CHEMICAL POETS consisted of Harlequinade, Texture and Tickle, backed at various gigs by a revolving cast of performers and musicians, the core band being Asthmatic Astronaut, mo-seph and Gung-Who of Sileni. In 2010, the Chemical Poets premiered TWENTY TENTACLE at the Edinburgh Fringe - going acappela,and relying solely on the kinetic energy contained in their verses, it was an intense, densely-packed one hour spoken word / hip-hop show.
Harlequinade would follow up TWENTY TENTACLE in 2011 with HYDRONOMICON, using the music of Asthmatic Astronaut to conjour apocalyptic visions of a world brought to the brink by flooding and population crisis. Elements from HYDRONOMICON will be featured on COWTSHTF 3, due for release on 31 October. HYDRONOMICON was greeted with critical acclaim, and led hQ to pursue opportunities in the theatre, debuting his grotesque ‘black clown’ satire THE RATCATCHER at Arches Live in 2012.
Now working on several new projects, some in film, some in theatre, some in comics, poetry and prose, Harlequinade has become one of the most inventive and exciting transmedia creators working in Scotland today. On Halloween, Black Lantern present two of his latest musical projects, CITY OF BROKEN DOLLS (with electro/future-bass/techno maverick KROWNE; and the aforementioned third part of the trilogy of EPs by CHURCH OF WHEN THE SHIT HITS THE FAN.
We hope you’ll join us on Wednesday for the launch of these two brilliant EPs! For now, enjoy the full-length video of CHEMICAL POETS: TWENTY TENTACLE.
This week on Black Lantern we’re celebrating the career of rapper, poet, performer, film-maker and producer Harlequinade, co-founder of our label. The lyrical puppet master of CHURCH OF WHEN THE SHIT HITS THE FAN and SILENI, and one third of performance poetry collective CHEMICAL POETS, he has written and performed for theatre, premiering THE RATCATCHER at Arches Live, and HYDRONOMICON at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe. We’ll be talking more about his theatre and film work later in the week, and posting links to some of his short fiction.
This week of celebration culminates on Halloween with the double-release of two new EPs featuring Harlequinade. The first is a collaboration with Black Lantern’s techno/electro/bass music trailblazer KROWNE, hot on the heels of his recent EP, CREATING A MONSTA.
The second is the hotly-anticipated COWTSHTF 3, by CHURCH OF WHEN THE SHIT HITS THE FAN, hQ’s collaboration with BLM co-founder and future bass/hip-hop pioneer ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT.
For now, get yourself acquainted with the weird and wonderful world of Harlequinade by checking out his debut solo release on B:L:M, the madcap cut-and-paste oddysey NIHILYMOUS GERMSCAPES.
Tumblr was down yesterday, so you missed our first hQ-related treat - go to our Soundcloud, and grab yourself a copy of The Old Man Speaks, Part One, an exclusive track excerpted from the very first EVER Black Lantern release, RIDERS ON THE CONQUERING WORM, by SILENI, aka Harlequinade and Gung-Who.
Come back on Monday for more Harlequinade treats!
BLACK LANTERN MUSIC & GRIEFCORE PRESENT:
KROWNE // ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT // TEXTURE // YUAN MEKONG
13 NOVEMBER - THE 13TH NOTE, GLASGOW -FREE ENTRY
Asthmatic Astronaut
Asthmatic Astronaut has been released by Tru Thoughts, Wah Wah 45s and has appeared on both volumes of the Stac remixes alongside luminaries such as Bonobo, Blue Daisy and Kid Kanevil. Originally discovered by Japanese label De:jine Records, he went on to tour with the consciously positive live-rap extravaganza Underling, playing with everyone from El-P, Roots Manuva, Mike Ladd and Aesop Rock to DJ Vadim.
Scotland’s premier arts and culture listings magazine, The Skinny, had this to say: “Keep an ear to the ground for the particularly excellent Asthmatic Astronaut, he has proven to be one of the most exciting artists currently working in Scotland.”
“Monstrous glitches and blasting beats……A trillion thumbs up.” - Netlabelism.com
Krowne
Krowne is an electronica, hip-hop and techno producer based in Edinburgh. He is a member of sonic explorers Vibration Terrorists. Krowne’s music was brought to Black Lantern by Asthmatic Astronaut. He has released four EPs with the label: Orders From Mars, Quantum Living, Distorted Thoughts and his latest, Creating A Monsta.
Krowne is also part of duo Kromatic with Asthmatic Astronaut. Kromatic have played live on BBC Radio 1 Introducing Scotland. Krowne has had several tracks featured on Radio 1 as well as having 2 tracks featured in the same Netlabelism compilation in Feb 2011.
