EVENTS | New Years Eve 2011 – Club 85

ROGUEMUSIC.CO.UK | NEW YEARS EVE | CLUB 85

FACEBOOK EVENT

Sons Of Guns | Richy Spitz | Hazel Turnock & The Finger Choppers
Deckscar | Modern Day Jester | more TBA…

Greetings Roguers

Looking forward to the new year?

For your sakes we hope it’ll all be peaches & cream.

But we’re afraid the end time is near…

The cataclysmic apocalypse referred to in the Mayan prophecy dictates it will be an era fraught with boundless greed and corruption, where global monetary systems disintegrate leaving brother to kill brother for a grain of over cooked rice. The nations of the civilised world will collapse under the impressive weight of parasitic political conspiracies which remove all hope and optimism from their once faithful citizens. Around the globe, generations of polluters will be punished for their sins. Unshielded by the O-zone they have successfully depleted, left to bake in the searing naked rays of light. Wholesale assassinations served to destabilise every remaining government, leaving the starving and wicked to fend for themselves. Bloodthirsty renegade cyborgs created by tax dodging corporations reek havoc. Pissed off androids tired of being slaves to a godless & gutless system, where the rich get richer & the poor get fucked over and out, unleash total world wide destruction by means of nuclear holocaust, annihilating the terrified masses, leaving in its torturous wake nothing but vicious, cannibalistic, mutating, radiating, and horribly disfigured hordes of satanic killers, begged on revenge, but against whom? There are so few left alive. Starvation reins supreme, forcing unlucky survivors to eat anything & anyone in their path. Massive earthquakes crack the planets crust like a hollow egg shell, causing unending volcanic eruptions. Creatures of the seven seas, unable to escape the certain death upon land, boil in their liquid prison. Disease then circles the earth, plagues & viruses with no known cause or cure laying waste to whatever draws breath, and human-kind having proven itself to be nothing more than a race of ruthless scavengers, fall victim to merciless attacks at the hands of interplanetary alien tribes who seek to conquer our charred remains.

The Final World Front.

And there is Only

One

Year

Left.

So come and join us in fearful celebration of the end times.

ROGUE’S END OF THE WORLD PARTY
NEW YEAR’S EVE
CLUB 85
74 Whinbush Road
Hitchin
SG5 1PZ

– Music 8.30pm til 3am featuring –

Live electronica from Hitchin’s own
SONS OF GUNS
http://www.facebook.com/sonsofgunsband?sk=app_2405167945

Lyrical blizzards from
RICHY SPITZ
http://www.myspace.com/richyspitz

Screwball psychobilly from
HAZEL TURNOCK & THE FINGER CHOPPERS

Bass driven party smashers from
DECKSCAR
http://www.facebook.com/deckscar?sk=app_178091127385

Beatboxing and whatnot from
THE MODERN DAY JESTER

Footwork, Floorcore and other styles that probably don’t exist from
DOG LATIN

Old Skool Party faves from
MARYJANE

…and loads of other shizzle TBA.

£5 on the door – That’s cheaper than the pub!

Ticket info to follow…
Discount is at the discretion of the almighty and infallible, Bob.

This is a FANCY DRESS event, but we don’t mind what you wear – just pop down :-)

Matt on Masks

 I’m writing this as a response to some of the beautiful creations worn on people’s faces over our last couple of Rogue parties; especially Halloween.

I’ve always been interested in masks from my very first drama lessons when we studied the ancient players from Greece who would play certain stock characters and rely on exaggerated theatrical gestures to compensate for the lack of facial expression. I found something really interesting about the ‘permission’ to act differently that you are given as soon as you put on a mask and hide your own face; something that allows you to step out of your own skin and ‘be’ someone else is always going to be interesting.

Masks have always been important in human history and used across the world in funerals, religious rites, celebration, theatre and battle. They are practically as old as humans first recorded uses of pottery and clay and remain at the core of costume and pretending. We have been exposed to them since we were very young and are probably too familiar to really sit down and think about them.

