GUIDE & PLAYLIST: Supersonic Festival

Event: Supersonic Festival

Where: Digbeth, Birmingham (The Mill, 29 Lower Trinity St, Deritend, Birmingham B9 4AG)

When: Friday 8th – Sunday 10th July 2022

Ticket Info: Full Weekend ticket: £130 / 2 Day Weekend ticket: £100.00 / Day ticket: £50 (ticket link here)

General Info: Now celebrating its 16th year, Supersonic Festival have put together another “ambitious programme of mind bending music, sense shifting art and life altering experiences” with their 2022 Guest Curators Decolonise Fest and Radwan Moumneh. There will also be extracurricular talks, screenings and activities across the weekend, including Do.om Yoga and an exhibition on the power of DIY printing.

Who’s Playing: Full line-up & timetable here

Divide & Dissolve, Rachel Aggs, Grove, BUNUEL, Bloody Head, Blue Ruth, Bismuth, A.A. Williams, Follakzoid, J. Zunz, No Home, Nadja, June Of 44, Richard Dawson & Circle, Old Man Gloom, Thou, The Bug ft. Flowdan, Jerusalem In My Heart, Radwan Moumneh, Aabronia, BINT7ALAL, Big Brave, DJ Awkward Black Girl, Farida Amadou, Matters, Jessika Khazrik + Nurah Farahat, PRNCSS, Shovel Dance Collective, Holy Tongue, Paul Purgas, Erin Weisgerber, Pharaoh Overlord + Aaron Tuner and more!

Who GIHE recommend you catch: We’re already big fans of the the heavy sounds of No Home (Saturday, The Mill, 16:30), the beautiful noise of A.A. Williams (Sunday, The Mill, 15:50), and the gargantuan grace of Divide & Dissolve (Sunday, 7SVN, 21:30) so we recommend you catch each of their sets. Grove (Friday, 7SVN, 22:30), Rachel Aggs (Saturday, The Mill, 17:30) and J.Zunz (Sunday, 7SVN, 16:50) are well worth your attention too!

We recommend attending The Art Of Collaboration talk (Sunday, Centrala Upstairs, 13:10), which will feature conversations between interdisciplinary artist, producer and DJ Jessika Khazrik, producer & composer Elizabeth Bernholz aka Gazelle Twin and NYX choir Director Sian O’Gorman.

Decolonise Fest will also be hosting a talk (Saturday, Market Place Stage, 18:40) and playing a DJ set afterwards – both will be great!

For more information on the festival visit their official website

Check out our Supersonic Festival Playlist below!

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ALBUM: Petrol Girls – ‘Baby’

Released today (24th June) via Hassle Records, feminist punks Petrol Girls truly embrace irreverence on their new album, Baby. While time often mellows the sound and vision of many bands, here it has only re-fuelled the band’s politics with an ever-growing potency. The vital themes of pure political rage, speaking out against sexual violence and immigration that underscored Petrol Girls’ 2016 debut, Talk of Violence, are powerfully replicated on Baby.

Whilst the band maintain their feminist punk roots – especially on rallying pro-choice lead single ‘Baby, I Had An Abortion’ – Petrol Girls transcend their musical origins throughout their new record. The album opens with 28 seconds of noise produced from a mash of sounds on the album, acting as a vibrant nod towards shoegaze. Guitarist Joe York was influenced by everything from electronic music and hip-hop, to New Wave bands like Talking Heads during the writing process for the album and the playful intro to ‘One Or The Other’ encapsulates this, with ‘Preachers’ further setting the raw experimental tone for the record.

Vocalist Ren Aldridge continues to deliver her breath-takingly vehement lyrics throughout Baby. Her clear intonation and powerful projection become consistently more impressive with each track, and when the subject matter does get more severe, her cathartic cries and screams provide a much needed emotional release. Activist and DIY punk Janey Starling also delivers superb guest vocals on ‘Fight For Our Lives’ and ‘Violent by Design’, both of which act as visceral moments of furious relief for listeners who have been marching on the streets for equality in the wake of public violence against women in recent years.

While the issues handled on Baby vary in weight, they all ultimately follow themes of femicide, police brutality and toxic “nice guys” (‘Sick & Tired’). The record is a genuine effort to dismantle these pervasive tropes and elements of society, fueled by righteous rage and impressive resilience. Petrol Girls should be proud of their new collection of fast-paced, vital anti-establishment anthems.