Krowne has also recently won the Orbital -‘Wonky’ Beatport remix competition. Krowne’s remix will soon be available on Beatport/ADA/Warner.
Texture
Texture is an emcee / writer / vocalist / producer based in Glasgow, Scotland. He makes loop-based hip-hop, with dubstep, electro, and lo-fi influences. He is the co-curator of Black Lantern Music, and co-host of the Shallow Rave podcast.
He has collaborated with Morphamish, Asthmatic Astronaut, Salem Anders of Burning Bright, dustmotes, Monkeytribe, Krowne, Kid Ritalin and Harlequinade, and has had guest spots on tracks by Harlequinade, Krowne, Twin Lizard, and Drowning The Colossus.
Yuan Mekong
Yuan Mekong of The Radiation Line/ The Cosmic Dead will be drowning your senses in his wonderful synth pop stylings with a darker edge.
REFRAME presents SPATIAL (Infrasonics / Well Rounded / Stillcold)
After a packed 1st birthday bash, we’re moving swiftly on to our next event. On Friday 26th October, we’ll be welcoming Spatial to our basement for a wee shinding! (http://spatial.infrasonics.net/) + suppport from Asthmatic Astronaut and Davie Blair.
FRIDAY 26th OCTOBER @ The Brunswick Hotel, Merchant City, Glasgow
DOORS: 10pm
LIMITED EARLYBIRD TICKETS: £6.00 on Resident Advisor (incl. booking fee)
£7 on the door.
INFO: It’s difficult to pigeon-hole this London producer’s sound, but think minimal/funky/bass/rave/garage, and you’re on heading down the right track… We’re fortunate to be visited by the Infrasonics label’s chief before he embarks on a U.S./Australia tour, and we think his requirements for “as dark a room as possible” will be met perfectly by the Brunswick Hotel’s intimate basement club which we now call home.
Support will come from our new resident DJ, DAVIE BLAIR
and
ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT, a prolific producer from the Black Lantern net-label, with releases also appearing on Tru Thoughts and Wah Wah 45’s. Originally discovered by Japanese label De:jine Records, he went on to tour with the consciously positive live-rap extravaganza Underling, playing with everyone from El-P, Roots Manuva, Mike Ladd and Aesop Rock to DJ Vadim.
[BLM060] KROWNE - CREATING A MONSTA
OUT TODAY! The fourth EP from Irish, Edinburgh-based producer KROWNE continues the cosmic, scientifically-inspired journey begun on ORDERS FROM MARS, and continued on QUANTUM LIVING and DISTORTED THOUGHTS. Journeying through hip-hop, techno, electro and deep bass sounds, CREATING A MONSTA is a slick, digital Frankenstein’s monster for the cyber age.
“In this EP I’ve tried to cut to the bone of what I feel is my style and sound. I’m always trying to do something a bit different from my previous releases, and evolve my music in an even more scifi direction,” says Krowne. Featuring collaborations and remixes from TEXTURE, ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT and JIMMY THE HIDEOUS PENGUIN, the album explores the idea of artificial intelligence on tracks like Girl 2.0. “It’s about a man who builds a replica of a previous wife / partner,” Krowne explains. “He explains how the replica is so much better in several different ways. Truly geeky Bladeunner-style material.”
The remixes come from two excellent, leftfield producers: “I choose AA and Jimmy the Hideous Penguin to do remixes because I knew they would deliver something warped and out of the box,” says Krowne. “AA and myself also work together under the name Kromatic, which is our Crunk Music alter-ego. AA is a natural choice for me as I trust his thinking, style and pure creativity when it comes to music. I’ve known Jimmy for a long time, ten years now, and he has always been very creative.” Jimmy is based in Galway, and runs Community Scratch and Alkalinear Recordings. “He is an amazing turntablist, taking it to new levels,” Krowne enthuses.
Heavily inspired by science fiction, Krowne references Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequels, and his classic The City and the Stars, as well as Philip K. Dick classics Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Dr. Blood Money, not to mention Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku, a scientific book exploring the technology of classic science fiction.
Krowne recently entered and won a competition to remix Orbital. “The remix will be out soon on ADA / Warner /Beatport.” He is also finishing a 2-track EP with rapper Harlequinade (Church Of When The Shit Hits The Fan), a new Kromatic EP, and an EP of straight-up techno. A dedicated, fascinating producer with true diversity in his work, Krowne’s story has only just begun.
