTO and included Alternative TV, who also headline this time alongside sets from Edward Ka-Spel, Splintered and a special guest tbc. All four of the artists feature with an exclusive contribution to the When Worlds Collide 2LP compilation that will be released (by both FD and LTCo) to tie in with this event.
Since their formation in 1977 Mark Perry’s group Alternative TV have moved far away from their more direct punk rock beginnings into all manner of other areas of music that have sometimes themselves drawn from improvisation, free jazz, industrial and electronic music. Direct Action, Alternative TV’s first studio album since 2015, initially appeared as an LP on Fourth Dimension Records in 2024 before its being reissued on CD in February 2025. This witnessed the group presenting six instrumental tracks which steadily rip apart all expectations as they shed all allusions to rock music in favour of the kinda sonic mutilations that once helped 1979’s classic (and Nurse With Wound list endorsed) Vibing Up the Senile Man (Part One) stumble into weird and wonderful shapes. It is here that the group emphasised a shift to a space tentatively explored in the past before now becoming firmly embraced as the group marry guttural electronics to sounds most artists would consign to the bin. Via Perry’s long perfected mastery of pulling together disparate strands to create something entirely alchemical and invigorating there’s not only a unique stamp to the ATV story at work here but also something defiantly outside most contemporary music that has more in common with AMM, Throbbing Gristle, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, This Heat and Jandek than anything immediate or accessible.
Alternative TV’s entirely own take on post-punk experimental noise promises to go to places previous appearances at the label events have only touched on. Do not expect to be greeted with any of the songs that helped define them in the early years.
Bass Communion is the solo electronic music endeavour of Steven Wilson. Existing since the late 1990s, it focuses on his interest in ambient, drone and noise music, making use of heavily abstracted and processed instruments, as well as field recordings and pure electronic sound. Since the outset there have been many albums released under the name, as well as collaborations with many major names from the experimental music scene. For this extremely rare live appearance at OTO he will be joined by his friend Frans de Waard in his Modelbau guise for a 40 minute set based on works from the first all-new Bass Communion album in 12 years, The Itself of Itself, which will be released mid-May 2024 on Fourth Dimension’s sister label Lumberton Trading Company. Comparatively noisier and more impressionistic than previous Bass Communion works, it promises to be an intense listening experience in a live setting.
For a number of years now, experimental and atmospheric noise-rock Splintered have played a sporadic selection of live shows in London and Poland following a lengthy hiatus that commenced in 1998. Because of this, they worked on new material between 2021 and 2024 which culminated in their first album since 1996, Between Scylla and Charybdis, being released by Fourth Dimension Records in May 2024. While their recorded work is less pulverising than their earlier releases, on the whole, the group counter this in a live setting by cranking the intensity up several notches and maintaining the blend of hypnotic rhythms, often savage guitar work and layers of electronics that they have long sculpted their sound from.
New recordings are being discussed but in the meantime the six members of the group are finalising work for an expanded vinyl edition of the latest album that should appear later in 2025.
The appearance at OTO will once again bring together old and new material, plus promises to be a powerful and immersive set.
Splintered are: Paul Wright, James Machin, Paul Dudeney, Richard Johnson, Steve Pittis and Stuart Carter.
Listen to 'The Horrors of Linden' from Between Scylla and Charybdis here:
Mostly known for his work as founder, vocalist and main songwriter for The Legendary Pink Dots, Edward Ka- Spel has long forged an equally prolific career as a solo artist given to sometimes exploring similar sonic realms as his group but clearly working at such a pace the need to channel ideas and songs in this capacity must be enforced. And just as well too, because Edward Ka-Spel is one of those rare and exceptional artists whose high workrate doesn’t betray a keen sense of quality control. Long known as somebody unafraid to venture wherever he pleases, his work has for a few decades now long traversed the more outward-bound or so-called ‘fringe’ areas of electronic music, psychedelia, hypnotic rock, kosmische sounds and the avant-garde. Heartily sewn into all of this is Edward’s fantastic grasp of spinning a twilight tale or spiraling deep into the mind’s recesses to craft a song from comparatively nimble melodies and words of Kafka-esque proportions. It’s a strikingly rich blend that’s always deserved far more attention than the cult audience it thankfully at least has.
Leaving his group behind for a rare solo performance, Edward Ka-Spel appears at this event following a couple of releases on Lumberton Trading Company during the past two years that include the recent LP Tales from the Trenches made available in late 2023.