There is of course something very creepy and distrustful invoked by masks simply because the face is obscured. Who is this person in front of me their eyes laughing in the semi darkness? Sunglasses of course are un nerving and shifty because they rob you of the expression in someone’s eyes therefore masks can be scary for the opposite reason when all you can see that is human of someone is their eyes. You only have to think back to when you first saw pictures of the masked heavy metal troupe from Iowa that call themselves Slipknot to realise the intensity masks still offer.

Many psychologists including Jung have written extensively about the concept of ‘persona’ and the mask we wear every day to hide our true inner self from those around us. Jung also proposed that there is a dark side to the personality, well-know to the field of psychology as the shadow. It includes both repressed, instinctual feelings and untapped potential. To me, the shadow is not just the “evil” opponent of persona, but is also imagination and creativity left behind or forgotten because of sensible or supposedly good adult behaviour that most of us adhere to in modern times. We make a conscious effort in Rogue to bring you back a little bit of that childhood and to show you that it really is ok to be yourself; creativity keeps us young, happy and open minded and playing with Barbie dolls, space hoppers toy cars and masks allow us to be open and ridiculous with less fear of being judged or thought of negatively. At their core masks allow us to be someone else even if that person is actually just ourselves uninhibited.

 I guess that Rogue is in part about escapism and a loss of inhibition as it provides a chance for us all to go a little crazy, to get outside of ourselves and push a little harder knowing that we can hide behind our masks, hide a little in amongst all the people around us who are also here to get away with being silly. We wish to encourage you all to be yourselves or anyone else you want to be, to dress up and be exotic and different, to make beautiful costumes that inspire, arouse and intrigue, to dance without convention or self awareness and to know that all around you everyone else is too.

This Halloween party just gone was wonderful in terms of costume and we thank you all for making such an effort, where else in Herts can you see 7 foot tall Grim Reapers on stilts hobnobbing with Mexican bandits? However we wish to remind you that mask and costume are not just for Halloween and will be received with open arms (no matter how ridiculous your outfit is) at each and every one of our parties. You might even win a prize.

So for future reference please continue to dress to impress and if you don’t like the attention you can always wear a mask so no one knows it’s you.

words by Matt ‘Red’ Turner.

photos of Rogue’s Dia De Los Muertos Halloween Party by Gavin Felgate.

 This article contains an excerpt from The Healing Arts by Cathy Malchiodi.

If you want to see pictures of what the hell I’m talking about then please feel free to have a mosey around our facebook site.

INTERVIEW | The Metatrons

ASK A SPOOKY QUESTION…

The Metatrons’ debut LP ‘Between Planets’ marks out a territory between the eighties noise pop of Jesus & Mary Chain, the ‘90s alterna-rock of Throwing Muses/Sonic Youth and ‘70s punk/new wave sounds in the Ramones tradition.

In anticipation of their appearance at this weekend’s Day Of The Dead Halloween Party, Rogue joined Hitchin’s fastest rising local rockers for a plate of homemade Mexican tacos and some silly questions taken from an old Smash Hits annual.

The Metatrons (L-R: Polly, Simon, Dez, Steve) - Enchilada Da Vida

LIVE | Plaid at Village Underground 07/10/2011 – Scintilli Album Launch

DENNIS WHITE, electronic whizkid and key player in the Otters and Teflon Child sent us this review of the recent album launch gig by Warp veterans, Plaid.

I haven’t ever reviewed a gig before in my life (aside from over the phone to a mate, post-rave up at Fabric, dribbling about how [insert DJ here] played the same record twice in the same hour but it “just totally worked cos he was so in sync with the crowd”)…. However, the lovely Charlie from Rogue in Hitchin suggested it might be a nice idea. So here goes:

Plaid are one of my favourite electronic acts of all time. Ed and Andy have covered a lot of ground in their work thus far, from the anger of Black Dog to floating goodness for Bjork.