Order Petrol Girls’ new album Baby here

Follow Petrol Girls on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Hanna Fasching

Sarah Bennett
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Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Track Of The Day: A.A. Williams – ‘Evaporate’

A heavy, graceful musing on the darker side of the emotional spectrum, London-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist A.A. Williams has shared her latest single ‘Evaporate’. Taken from her upcoming second album, As The Moon Rests, which is set for release on 7th October via Bella Union, the track is a brooding blend of dramatic volume fluctuations and Williams’ effortless vocals, which mirror the raw sensitivity of her introspective lyrics.

Following on from her exquisite debut album Forever Blue (2020) and her lockdown inspired covers EP Songs From Isolation (2021), A.A. Williams’ second album looks set to be another stunning collection of cinematic, intense sounds. “Traditionally, your second album is the worry; where there’s the weight of expectation,” Williams comments, “but I must create music I like myself, and I’ve had more time on this record; I’ve felt more confidence and conviction. As The Moon Rests is both heavier and softer, there’s more texture and weight, and a string ensemble. It’s Forever Blue times ten!”

‘Evaporate’ is the first hint at what’s to come from the new record, and it’s a poetic, heavy rumination on the overwhelming nature of ones inner thoughts when they’re eventually  brought to the surface. Williams prefers not to be prescriptive about the exact emotions that inform her tempestuous tracks, allowing her listeners to extrapolate on their own terms. “It’s all part of an overriding arc,” she explains about her music. “With hindsight, some songs I figure things out, others I disappear into a hole. For example, in ‘Evaporate’, I’m trying to keep a lid on fizzy complicated thoughts, which just explode. Other times, I’m more relaxed. Mostly, writing is more retrospective, not about the here and now. The lyrics are the place where I figure things out.”

Williams’ intuition for writing elusive, tender lyrics alongside powerful, instinctive volume shifts is what makes listening to her music so enthralling. Accompanied by a monochrome video directed by Fraser West, ‘Evaporate’ is a dramatic, urgent return to form for A.A. Williams who looks set to be at the top of our ‘Albums of 2022’ list already.

Watch the video for ‘Evaporate’ below.

Follow A.A. Williams on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook

Photo Credit: Thomas Williams

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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LIVE: A.A. Williams – Lafayette, London 04.03.22

After two years of re-scheduling show dates and a tentative return to live music across the UK, London-based songwriter A.A. Williams delivered a stunning performance that showcased her heavy sound in all its glory at Lafayette last night.

A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, Williams’ blending of post-rock and post-classical elements has a hypnotising quality, one that was clearly appreciated by her silent crowd. It’s rare to hear a venue so quiet between songs, but Williams congregation remained devotedly still throughout her set.

Performing songs from her debut album Forever Blue, which she released in 2020, Williams opened the show with an exquisite rendition of ‘All I Asked For (Was To End It All)’. Her soft vocals floated above beguiling keys before heavy riffs and percussion broke the spell and dominated the track’s closing minute. What’s obvious throughout the set is Williams’ and her bandmate’s impressive instinct for volume fluctuation. Her balancing between loud and quiet is the lifeblood of Forever Blue, and it’s something that translates beautifully into a live setting.

Suited in black and playing her guitar in the spotlight, Williams cut a calm and captivating figure, enhanced by her ability to switch from a fragile-sounding exhale of words to a powerful extended vocal. Her voice was occasionally lost in the flood of heavy, feverish sound, but in the moments where it did cut through, it made for intense and cathartic listening, effortlessly elevating the rapturous mood.

It’s hard to pick standout tracks from the set, as Williams’ performance had a whole, defined, cinematic quality to it. Her poignant renditions of ‘Dirt’, ‘Fearless’ and the emotionally raw ‘I’m Fine’ made listeners hold their collective breath, but closing her set with ‘Melt’ was undoubtedly a highlight. The smouldering, brooding track was stripped of its more melancholic feel once the blitz-like volume change kicked in, once again displaying Williams’ and her bandmate’s instincts for intricately cauterizing the ear drums.

Taking time to thank her fans between songs and genuinely appreciative of their applause at the end of the show, A.A. Williams provided an aural tonic of intense, beautifully executed sound at Lafayette, proving that the two year wait to hear her poetic ruminations on Forever Blue was well and truly worth it.

Follow A.A. Williams on bandcamp, Spotify, Instagram, Twitter & Facebook

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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