The Qu Junktions Indian Summer Showdown with 3 of our favourite acts all raising glasses, spilling out the with good times, the old times and the wyrd times . All play/sing for their lives. Radio 1 wont go near them but this is ESSENTIAL.

Please note running order is Frank then Charlie then Trembling Bells

Charlie Parr is a hero to many and his warm, humble and life affirming presence is always welcome in Bristol. The Charlie Parr live experience showcases music blending bluegrass, blues and country, with a rock-red seam of rag and stomp.

Trembling Bells are loved and you can see why a band steeped in folk (psych/acid and trad) /rock (canonical, raw and crafted) and even early music traditions (hear Vinnie's soaring lead vocals and glisten) but this four piece are free from heritage bursting out with a manic energy, strong songs and a beautifully woozy distinctly sceptred isle style .

Frank Fairfield is a star. Just watch this. A California based fiddle, guitar and banjo player and ardent 78 collector who was the specially-chosen tour guest of Fleet Foxes, Fairfield sings soaring hillbilly ballads, arcane rambling songs and murder ballads in a reedy tenor with that irresistible dust to digital quality. Still in his early twenties but steeped in the pre-War Americana of Mississippi John Hurt and Dock Boggs, he cut his teeth as a street performer in LA and has the raw intensity and spellbinding technique to make your hairs stand on end.

YOWL...its time again to ask....How Come...

The wild and widescreen live action nightclub brought to you by Zun Zun Egui and Qu Junktions returns for a monthly run of events through to the end of '10. As always very local and as worldwide as we can stretch it. Dust gets kicked up and trks from a deep selection of sources get amped up and spun around. How Come...oozes music out of every pore.

Here's what else's How Coming in September:

Rekordah - Super-tweaked, neck-snapping neon grooves from Luke Owen, a very young producer, remixer of Ikonika and Stones Throw collaborator

Eric Chenaux - beauty and intrigue hanging from six nylon strings courtesy of Canada's most prolific and respected musical iconoclasts

The Bad Joke That Ended Well - Hemp rock played with fangs and a literary flair from these locals with close ties to Zun Zun Egui.

GNOD - These Mancunian sorcerers suck drone, psych, afro-germanic groove, free jazz firepower and all the world besides through a portal into somewhere better/wilder/other.

see more -->

Pure phase and distorted pop logic from two acts who have emerged from the passing kriss-krossed currents of cheap AM pop, distressed easy listening and a weird love for 90's electronica. Sounds that endure and refresh.

Ducktails is Matthew Mondanile from New Jersey, who makes raw, mostly instrumental pop music that is two parts heart to one part hypnagogic: sweet, dewy analogue drones, huggable guitar figures that nuzzle at classic rock’s sensitive bosom, and simple tin machine rhythms help propel Mondanile’s present into the warm fuzz of the past. Also one of subsurface pop gang Real Estate, and with strong links to the Skaters/Olde English Spelling Bee axis of psychedelic semi-recall, check last year’s “Landscapes” album for the heartiest portion of Ducktails soup yet, and get ready to slurp yerself happy.

Fading in from Flanders, Belgium, Dolphins into the Future plunges us yet further down the memory well. By turns strange, primal, intimate and transcendental, this is a beautifully drowsy Lowlands take on James Ferraro’s more reflective moments of spooled quasi-devotional psych, with swooning prose from The Wire for last album proper “The Music Of Belief” and a whole library of tapes and CDRs to get lost in besides. “Camp-fiery mind music that sounds like taking a bird-watching nature hike in a sequencer”, froths Impose Magazine, not incorrectly.

Plus support from Bristol's very own Woodtripper

Part of Arnolfini's 'Time Crisis' season

One of the most luminous and enlightening American singers of her time sings Federico Garcia Lorca’s popular folk song collection “Las Canciones Populares Espanolas” with guitarist Victor Herroro and live band. Singing in Spanish, playing the castanets and dancing, Josephine brings to life these famous songs from one of Europe's finest poets and dramatists.

Josephine describes the band “as like a Andalusian jug band playing very energetic and animated music”. Taking their cue from Lorca and La Argentinita’s infectious 1931 recording of the songs, Josephine Foster and her partner Spanish musician Victor Herrero have arranged the poetically rich collection for their new acoustic band, formed while living in the Grenadine Sierra.

“She’s a Grace Slick for the 21st Century - and that’s all grace, no slick. An amazing combination of God-given ability and formal skill. You can hear Jefferson Airplane in her music, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Joan Baez… She’s also the one, out of that whole scene, that has embraced the electric guitar, while at the same time being the most classical of them all.” - Jay Babcock / Arthur

King Drum returns. The world seems more attuned to the propulsive cross-rhythms and irresistible live room energy of Afrobeat music than ever at this point in time…and there is simply no-one else alive who does it better than one of its founding creators, Mr Tony Allen.

This is the man who, throughout the 1970s, drummed on and musically directed a series of records by Fela Kuti & Africa 70 that totally reconfigured African music and its perception in the West, and whose pioneering rhythmic work still opens new paths for percussionists of all musical stripes discovering it to this day.

Qu Junktions and The Cube present two furiously intense and vital sets of performances by a pair of remarkable duos. Musical as hell. Carla (vox/guitar/keyboard) and Massimo (bass) will create a musical tension that is gripping and a raw sound that's heartfelt. Jailbreak go for drum and pedal steel pyrotechnics in extremis. The name foregrounds the kind of outlaw violence with which the two reformulate rock/roll instants by bringing free jazz fire power to amp-humping sex beats.

A dazzling evening of performances by artists/musicians who make music using miniature mechanical toy orchestras and children's playthings. Engage in the musical flights of fancy of two wonderful and thingamajiggy artists, one the world famous Pierre Bastien and the other Polish five piece Małe Instrumenty. French composer and surrealist inventor Bastien has been building musical machinery since the 1970s, working with artists as diverse as Robert Wyatt and Issey Miyake, and releasing on Aphex Twin's Rephlex label. When he sets in motion his spellbinding clockwork automata and toy curiosities the results are delicate, playful and somehow movingly human. Sharing the bill is Małe Instrumenty, who use a bewildering array of toys and small instruments in their ingenious compositions.

"Bastien never lets the spell break. The way each new tune grows from the last is as pleasing as a rabbit from a hat, and it makes this musical machine add up to so much more than its wheezing, spinning - and very moving – parts” ****The Guardian

Promoted in association with Arnolfini

The chemistry has to be right for real magic to happen, for musicians to step out of all known zones and explore the limits of what they can do. Tonight we present artists with the power to muster those conditions from nothing, and summon up the psych. Nothing predictable happens around these two acts, who both explore sound and open up spaces in beautifully contrasting ways.

Produced by Qu Junktions specially for BRISTOL JAM.

An evening of Art-House music with added atmospheric pressure. Overwhelming emotions, show tunes and theatrics mingle with beat making science, crazed song manipulations and beautifully strung out blues. Acts locked into their own grooves perform with total expression as Halloween rages through the city centre. Darken the arts, ripen the mood.

“Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts is an anomaly. His appropriation of antique songs calls to mind the prospecting of Daniel Day-Lewis's oilman in There Will Be Blood: he performs the subterranean, hardscrabble toil of research, then plunges his drill down deep, coming back with black gold.” - The Independent

Cath & Phil Tyler are singers and players who extract raw and powerful emotions from folk music. Theirs is a music that goes direct to the source, mining through their own contacts and treasure troves such as the Anne & Frank Warner Collection and the Sacred Harp song book, re-interpreting or adding their own music, and surfacing with pure gold.

CARIBOU

Hold your breath, more info coming soon

Presented in conjunktion with DHP

“I am flattered and mystified! Their voices are so pure.” - Antony Hegarty
“I love the idea. It makes me happy just thinking about it” - Robert Wyatt

On the tide of three beguiling albums to date and countless tingle-inducing live shows, The Unthanks (formerly Rachel Unthank & The Winterset) have become the unassailable key voices of contemporary UK folk. For two nights only, Northumbria sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank and their band take two of the most adventurous songbooks of the last half-century and, in the true spirit of the idiom they honour with such vitality, paint them in vivid new colours across the Union Chapel. The special pre-Christmas concerts will feature a set of Robert Wyatt music and a set of Antony & The Johnsons songs, either side of an interval.

Three singular auteurs of guitar-led composition unite for a very special evening of heavenly sounds in the capital.

The James Blackshaw Ensemble: Think Steve Reich's 'Electric Counterpoint' for comparison … but be prepared for much more besides, as Blackshaw experiments with sonorous feedback drones, multi-tracked piano, measured strings and wind arrangements, heart-wrenching melodies, harmonic shifts and pointillist textures.

Frank Fairfield: A California based fiddle, guitar and banjo player and ardent 78 collector who was the specially-chosen tour guest of Fleet Foxes, Fairfield sings soaring hillbilly knockouts, arcane rambling songs and murder ballads in a reedy tenor with that irresistible dust to digital quality.

Ryan Francesconi’s stock has soared of late as the main man on Joanna Newsom’s stunning triple album “Have One On Me”. He arranged and played all over that stunning opus as well as figuring centrally in its live incarnation and the Ys Street Band of Newsom’s previous record.

Have a look what's been cooking up in the barn. Beyond the pleasure-domes, the city gin palaces and the twee rural getaways resides Barn Nova in the kind and warm bosom of the festival that is Shambala.

All the doors are left wide open as Barn Nova streams cosmic and grounded music from a starry array of artists who all come fertile and willing to lay down some sound. Maverick music makers, mix masters and real good-time moonshine beam out.

Some of the acts playing are listed below.

A night given over to the talent and story of Sandy Bull, an American - the ultimate eclecticist, whose music combined a wild assortment of genres and traditions, from Chuck Berry to fourteenth-century ballades to salsa and samba to Indian, African, and Middle Eastern music. He was a real character who was a favourite of Hunter S Thompson and Bob Dylan.

Lung power and laptop legend in a Jazz Junktion. Two solo sets plus a duo set. 

Coming out of a New York residency he took part in last year at The Stone in New York,  Evan Parker (who is showing no signs of slowing down or compromise) makes this very tasty 21st Century hook up with Ikue Mori (NY downtown laptop genius, ex-DNA drummer, John Zorn and Sonic Youth collaborator).

Sure to be a compelling and breathtaking show.

