upfall?! (from France)

If this guitar/drum twosome wasn't stepping off a plane from Lyon, I would swear by their genre-clobbering intensity they were Japanese. Paranormal rhythms meet noise-infused math rock for something of weird, proto-punk proportions.

On their first Japan tour, they take their frenetic head-bobbery deep into the noisy hole of SuperDeluxe. All the mindmelting that's (presumably) acceptable on a Tuesday night.

upfall?!

upfall?! on Myspace

Hiroki Chiba + Masatsugu Hattori Duo

With a firm grasp of jazz tradition, drummer and vibraphonist Masatsugu Hattori took his percussion work straight into the new millennium with a range of projects, such as electroacoustic unit Ryusenkei Body, jazz-electronica unit Zycos, and conceptual electronica with Aktion Directe.

These days he has taken a minimal musical approach to percussive forms, becoming a perfect foil for the dense double-bass textures of mercurial bass/electronics wizard Hiroki Chiba (Isolation Music Quartet, They Live, Hose II, etc.)

The duo will explore some stark and challenging territory, but you might also find some new dance moves when the rhythm breaks into dangerous groove-like splinters.

Masatsugu Hattori

Hiroki Chiba

The Ningen Dogs Orchestra featuring HIKO (GAUZE)

Everybody knows that if humans live with animals long enough, they eventually start to resemble each other. These anthropomorphic circuit-bent canines take it one step further. Not only do they creepily resemble their human counterparts, but they've been loaded with twisted electronics that have them flipping, barking, and chasing their transistor tails.

Conducted by 23N! (of modified-toy noise-improv unit Droise) and the charming 'super utako', the noise should meld with the yip and the yap of this singular orchestra for an altogether different kind of petting zoo.

To bring an extra order of chaos to the unlikely proceedings, HIKO (of legendary hardcore outfit GAUZE) will handle drum duties for the Orchestra, his kit aptly decked out with a plethora of light/sound triggers for maximum sensory assault.

Ningen Dogs Orchestra

HIKO

Evil Penguin

Master of disguises, Mexican top-hats, ambient rockabilly to minimal Hawaiian Kumulipo chants, the Evil Penguin poses the primordial question of evanescence against a backdrop of New Wave folk. Celebratory, subliminal, moment-to-moment. A Tasmanian treasure with a penchant for open spaces.