Fri 08 | 10pm
Dim Locator (AUS/UK) is a new group formed from the ashes of legendary Berlin-based band Fatal Shore. The group comprises Phil Shoenfelt (guitar/vocals), Chris Hughes (drums/percussion) and Dave Allen (bass guitar). Special guest: Gez Donnelly (guitar)
Englishman Phil Shoenfelt has lived in Prague for many years, and is known for his work with Southern Cross (Prague), Fatal Shore (Berlin) and Khmer Rouge (New York), as well as for his autobiographical novel “Junkie Love”, recipient of the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in New York. To date, Shoenfelt has released 15 full length CDs of his music – solo, with Khmer Rouge, with Southern Cross, with Fatal Shore and with Nikki Sudden. In the past, he has toured as support artist with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Fall, Crime & The City Solution, Nico, The Clash and Tom Verlaine. He also played lead guitar in The Nikki Sudden Band on two European tours in 1997 and 1998.
Chris Hughes (AUS) is based in Berlin and has played and recorded with Fatal Shore, Hugo Race & The True Spirit, The Act, Methylated Spirits, Nina Hagen and Rowland S. Howard. His most recent collaboration was with Alexander Hacke of Einstürzende Neubaten in Hacke’s new project Hitman’s Heel. He was part of the same Melbourne scene that spawned the likes of The Birthday Party and Crime & The City Solution, and is known for his explosive style of syncopated drumming. Several of his compositions appeared on the True Spirit CDs “Wet Dream” and “Ambuscado”, and he has recently been composing film soundtrack music for Ralf Goldkind’s label.
Dave Allen (AUS) is also based in Berlin, and has played bass with Hugo Race & The True Spirit, Lunar Lounge, Methylated Spirits, The Act, and Kinch Blade & The Black Lilies. Originally from Sydney, Allen moved to Berlin in the early 1990s, and his rock steady bass playing style complements and anchors Chris Hughes’s wild, improvisatory excursions.
MUSICAL STYLE: The music of Dim Locator is stripped down industrial psych-rock music with influences from The Stooges, Beasts of Bourbon, Can, The Birthday Party, Pink Fairies and Hawkwind. This deliberate mixing of radically different styles and genres intentionally avoids the identikit, music-by-numbers style of so many contemporary bands, who simply adopt the image and sound of their idols, and whose originality suffers accordingly. The music itself uses randomly sampled and re-sampled loops, a pulsating, electric sound that creates a kind of hypnotic “Ur-Drone”, stimulating what Iggy Pop once referred to as the “O Mind”.
RECORDING NEWS: In late 2011 a three song tribute EP of Rowland S. Howard songs was released, for online sales only. The EP is called “Immortalised” and is available through Bremen-based label Fuego. Two of these songs, “I Ate The Knife” and “Undone”, will be released as a 7 inch single by Vienna based label Cover Recordings.