Deep Space Cinematic Jazz Chants to celebrate Sun Ra and his boundless legacy. Music, film and the magic that happens when the two forms combine are on show tonight to continue the eternal question of one of music's really great adventurers.

The legendary saxophonist and Sun-Ra Arkestra bandleader Marshall Allen is a hero to many, and for this special show he joins forces with acclaimed film-maker James Harrar plus musicians Ed Wilcox (Temple of Bon Matin) and Kamil Kruta (Koonda Hoolaa) for this deeply personal and spellbinding/making collaboration featuring rare 1960s and '70s Arkestra film footage reassembled by Harrar and sliced through live on stage with Allen and his band's extraordinary jazz music. This ensemble creates music reminiscent of Sun Ra recordings like The Magic City and Strange Strings - passionate, driving, and haunting.

A Cube Microplex & Qu Junktions MUSIC/FILM Presentation

A magical musical collaboration between the Warp label pioneers of hypnotic groove and electro-alchemy Plaid, who will be blending their trademark sound with the mesmerising textures and rhythms of a Javanese gamelan orchestra.

Performing a new work they have created together with Indonesian composer Rahayu Supanggah, the electronica duo plan to weave a subtle soundscape around the Gamelan's fluid rhythms, thickening the pounding of gongs with echo and delay, looping intricate xylophone patterns, and adding eerie dissonances to ancient harmonies.

Gamelan has been an influence on lots of western music from ecstatic rockers, to wall of sound hip-hop collages and electronic artists such as Aphex Twin and Kode9 but a collaboration such as this have never before shared the same stage, until now.

'.. the effect is bewitching.. it's illuminating to see artists from these two genres working together' - Drowned in Sound

Peverelist is a pivotal Bristol based producer/DJ who constantly sneaks in behind the hype and delivers amazing sleek, emotive sets that can happily join the dots between obscure minimal Techno, tracks that carefully melt intricate jazzed up flourishes and' the breakbeat, the thriving post-Garage scene and 2003-2006 era of classic Dubstep. Tonight he delivers a special bespoke set.

Presented in association with Arnolfini
Commissioned by the Southbank Centre for Ether Festival 2009

Rangda is Chris Corsano with Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasney (Six Organs of Admittance). New band (releasing on Drag City) whose make up should run into very exciting streams of sound. Divine but distraught, freaky but altogether with it, Middle Eastern yet decidedly American.

Acid Mothers Temple have a touring and release back catalogue plus an almighty sound that cuts through history. Japanese nomads on the psych highway.

plus Fuck Off Batman / Stearica / Disgusting Monstrosity

Prepared piano player Hauschka, 12-string guitarist James Blackshaw, and singer/songwriter Nancy Elizabeth perform their beautifully matched music together for the first time in a contoured programme of solo performances and collaborations. As composers and performers all three effortlessly weave traditional folk, contemporary classical and modern song into magical and transfixing musical suites. This Kept Impulses Tour quietly explores the waking dreams, hidden emotions and sense of other that these acts draw upon.

Double whammy.

From the rural North Eastern region of Syria comes Omar Souleyman, whose texture-heavy mongrel party bangers ignite any party. His group play frantic and intense 'Dabke' tracks with killer hooks, topped off with Omar's iconic presence and thrilling emotional range. Shift your body.

From the Congolese city of Kinshasa come the attention-grabbing and beautifully singular sounding, thumb-thumping Konono No.1 whose overpowering, distortion-fuelled trance music makes anyone that can move a born-again raver. Konono are number one.

Two groups that are as wonky as wildfire, and as hallucinogenic as any re-imagining of the 80's could ever warp to. Pure street level folk (that purists pass on) and as radically traditional, funky and futuristic as any group dares to be. No frills. This is THE raw funktional music of one's dreams. Qu are over many moons to welcome them both back in this double header - a Qu Junktion like no other. Both have new albums.

One of those special bands who blaze their own creative path and conjure up live shows that involve big joyful feelings. Efterklang are a expressive, expansive (7 to 12 members jumping all around the stage) and beautifully choreographed band in their prime. This majestic ensemble have performed with Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican and alongside peers such as Tortoise and Peter & Heather Broderick. Now with a more rocking, widescreen live sound and show, which is in keeping with the high pop perfection of their tantalising new album 'Magic Chairs' just out on 4AD.



"A superb record from one of the world's most uniquely-minded bands." BBC

"This distilled Efterklang is premium strength stuff." CLASH

Melodic, cinematic, rock from a band who sing and play like brothers in really well constructed and arranged unison. transfixing drums, lots of inventive percussion, mixed with electronics, finger picked and distorting guitars, hordes of brass instruments and lots of vocals by all 5 members of the band. Slaraffenland's compositions are more like classical arrangements than populist ditties, but that does mean their toe tapping or ballads wont move you.

A gleaming, stunning set of acts are gathered together in this very special Bedroom Community showcase. Prepare for intense electronics that reach deep into your soul, auteur-orchestrated brass and strings, melancholic mood suites and fragile folk songs that give you goose bumps.

Rozi Plain breezes in as guest support

Presented in conjunktion with Arnolfini

*** SADLY THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO THE FLIGHT DISRUPTION CAUSED BY THE VOLCANO. WE HOPE TO RESCHEDULE THE PERFORMANCE AND WILL ANNOUNCE THE NEW DATE IN DUE COURSE ***

“Scottish folk singer Alasdair Roberts is an anomaly. His appropriation of antique songs calls to mind the prospecting of Daniel Day-Lewis's oilman in There Will Be Blood: he performs the subterranean, hardscrabble toil of research, then plunges his drill down deep, coming back with black gold.” - The Independent

We are very happy to welcome back this nimble and sure-footed troubadour of a special kind to The Cube. To listen to Ali Roberts sing his first song of a set is akin to reading the opening page of an engrossing epic - you know there will be monsters, romance, and death ahead, all brought alive by a master weaver of myth, melodies and moralities. You get collared quickly and thrown into the deep end, and as your eyes, ears and imagination adjust, laid bare is a world unlike any other but poetically reconcilable to the one you exist in.

Cath & Phil Tyler are singers and players who extract raw and powerful emotions from folk music. Theirs is a music that goes direct to the source, mining through their own contacts and treasure troves such as the Anne & Frank Warner Collection and the Sacred Harp song book, re-interpreting or adding their own music, and surfacing with pure gold.

Four Tet does a lot with his limbs. Sold out live shows in Bristol, albums that sound whole, remixes that glitch and glide, singles that synch to the dancefloor, Sunburned Hand Of The Man studio odysseys, 'tronika' on everything, electro on some, sneaky dj slots, jazz heritage/jazz future, great touring packages... and he is a big supporter of independent music making/industry.

Nathan Fake revs it up with his rock on/rocks off dance show, Border Community style.

Rocketnumbernine are brothers Ben and Tom Page and they stretch their engaged exploitative music over some improvised beats and pieces.

As a DJ Lovewig likes to be billed with bells and balloons and children and dogs, all in a merry dance. He will reset the bulbs in your feet and the big bone in your head.

Multi venue incarnation of 'How Come...' - a night of music, film and DJs where all proceeds go to The Haiti Kids Kino Project.

The Cube (6-1am)
JOHN PARISH + GET THE BLESSING + THE MOLES + MEN DIAMLER + SPECIAL FILMS AFTER 11pm
with DJs Dunkit & Bumpy in the bar

The Croft (8-3am)
ZUN ZUN EGUI + BLACK CARROT + AYE AYE + SPIN SPIN THE DOGS

World Beatz co-hosting the bar with World Beatz DJs + Young Master + Fat Paul + Monkgoose + a v.secret special guest

The Cube Cinema's 'The Haiti Kids Kino Project' is travelling to the Caribbean and setting up a temporary social cinema for children affected by the Haiti earthquakes. A micro-humanitarian, goodwill project to provide a small opening for fun, escape, community, hope and social occasion. Tonight's two venue, four room line up is to raise funds for the project. All profits direct to the cause.

NOTE: As this is a multi-venue show, a ticket does not guarantee you will get into the venue of choice . No guest list.

Qu Junktions is overjoyed to welcome the maverick guitarist Sir Richard Bishop back to the Cube. Yep.. the 'The Freak of Araby' is here. A dexterous and charismatic performer who draws on exotica, magick and global folk musics to intoxicating effect. He was a founder member of ethnic-improv tricksters Sun City Girls, and also has a history as a rare bookseller, film maker and contributor to the Sublime Frequencies label. A frequent traveller, his guitar explorations reflect the shadow worlds of India, North Africa and other points along the Gypsy trail, as well as his own Middle Eastern heritage as a half-Lebanese American.

Performing on Spanish guitar, 12 string or electric, he sythnesises influences like Django Reinhardt, Ali Akbar Khan, Omar Khorshid and Chet Atkins into his own unique and mesmirising style. New album 'The Freak of Araby' is out now on Drag City.

Pretty please, pretty please… make sure you have a seat for tonight’s show for one of the great lost folk treasures and a new highly regarded Bristol band in stripped down duo form. The Connecticut based singer/songwriter has a special gift. Her almost supernaturally beautiful, wavering soprano is one that has to be heard. Her tone like her songs is a fragile one, with a hint of Karen Dalton and Gillian Welch but even they don’t have that clear transparent moonlight quality that Kath Bloom has. Tonight she is joined by her friend Ginny on volin.

Slow are the invited guest and share that special ability to be both intimate and epic, the beautiful boy-girl vocal harmonies, soundscapes and instrumentation. Their spatial sound and measured pace has drawn comparisons to the Red House Painters and Low.

Ticket holders to this event are allowed free entry to the afternoon's "Haiti Kids Kino Project" event.

In an ever-never zone between Tarzan's feral plaintive call and Coil's unbalanced cosmic musik there may exist a place such as this, a venue for couples, singles and duos making sweet 'n' strange songs. A Sunday afternoon and evening session of windswept and ravishing music from an epic selection of acts. Maximum arousal... so leave your keys in the pot.

