Thanks to all who made it on Sunday for our event at IKON. Part of the gallery’s Autumn Almanac series, celebrating the city’s cultural activity, we were invited to program a night of music and sound art. This seemed a wonderful way to round off our wonderful Home of Metal year, celebrating the sound of Birmingham with two exciting performances that explored the concept of Heavy Metal and created something entirely new.
Fresh from their Supersonic debut, Ore played their tuba doom. Referencing Metal, Classical and Experimental sounds.

Andrew Moscardo Parker took inspiration from the newly reformed godfathers of Metal, taking the first three notes of the song ‘Black Sabbath’ ( these notes were known as the Devil’s Intervals in Medieval times) and creating a 30 minute string piece. Eight string players surrounded the audience to create a truly immersive piece of work.

Capsule’s very own Ms Sara Fowles (centre) contributes viola

Huge thanks to all the players, to SOUNDkitchen for contributing field recordings based around the notion of ‘Metal’ and to IKON.
After reading these stellar reviews of the new Phosphorescent album we’re getting more than a bit excited about his show on Saturday…
“…an undiscovered gem” Q Magazine


“…this is a really amazing album. Incredibly honest, very human, emotionally brave, musically coherent, with moments of real poetry. Thoroughly recommended, with a tear in the eye.” The Line of Best Fit
Saturday 5th June
Phosphorescent
Forest Fire
Rich Batsford
@ Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Adv tickets here
Have been meaning to draw your attention to this artwork produced by Drew Millward for the Oxes tour which starts in a couple of weeks time, the Birmingham date is at the Hare & Hounds on Friday 24th of October. We love it! You can check out more of his designs on gigposters.com

While on the subject of poster art here are some other exciting examples of artists who produce gig posters that are worth checking out including Seldon Hunt

and Burlesque Of North America whom we discovered at SXSW a few years ago at Flatstock and ended up parting with a fair bit of cash and now a lack of wall space.

Flatstock is co-presented by the American Poster Institute (API) and South by Southwest (SXSW), and displays the works of more than 100 artists from across North America.
For those of you based in Birmingham or near by, tickets for ATP Halloween Party with performances by Lightning Bolt, Shellac, OM, Pissed Jeans and Wooden Shjips are on sale at Ideal Skate shop based at the Custard Factory.
Ideal
18 / 20 Gibb Square
The Custard Factory
Digbeth
Birmingham
B9 4AA
Opening Times
10.30 am – 6.00 pm Monday through to Saturday.
12 Noon – 4.00 pm Sundays.
Also selling tickets are
Polar Bear
10 York Rd
Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 7RZ
0121 441 5202
Swordfish
Cheltenham House
14-16 Temple St, Birmingham, B2 5BG
0121 633 4859
Italian design company Malleus, whom we met earlier in the year at Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands have produced a series of limited edition screen prints for Supersonic Festival 2008. They will be on sale during the weekend in our ‘Market Place’ which will be held in the Old Library at the Custard Factory, along with a great selection of record stalls and other treats for your buying pleasure.




With only a week to go till Supersonic, things are starting to hot up. Not only is our office a hive of activity but there have been some great articles appearing on the web. Including a piece by James Knight for Vice Magazine Festival Guide
Supersonic
July 11-13, The Custard Factory, Birmingham
The Capsule gang are local Birmingham promoters of good shows who have slowly grown Supersonic from being a well picked all dayer into a raging three day contender for the best festival anywhere ever. Supersonic has the balls to book the kind of bills that the laughably complacent ATP once made their name promoting. This years lineup is no exception. It looks like the kind of bill that a Wire reader would come up with if he was being balled into submission by a burly Terrorizer reader. You get the mathy twiddles of Battles, the komische flourishes of a reformed Harmonia, the lumpen sludge of Erath and Harvey Milk’s first ever UK appearance as well as a whole raft of straight weirdoes like the Fuck Buttons kids, Scotch Egg and Justice Yeldham. All of this before you get to the exclusive screenings our forthcoming Heavy Metal in Baghdad documentary and the fact that you can while away hours in record fairs and lectures when you’re not falling over sideways into that big paddling pool thing from all the cheap Brummie larger and you should basically be getting the message here that Supersonic is not to be missed. Check out capsule.org.uk/Supersonic for tickets which are just £65 for the whole weekend.
and an interview on Channel 4.com
Stuart Fowkes doffs his hat respectfully to Capsule’s Supersonic Festival 2008 and gets math-rock headliners Battles’ and past performers Kling Klang’s take on an extraordinary boutique music festival in Birmingham’s Custard Factory.
and on BBC Birmingham
As Birmingham’s most eclectic music promoters, Capsule continually bring some of the biggest names in alternative and experimental music to Birmingham. For the sixth annual Supersonic festival they have again put together another diverse and adventurous bill, featuring local, national and international acts from a wide span of genres.
Let us know if you’ve found anything else on the web to do with Supersonic.