Heinous Whining Presents:
Evicshen | Territorial Gobbing | Lyn Vegas | Error Control
Wharf Chambers, Leeds
13th November 2024
In a regular night of gigs – often at the progressive cultural hub of Wharf Chambers – former Thank member (and Territorial Gobbing) Theo Gowans introduces audiences to a miasma of eclectic ambient, noise, minimalist, and other experimental acts. This edition revolved around the first two genres, comprising bold and provocative genres of aural depravity.
Wild. Spontaneous. Unhinged. These are just a few key words from the short but sickeningly sweet Error Control, lasting a perfect duration of around twenty minutes (given the wickedly torturous yet cathartic high-frequencies and stuttering oscillations). Blindfolded throughout, the evident disorientation added to the unpredictability; so much so that the lines between intentional and unintentional weren’t just blurred but disintegrated. This was especially notable when it was trying to tell whether the switch from tabletop to floor performance was deliberate, the leather-clad artist ably assisted in lowering the gear to the floor. The scenes of panic only added volatility to proceedings, however, exhibited by a shout of “it’s harder than it looks when you can’t see…where’s the mixer?” The frantic pacing to find the correct pedal or button, as well as the moment where feet were used instead of hands, had similarly hysterical and piercing results.
The abominably heavy set was mostly a tidal, screaming, and sputtering Merzbow squall, but other genres arose: a brief, arousing blast of psychedelic rock squeezed through; melodic gabber was birthed from the noise chrysalis. It was quickly subsumed by the hellish wormhole that previously commanded the set.
Lyn Vegas split the set into three equally mesmerising phases. Beginning with sample-heavy noise, intoning in a Northern accent, and using screeching swampiness close to the previous act, hymnal keyboards and throbbing bass then reigned, bridging a gap between melancholic and foreboding tones; finally, dark and mildly glitchy ambient entered the fray.
The first of these stages was ominous, conducted by the way the electronics submerged the samples, which came to the surface only when the squall subsided. This was in sharp contrast to the second part, the most euphonic moment of the night, gliding through elegiac, church organ-style keys and IDM bass. The variation and drone intensity ensured the entire performance was mesmerising.
The final phase was even more lachrymal, prioritising synths stained with Aphex Twin’s most melodic and emotive work. The set ended with another sample in a similar Northern accent – a true representation of the artist’s deft gauge of discordant and mellifluous tones.
Territorial Gobbing is the prolific dadaist electronic noise project of Theo Gowans, the personality behind the Heinous Whining Nights. His set began with a series of cassettes hastily inserted into two piled-up tape machines, issuing discombobulating, heady, hazy noise. Odd bits of melody popped out – but the entire thing was a demonic set from the school of Nurse With Wound, an expressway of sample and synth-heavy improvised glory.
It seemed entirely spontaneous, exhibited by him wandering off from the table early on. As the queasy synths and pedals whirred, bellowed, and began strange rhythms, his music also rarely stayed in one place for long, perhaps a window into his freewheeling mind. A carrier bag of tapes was ransacked constantly, searching for a specific sonic collage, the wild abandon manifesting in said tapes being strewn all over the floor and attendees. Future electronic wizards could have been germinated here, had they collected them. The cassettes were also spat out in fury, foreshadowing the spitting of a vocal delay device which brought strangely beguiling gurgles into the already sci-fi-ish atmosphere.
Among the sounds aboard this Electronic Express were several moos and a handful of pigeon coos, exemplifying its once-in-a-lifetime aspect; another performance would likely feature barely any of tonight’s elements.
Later, accordion-style wheezes blared around electronic squawks and vocal wailing, after the delay’s cord was removed due to frenzied movements. Gowans, beer in hand, retained a coolness throughout, even while howling at the moon. He also adjusted the whale-song-type electronics with a carrier bag in hand, coming across as a version of Mark E Smith had he developed a penchant for weird noise acts. Samples were also played via his phone, introducing an enigmatic yet personal tone, and a rare hint of melancholy.
The aforementioned dark ambient overlords aside, there are few other names to liken this extreme artist to, simply because Territorial Gobbing is incomparable. Just like the rest of the set, vaguely similar to the BBC Radiophonic Workshop tackling a Doctor Who episode directed by David Lynch, the final segment confirmed this pretty hefty statement. Torch firmly in mouth, beeps proceeded on a loop, followed by stumbled manoeuvres in the dark (no orchestras here, though) – fading out on increasingly quiet and raspy breaths, generating both giggles and applause.
If the opening act was remotely Merzbow-like, Evicshen was fully drenched in the offshoots of the influential drone artist. It would be unjust and inaccurate, however, to say that Evicshen – the moniker of San Francisco avant-garde noise artist Victoria Shen – was anything but exemplary in her unique, transcendent style. This applied both sonically and visually; the vinyl scratching bedlam that began the set was accompanied by stylus needles attached to her fingernails.
This method, the revolving records were both brandished and bitten against the needles, was just one-way Evischen obliterated preconceptions of noise-making. Other items included: a violin bow, a horn and a whip. Practically no object was off-limits – even the table her equipment rested on was shoved to produce judders in the affecting electronic fog. More tabletop acrobatics ensued when the noisenik clambered onto the table, prompting a rumbling bass thrum akin to Sunn O)))’s primordial purr.
Shen’s wriggling bodily frenzies became a fitting mirror to the abstract sounds from a coil protruding from her mouth, contorting the ragged patterns like a butcher tenderizing meat. Evicshen was just as much of a destroyer of audience-artist barriers as Territorial Gobbing, continuing these sermons to the mesmerized crowds at floor level. This involved rapidly swapping the vinyl via percussive slabs of steaming hot aural gore, before attaching a chain to her boot and elasticating it with a violin bow in rhythmic, elongated strokes. The technique became slightly more conventional but retained the noise edges for a gripping effect, the observer unable to detach their gaze. A horn was utilised with the barking records, landing somewhere in the region of The Contortions or modern-day avant-jazzers O., enhancing the discordant cacophony at its core.
Finally, the audience were instructed to duck, staring in wonder at the final trick: a snaking whip that, with its silencing spine-crack, was just as shocking as the previous events.
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Future Heinous Whining nights can be found here:
All photography by James A Mumby.
Review by James Kilkenny. Read more of his Louder Than War Articles here.
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