David Hand has created some lovely limited edition screen prints of his super cool design for the Daniel Higgs show in black/gold or white/pink. Be warned, they are SUPER limited and shan’t be available for long. You can also buy screenprints from the Barn Owl show, in an equally lovely design. Snap one up for £20 via the shop

The Outcrowd at Supersonic Festival

Another busy and varied year for Capsule, 2012 saw a number of extraordinary events and crucially, saw us celebrate 10 years of Supersonic Festival in October. This year’s edition of the festival was one of the finest of the past 10 years, a truly excellent way to celebrate a decade of experimental music and art. Highlights included the Vinyl Rally installation, Kim Gordon performing as Body/Head as well as bringing her Reverse Karaoke installation. We saw thrilling new acts grace the stage like Richard Dawson, Goat and Clifford Torus as well as firm favourites Chris Corsano, Drunk in Hell and The Bug and new collaborations and special performances from the Oxbow Orchestra, ORE vs KK Null and Moon0))). We also extended our Kids Gigs programme to include a number of workshops in the lead up to the festival with Juneau Projects and two gigs with Flower/Corsano Duo and Islaja. An enormous thanks goes out to everybody who supported this year’s Supersonic Festival via our We Fund campaign. Your donations truly helped to make the anniversary festival one of the best yet. We are now looking forward to the opportunity to re-imagine the future of Supersonic Festival.

In May we were awarded the role of curators for the Library of Birmingham’s Opening Season. Taking the theme of ‘discovery’, the season of events will celebrate the opening of a dynamic new cultural space in Birmingham with a mix of performances, exhibitions and special commissions. The events will take place in the lead up to, and after the opening on 3rd September 2013. Watch this space for more news.

At the very heart of Capsule, we’re fans, so every show feels like a highlight, but to name a few we’re extremely proud this year of:
– Esmerine with a beautiful visual show in the stunning setting St Paul’s Church in the Jewellery Quarter with drone guitarist Adam Beckley in May.
– Grouper presenting new work at Vivid in March as part of Fierce Festival with an excellent set from Diamond Catalog and commissioned performance from SWLLWS.
– Also in collaboration with Fierce, we presented the Secret Show where Francisco Lopez sent the audience on a disorientating sound journey.
– Panopticon in March was a wild night of psych rock with White Hills and Pontiak, part of Flatpack Festival

Grouper performing at VIVID in March

It was also great to invite back firm favourites Bardo Pond, Harvey Milk, Unsane, Big Business, Boris, OM, Justin Broadrick and Khyam Allami to Birmingham.

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to co-founder Jenny Moore at the end of the year – she will always remain a firm member of the Capsule family.

Thank you to all who have supported us this year and come along to our events, watch this space for news of our 2013 programme.

Courtesy of http://www.popcards.fr/

Happy new year, from Capsule HQ

It is with a heavy heart that Capsule say goodbye to co-founder Jenny Moore at the end of the year. Her creative passion and inspiring level of commitment have driven Capsule forward over the years and been central to the organisation’s ethos. All who have worked alongside her will miss her enormously. We wish her the best in her future endeavours, and anyone who has enjoyed a Capsule gig or a Supersonic Festival should raise a glass to her.

The much loved Hare & Hounds venue in the Kings Heath area of Birmingham is currently under threat as a hub for live music due to plans to build residential property directly behind the venue. You can show your support by signing the petition.

“It has come to our attention that an application for planning permission to build a flat behind the Hare and Hounds has been submitted to Birmingham City Council. If granted it could pose a real threat to us continuing to host live music and club nights due to it’s proximity to the main live venue. Although nothing has been confirmed yet we have decided to appeal against this application before it has the chance to be accepted.

To make our case stronger we need your help. Please sign this petition to show your support.”

Capsule have a long and happy relationship with this venue, with artists like Earth, Mono, Bardo Pond, Melt Banana, Emeralds, Prefuse 73, Merzbow and Efterklang all performing there. Sign the petition and show your support!

Just one of the bands we’re stupidly excited about playing Supersonic Festival is year is Goat. Afro heavy psych punk from a remote Swedish village? Gotta be good! You can read a review of their album ‘World Music’ on Norman Records

Everything is perfectly in place here from well-segued samples and the odd field recording to the breathless running order. It’s hit after flipping hit with this band, they’ve concocted an alarmingly poppy creation filled with nine all-too brief excursions into a voodoo world where Swedish psychedelia meets belting Afro-rock and parties like there’s no tomorrow. Please, like with all your favourite albums, play it ridiculously loud, then, undoubtedly, re-rewind and crank it up again till dawn and beyond. Goat are worth falling out with your neighbours for. Read the full review via http://www.normanrecords.com/records/135427-goat—world-music

And if you’re into your psych rock, you’ll have a fab time at Supersonic, with the likes of Carlton Melton, Six Organs of Admittance and Hookworms all planning to turn us all inside out.

The Guardian today described

Supersonic is an excellent small festival of boundary-chafing music that takes place at Birmingham’s Custard Factory every October. As a hint of what to expect, the organisers are hosting a couple of “taster” nights this week, with acts from the electronic end of their wide-ranging brief. Godflesh’s Justin Broadrick and Kevin Martin, aka The Bug, have collaborated many times over the years – most significantly throughout the 90s as industrial hip-hop outfit Techno Animal – and these two nights find them showcasing their latest projects. Martin appears as part of heavyweight future-dub soundsystem King Midas Sound, while Broadrick performs as JK Flesh, a new beat-oriented guise that bridges Godflesh’s malefic grind and Jesu’s snowblind soundscapes. In Birmingham you can also catch the power electronics of Iron Fist Of The Sun, while “Romany surf-step” chap Glatze provides a bit of light relief in London.

Tickets for tonight can be purchased from HERE doors are at 7.30pm – we’ll be running a lovely real ale bar too
Eastside Projects can be found – 86 Heath Mill Lane  Birmingham, West Midlands B9 4AR

For tickets to the London show on Thursday see HERE

For full line up of Supersonic Festival 19-21 October see HERE & tickets are available from HERE

As well as getting you hyped for Supersonic Festival with the heavy sounds of Kevin Martin (as King Midas Sound System, performing as The Bug in October) and JK Flesh, we’ve taken the opportunity to programme some exciting sounds from some of Birmingham’s own experimental sound artists.

Sarah M Farmer is a Birmingham based artist exploring various sound techniques and home made instrumentation. For this event she will be performing a new piece entitled ‘An Array of Events’. “In a bid to overcome the problem of being a lone performer with only the usual number of hands and limited instrumental skill” Sarah will perform orchestral pieces using a variety of DIY instruments.

Check out some of her other work:

The event takes place on Saturday 4th August at Eastside Projects from 7.30pm. Tickets are available via https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk/

Chris has also released the first of three Supersonic Festival podcasts, giving you a taster of some of the artists playing at the 2012 edition of the event, which just so happens to be its 10th year – how exciting.