It has been all too quiet on the Gesamtkunstwerk front in recent times, but thankfully this month sees its triumphant return to Islington Mill for a night-long descent into the darkest deep of contemporary electronics. Broken Bone, hot on the trail of Willowbrook, their fearsome début for the Aperture Label, take the headline slot. A conceptual EP that sonically mirrors the atrocities committed at the infamous NYC medical institution, the duo of Daz Quayle and Tony ‘Bone’ Snowden hunt through an uncannily dreadful landscape of battered and drenched rhythms that constantly beat the listener on the chest, while at well-timed points revealing a desolate and bruised beauty of melody that elevate them above simple exercises in noise and beat antics. In fact, it is this disparity that makes the duo all the more attractive. Last seen at the Open Circuit festival, Peter Edwards’ Casper Electronics (pictured) will also be performing live and continues a theme of duality for the night. Rather than a rhythmic assault, Casper Electronics focuses is on synthetic textures generated by modular synthesis, both lush and hair-raising, Edward’s journey through sound shows shades of both classic-era John Carpenter and the more out-there workings of Keith Fullerton Whitman. As ever, the Gesamt residents will be manning the turntables all night, playing everything from sandblasted industrial techno, violent power-electronics and brain flossing future sounds.

Fri 27 Mar, Islington Mill, 1 James Street, Salford, M3 5HW, 10pm, £7 adv / £10 otd, www.skiddle.com

Fri 27 Mar
Words:
David McLean
Published on:
Sun 22 Mar 2015