Real erotic American guitar song-cycles with MV & EE (Ecstatic Peace), west-country and Parisian folk via This Is The Kit and partner Jesse Morningstar, bucolic and dreamy trks from Golden Ghost (featuring Viking Moses). They ask “what's in a name”? Well it's Silver Stairs of Ketchikan steaming up with Team Brick in a rare outing as Mountains Of Jesus. Normally The Doozer (Picked Egg) is solo, this time his warped English psych-pop maverick has a partner. Weirder still, Kek-W & Orchestra Intangible '73 might be solo, but then Ice Bird Spiral always channelled multiple spirits. That leaves George Thomas & The Owls but bestiality is illegal on earth as it is in heaven.

Stage times:
  3.30 George Thomas & The Owls
  4.30 Mountains Of Jesus
  5.30 The Doozer
  6.30 KEK-W and ORCHESTRA INTANGIBLE ' 73
  7.30 Golden Ghost
  8.45 MV & EE
10.00 This Is The Kit & Jesse Morningstar

First Qu show of 2010 is a powerhouse, two acts with in-the-red guests unleashing music with vitality and passion that galvanizes the spirit and frees the soul. Beyond the hip-o-drone.

The Ex are musicians who just can't hold back, they channel a energy that pushes their raw, heavily rhythmic rock sound into places most acts don't even get near. No hype, no way. Zun Zun Egui the band were born in 2005 but have a heavy live history in the making. They are thoroughly buzzed about this tour and this will be there first Bristol show for many a moon... so we plunge early on into 2010 on a series of wild musical notes, as we plan to go on.

Watch the Ex in action here

No NYE club and no Xmas party just this specially gift wrapped DO.

This has been some year for Steal From Work and Qu Junktions. We fed it, bled it and wrapped it up in bangers and pushed the button. Before 2009 blows out we have got together and dreamt up this bill to celebrate on our home turf. The line up is alright.

Celebrating: Music outta fashion, fashion outta music, chaotic serenity, old hollywood, haunted graffiti, cycle paths, Omar Souleyman, kissin' on a promise and any kind of new religious(like) noise possible.

Installation. In September 2009, electronic musician and artist VI sets out, with
sound system, on an environmental tour of the sea region of the
Bristol Channel.The project aims to tap directly into this geographical region's field of power, to investigate its physical and emotional properties and examine its effects on sonic outputs and processes.
Performances will be made for and at chosen sites along the Channel, taking into account the unique acoustic map of each site, incorporating their varying aesthetic, sonic, atmospheric, practical and logistical features, amplifying the rhythms of sea and shore - with or without a human audience.

At this event, VI will present the results using sound and images collected on the tour.

Par to the All Around You season of sound performances, installations, talks, workshops and film events, featuring artists and musicians who utilise and respond to space and surroundings.

Presented in conjunktion with The Arnolfini.

A TRIPLE headliner tour and it's hard to pinpoint who the highlight is here - the epic/gothic psych folk of Espers, the charming post-weird pop of Woods, or the 4/4 backwoods Americana of The Cave Singers.

'Shred Yr Face' - you may think this is an advert for a razor company or a shaving cream product but you'd be mistaken. It's actually a musical jamboree in its third incarnation. The first tour featured the no-fi pop antics of Los Campesinos!, No Age and Times New Viking; the noise/punk onslaught of The Bronx, Fucked Up and Rolo Tomassi followed; the third... whisper it... is an altogether more rural/Autumnal affair featuring a trio of captivating U.S. Bands all on one bill: Espers (Drag City, Locust Music, Wichita, Time Lag), Woods (Woodsist – one helluva label) and The Cave Singers (Matador).

Lilting and lyrical, warped and woozy this is the music of Staff Benda Bilili. From the streets of Kinshasa, Congo, comes a new (beyond appearances) musical phenomenon discovered by renowned global label Crammed (the team behind the groundbreaking and hugely influential 'Congotronics' series featuring the likes of Konono No1 and Kasai Allstars). This big band have completely their own sound which is much more romantic and soft edged than Konono, although live they tend to rip it up. They draw comparisons to the phenomena that is/was Buena Vista Social Club, Mano Chao or Cesária Évora, so universal is their appeal. The few live shows they have played in Europe so far have had an unbelievable reception. Qu is ecstatic to welcome them for the Bristol leg of their first ever UK tour.

Please welcome the utterly soulful and mesmerising sound of Staff Benda Bilili.

Check out Kek's interview with them plus Staff Benda Bilili videos: The Trailer - 'Polio'

Tickets: €8

Quwack is a unique and entertaining way to experience live music formulated by Qu Junktions, pitting a certain breed of intrepid musical solo adventurers together in customised gallery conditions. A continuous, unrehearsed performance from multiple acts utilising a unique twin stage/sound system set up with you, the audience, in the heart of the action.

Quwack (UM) takes place at UM Festival in Lisbon and is a collaboration with Polar Produce.

Bass Clef - Gabriel Ferrandini - Infinite Livez - DJ Sniff - Team Brick - Katapulto - Alfredo Carajillo

One of the worlds greatest outsider artists, Daniel Johnston, comes to sing and play his brilliant pop songs. Support comes from the London based singer/songwriter with Wes Anderson-like wonder.. Laura Marling

A 14+ show.

It's been a while coming but it is happening - Jack Rose, one of the most raw, emotive as well as proficient and gifted acoustic guitars players of his generation comes to Bristol with The Black Twig Pickers. A fine night of ragtime, old-time, blues, Jack Rose originals, and some fine traditionals. Performed by Rose on guitar and steel guitar, Mike Gangloff on fiddle, banjo and vocals,and Nathan Bowles on percussion, banjo and vocals. Solo and duo excursions from all members are planned throughout the set... as well as some drinkin'.

With support from mesmerising Brighton 8-piece Sons of Noel and Adrian.

Formerly known as Rachel Unthank & The Winterset, The Unthanks are joyfully traditional but wholly original. Yes, the plucky songbird sisters from N/W England are back with an abbreviated new name and a much larger group to back their playful and beautifully delivered songs. The tour will also be promoting their much anticipated new album. Forging links between folk worlds old, new and other, The Unthanks are the inheritors, curators and distorters of Tyneside’s traditions. Don't miss the next chapter.

On tour with exciting newcomers Jonny Kearney and Lucy Farrell from Northern England.

One of the great African rock bands returns to Bristol to perform their scintillating live show in support of a new album - and that is something to get hot about. Rebel music to leave home for. Tinariwen are up there with bands as diverse as The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Mars Volta, Sigur Ros, Fleetwood Mac and The Doors as one of the most distinctive rock bands in the world. They happen to be the most fluid of them all, making nightfall trance desert rock that is exhilarating in its assured earthiness and liquid outer-worldliness. They come with a history and endorsements like no other but these are equalled by their incendiary live reputation.

Qu Junktions is stoked to present a special late show for John Maus (Hawaii/Upset The Rhythm).

The songs of this Hawaii-based politics and philosophy lecturer have arrowed themselves, dark and true, into the collective subconscious of the outsider pop faithful. Like his peers Ariel Pink and R. Stevie Moore, Maus works by holding pop music's absurd and murky history up to the light...but whereas classic pop is concerned with escape, and much of its modern equivalent with a certain elusiveness, for Maus there is simply nowhere, nothing to hide. Hence there is something singularly naked and real about these freakishly addictive tracks, be they thunderous ballads for ruined stadia, singalong synth-pop B.A.N.G.E.R.S for autistic sweethearts, or just humble paeans of hope for brighter futures that may or may not come to pass.

A trio of Qu acts for the London folk

Our Brother The Native (FatCat/USA) are hushed and melancholic, loud and epic, a band who are warped in all the right places.

Zun Zun Egui are in their fourth sonic incarnation and by the time this show happens they will have only just notched up their first “real” release a 12” on Blank Tapes called 'Bal La Poussiere' (BLANK010) 

Freeze Puppy aka Tom Wilson is an astonishing songsmith/performer from Knowle with a life-affirming live show. His hugely entertaining music often bewilders first time listeners with its audacity and singular otherness but his dreamy pop sensibility keeps people coming back for more.

Kickin up the dust...

Join Zun Zun Egui for the fourth incarnation of their 'How Come' night, and time to celebrate the release of their debut 12” on Blank Tapes. This one's a special one as Zun Zun now have some slabs of vinyl to compliment their incendiary live shows. Cause to rip it up on their home turf with a line up of like-minded guest musicians from the USA, France and Bristol. Four to the floor.

Jesus Christ... the boundary pushing beatboxer Beardyman enlists a cast of many to create this very special entertainment show like nowt else. Pure, off the lip, spontaneous music and comedy experienced and controlled by you, the audience.

Watch: Everything Is Made Of Cheese & Monkey Jazz

2 in 1. Two acts formed under the creative force of British electronic auteur maverick Matthew Herbert’s Accidental Records in one evening. Both acts are in the middle of touring their debut albums which are also both produced by Matthew Herbert, and both are receiving praise left, right and centre from all the people who have things to say about music. The Invisible just received their Mercury Prize nomination for best album and Micachu and the Shapes have been snatched up by Rough Trade Records. Both records bring a welcome sound of experimentation to the popular music scene.

This event is for ages 14+

A screening and live show of pretty wild animated videos from America projected through an inflatable backdrop of glowing crystals (we are not quite sure what this means but check out the photo!) with live cartoon theatre/music acts Hooliganship and Bristol's Katapulto popping up.

Highly recommended for fans of comic books, late night imaginary TV channels, Skaters, UFOs, Lucky Dragons, Lighting Bolt, synaesthetic art, op idol, reverse Disney, hyper Sesame Street, the imagination, short films and cartoons obviously.

A more fantastical and hazy amalgamation of acts/artists/film-makers/DJs could not be imagined. Eight live acts are here to celebrate the state of dream. Bristol has produced some memorable and mesmerizing musical dreamers.

A certain night-time liquidness can be heard in Bristol's best musicians, it produces a homegrown music that walks through walls/genres. Tonight's music alchemists either come from Bristol or have lived here others, in true dream style, have nothing to do with the city but appear with their own magic hour music.

