Saturday 13 June 2015, 8pm
Golden Lab Records began in summer 2005 as a means by which owner Nick Mitchell, then the guitar player in short-lived prog-ish no-wave group I Had An Inkling, could release his own music. Encouraged by Will Hesketh from electronic noise duo Ford Maddox Brown to begin hosting underground rock shows, the label expanded as a result of direct contact with more and more musicians whose work he admired. Output was influenced primarily by exposure in the early '90s to New Zealander Pete Morgan's Freek imprint with whom Mitchell had released records with his teenage band Summum Bonum and associated labels, as well as the intense influx, at the time, of touring so-called 'New Weird America' musicians into the UK.
Born in Cambridge and raised in the Fens, Richard Youngs began making music at the start of the seventies. His early work centred on the family piano. When this was sold in the late seventies, however, the classical guitar and cassette recorder became his instruments of choice, along with anything at hand that made a sound. From then on he has played any number of roles with bands such as Astral Social Club, Concrete Hedge, No Deserts, Jandek and Future Pilot A.K.A. Recent collaborative work with Andrew Paine, Heatsick, Kawabata Makoto and John Clyde-Evans also show him as a highly social musician.
His catalogue of releases wanders into all kinds of zones over a vast array of albums on various labels including his No Fans imprint: they include accapella, guitars, pipes or electronics and come out of solitude and in partnership with atmospheres that range from fragmental folk to all-out fuzz.
“THE iconic figure of the modern UK underground … Richard Youngs evolves in the shadows where most won’t look, but those who do will forever be dazzled and amazed” – The Quietus
Michael “Mick” Flower is a founding member of Vibracathedral Orchestra and operates himself in a similar musical territory which focuses on the droning element of strings, guitars, wind instruments and handheld percussion. Occasional vocal mutterings may remind people of traditional Indian ragas, while other parts of his work hints more at the academic influence of say a Henry Flynt or Tony Conrad.
The duo of Stuart Arnot (Smear Campaign/Total Vermin Tapes) and Nick Mitchell (Chalaque/Golden Lab Records) formed in 2010 in order to create a spontaneous electronic music that captured the visceral attack normally associated with sounds made on traditional rock-ist instrumentation. Spewing forth a kind of un-danceable funk that's part Royal Trux, part Skaters, part Cabaret Voltaire, the band is set to re-issue its 3rd cassette All Right Hen on Golden Lab on LP in summer 2015.
