Saturday 20 May 2017, 7.30pm
“a slab of disturbing abrasive joy.” – Smashin' Transistors on Midnight Mines
“The guitar is all angle and scramble and zone-age, the bass is scalar, the drums move jazzily or not at all, the vocals sound like they're reading from a book of cut-ups. This is a doozy of a record, and well worth seeking out.” – The WIRE on Mosquitoes
DJ set from GENERAL ECHO SOUND SYSTEM - East London rub-a-dub selectors spinning dub, dancehall, roots, rockers and other bass transmissions on two turntables and a space echo.
Broken, atonal guitar scree, ultra-minimal half-jazz percussion and nervous bass probing with songs reduced to a few desolate lines.
“Supposing I live to be one hundred, I like to think that on my deathbed in 2081, if someone were to hand me a 7″ single and say, “hey, check this out, it’s limited to 100, self-released and is kinda no-wavey” I’d still light up like a child catching a Mickey Mantle home run. I certainly was glad to check out this one from the UK’s Mosquitoes, a bass / drums / guitar trio that play somewhere between DNA de-tuning their instruments before practice or Sightings with the PA system and all their effects turned off. The a-side’s “Keep Breathing” has that nervous Sightings bass transmission going, that’s for sure, while the other two squabble like Menstruation Sisters. The b-side’s “Life, End Of” follows an uncomfortable jazz dance on the bass while the guitar squeaks in and out and the vocalist mutters something about something, calling to mind some sort of informal interlude produced by a Mars / US Maple collaboration. Completely inessential and wonderful record right here.” – Yellow Green Red
“Midnight Mines is Caution's latest commotion with a sonic bees nest. After expelling of ton of cassettes over the past few years, all of which had a lot moments where they seemed to be focusing on being aural punishment soundtracks for trips to both deep tragic space and the deepest pits of vipers ever, If You Can't Find A Partner Use A Wooden Chair keeps things here on earth. Given the results of elections in the western world recently, we've all learned even more that Earth can be the most fucking scary of places anyway, it's still completely incendiary.
Copping it's title from the lyrics in Jailhouse Rock the band shows it still digs rock-n-roll. It's even nostalgic. Thankfully not in a rose tinted glasses Fonzie in a '57 Chevy at the malt shop kind of way. These lenses are cracked. Hell, practically shattered even. The beat that swings a song like "Artificial Light" can sit a hipshake in place and the broken melody is shoutable. The held long note organ blare on the song though make seem somnifacient but it's actually a lure for hurly-burly. The opening chord of "After Dark" may have some thinking they're about to enter the land of garage rock and they'll have a easy time navigating it are immediately tripping over a slothful martial beat. They'll become to distracted by that to even notice that halfway through the song switches to meat grinders are about to thrown and they're gonna be hacked to bits of ooze and pulp.” – Smashin' Transistors