I had never been to Village Underground before (“we all play synth”) and my initial feelings were mixed. The venue is essentially one fairly big room with a very high, slanted ceiling and the most reflective brick walls you could imagine.
As I understand it, the space is used for music and art installations – a bit multi-purpose. The result in sound was bizarre, as no permanent fixtures could be put up to diffuse reflections or try to tame resonant frequencies. The subs hit your body out of phase with the low mids, and then 4 milliseconds later the hats had bounced their way to your head. The rather bland, and instantly forgettable, warmup DJ was playing a selection of tempos and genres when we arrived and it was clear to me that the deeper tracks with less complex rhythms were working best in this venue, no great surprise there… As the sound engineers amongst us will know, as a venue fills up with people the sound improves somewhat, but I was still worried about how Plaid would sound in the big space given their intense polyrhythms and varying time signatures!

Because I live in the sticks, I needed to leave at a specific time in order to get the last train home. I was relying on Plaid to start on time so I could catch the whole set. They didn’t and I couldn’t. This is why I know it was exactly 11:20 when they started.

Opening with new material is always a good idea for an album launch night. They seemed to agree. Instantly SPL was up, clear and punchy transients from high quality RME soundcard – the room was working better now! What’s this? PROJECTOR ON THE BRICK WALL! Nice.

The projector was displaying a kind of chart with shapes, colours and motion being dictated by certain elements in the music. Triggering visuals through level thresholds in music is nothing new but these guys have programmed it all themselves. All around me I could see men with beards hastily consulting with each other every time a new element was introduced. Certainly this visual stimulus was what much of the crowd needed to push them over the edge. There was a focus on the stage now that was nice to see.
Personally, I find the Plaid material to be so extremely well programmed and fascinating that the visuals just distracted me from the whole reason of being there, the music! I shut my eyes for moments of bliss. “Unbank” from the new album comes on (although typically, not in any state where you’d recognise it till half way through) – rushing chords sweep over my head. This pseudo-vocal sound is fucking with my head. They have spent years perfecting the frequency modulated and additive synthesis techniques to produce these strange sounds. Subtractive synthesis always has a place in every track, but these boys were going “WUB WUB WUB” when Skrillex was in nappies – AND THEY HAD TO PROGRAM THE SOUNDS FROM SCRATCH! We are talking the days before Native Instruments.

“Somnl” gets worked into the pallet. This is clearly  a nod to the UK Bass scene, but it’s so much more than that. These chords get you somewhere you’re not sure you want to be touched. They make you feel ecstatic and furious simultaneously. I remember when I first got “Scintilli” and I played it the whole way through getting everything from vertigo (my subwoofer is the size of a washing machine) to goosebumps and at the end feeling physically ill because the chords in “At Last” made me want to cry and smash something up at the same time. This is the power they have over me.

(It’s worth noting that I didn’t swallow, inhale or sniff anything extra-curricular all night)

Holy shit. Now it’s one of those moments where they churn up my insides with the beautiful “Eyen”, and although this track is no spring chicken it gets an enormous reaction! This is a track that could have appeared in any arrangement, any style and still won people over. Sometimes you hear a progression, a riff, an arpeggio and you just know that this will touch people. Plaid have a few moments like this towards the end of their set. Moments from “Spokes” and “Greedy Baby” are thrown in and people react to it well. Stuttering vocals snippets, shredding saw waves fill up the room and then huge drops to gentle FM sounds of “The Launching Of Big Face” swimming around your ears while the sub bass from previous tracks rumbles below; you are never safe!

… And of course my watch is telling me it’s time to go, so I skulk out knowing I am missing 20 minutes of what is no doubt going to be some epic noise. Such is life.