DreamState (Bristol) features

GRAVENHURST (Warp) is a poet of blissed-out feedback and literary dark thought. He is Bristol's Nick Drake via William Burroughs. Out there on his own. ES (Fonal) lives and works near the forests of Tampere, Finland. Patchwork psychedelia, magical realism, found sounds and devotional song all combine. JAMES BREWSTER (aka Mole Harness) produces waves and waves of sublimely sequenced acoustica / electronica. CHRIS FORSYTH (Peeesseye/USA) has both a raw power and intuitive delicacy to his amazing solo acoustic/electric guitar playing. BALKY MULE (FatCat) sings easy, breezy and woozy English songs that just charm in a dreamy summer style. HEADFALL (Kino Space) melt lo-fi hiss and crackle, strung out instrumentals, edged out spoken word, and deep space grooves. SILVER PYRE (West Country) forges accordion, beats and live drums into rural anthems with an urban Detroit edge. IGNATZ (Belgium) beams in blues from another planet incorporating detuned guitar, slap back echo, howling vocals and swathes of feedback. ICE BIRD SPIRAL (Wiltshire) inhabit a Interzone somewhere between psychedelic-noise and old school Surrealism, where found-sound and automatic writing co-exist with rural car-boot mysticism.

Qu Junktions curate a week's programme at Incubate Festival in Tilburg, Holland.

MON 14th SEPT: HAUSCHKA + NANCY ELIZABETH
A night of dazzling piano and deep song.

TUES 15th SEPT: DreamState (Bristol) with GRAVENHURST + SILVER PYRE + TOM BUGS
Three artists from the Bristol DreamState.

WED 16th SEPT: INFINITE LIVEZ w/ GOLD PANDA + FREEZE PUPPY
Pop music innovators that rotate around a different axis than most. Highly infectious artists.

THU 17th SEPT: BASS CLEF + FERENC KOVÁCS
Two multi-instrumentalists, one playing trombone/electronics, the other trumpet/violin.

A night of cinematic loose limbed summer jazz pushed into strange and wonderful shapes. The addition of vocalist/storyteller Gerald Tyler to the Limbo band adds new dimensions to their saturated sound, while the supports from the trumpet/drum duo Eyebrow and Sax man Dave Perry ensure that the music is always fluid. Music, images and spoken world to melt your ears.

After the gear/brain melt that caused them to pull a whole tour (including a much hyped Bristol date) the brain/gear/border melting band from New York are back, with back UP for this rescheduled Bristol date. Gang Gang Dance make globe-conscious psych-improv with new beats and sound warmth.

Third dish of the Zun Zun Egui / Qu Junktions staged 'How Come...' nights. This night(club) like the band Zun Zun Egui will broadcast a range of influences and styles to rev up the audience and get into that special groove. This is Bristol calling and the echo. Inspired, alive to the moment, political and dance floor.

How come...

Zun Zun Egui

A.J. Holmes, The New Electric Hi-Life
Arctic Circle

The Fingerless Hoodlum

 

Two intimate and highly charged animated Freeze Puppy shows in one day. Both will feature new songs from his newly released Pickled Egg CD called 'Animation', and both will be very different.

The first show at 4pm will be an ultra special acoustic show with unplugged guests joining the Freeze Puppy experience to add extra detail to his exquisite songs. The second show at 8pm will a Freeze Puppy electric set with guitar/voice and densely programmed backing tracks making for an amazingly otherworldly but joyful experience as his songcycle becomes a performance like no other. For this special occasion guest vocalists will join in on selected tracks.

Open the windows, let in the summer sounds. The magic-realist music of A Hawk And A Hacksaw lands back in Bristol. The elements have aligned themselves and the A Hawk And A Hacksaw caravan hits the road in support of their new album Délivrance (The Leaf Label). The duo have expanded to a roving live band to play their thrilling new songs, augmenting the beautifully weather-beaten textures with trumpet, tuba and bazouki.

Nomad and Qu Junktions present 'A Ritual for Elephant & Castle' featuring Marcus Coates performing live with Chrome Hoof plus a separate performance by Wildbirds and Peacedrums and a 20-piece live drum circle, plus Septic Heart (the new project of Shackleton) and DJs.

A highly delectable one-off event that deploys specially conceived music (via riveting bands playing in extended formats), artistic practices, shamanistic rituals and visuals to raise the roof. Theatrical, cinematic, spectacular and climatic... this ritual for Elephant & Castle will harness the cathartic emotions and crazed notions that make for a live music show and channel them to make a socially and culturally powerful piece of merrymaking.

This mesmerising band from Australia are a special proposition for any music lover... Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Buck (drums), and Lloyd Swanton (bass) conjure a chemistry together that defies description in jazz, atmospheric, cinematic or other such terms. So tonight - in two separate lengthy pieces - the music will slowly unravel in the most intoxicating fashion, frequently underpinned by an insistent deep groove as the trio work their magic, effortlessly conjuring up sublime suites of music. Their music is borne of a certain time, space and conditions, no show is the same – and tonight they play the Chapel.

2 sets from The Necks plus hand-picked support from Hauschka.

A wild night for all concerned, going off as soon as the doors open, at which we are inviting global musics of different persuasions to go off together like firecrackers. Exploding lazy notions, revelling in smoke and mirrors, and creating myth.

The Sublime Frequencies tour comes to Bristol with very special guests Akron/Family, who have a history of throwing a good party with Qu Junktions - so it's Syrian party bangers, incendiary African desert groove and American boiling point freak 'n' rock 'n' roll. Add to this DJ's from Sublime Frequencies (probably the ultimate crate digging, door opening, music gathering world explorers on the planet) and you have a Qu Funktion like no other. Worldwide and ready to go.

In short this night will bring disparate musics together, forging links, friendships and dances. All is go with Omar Souleyman's intoxicating Syrian wedding music (his tracks have been kick-starting many a dance party in Bristol over the past 18 months), Group Doueh's Western Saharan blues, Arabic grooves and over-ridden psychedelic guitars, plus celebratory sing along rock gospel from the heads up, beards down Akron/Family (one of Micheal Gira's favourite bands).

A very special screening of Sublime Frequencies films with a discussion. Three members from this collective of intrepid explorers are here to present films from their vast archive of visceral and immediate folk cinema from North Africa, the Middle East and South/Southeast Asia. A discussion will take place afterwards to discuss their practises and the experiences they have had making these incredible films and amassing their very collectable music catalogue. Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls), Hisham Mayet and Mark Gergis (Porest) will be in attendance.

Daytime talks, installations and presentations strand of Future of Sound/Future of Light 2009. Featuring an afternoon practical workshop by Steve Symons (Owl Project) introducing the muio interface - a USB powered hardware device for sensing and controlling real world data using software such as Pure Data and MaxMSP. There will also be explorations into the future of sound and light via artist talks and a Q&A - chaired by Cyberonica’s Lewis Sykes. Participating artists are Anthony Rowe (squidsoup), Kathy Hinde, and Brian Duffy (Modified Toy Orchestra).

As part of the event, Arnolfini’s foyer and gallery will feature installations by Kathy Hinde, squidsoup and more to be confirmed.

Drum-controlled animations, 3D surround sound, and real-time interactive AV are all brought together in the evening strand of the Future of Sound/Future of Light 2009 programme.

Qu Junktions and Blackout Arts are helping put on this day/night of visions and sounds of futuristic persuasion. The event brings together an international collective of vanguard artists, musicians, animators and digital masters in a Future of Sound/Future of Light nationwide tour that unveils cutting edge immersive audiovisual innovations at Arnolfini, hosted by Martyn Ware, electronic pioneer and founder of Human League/Heaven 17. Toy technology, interactive light shows, mapping, field recording presented in 3D sound, magical pianos, talks, discussions and installations all feature. Part presentation, part interactive performance - the show explores the future of experimental art and sound utilising a ground breaking 3D surround sound system.

A summit of bands, duos and solo projects that reaches for the elastic pinnacle. This a special gathering of adventurous souls and sounds. A double headline show with Dirty Projectors and  Polar Bear vying for the peak. Two rooms of musical ups and downs.

Dirty Projectors (now signed to Domino and recording with Bjork) are a band of wild ideas, sassy suggestions and de-constructed rock they, like Battles or Deerhoof, have a dynamic and imagination that makes them all the more fruity than their Brooklyn peers. Awkward/marvellous mind-bend indie, conceptual and catchy this co-ed band are a hot ticket and their live show, a bit like their career, has that air of 'who knows what will happen next'. They cram influences, instruments and literary themes into radio-pop size songs and make many look pedestrian and rather restrained. Lucky not tonight... Mountain of 8 ups the stakes and makes the air a bit more giddifying.

Vic Chesnutt is the literate and courageous noir songsmith from Atlanta, Georgia, tonight backed by the great original Elephant 6 band Elf Power to make melodic and skewed songs of humour and heartbreak. More song bullets in Vic's amazing canon of work. Both out to promote their collaborative Orange Twin release 'Dark Developments'. Chesnutt's shadowy worldview and the inventive bounce and bray of the band's joyful chemistry buoys the album, provides its freshness, and makes for highly rewarding repeated listening. Tonight they go live, where both are naturals.

A gig turn club for dancin' turn live rockin' freak out turn into what ever happens...how come?

Second dishing of the Zun Zun Egui / Qu Junktions staged 'How Come...' nights. This night(club), like the band Zun Zun Egui, will broadcast a range of influences and styles to rev up the audience and get into that special groove. This is Bristol calling and the echo. Inspired, alive to the moment, political and dance floor.

How come...

Micachu & The Shapes
Zun Zun Egui
Olo Worms
Katapulto
A.J. Holmes - The King of the New Electric Hi-Life
Punksi

Bliss out, shimmer up and get lost in the kaleidoscopic world of Animal Collective where a forest of rhythms, licks and chants are embellished by bouncy ball trance and weird pop. Qu Junktions welcomes them back with open ears and feet ready for doing the shuffle dance. AC have promised on the potential to make you want to do more than head nod. Their last show in Bristol clearly displayed a move towards Kompakt style womb raving. The sound is warmer, the drops bigger and the beats less scratchy. Their forest of sound is stirring to some real syncopated shit alongside some free-form moments. They also a have new hyped album to promote. Nothing is over-cooked.

Featuring the honest, endearing voice and emotive piano playing of the singer/songwriter Nancy Elizabeth (Leaf) and legendary American guitarist Peter Walker, whose adventures with Spanish gypsies, Karen Dalton and Jimi Hendrix all inform his music. Adam Laity is a filmmaker and you can hear that in his touching songs.

This is the second of Qu Junktion's 'Kept Impulses' programmes.

Charlie Parr is back in town and is excited to play his favourite Bristol hang out for the first time in a few years. Kindred spirits My Two Toms have a special place in Charlie's heart having toured the USA backroads together. Their set tonight will be accompanied by stills and films made especially for the evening from that tour, making this a real close intimate evening of Americana.