DOWNLOAD: ‘KROWNE - CREATING A MONSTA’ FREE FROM BLACK LANTERN
(Source: WWW.BLACKLANTERNMUSIC.COM)
![[BLM057] TEXTURE - NEUROLEPTICA
Black Lantern’s 57th release is a deluxe, remastered and repackaged collection of tracks by TEXTURE, collecting the 3 EPs released on Black Lantern Music between 2009 and 2011, featuring collaborations with Morphamish, Harlequinade, dustmotes, Monkeytribe and many more, plus exclusive remixes from Mild Maynyrd, Asthmatic Astronaut, I†† and THEFT // OBJECTIVE aka p.WRECKS.
Available as a CDR with deluxe fold-out artwork by D. Miranda Pole, or as a digital download in the format of your choice (CDR also includes immediate download), NEUROLEPTICA represents the culmination of four years’ worth of collaborations betwen TEXTURE and a selection of the most exciting leftfield electronica and hip-hop producers from Scotland and around the world.
“My vision of hip-hop is non-traditional, and pretty fucking bleak,” explains Texture. “I’m not talking about the bleakness of schemes and unemployment, of guns and gangs, because that would be disengenuous. That wasn’t my life. My lyrics are about the imagined dystopias of cyberpunk. The philosophical alienation caused by modern life and society; by failed relationships and doomed, psychologically fucked perspectives. I use my music to purge, and hopefully to reveal a few chinks of light coming through the boarded-up windows of abandoned buildings in the grim meathook future. Goth-swag anthems.”
<a href=”http://texture.bandcamp.com/album/neuroleptica” data-mce-href=”http://texture.bandcamp.com/album/neuroleptica”>Neuroleptica by Texture</a>
……
CDR & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE HEREtexture.bandcamp.comsoundcloud.com/texturetexturemusick.tumblr.comfacebook.com/pages/Texture/274372843294OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘ASSASINS CREED’ COMING SOON…UPCOMING LAUNCH GIGS: 30th June @ Bloc, Glasgow with Asthmatic Astronaut, Tickle & Monkeytribe DJs.20th July @ The Art School, Glasgowwith Hordes Of Unstoppable Skeletons, Giro Babies, and Roscoe Variant & The Gantin’ SchriechsPRESS FOR TEXTURE: “This. Shxt. Slapz. Brooding poetic flow over nocturnal productions.”- Blam Blam Fever “A dark urban feel combining aspects of hip-hop, dubstep and post-modern electronica… Foreboding but hypnotically attractive… A good bet for the nihilists in the crowd.”- Free Albums Galore “The atmosphere generated is immense and mind consuming… The entry of fluid, rapid-fire vocals works brilliantly as a mere sonic compliment to everything else, but the lyrics are phenomenal: dropping glittering turns of phrase, confrontational wordplay and above all a complex, ideas led viewpoint.”- Brainleak Station “Listen to it on the train as the graffiti-ed factories with broken windows fly by… The woman to your left is e-mailing her partner how she thinks they should “take a break”… Someone else is jotting down hand-written scribbles ahead of you into a leather-bound notebook… The lyrics are bouncing around in your head, unable to get out, they’ll become a part of you, and you will make your own stories.”-Dan Black, The Sonny Wilkins Chronicle “Proof of the city’s ever emergent hip-hop undercurrent. Synaesthesia makes for a promising release… indicative of greater things to come.”- Martin Skivington, The Skinny “Melodic yet densely packed delivery which demands more than a single listen…”- Enough Records Blog “Echo Boomers is a beaut – fantastic verses well delivered alongside sweet production from Morphamish.”- Mark Scanlan, aka Kobra Audio Labs “An immersive listening experience, heavy beats deftly drawing you in… Luscious, hypnotic… Tortuously deep flows.”- Dylan Orchard, for The Creative Uncommons “A shimmering slick of cyberpunk hip-hop.”- Thanks Tom Hanks](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5kf3zyzHK1qisdx4o1_500.jpg)
[BLM057] TEXTURE - NEUROLEPTICA
Black Lantern’s 57th release is a deluxe, remastered and repackaged collection of tracks by TEXTURE, collecting the 3 EPs released on Black Lantern Music between 2009 and 2011, featuring collaborations with Morphamish, Harlequinade, dustmotes, Monkeytribe and many more, plus exclusive remixes from Mild Maynyrd, Asthmatic Astronaut, I†† and THEFT // OBJECTIVE aka p.WRECKS.
Available as a CDR with deluxe fold-out artwork by D. Miranda Pole, or as a digital download in the format of your choice (CDR also includes immediate download), NEUROLEPTICA represents the culmination of four years’ worth of collaborations betwen TEXTURE and a selection of the most exciting leftfield electronica and hip-hop producers from Scotland and around the world.