Prior to the gig, I had wondered how average Joe dances to music that switches from 7/8 to 5/4 to half time grooves with very loose quantizing. The answer seems to be, however they bloody want to! There was no shortage of mind-altering goodies within the cavern (sadly I had to drive later than night so straight and narrow for me) and this showed in how people reacted to the music.
As MJ put it, “they could be dancing to a fox in a dustbin and the result would be the same”.
Nail. Head.

HALLOWEEN | Rogue Tickets Now On Sale!

ROGUE presents Día de los Muertos

Day Of The Dead Mexican Halloween Party

29/10/11 – CLUB 85, 74 Whinbush Road, Hitchin

Entry: £6 on the door / £5 with a ticket

Black Eye - www.myspace.com/blackeye
The Metatrons - www.themetatrons.moonfruit.com
Billy Skins Fifth - www.myspace.com/billyskins5th
Battery City (feat. Flo-Ella)
Mike Fallon

A Halloween Party, Mexican Style!

Inspiration for costume etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead

 

TICKETS: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/140059

FACEBOOK LINK: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=228332550545979

 

 

Images | Photos of LOUD!

Oh Christ, it’s a hippie

MC Aberration

Prof Timothy Bleary

Lively crowd for Sub Pirates

Bunny ears did nothing to enhance Aberration’s cred.

Coda – Dubstep liveliness

The man in the mask

Just good clean wholesome fun

Help! My head is shrinking!

Look what you’ve done to my horse!

Photographs by Gavin Felgate (c)2011

EVENTS | ROGUE presents LOUD! with CODA Live Dubstep and Friends – 17th Sept

The eagle-eyed among you will notice the deliberate mistake. Yes, we got the date wrong - it should be the 17th Sept, not the 21st. We promise to rectify this as soon as we've finished painting the shed.

ROGUE presents LOUD!

A live dubstep and drum’n'bass special

Cos Hitchin Just Ain’t Noisy Enough

CLUB 85 | WHINBUSH ROAD | HITCHIN | HERTS

SATURDAY 17tTH SEPTEMEBER (not 21st as it says on our flyer – those responsible for the mistake have been dobbed in for spreading loot-propaganda on Facebook)

with

CODA - Live dubstep with a full band.

TEFLON CHILD – Welwyntronica

VARIATIONS - Mutual Party DJs in full effect

SUB PIRATES - Wob wob wob and a bottle o’rum

ROGUE DJs - Cos we like music too!

Official Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=182008215203904

 

 

 

 

NET | Follow us on Twitter!

IF YOU’VE noticed it’s been a bit quiet round these parts, that’ll be because we’re currently getting our heads round the new fangled thing known as Twitter.

Help us get to grips with it all by following @rogue_music and in return we’ll keep you up to date with as much music news from around North Herts as we possibly can. Bands – send us your news!

We’ve also started a Twitter list North Herts Music which you can follow for direct tweets from all the local bands and music promoters.

EVENTS | Rogue Rhythms Warm-Up

Get into the spirit of Rhythms this Friday night at Chic Bar, Churchyard, Hitchin.

The Rogue DJs will be spinning a cornucopea of different styles from rock, dub, hip hop, dance, punk, and anything else you can think of.

with:

Da Hui
Dog Latin
Fee-Line
Frol
Mark Mallinson

Drink offers and free entry from 9pm-2am

FACEBOOK EVENT

 

 

 

 

IMAGES | Mad Hatter’s Tea Party 3D

BACK IN APRIL, Rogue threw the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party featuring Lika Sharps, Minor Pilot, The Display Team and The Zipheads.

With his experimental technique resident Rogue photographer Barry Hobbs created these stereoscopic images. Made by firing two cameras at once, this less than perfect technique has led to these weird and wonderland-ful animated 3D photos.

Click below to see more, and don’t forget Backwards Rogue this Saturday 18th June, with Triple Chicken Combo, Mzukka, Droome and Alexa Povey.

Lika Sharps

Lika Sharps