9th August 2008 Ultra+ with Dan Ghenacia & Deepchild (live)

It had been a wet week in August, and everyone on the street looks depressed. Maybe things will dry up for Saturday, and we can break out the BBQ, crack open a can and try to recoup some of our lost summer with a night of fun at the Custard Factory?

However the rain was relentless, and even the thought of going outside to get such essentials as bread and bog roll seemed like things we could put off forever. What is it with British weather, or more to the point, what is it with our hope that it’s going to ever turn out nice?

Thank goodness then, that Ultra+ teamed up with Bristol based Empathy on the 9th August to battle through the dismal rain and bring some super summer vibes to the Custard Factory.

Once again Ultra+ transformed the rather dull interior of the Factory club into and an all singing all dancing light and laser show, with sparkled silver drapes running down the length either side. The center piece being the now trade mark appearance of Shiela and her now over protective boyfriend hanging from the ceiling - who watch over ravers, rather like cupid gone wrong.

Ultra+ regulars Steve Carter, Tanner Jarvis and Ben Nott did a great job of warming up the crowd in the main room, building up some great energy. By the time Ben span his last track and unplugged his headphones, the crowd were eager for headliner, Parisian king of techno, Dan Ghenacia to take to the decks and take them off into a world of luscious minimal techno.

Unfortunately things never really kicked off for Dan Ghenacia, and the crowd, now feeling rather frustrated, went in search of something else they could splurge their hours of built up groove all over. By the time Deepchild plugged in his array of exciting midi controllers and flashing boxes, there was not much left for him to impress - which is a shame, because I really do think he has a lot to offer.

Thankfully the people from Empathy were not going to let anyone down, and the outside pool mezzanine area soon became the focus point of the night. Hidden through banks of thick thick smoke, was a great lump of people dancing to the sounds of Empathy’s residents, with Jim Rivers and Stuart Wilkinson both providing top quality sets.

Some respect should be given to all the people who braved the rain and got their legs down on the night. The weather did put a bit of a dampener on an otherwise faultless night.

Ultra+ is returning to the Factory in October, so keep ‘em peeled!

Words / Photography Tom Horton

Butterfly Catchers
Doin’ Time (Self Released EP)

The songs on this record are lovingly crafted, beautifully arranged and played and sound consumately professional.
However there is something missing which makes it hard for Butterfly Catchers to really engage me. Their sound is intimate
and earthy, basically acoustic pop with some touches of strings and laidback percussion. The eponymous track, ‘Doin Time’,
is the best, but the band never really get out of first gear. Rather than delicate, lush and compelling, they come across as a
bit bland, like unplugged by numbers. Like an even more laid back Corrs. Vocalist, Melissa, has a lovely voice, but the lyrics are a bit pedestrian and add nothing new to her time honoured tales of lost love. The band won a Birmingham Music Award for ‘Best Unplugged
Act’ so they must be doing something right, but they don’t do it for me.

Adam Moffatt

ArnoCorps  Scruffy Murphys   13 July 2008

Just like The A Team, the five members of ArnoCorps went AWOL from their unit in the Austrian Army. They now roam the land, righting wrongs and inspiring the masses with musical interpretations of ancient Austrian folk tales. Such stories as ‘Terminator’, ‘Predator’ and ‘Total Recall’ have for too long been exploited for commercial gain by the Hollywood film industry and a certain unscrupulous actor. ArnoCorps are taking them back for the masses, touring the world and elsewhere to promote Austrian culture and the action adventure lifestyle. Audiences have been known to leave their shows with increased muscle mass, self belief and discipline and great big smiles on their faces.

But seriously…the concept behind ArnoCorps is nice, but until you see them live it is hard to understand how good they actually are. Yes, they might be a one trick pony, playing rock songs inspired by a string of (whisper it) Schwarzenegger’s gloriously and ridiculously macho action films, but this is one goddamn BALLSY pony. If you have a sense of humour and an appreciation of such films then you’ll love ArnoCorps. Their live show is absolutely bang on. The energy they give off is really insane, especially what with this being the last show of ArnoCorps’ British tour. An epic jaunt which took in London, Sheffield, Northampton, Manchester and Irish dates in Galway and Belfast, ArnoCorps ended up in Brum for a performance which seemed more like one massive end of tour party than a gig as such. Scruffy Murphys is a suitably rough and ready venue, and its beer soaked basement is rammed full of fans in camo facepaint and helmets. There were literally people hanging from rafters.