A starry night of music that criss-crosses the globe for inspiration and draws on a full spectrum of sound sources to concoct something truly special. Three acts who all fire off from vastly different points of inspiration (Arabian desert music, modern contemporary, an incendiary jazz pioneer and psychedelic film scores), but share a belief in the power of music.

This duo is an acutely musical collaboration between kinetic drummer Chris Corsano and Vibracathedral Orchestra's Mick Flower on shaahi baaja (Japanese banjo). Watch them here.  As a two piece they conjure, sweat and divine a music that elevates through rhythm and ecstatic harmonics. It's a sound that's intimate and epic, raw and tender, it can rumble like a looming thunderstorm but contains exquisite raindrop touches. The dynamic is great. Eastern harmonics laced with a thrilling sense of noise and melody. An explosive sight and sound that shudders the body and colours the mind. Last seen in Bristol supporting Merzbow. A new ablum on VHF is out around their UK tour dates, a double LP/single CD called 'The Four Aims'.

The Lips and the Cats... this one will make you purr.

Lock up your intellect and spit into the sky... Atlanta's most notorious garage band and self-styled 'flower punks' Black Lips return to Bristol after last year's rammed out double-header with No Age. One of just five UK dates to coincide with the release of their third album. Grubby, loose and sun-drenched, these boys are a riot of exuberant, excited, thrashy energy that gives rise to catchy, urgent and freaked out songs. Famous for their gleefully unhinged live shows - which have been known to feature projectile vomiting, on stage fireworks and the creative use of human excrement - this is good old fashioned rock 'n' roll excess for the Vice generation. Nuggets-era garage, 13th Floor Elevators-esque psych and the whiskey-drenched desert stomp of The Doors all get a look in.

Get lost in the sensations and sensuality of music. Tonight is an ethereal but earthly triple bill of fourth world musics, song-writing and intuitive music making featuring Tanya Tagaq, Essie Jain and Bozz Jatch. Quite 'the something else'.

Hugely excited to welcome Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq and her band to perform a rare European performance, and here is why. Tanya has not only brought an ancient Inuit vocal game into fertile new sonic pastures but the music/performance is sublime. She's collaborated and toured with Bjork and for once this is a great reference – in that she is primal but accessible and defiantly otherworldly. She purveys a form of throat singing that is rooted in the guttural growls and rhythmic chants of Katajjaq, but sounds more like a symphony of samples culled from the Arctic landscape and classical Operatic performance (she has collaborated with Kronos Quartet). Tagaq's unique sound is imbued with the melodies of modern pop (if Sigur Ros define pop) and the breathless musical manipulations of maverick music makers (Jon Hassell and Stina Nordenstam), this is a combination that's almost transcendent when channeled through her powerful voice.

A gig-turn-club for dancin', live rockin' freak out and whatever else...how come?

In the next year Zun Zun Egui, Qu Junktions and The Croft plan to stage 'How Come...' on way more than one occasion. The night(club), like the band Zun Zun Egui, will broadcast a range of influences and styles to rev up the audience and get into that special groove. This is Bristol calling and the echo. Inspired, alive to the moment, political and dance floor.

How come....

..Polkadot?
...Zun Zun Egui?
...Infinite Livez + Dj Dysu and Dj Tendraw?
...SJ Esau?
...Dj Tendraw (solo set)?
...Robin Allender Band

Triple bills such as these offer a myriad of opportunities and are fitting for a musician such as David Grubbs who happily works around genres and pigeon holes, but is clearly approachable and even classical at points. He is a song-smith, a riddler, an arranger, a label boss, a lecturer, an artist, a soundtracker and a good man. Tonight he is joined by the home-crafted dream songs of Sleeping States and a brand new power electronics/acoustic cello collaboration between Artamonova and Bela Emerson.

Silent night, holy night....you've got to be joking. This is a rumbler of great proportions. Roll deep with drum machine overload, live trombone, mixing desk action, cartoon grime and some outer-national floor fillers care of a selection of DJ's planning on playing some urban shake downs from all over the world. Headlining are probably two of the most adventurous dubstep pioneers off the block and M.I.A's favourite MC.

So it's a live set from the Skull Disco man Shackleton with rolling bass, snaking ethnic atmospheres and some serious voodoo drum pattens drawn into epic tracks with killer drops. A huge jump up for Nigeria's Afrikan Boy who is here to lay down mad verse and playfully grime yr up visa. Filter this with the 'dubstep-not-dubstep' booty shake of ex-Bristolian Bass Clef and you have a back room of clubbers delight. DJ sets include a Latino set from Uberdog (of http://www.spannered.org and Toxic Dancehall fame), Young Master and Randek mashing up world-party anthems with glee.

Forging links between the folk worlds old, new and other, Rachel Unthank & The Winterset have blown a refreshing north-easterly gale through traditional English song, casting it in an endlessly inventive and playful new mould. The band have had quite a year and have recently been nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. They also have a reputation for being a truly entertaining and breathtaking live act. With a strong emphasis on self-penned songs, all four girls now take lead vocal responsibilities, joyfully remodel traditional material and delight in covering songs from unlikely sources such as Antony & The Johnsons. Performing without a drummer, they play piano, fiddle and voice to tell their stories of small town drama, epic tragedies, old traditions and new love.

A very special guest indeed. We are proud to have the soulful and beautifully firey folk music of Félix Lajkó at this show. A Hungarian-Yugoslavian virtuoso of the violin and zither renowned for his beautifully intense, soaring and wild live performances. He skips effortlessly between European folk traditions, conservatoire-trained classicism and feral string symphonies, intoxicating all kinds of audiences with his dazzling music and force of personality. His performances in the UK are a rare occurrence and are to be savoured.

Get with it. Trash Rock 'n' Roll queen in the house with full band. Magnificantly f**ked, featuring flying guitar solos, a rough, scratchy blues-rock moan and some tight-as-hell playing. Jennifer Herrema, with her band Royal Trux and more recently with RTX, is responsible for some of the greatest rock 'n' roll music America has ever produced. Even when it's straightforward - it's simple: unscrew vice, insert balls - Herrema and RTX can't play hard rock and metal exactly as they learned it in their youth. She needs to distort its empty pursuit of hedonism, to hijack that desire and drive it toward something darker.

An unquantifiable, distinguished and at times limitless force, containing such power and poetry, erosion and new life. That is the ocean, that is Murcof. This brand new movement of music from the highly acclaimed composer Murcof (aka Fernando Corona) is another classic/modern tour-de-force. 'Océano' is an especially composed suite of music and a live collaboration with highly regarded Spanish classical ensemble BCN 216 members Sergi Claret (Viola), Juan Antoni Pich (cello) and Gerard Costes (Trombone), with visuals by Flicker, aka visual sculptor Roderick Maclachlan.

Clinic are a band who have a lovely sense of playfulness, a way with tunes, and ideas that put most indie bands to shame. 'Planetarium of the Soul' is a brand new happening, a specially commissioned collaboration with animator Clemens Habicht in which live music and animation bleed together in a contemporary vortex of psychedelic sight and sound. Or put more simply: a hypnotic wig out.

The peripatetic French-Canadian duo of Vialka (Eric Boros on guitar and Marylise Frechville on drums) have been frequent visitors to our city over the years, whipping the Bristol crowd into a frenzy and picking up new friends along the way. Tonight they plan to split in two and forge new collaborations with Bristol musicians. The Vialka guitarist hooks up with the circuit board synth science of Tom Bugs, while the drum holler of Marylise Frechville goes all out against Team Brick's sonic assault. Sandwiched in between is home-brewed one man industrialist Fungus Moth. All channels are open and sparks will fly.

Like an orchestra of Jack/Jill-In-A-Boxes going off with pyrotechnics... tonight something wicked comes yr way to celebrate The Cube's 10 year anniversary. Scores of musicians (past, present and new) blister the cinema with sights and sounds of a Cube kind. A spectacular. Sight lines and eardrums are all displaced in entertaining fashion. Acoustic reverie segues into by washes of electronics, dance routines get usurped by rock n roll, it will come from all angles. The audience and performer are blurred into one.

Starring:

Lady Lucy (Illustrator who sings) /  The Corey O's (3 piece go-punk feministias) / Roger Skerman (Freestyle drum legend, played at Art Centre once located at The Cube's premises) / Francois (lush French romantic animator musician) / Rasha Shaheen (Mooz and more. A key Cube musician/artist) / The Railway Raver (Orginal pre-Squarepusher acid wonk) / Minton Flim (post Portishead visual artist) / Withered Man (aka Fat Paul, Teenagers In Trouble) / Sam Master Chaynjis (B-Movie Opera) / Amy Feneck (Film Artisteeeeeee) / Hal Camplin (Barry The Badger will do 'Big Bad Badgertrap') / Vi (industrial dub-step pioneer) / Men Diamler (West Country stomp and Blues) / Twocsinak (Wrong Music awkward beauty) / Light Fantastic (Dancers..yes please) / Beat Girl / (StandUp Beat Poetry) / James Vickery (16mm) / Ali Jones (35mm) / Laura Leigh (FOH Seductress) / Rozi Plain (Fence Collective singer) / Alex Bradley (Performance Art conceptualist) / Tom Bugs (madcap music modulator and inventor) / Neil Angel Tech (Art House Electronics) /  Lea Piontek (German soundtracker) / Brian Oblivion (Half of Vexkiddy Techno Time Travel Traveller) /  David Hopkinson (The Computer Sings) / Alexander Thomas (Theremin) / plus 'The Whiskey Sound Desk' & 'Free Absinthe from a Piano' / plus Lights by Motz & Odd Job

Chiz says: "'Warriors Vs The DJs' or 'DJs Vs The Warriors' or something like that was the concept, I can't remember quite when this happened at The Cube (pre-fire I imagine) and the internet don't seem to cover these early fumblings in the dark...but I do remember me being asked to fly mix the 35mm sound on stage as the Djs did their new soundtrack thing. Technics and headphones lit up by the cast as Walter Hill's colour saturated light hit the big old and damaged Cube screen."

