Monday 26 October 2015, 8pm
Debut London show for Bitchin Bajas, originally started as a solo side project for Cooper Crain, guitarist of Chicago Krautrock heroes Cave. Also on the bill are experimental psychedelic explorers Tomaga and Demian Castellanos.
Bitchin Bajas started in 2010 as solo side project for Cooper Crain, guitarist of Chicago Krautrock heroes Cave. Since then, Dan Quinlivan and Rob Frye joined the band and Bitchin Bajas have got the public attention thanks to a perfect, extensive discography on quality record labels such as Bathetic, Permanent, Hands In The Dark and Drag City. The trio play warm, instrumental, psychedelic and melodic ambient music, mixing minimal 60/70’s electronic with original acoustic elements: flute, saxophone, xylophone, woodwinds to name only a few.
After their first, self-produced cassette, ‘Sleepy Jazz For Tired Cats’, which was released in 2013, TOMAGA released the acclaimed ‘Futura Grotesk’ LP on the Hands in the Dark label, followed quickly by ‘Familiar Obstacles’ – a cassette release for the boutique London label Blank Editions, that was subsequently released as a limited vinyl in October 2015.
Meanwhile they have played countless concerts and festivals across the world including being invited to open for Deerhoof, Silver Apples and Wire, the latter for their UK tour in May 2015 (for full tourdates see below).
In autumn 2015 Tomaga were invited by Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate to stage a performance using the artworks of Pedro Reyes: re-conditioned weapons confiscated by Mexican police from drug cartels and turned into instruments. The resulting performance will be released on a forthcoming live album. In spring 2016 Tomaga were invited to contribute a sound object to the Yoko Ono exhibition ‘Lumiere De L’aube’ at the Musee D’art Contemporain De Lyon.
In 2016 they will have both an LP and EP release in autumn/winter 2016 as well as live collaborations with Pierre Bastien and Italian radical improv octect Blutwurst.
Demian Castellanos is best known as the man behind the London psyche rock outfit The Oscillation. In Spring 2015 Hands In The Dark released The Kyvu Tapes Vol.I (1990-1998) which is the fruit of his 90’s decade-long, obsession with the infinite possibilities offered by the electric guitar, playing it with forks, knives, bits of paper, volume control, and an endless multitude of effects pedals. Demian plays solo shows live for the first time ever in October 2015.