The feeling from the crowd is one of real devotion, like a football match where everyone’s supporting the same team. You’ll be familiar with such an atmosphere if you’ve been to any power metal gigs by bands such as DragonForce. In fact there is a bit of a similarity in the audience. Right from the off the crowd are eating out of vocalist Holzfeur’s gloved hand. This guy is a great performer who interacts constantly with the punters, fuelling the fires of their devotion and urging them onto greater heroic deeds. His between song banter is priceless, at one point inviting the fans to tell him “what is best in life?”, which naturally elicits the response “to crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of the women”. In the middle of ‘Running Man’ the band bring things down to a rock steady beat whilst Holzfeur gets everyone running on the spot and his bandmate, bassist Toten Adler indulges in a spot of crowd surfing. Holzfeur also proves he has no truck with fans invading the stage, as he bodyslams one hapless guy who tries it. Said fan is launched about ten feet into the crowd, landing on his head. He gets up with a massive grin on his face. Perhaps his helmet protected him.

After a run through of all their classics there is a lull in the action. Holzfeur invites someone to buy him a Jagermeister and then there is just time for an encore of ‘Eraser’ and a cover of ‘Real American’ before the band get into their chopper and fly off into the sunset, to fight another day. They leave the crowd in a state of rapture and screaming for more. I have to say that musically, ArnoCorps are not really anything to write home about. They play no frills, punky metal in the vein of early Celtic Frost or The Misfits. I can’t imagine wanting to own one of their albums and listen to their songs out of context. But in the atmosphere of a masterful live show, with so much enthusiasm and fun to be had, ArnoCorps were fanTASTIC.

Adam Moffatt

Photos: Tom Horton

Oh my goodness, were you there? Wednesday 4th June 2008: Infinity Festival @ Q Club

3 Universities got together to put on a huge charity event at the legendary Que Club. With a Dj set from Bloc Party, and super funky sounds from a Spectrum led Pete Jordan and Joebot back to back bonanza, the main room was a rockin’.

Other rooms were hosted by Birmingham University Jazz Society and Kerrang - as well as there being a full blown R&B room, and a drum and bass room. There was literally something for everyones taste - including free give aways by Rustlers (anyone fancy a burger?). You could even get screened for Clamidia, as there was a sexual health awareness stand who would happily furnish you with a glow stick in return for a bottle of pee - not a bad ploy! I’ve seen similar things run at popular student nights such as The Night Before at Oceana. It’s a great way to promote sexual health in young hedonistic students

Despite being huge and exciting, with stair cases to random hidden rooms, The Q Club could really do with a lick of paint inside (the novelty of a dusty old venues is starting to wear a bit thin), and the availability of free tap water is unfortunately non existent. I wonder if it’s still trying to sell itself on memories of the past, rather than looking to making a venue for the future.

3000 odd students got together to party the night away and raise loads of cash for the very worthy Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Everyone I spoke to was having a fantastic night out - although I notice a growing trend for people to spend most of the night sat down texting on their phones.

Lots of photos from Infinity Festival can be found here

The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty

Woom Gallery Exhibition by celebrated South African artist Faith47. Her work depicts strong female characters in dilapidated environments. It focuses on the importance and the spirit of the strong female identity through adversity.

A super duper evening : )

Like what it says on the tin really - another fantastic night put on by the guys at Ultra+. James Zambiela is a bit of a wizard on the decks, and Ultra+ had the bright idea of hooking up a  camera and projecting it on a nice big screen so everyone could see what was going on. One of the most excited crowds I’ve seen at the Factory for a while. There seemed to be an unusually high number of complete nutters (good nutters, not punch your face in nutters), making up an awful lot of high energy in the main room. Something in the water perhaps? I think the photos speak for themselves really. Someone made off with Shiela the Ultra+ mascot, a life size blow up doll of dubious origin who looks down upon the party goes from the rafters. Anyone with knowledge of her whereabouts is urged to keep it to themselves.