That was then, this is 'Cube X'. Re-scores by DJs, orchestras, anyone seems to be part of the cultural remit nowdays...everyone does it. Somehow even David Lynch has (or hasn't) given permission to some chill-out DJ's to rework 'The Straight Story'. Anyways this one is something else, as Beardyman - who has been working on a film from within the Cube's inner mechanisms with David Hopkinson (a core cube artist since its inception) - and his brother are going to re-dialogue / re-dub, flux up the foley and probably lay beats all over this film. An exclusive indeed.

Often it is an impulsive thing, the way we react to music. Music can make you jerk wild, hot flush, grow fins, bear gifts or just close eyes and dream. Tonight we have put together an awfully good evening of acts who all harness their impulses (all three acts rely on a deep well of emotions and freeform sensibilities) and keep them in a beautifully controlled condition that allows their music to touch wonderful places. This includes a favourite adoptive daughter of Bristol, Ms Anni Rossi who still travels the world to great delight, the gracious guitar playing of Mr James Blackshaw and a VERY special assembled drone orchestra led by Duane Pitre featuring some of Bristol and London's ancient and new outer-fringe musicians. Early arrival is pretty much demanded for a night of 'Kept Impulses'.

This is a show of pleasures rad, rare, guilty and racy. These are the musical kids who make bands that inspire people, do things their own way, daring deeds done dirt cheap and good. This is a jumble sale of a show and all the better for it.

Arctic Circle do it in a big but humble/jumble blaze of glory. They refresh the spirit with their cultish brand of DIY. They helped put the night together to celebrate the release of their new 7-incher out on Stitch Stitch records, a double A-side featuring 'Prancing Pearl' and 'Mothers Ruin' – both typically upbeat AC tracks. Munch Munch are their favourite Bristol band and prove there is a scene (unnamed). They mess with songs in a delicious twin drum, freeform way. They have been touring mad this summer, proving a hit at indie, dance, prank and part nights. Take stock. Katapulto proves that off kilter keyboards are central to this night - he is singular madcap fun. Eccentronica indeed. Illegal Seagull bind it all together or just let it all hang out.

Wet your lips in anticipation...this is a delicious night-time journey into a forest of sound with an extraordinary undergrowth of acts populating the ancient floor. 'Approximately Infinite Universe' is a specially commissioned night features unique collaborations from some of the most innovative and exciting acts on Finland’s Fonal label being paired up to play with Americans released from their disparate subterranean scenes in the USA. This concept night makes multi-coloured criss-crossed connections between the strands of the recently evolving trend of ‘weird/avant folk’, 'ruptured noise discordination' and 'cyber-primative songcraft' that is happening within communities of artists on both the US West Coast and Finland’s northern communities.

Hauschka is the captivating Düsseldorf-based pianist Volker Bertelmann. Channelling minimalism and the spirit of John Cage, he opens up his instrument and performs public operations on its innards using guitar strings, gaffer tape and other bits of junk. Eric Satie's mischievous miniatures, Indonesian gamelan and The Books all get a look in. An engaging raconteur and star of Venn 08.

Also from Düsseldorf, mapstation (aka Stefan Schneider of To Rococo Rot) is an integrated fourth world/electronics project in the pioneering tradition of Can's Jaki Liebezeit or Brian Eno. A bold and evocative reimagining of African rhythms and textures.

Here come one of the bands of the summer. Wildbirds & Peacedrums - even the name brings to mind spiritually uplifting, erotic and exotic imagery, sounds and feelings. They certainly generate that in their performances. They are simmering in fine, fine fashion at the moment, so catch them close and intimate at The Cube with great support acts and DJs. After a summer break this is the first Qu Junktions show of the late summer season.

The now annual Qu J Summer Show is going to deliver BIG time. Oh my gosh...a nine piece brass band from Brooklyn are leading the dance. The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are Mos Def's backing band with strong ties to Sun Ra and play a raw, energetic and powerful marching band show full of show stoppers, killer cover versions and exhilarating doses of BIG band jazz, hip hop, soul and funk. June sees them release an album on Honest Jon's in anticipation of this there first UK tour proper. Watch this or this to see them in action.

In previous years this event has re-energised the summer with Konono No1, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, Biosphere and Vialka. Always an event, Bass Clef will be adding his trombone, effects and flags and then there will also be Zun Zun Egui adding their low beams, hi-life and underground rock n trance. With Qu DJs in tow this will be a night to remember. Like a street block party but inside.

Ya! A full on Japanese invasion of mental fusion. This showcase will grab your hair and pull it back to reveal 4 acts from Osaka re-manifesting themselves in front of your eyes. Heavy breaks, f**k-core dance, grinding metal, cartoon overload and mischievous elements make this...toxic stuff. Featuring the talents of Ove Naxx, Bogulta, DJ Scotch Egg and Maruosa!

A Qu Junktions Summer Special.

This is what is needed... a Kenyan and American cooperative effort where African benga music and some fine tuned American rock (Thrill Jockey style) meet in sun kissed union. Both traditions crank up electric guitars and singing melodic songs over propulsive rhythms...Extra Golden make the connection. The band's songs veer from stand up delightful rockers to honeyed melancholic swayers.

This band have an extraordinary history with trips to Nairobi, visa problems, the death of the orginal lead singer, meeting by lakes to record, the assistance from Senator Obama. This, we guess, is what it takes to make cross cultural fusion as effortless as they make it. Their album title Ok-Oyot is derived from a Luo phrase that means, "it's not easy." The band of course are agile, gifted and make a inventive and interlocked sound with a thrilling sense of camaraderie. Easy like a Wednesday evening.

Bristol's festival of musical overlap returns for a fifth year of celebratory musical mix 'n' match. Acts include:

MATMOS, WHY?, RACHEL UNTHANK & THE WINTERSET, MORITZ VON OSWOLD, SUNBURNED HAND OF THE MAN, FUCK BUTTONS, THE HELIOCENTRICS, MURCOF, FLYING LOTUS, INFINITE LIVEZ vs STADE, SNORKEL, AFRIKAN BOY, TRACTOR, ERRORSMITH, SKELETONS & THE KINGS OF ALL CITIES, THE BLESSING, CHIK BUDO, THE FUNGUS MOTH, JOHN WALL, MOHA!, WILDBIRDS & PEACEDRUMS, LA VOLUME COURBE, PEVERELIST, MUNCH MUNCH, HAUSCHKA, ONE MORE GRAIN, OLO WORMS, OCTOBER, + PHIL MINTON'S 'CENTURY FC'

Full info & updates are at www.vennfestival.com

The Cube Cinema is blessed with an evening of heavenly musics led by the cult ambient/drone ensemble Stars of The Lid. Last time they visited Bristol they channelled the reverb-drenched acoustics of Redland church. Now they set up in a cinema augmented by string quartet and 16mm projections and plan to bathe the Cube deep in lush swells of sound, colour and motion for your immersive pleasure.

Jazz but not Jazz. Modular but amazing, lush and long.

Known as one of the great cult bands of Australia, The Necks' Chris Abrahams (piano), Tony Buck (drums) and Lloyd Swanton (bass) conjure a chemistry together that defies description in orthodox terms. They extend ideas, forms and melodies from potentially minimalist pieces to new and unexpected places. 13 albums into a unique career they remain a unique outfit. Since those first meetings as a group in 1987 they haven't seen it fit to rehearse, and their completely improvised live performances have gained cult status across the globe. Tonight they meet again on the Cube stage.

A Hawk and A Hacksaw return to Bristol with their travelling band to set pulses racing once again. Add the 5th-degree World music of Zun Zun Egui to the blend and you have an intoxicating blend of borderless musics. Last seen in Bristol at a frenzied Venn 07 knees up, AHAAH have gone on to tour Europe with Portishead and continue to develop their sound. Theirs is the sound of being alive in the summer, a gorgeous mix of Eastern European folk, fantastical gypsy song, klezmer and Mexican fanfare. These are restless souls who have relocated from New Mexico to the banks of the River Danube, but are always on the move, soaking up new sounds.

Coming to a dive near you... With beer on the breath and leaving a trail of bodily fluids, trashed amps, and general debauchery in their wake come Atlanta's most notorious ‘garage’ band. Grubby, loose and sun-drenched, these boys are a riot of exuberant, excited, thrashy energy that gives rise to catchy, urgent and freaked out songs. These bar-brawling, silver-toothed, amphetamine-charged degenerates are known as the Black Lips. Famous for their gleefully unhinged live shows - which have been known to feature projectile vomiting, on stage fireworks and the creative use of human excrement - this is good old fashioned rock 'n' roll excess for the Vice generation. Nuggets-era garage, the raw power of The Stooges, the scuzzed up lo-fi of the Velvets, and the whiskey-drenched stomp of The Doors all get a look in.

Have mercy on our souls….'cos this is THE big classic west coast rock double header. Big for the summer and ready for the surf are Howlin' Rain, all the while Bristol’s west country coasting sound is here in the glorious form of The Wailingest Cats. They make a beautiful jazzed up, dry humped cinematic rock sound. Tonight contains the songs, the fire and the big sprawling tunes for the rock 'n' roll good times.

This is what it sounds like when you push music/sound a little further.

A joint headline show with the Japanese arch-extremist Merzbow playing a very rare UK solo set plus Chris Corsano and Mick Flower (Edinburgh and Leeds) playing as their amazing drums and shaahi baaja operation Flower-Corsano duo. Combine these two with No-Fun’s very own Carlos Giffoni from the USA and the new Bristol-based Hunting Lodge/Artamonova collaboration Totton Glass, and you have a pretty much unmissable event for those with a penchant for outer limits of noise, viral electronics and freeform drumming.

Back with the Baby Dee band...and what a band. Plus support from the Coward-esque fairytales and satire of Stanley Forbes, and an operatic one man performance of 'Beat Girl'.  Baby Dee's world is overflowing with harp and heart wrench, ballads and bawdy songs colliding in sweet unison. This novel and beguiling performer has just released a new album on Drag City, her most expansive yet. She is one of our favorite live performers and this time plays a royal flush with a full band featuring John Contreras on Cello and the rhythm section from wonderland, Ben Reynolds and Alex Nielson.

Three musicians who channel deep ragas, invisible soundtracks and haunting psychedelia. An unusual and transcendental triple bill featuring co-headline spots from U.S. twelve string/slide guitarist Jack Rose and exquisite Parisian artist Colleen, plus support from London based Hush Arbors.