“My vision of hip-hop is non-traditional, and pretty fucking bleak,” explains Texture. “I’m not talking about the bleakness of schemes and unemployment, of guns and gangs, because that would be disengenuous. That wasn’t my life. My lyrics are about the imagined dystopias of cyberpunk. The philosophical alienation caused by modern life and society; by failed relationships and doomed, psychologically fucked perspectives. I use my music to purge, and hopefully to reveal a few chinks of light coming through the boarded-up windows of abandoned buildings in the grim meathook future. Goth-swag anthems.”
……
CDR & DIGITAL DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE HERE
texture.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/texture
texturemusick.tumblr.com
facebook.com/pages/Texture/274372843294
OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘ASSASINS CREED’ COMING SOON…
UPCOMING LAUNCH GIGS:
30th June @ Bloc, Glasgow
with Asthmatic Astronaut, Tickle & Monkeytribe DJs.
20th July @ The Art School, Glasgow
with Hordes Of Unstoppable Skeletons, Giro Babies, and Roscoe Variant & The Gantin’ Schriechs
PRESS FOR TEXTURE:
“This. Shxt. Slapz. Brooding poetic flow over nocturnal productions.”
- Blam Blam Fever
“A dark urban feel combining aspects of hip-hop, dubstep and post-modern electronica… Foreboding but hypnotically attractive… A good bet for the nihilists in the crowd.”
- Free Albums Galore
“The atmosphere generated is immense and mind consuming… The entry of fluid, rapid-fire vocals works brilliantly as a mere sonic compliment to everything else, but the lyrics are phenomenal: dropping glittering turns of phrase, confrontational wordplay and above all a complex, ideas led viewpoint.”
- Brainleak Station
“Listen to it on the train as the graffiti-ed factories with broken windows fly by… The woman to your left is e-mailing her partner how she thinks they should “take a break”… Someone else is jotting down hand-written scribbles ahead of you into a leather-bound notebook… The lyrics are bouncing around in your head, unable to get out, they’ll become a part of you, and you will make your own stories.”
-Dan Black, The Sonny Wilkins Chronicle
“Proof of the city’s ever emergent hip-hop undercurrent. Synaesthesia makes for a promising release… indicative of greater things to come.”
- Martin Skivington, The Skinny
“Melodic yet densely packed delivery which demands more than a single listen…”
- Enough Records Blog
“Echo Boomers is a beaut – fantastic verses well delivered alongside sweet production from Morphamish.”
- Mark Scanlan, aka Kobra Audio Labs
“An immersive listening experience, heavy beats deftly drawing you in… Luscious, hypnotic… Tortuously deep flows.”
- Dylan Orchard, for The Creative Uncommons
“A shimmering slick of cyberpunk hip-hop.”
- Thanks Tom Hanks
(Source: blacklanternmusic.com)
The 53rd release by Black Lantern is from one of our charter members, ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT, the producer and beatsmith behind CHURCH OF WHEN THE SHIT HITS THE FAN.
Asthmatic Astronaut has been released by Tru Thoughts, Wah Wah 45s and has appeared on both volumes of the Stac remixes alongside luminaries such as Bonobo, Blue Daisy and Kid Kanevil. Originally discovered by Japanese label De:jine Records, he went on to tour with the consciously positive live-rap extravaganza Underling, playing with everyone from El-P, Roots Manuva, Mike Ladd and Aesop Rock to DJ Vadim.
Scotland’s premier arts and culture listings magazine, The Skinny, had this to say: “Keep an ear to the ground for the particularly excellent Asthmatic Astronaut, he has proven to be one of the most exciting artists currently working in Scotland.”
A follow-up to last year’s NARCOLEPTIC INSOMNIAC, the new EP EXPOSING ALL EMOTIONS is available NOW for the bargain price of just £3. All money goes DIRECT to the artist!
DOWNLOAD ‘EXPOSING ALL EMOTIONS’
STREAM ‘EXPOSING ALL EMOTIONS’
ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT - EXPOSING ALL EMOTIONS (PREVIEW)
A preview of the forthcoming EP on Black Lantern by one of our charter members, ASTHMATIC ASTRONAUT! Featuring 6 tracks of sinuous, emotional, melodic synths and crisp, heavy hip-hop and electro beats, ‘Exposing All Emotions’ will be available as a paying download from our main site very soon. You can listen to the preview above, and if you missed it, make sure to grab a copy of AA’s recent FREE self-released EP ‘Fuzzing Out Of Focus’ from asthmaticastronaut.com.