23rd - 25th May 2008 | | Birmingham Gay Pride

Despite there being no parade at Birmingham Gay Pride this year, it was the best Gay Pride I’ve ever been to! The sunshine was a definate improvement on the gloomy Prides of past, if you don’t count Sunday’s washout.

In the past I’d only watched the Gay Pride parades but with that cancelled I made my way to Hurst Street, it was entirely closed off and really impressive, full of bars, stalls, a funfair, music, a main stage and happy people.

‘Brotherhood of Man’ were the music highlight for me, with their winning 1976 Eurovision classic “Save All Your Kisses For Me”, they knew how to work a crowd and put last years losers ‘Scooch’ to shame. ‘Scooch’ were so uninspiring I just had to walk away. Still, even they didn’t manage to put me off Birmingham Gay Pride, I can’t wait for next year already! Maybe I just love funfairs and parties too much but I think it was more than that, there was a feeling of being part of a community that I’ve never felt in Birmingham before.

This was a fun packed family and friends day out, I’d recommend anyone to go, be it gay, straight, bi, transgender or whatever! ..Especially if the sun is out.

Words/Pics Christine Tellier

www.flickr.com/photos/cristilina

10th May 2008 || Spectrum presents DJ YODA`s Magic Cinema Show which combines visuals and music!

Super hot weather combined with a tragic warm up Dj playing a hellish assortment of R&B and Speed Garage (WTF???) resulted in the night starting off with practically everybody outside of the medbar sitting around the pool. Infact there was hardly any surface not covered by groups of people chatting, wearing shorts, and generally not dancing or getting involved in the night. It was more like an afternoon in the park playing Frisbee than a night of aural goodness.

Luckily the night cooled down a bit, and the offending Dj was booted off the decks accompanied by a small cheer. Tentatively, people started to migrate into the medbar, where some decent music had been started up.

Dj Yoda was met with a somewhat hesitant audience - some people had bought some Magic Cinema Show popcorn from a stand and were munching on it expectantly, others looked on at the popcorn munchers wondering wherever they should be eating popcorn too, or wherever they should be sitting down and worrying about the tall person in front. Some looked as if they were still trying to get over the Speed Garage, and many had clearly been in the sun too long.

I guess people just didn’t know what to expect from a live visual and audio show. I remember seeing Yoda at the med bar a few years back, and it was rammed full of static people staring at the screens for an hour or so, you couldn’t really move, and you wouldn’t want to dance in case someone turned round and said “excuse me could you not do that, I’m trying to watch the show!”.

This time around was completely different, aside from being able to move (It was still incredibly warm inside, and only the brave ventured up onto the stage), the show had plenty of opportunities to have a good ‘ole boogie without worrying too much about what was happening on any of the three huge projection screens. Dj Yoda has got this performance down pretty tight, and the latest show is whole new experience with fresh new material. Certainly not bad when you consider hes just one guy up there doing everything, when comparable acts such as ColdCut have a whole multitude of peeps and at least a thousand laptops, gixmos and gadgets interconnected by ten miles of cables.

I didn’t stay around for Atomic Hooligan, but I have it on very good assurance that he was bloody ace, and theres a pic of Pete Jordan poking him in the ear to prove it. See Below::

Words/ Pics Tom Horton

Photos Tom Horton Photography

03/05/08 Sven Vath @ QClub

Eclectricity are proud to welcome Cocoon, Sven Vath`s Frankfurt techno brand to the Que Club in Birmingham with an unmissable all-star line up.

The Q Club was particularly busy for this bank holiday event, and drawing a good crowd is essential if the vibe in this massive venue is going to be any good. Thankfully the amphitheater was heaving, even the surrounding balconies seemed to be filling up with more than usual array of peeps looking for a bit of space to chill and sit down. Sven Vath put on an truly slick set, marred only by a brief loss of sound which was soon rectified by the quickest moving sounds techs I’ve ever seen.

Spectrum were hosting the chapel with the likes of Pete Jordan, Switch and Stanton Warriors kicking big lively breakbeat sounds. I for one preferred the closer friendly feel of the chapel area, I felt more connected with the music. Don’t get me wrong, the amphitheater is a truly impressive space, and the crowd did it justice by filling it up with the massive amount of energy it requires to feel good. It’s just that I sometimes find that amount of space a bit disjointed unless it is totally rammed and I can’t move.

Words / Photos Tom Horton