Electro sci-fi, radiophonia, b-music and the spirit of Yuri Gagarin all get beamed into the Croft for this weird one off as four man machines go solo and play wired. Dance the freaky dance to the deranged dadatronics of German oddbod Felix Kubin, with support from Neu!-rave epiphanists Bronnt Industries Kapital, Polish Phil Collins obsessive Katapulto, and the gross indecency of Lucky Throw. Plus Qu DJs and strange lights.

Back in our town come a fellowship of improvised music travellers whose combined output, influence and craft is immeasurable. We welcome them with baited breath. This specially formed trio are heading to Bristol for do a one-off set for the pleasure of it. To contrast we have the electronix artist Artamonova who conjures dirty great riffs alongside expansive atmos pieces from her improvised music practises.

D.R.O.I.D. is a club: big and heavy. An extraordinary occasion featuring a stellar cast of 21st century dance music from top draw live guests, DJs and some virtual avatar stars. The line up is blistering in the bass end with super high end tweaks – be it filthy house, dubstep-not-dubstep, mutant breaks, electro-techno or…of course…Victorian Acid House. Seriously giant screens transform the club by hijacking the world of Second Life and setting it loose in a real life environment, with live streams and killer VJ pyrotechnics.  This is where the live computer generation display their wares - trombone action, crazed techno cabaret shows, filter sweeps and urban music from across the globe liven up the place. The technology is set loose for future funk.

D.R.O.I.D will take place simultaneously in the digitised world of Second Life, and as a consequence of this, across the known world. The line-up at the Trinity will be streamed live into Second Life, where avatars will be able to enjoy the sights and sounds of the night. At the Trinity huge suspended, back-projected screens will show the audience the virtual world of Second Life. There will also be “interaction terminals” in the hall to allow participants to hit the dancefloor in the virtual domain. The aim is for the two audiences, the physical and the digital, to get to know each other, dance the mad dance.

From deepest France, via everywhere and nowhere, come Vialka, the devilishly high-spirited guitar/drums duo of Marylise Frecheville and Eric Boros. Their music skips joyfully across borders, channeling desert blues, Chinese folk songs, scatter rock and European gypsy song dynamics in a whirlwind of dervish energy. Their endless gypsy punk folk rock tales, hard hitting polyrhythms and yelps and howls make for a danceable and intoxicating brew. Like A Hawk and A Hacksaw or The Ex their openness to new sounds and cultures makes you feel alive and shows that "world punk rock" need not be a dirty phrase.

Three bands going for their own musical nirvanas.

In support of the ‘Gettin’ Gone’ long player (already been hailed a classic) on Ecstatic Peace, MV&EE with The Golden Road plan to amp out this show with good vibes, yearning vocals and erotic song charges alongside unkempt country tones and rock riffs. The live band consists of the core pair of MV/EE on guitar/vox, Doc Dunn on pedal steel/resonator, Chris Davis (Cherry Blossoms) hitting the drums and Mick Flower (from Vibracathedral Orchestra) joining in. The end of 2007 saw ‘Gettin' Gone’ get hailed in the underground and Mojo scenes, while tours in USA took them to backwoods porches, Dinosaur Jr support slots and rural recording sessions.

Men Diamler launches not one but two albums into the world with this showcase event. "Sea Shanties For The Far Inland" on Dulcet Thud and "Lon Chaney Vs. Dandelion Batman"… a fucking amazing limited CD-R. The man will play two shows: one early bird acoustic one show and one late night, beautifully ravaged show.

Joining him will be 3 acts who exhibit different sides of the wild. Pekko Kappi, the highly recommended Finnish musician and member of Paivansade who makes stunning songs from a minimal set-up; far flung intergalactic sound shapes from Ice Bird Spiral; plus, adding another dimension to the evening, Kath & Phil Tyler, a married couple of folk singers from North East England playing whistles, banjo and guitar.

What a wondrous triple bill of moonshine sounds this is, overflowing with boisterous fiddles, fragile electronics and ramshackle songcraft from three diverse and enchanting acts.

A foot stompin', viola playing force of nature, Anni Rossi is a startlingly fresh musician from Illinois who has been leaving audiences agog with her unique blend of classical virtuosity and vocal acrobatics. Her songs are alive with possibility and she has that Greenwich Village class via East European barn dance mixed with unkempt singer/songwriter allure all in bundles.

The path that leads the wonderful Sparklehorse from North Carolina to The Cube is a happy tale of our shrunken new world. Scouring the internet for sonic accessories for he and production cohort/jip hop maverick Danger Mouse to play with, Mark Linkous comes upon our very own DIY machine-maker Tom Bugs. 'Sell me a box', says Linkous. 'Come and play The Cube', says Bugs. 'OK', says Linkous. 'Alright!', says Bugs. And that's that.

The signature Sparklehorse sound – waves of woebegotten country-rock beauty, abstract poetics and otherworldy textures as heard on the golden likes of 'Good Morning Spider', 'It's a Wonderful Life' and last year's 'Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain' – is, quite simply, to the Cube's tiny auditorium born. Saddle up.

Team Brick in a crypt with guests from Bristol and Brazil.

Team Brick is a Bristolian who is able to circumnavigate a diverse range of cultural/social scenes, sucking up all that moves him and reconstituting it into a solo multi-instrumental show of unique range and power. Tuvan throat singing, The Melvins, deep metal, bubblegum psych and the emotional landscapes of rock's outer reaches all get a look in.

Three overworldly electronic spirits play a Winter special at the Cube.

Goodiepal is a strange and most wonderful thing, and is just one of many monikers for Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester. He recently left his home in the Faroe Islands and took up residence at 2c Garner Street in East London to give music lessons, concerts and fix mechanical and electrical objects to anyone who knocks on his door between 9am and 10.10am. As a composer, computer hacker, nurse, lecturer/academic, sound designer, and close ally of arch pranksters V/VM, he occupies a unique and surreal territory. His performances are also impossible to categorise but might resemble live art, a lecture, or a DJ set depending on your viewpoint. Birds, whistling, planets, vinyl and philosophy might all feature. He played two sets at Venn 07 and rewards the curious.

Roll up, roll up for uplifting good times with this fine, fine rock'n'roll band. Akron/Family are an ever-touring outfit who have developed a kaleidoscopic range of styles mixing honey-voiced ballads, crazed country, riff-a-delica, drumming circles, electric odysseys and pop songcraft into a potent and refreshing brew. Maybe like Oneida, Grizzly Bear or The Microphones they take Gram Parson's notion of 'Cosmic Americana' and give it another squeeze.

From Copenhagen, Denmark come one of those special bands, whispered about by music fans (especially those that like their music a bit majestic and special), praised by critics who fall for their involved but melodic suites of songs and their uncompromising but accessible musical vision. Efterklang have a devoted following and are coming to the UK for their first tour proper after working on a near perfect album for the last two years.

Live the band evolve into a stunning 8-piece ensemble, their lush, panoramic arrangements transporting the listener to a magical place. Theirs is a unique take on post-rock/post-classical forms featuring antiphonal choirs, hypnotic brass, febrile strings and the warm fizz of electronics. Like Spirit of Eden-era Talk Talk, Sigur Ros or Arcade Fire, their music is epic in its ambition and scope. But it is their hushed intimacy that makes them special. Turn them up loud and they even rock, while seemingly speaking only to you in music played through a labyrinth of textures. Music to get lost in, full of wonder and humanity.

The Queen of the Indie-Blues is back with us with two bands from Too Pure in support.

Scout Niblett is a former performance artist from Nottingham who relocated to America and won us all over. The new badassedly titled album ‘This Fool Can Die Now’ is a career high. Recorded by Steve Albini, it is a laidback and charming affair. The presence of the likes of Bonnie Prince Billy on vocal duties adds extra swoon, but the main event is still Scout's high longing vocals and that beautifully outlandish and raw heavy guitar/drum interplay that can pierce any sense of complete calm.

From Copenhagen, Denmark come one of those special bands, whispered about by music fans (especially those that like their music a bit majestic and special), praised by critics who fall for their involved but melodic suites of songs and their uncompromising but accessible musical vision. Efterklang have a devoted following and are coming to the UK for their first tour proper after working on a near perfect album for the last two years.

Live the band evolve into a stunning 8-piece ensemble, their lush, panoramic arrangements transporting the listener to a magical place. Theirs is a unique take on post-rock/post-classical forms featuring antiphonal choirs, hypnotic brass, febrile strings and the warm fizz of electronics. Like Spirit of Eden-era Talk Talk, Sigur Ros or Arcade Fire, their music is epic in its ambition and scope. But it is their hushed intimacy that makes them special. Turn them up loud and they even rock, while seemingly speaking only to you in music played through a labyrinth of textures. Music to get lost in, full of wonder and humanity.

Heads up on this show featuring the incredible saxophonist and wild legend that is Sonny Simmons, all the way from the USA playing alongside the Tight Meat threesome feat David Keenan (saxophone), Alex Neilson (drums) and George Lyle (bass). Plus from Italy comes the all-out Jookla duo.

Huey ‘Sonny’ Simmons is one of the key figures to come out of the 1960's free jazz scene and his CV locates him at all the major epicentres, with recording sessions alongside John Coltrane’s rhythm section, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison, as well as players like Eric Dolphy, Charles Mingus, Sunny Murray and Don Cherry. More significantly, in 1966 he led his own group through two absolutely flattening LPs for the legendary ESP-Disk label, then home to Albert Ayler and Sun Ra. Since the 60's he has fallen off the map several times, but more recently he has been playing in his new group The Cosmosamatics.

This is a show where ancient musical rites and the spirits of sounds are not extinguished by red tape and gloss but enlivened by the crackle of rock and roll electricity. The prospect of a show that mixes the sweet but raw guitar style of Justin Adams, Zun Zun Egui’s uplifting tropical/trash/math collision, the rousing vocals of a true Griot and both bands' effortless mix of incandescent rhythms and East/West melodies is worth getting in a sweat for.

A match made in Hell. The original and most notorious cult film of all time is scored by art house electronix outfit Bronnt Industries Kapital (Static Caravan/Warp) for a one off performance in a beautifully faded gothic cathedral. Three elements coming together to forge an unforgettable experience.

Bronnt Industries Kapital are the duo of Guy Bartell and Nick Talbot (aka Warp's Gravenhurst who just released a new album to his best reviews yet). They are part of a rich tradition of enigmatic Bristolians that links them to musicians like The Third Eye Foundation and Foehn.

