“A Small Touch of Infanticide”: Supersonic 2024 Day 3
Debbie Armour leading the Ghost Songs workshop. © John Convery
One Terrible Singer Underground. © John Convery
At Supersonic Festival, Sunday may not be a day of rest, but it certainly began spiritually. Sat alongside members of Tristwch Y Fenywod, Debbie Armour invited a small audience to explore “revenant ballads,” preceded by the notice in this article’s title – possibly the greatest trigger warning of all time – and with the promise of dancing to Chappel Roan at the end if things got too much for anyone. Over 75 minutes, one half of Scottish experimental folk duo Burd Ellen introduced us to the idea of ballads with a non-corporeal purpose – to share stories of loves lost, to grieve melodically and, if you try really hard, to help their spirits return, even if just for the length of a song. An intriguing session, in which my appalling singing voice is thankfully drowned out by others, handled with a light touch by Armour, who kept the mood upbeat in spite of the subject matter. I may need to explore this realm further in the future. Stay tuned.
Daisy Rickman gave two performances that day – one solo, on the rooftop of XOYO where hipster ramblers Weird Walk had taken up residency with a set of paper-mâché standing stones; one with her backing band. Unfortunately, the technical issues that had apparently plagued Emma Ruth Rundle at the Academy the day before had not improved, and both she and her band (who, and I cannot stress enough, are not to blame for this), while leaning towards an ethereal alt-country sound, sounded sludgy as hell. Conversely, armed with nothing but an acoustic guitar in a much smaller, outdoor space, not only did she sound far better than earlier, but honestly, it made much more sense as a performance. Rickman records solo, often at home in Cornwall, and this solitude is reflected in her lyrics, particularly on 2024 LP ‘Howl’. To hear these songs performed intimately, much of the audience sat cross-legged around her, seemed to me a far better reflection of her work.
Weird Walk had curated some intriguing artists for the day. Alas, dashing hither and thither meant I missed most of it, but I was lucky enough to catch Maxine Peake having a lot of fun spinning a mix of freaky disco, brass bands, northern soul, Czech folk, and the theme from Suspiria, only interrupted by the email notification sounds on her iPad. Providing rooftop interludes throughout the day were Boss Morris, an all-female group based in Stroud who blend morris dancing with techno. The KLF did this on ‘Top Of The Pops’ in 1991, but unlike them, Boss Morris are not taking the piss. Their desire to reclaim and reshape this incredibly English folk tradition to something that rejects nationalistic “values” is not only inspiring – it’s a lot of fun to watch and hear. Judging by the looks on the dancers’ faces, it’s possibly even more fun to be part of.
In XOYO’s main space, NASA-approved (apparently) LA composer Mary Lattimore created stunning, hypnotic melodies armed only with a harp and some pedals, which looped and distorted the classic ethereal tone of the instrument into something that risked becoming much darker, but never quite tipped over. There is much to admire about Lattimore’s recorded work, though without any kind of visual element, I find it hard to engage with the work. On stage, being able to watch her effortlessly glide across the strings, introduced a whole new level of appreciation to her craft. Bravo.
Solo female musicians really were killing it that day. Over at the Academy, in my ignorance I assumed Scottish piper Brìghde Chaimbeul walked on stage holding a set of bagpipes. In fact, these were smallpipes – no lungs required, they take in air from bellows, and they seem to produce a softer tone to the Burns Night standby. Less Hogmanay, more meditative, and very easy to get lost among the drones, even when Chaimbeul broke them up by rapping the pipes for percussion. Some of the melodies almost sounded like Eastern ragas to my ears. A welcome reminder that there’s far more to bagpipes than Auld Lang bloody Syne.
Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe. © Alice Needham
You might have heard the work of American sound artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe without even knowing it. With soundtrack credits including HBO’s ‘Telemarketers’ and the 2021 remake of ‘Candyman’, his CV is certainly impressive. For Supersonic though, he presented some extracts from his work on 2023 documentary ‘Grasshopper Republic’, following the deadly working conditions and fortunes to be made in Ugandan cricket farming. Musically, this seemed to fit firmly in the hauntology tradition alongside the likes of William Basinski and Philip Jeck, as ambience, electronics, fragments of dialogue and tape hiss come together in an appropriately low-key performance – Lowe clearly wanted the focus to be on the film, not on himself, and the abridged film clips, from the picture directed by Daniel McCabe, were certainly a cut above the usual pretentious video art that too many artists rely upon to attract their audience’s attention on stage, rather than actually giving an engaging performance. If nothing else, it’s a great advert for the film, which I look forward to seeing in full.
24 hours earlier, Dublin-based folk stalwarts Lankum gave a performance at Dorset’s End Of The Road festival. Today, much like Sweet, the group split into two. On stage at XOYO, Ian Lynch performed as One Leg One Eye, performing a genre of music I refer to as, “middle-aged men staring at modular synthesisers.” More interestingly and, indeed, popularly, over at the full-to-capacity Academy, Radie Peat and producer John “Spud” Murphy led the 4-piece ØXN and their audience into synth-led post-rock/doom-neofolk ecstasy. Sure, they had guitars, but they didn’t really need them, and despite ongoing issues with the mix (seriously O2, the bass did not need to be THAT loud), they sounded incredible – sonically adjacent to Mogwai, while staying true to their folk roots. A real highlight of the festival.
As was Supersonic’s top billing, Bonnie “Prince” Billy. Though he only had an hour, he made the most of it with a set spanning his entire career, including songs from arguably his most acclaimed LP, 1999’s ‘I See A Darkness’, right up to 2023’s ‘Keeping Secrets Will Destroy You’. I fell in love with Will Oldham’s alt-country Americana nom de plume on first hearing 2006 LP ‘The Letting Go’, so naturally the inclusion ‘No Bad News’ on the setlist in a truly heartbreaking arrangement was a personal treat. Accompanied by Thomas Deakin, who gets massive kudos for playing what could otherwise have been a guitar solo on the clarinet, then later by John Ashton on keyboard, the sound was nonetheless dominated by his own acoustic guitar, and a voice that I’ve only ever been able to describe as the aural equivalent of a big hug. Besides rapturous applause, and the commotion of a punter’s pint being dropped from the balcony, the audience was pin-drop silent throughout, a sign of the respect Oldham has earned over 30 years of songwriting and performance.
Bonnie “Prince” BIlly. © Jim Brindley
This could have been a low-key ending to the festival. Luckily, Mohammad Syfkhan was on hand to close things in fine, upbeat style. Sat on stage with a bouzouki, effectively a long-necked lute with historical links to Ancient Greece, the Kurdish singer-songwriter looked like a history teacher who got lost on his way to the renaissance fair. But when he started playing, backed by a drum machine, he absolutely shredded the bouzouki with a set of unexpected party bangers. He says he hopes to, “create an atmosphere of joy, love and happiness.” In the final moments of Supersonic 2024, he certainly succeeded.
Mohammad Syfkhan. © Jim Brindley
There are rumours that the ongoing gentrification of Digbeth might force Supersonic out of the area. Given that the festival itself could easily take some credit for how the area has developed over the last 2 decades, this would be a tremendous shame. I have previously said that Supersonic’s reputation precedes it, often cited as one of the UK’s best small festivals. Like all the best festivals, it does not try to be all things to all people, and over 20 years it has ploughed its own furrow of championing experimental sounds and encouraging creativity. While the O2 Academy in particular leaves a lot to be desired in terms of its sound engineering, from a curatorial standpoint, the team at Capsule, the Birmingham-based group behind the festival, pulled an absolute blinder out. I don’t do stars, but if I did, I’d offer five.
Here’s to another 20 years.
In the meantime, Supersonic organisers Capsule are turning 25, and having a big festive blow-out celebration on Thursday 19 December in Birmingham with live music from Big Joanie, The None, and Flesh Creep. Tickets are twelve quid.
© James Thompson
PS. Keep an eye in the coming weeks for features on Supersonic artists Tristwch Y Fenywod, Senyawa, and Do.omyoga.
supersonicfestival.com
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