A real special double-header for fans of song, featuring two inquisitive singer-songwriters who break from the voice/guitar tradition, bringing the Kora (Thee, Stranded Horse) and Kim Harp (Nancy Elizabeth) into play with thrilling effect. Both have their own distinctive approaches to song, but both are able to make your hair bristle with excitement by channeling emotions and feelings that come from deep down.

Hold it down, Bristol town. They are back for more of the crazed. In support of their biggest release yet and super strong and twice as long, SHOTM return once again to Bristol for more oodles of psych-o-phunk-adelia mischief.

This band of brothers/sisters follow no rules and their new long-player justifies this ancient rule of maverick music makers. Between chaos and clarity lies their vast sound. Be it African beat, Svengali hisses, atonal noise, electronic blips, sound clips, drone, or Euro-trance, each track summons an entirely different mood. What’s more ‘Fire Escape’ was produced and envisioned by genre-hopper/uber-producer Four Tet. Recorded in London soon after their legendary two night stint at The Cube - it pushes up the rhythm section, deranges yr idea of pop and sounds like the Bomb Squad re-mixing a 23 Skidoo/Gong show. Wild?

A wonderfully concocted undergrowth full of cosmic poprocktronica is promised tonight from Animal Collective, a band who shimmer and shade their music with delightful kaleidoscopic touches. Cult stuff from the new Domino signing, whose muse knows no bounds. A forest of rhythms, licks and chants are embellished by a suitably kooky stage show with skeletons and the yearning and churning Finnish minor-key fever dreams of Islaja in support.

Chris Watson, Biosphere and Mike Harding in conversation at Arnolfini. A relaxed and intimate afternoon starting with a live masterclass led by sound recordist/artist Chris Watson. This will be followed by a conversation between Chris and Biosphere about their latest field recording projects chaired by Touch boss Mike Harding. This is a one-off opportunity to hear these internationally renowned artists talk about their work and to find first hand out everything you've ever wanted to know about independent music distribution.

From the phenomenal Touch label (Fennesz, Ryoji Ikeda), an evening of deep listening from three artists who harness nature through technology.

Widely regarded as one of Norwegian electronic music’s most important artists, Biosphere has created a wealth of techno, ambient and soundscaped albums over the past two decades. 'Storm' is a collaborative project between sound recordists Chris Watson (UK) and BJNilsen (Sweden). Stationed on their respective coastlines, they have captured the development of storm fronts across the North Sea and Scandinavia. Using 5.1 surround sound, the performance recreates the rhythms and music created when the elements combine over land and sea.

It’s the way she drifts, in music, in life that makes us love her. Baby Dee allows us to time-travel but not know where we are going. Her torch songs coupled with the heightened sense of slightly askew beauty in the lyrics raises the eyebrow and enraptures the most hardened heart. Whether spellbinding audiences with tender harp madrigals or bringing the house down vaudeville style, she is a preformer born to captivate. Plus melancholic, lush rock from Icelandic born Stafrænn Hákon and woodland drones from Adam Higton. Plenty of surprises then tonight.

A combustible encounter between turntablist DJ /rupture (Tigerbeat 6) and guitarist Andy Moor (from cult band The Ex), plus inspired support from Agaskodo Teliverek and V.i.

Please note venue change.

Hypnotic bleeped-up math-groove 4-piece assault on the senses from New York's Battles. A head-spinning, high-tech sensory overload from Warp Records and THE band others now have to measure themselves by. The group have been making heads spin all summer with their near perfect dynamic sound...they really seem to be the ulitimate wet dream 21st century rock'n'roll band, combining a huge set of influences into something unique.

Featuring 14 acts, two stages, 2 continuous performances, two sound systems, electronics, stop clocks and Quadraphonic DJ’s, QuWack (e) celebrates a roll-call of extraordinary musicians from an evergrowing micro-climate.

After all-male and all-female events, QuWack (e) is all-electronic and features 14 solo electronic performers. Get lost in a maze of voltage surfing control freaks, 21st century composers and unhinged solo show stoppers presented on two stages, within customised gallery conditions. These include an overhead video projection stream that will revisualise and then track each musician's performance.

The rules are simple. Each act has 15 minutes to perform on their own to their heart's content. In the spirit of a musical tag team, each performance will be bookended by two 5 minute collaborations with the previous and next acts, who will be set up on the other stage. The result will be one continuous stream of performance where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. One performance in the afternoon and another in the evening, each featuring new artists and strange juxtapositions. Quadraphonic DJ’s either side.

Janek Schaefer - Be it minimal delay lines, modified turntables, field recordings, off beatz or sound-art he is one of the most erratically compelling composers of our time. Exhibited with Scanner, Philip Jeck and Brian Eno. Played with Christian Marclay and in Sydney Opera House

Infinite Livez - Gameboy programmer, comic book artist, and soft toy lover puts out wonky hip hop on Big Dada, plays with electro jazz boffins and self-releases freestyle noise cds for fun 

Isambard Khroustaliov - An early intro to Warner Brothers cartoons (and the music of Carl Starling) fused with the fastidiousness of an IRCAM composer's training battle it out in an over-enthused psyche. AKA Sam Britton of Icarus (Leaf)

??????? - Arrhhh of course…the mystery component, guest, wild card. As with all other QuWacks an unknown performers enters the fray at the last minute, to up the intrigue and through a final spanner in the works.

Man From Uranus - Uses analogue oscillator boxes, reel to reel tape, toy sequencer, and TV/shortwave receiver – all wired together into one great synaesthetic sound machine

Bela Emerson - The art of cello is reflected through the looking glass and into a parallel world of cosmic electronics. She was spellbinding at this year's Supersonic Festival 

Artamonova - a composer and improviser from Russia. She appears in hysterical art-noise act SWPOU and as White Nightie, this guise sees her on that wild edge between acoustic folk and lo-tech electronics

Twocsinak - A self-styled autodidact who may yet be famous (although he is feted by Matmos) with a very distinct, mischievous, obscenely detailed collage/ege sound world 

Vi - There is a sense of Richie Hawtin’s dedicated vision, Kraftwerk’s dis/utopia and Pan Sonic’s harnessing of powerful instruments within his music. He has that self absorbed electronic sound that is well worth fetishising 

My Ambulance Is On Fire - Histrionic vocalisation made intoxicating by electrification. An obsessive cine-pile, who plays in Geisha, loves Italo-Disco and whose stance is always a provocative one

Katapulto - Broken and smashed beat genius from Rzeszow, Poland. He wants to take over the UK music charts and pays tribute to Phil Collins, “the King of England"

Alexander Thomas - coaxes delicious ripples from his Theremin. Vaudeville, mad-cap hip-hop and ghostly soundscapes are all defined and then re-defined by his sense of otherworldiness

Leadtowill - Plays Throat Synth, Jar Wind Chimes and a Pringles microcontroller to perform sonic brain massage. Half of Leadtowine and loves to home brew 

James Scatter - One half of glitterbeat duo Hook & The Twin this man is coming in from the unknown to spice up the proceedings with his raffle style

QuWack (e) is inspired by Eastern European professors, Rave, Merzbow, cartoon audio collage, Italian futurism, aristocratic outcasts, low end Hip Hop theory, Top Of The Pops, Guardian supplements, Japanese street technology, plastic in parks, Laurie Anderson, thunderous storms, ‘Mad’ Mike Banks, inharmonics, John Carpenter, B-movies, post Cold War divisions, Chris Morris, generative music, neon lights, People Like Us, Dr Who, e-politic, Joe Meek, Tomorrow's World, Pierre Shaffer and Timbaland.

Supported by the PRS Foundation for New Music.

A year to the day after his last appearance in Bristol Charlie Parr is back in town. He is a favourite round these parts and with good reason. The sheer energy and good time vibes that circle his authentic country-blues keep people coming back for more. Steeped in the traditions of the deep south, Charlie plays a mixture of his own/traditional folk music, and Piedmont-style blues on resonator guitar, 12 string and banjo. His raw voice, lightning finger picking and plaintive but wry songs make his performances unmissable.

Bless these blues. PG Six is loved for his gentle but grounded voice, his dreamlike, psych compositions and his homespun sound. One of the songwriters in the seminal free-wheeling, looper group Tower Recordings with Matt Valentine. With support from Crescent playing material from their first new record in four years.

"The street has its own uses for technology," Neuromancer author William Gibson famously declared.

Konono No.1, Appleblim and Bass Clef nail that and then dance with it to glorious effect. Konono No1 are from the border between Congo and Angola. They are a band that blisters dancefloors, speakers and makes for a euphoric sound. A village band, with a long lineage, that fuse traditional African Bazombo trance music with hand-built electronics to create a propulsive hybrid that sounds like nothing else on earth.

Qu Junktions has dreamt up a spectacle of sound, lyrics and jigs for your pleasure: 3 one-off live acts + 1 dj and a soundsystem in a Social Club with cheap drinks in the middle of summer.

Vialka are the dynamic duo of Marylise Frecheville and Eric Boros, who have been bringing their gypsy turbo-folk-punk music and nomadic lifestyle to all corners of the world for seven years. The duo devour shreds of ancient Chinese folk songs, eccentric stand-up cabaret, and surrealistic verse in a whirlwind of dervish energy and European Gypsy song dynamics.

Three acts. All totally enchanting, unusual and perfect to sup cool drinks too. Budget price and ice meltingly special. Summer never sounded so good.

Directing Hand are Alex Nielson (drums/vocals) and Vinnie Blackwell (vocals, cello, harp and harmonium). Alex has been round these parts a lot recently, attesting to his amazing pursuit of musical adventure in all forms. In 2007 he has played with Alasdair Roberts (The Cube) , Motor Ghost (Louisiana/Venn), Bonnie Prince Billy (Colston Hall) and Tight Meat Duo (Seymours Family Club). This is probably his most personal project and one we take delight in hosting.

The admired singer Carla Bozulich comes to The Cube with her band while on tour in Europe. Carla's also known as the singer from LA based band The Geraldine Fibbers and as the woman who re-made Willie Nelson's ‘Red Headed Stranger’ - with Willie Nelson as a special guest. Carla has one of the most unique voices in any genre, she is at once brutally emotive, thrillingly raw and weirdly traditional. A deep, dirty Patsy Cline pulling all kinds of tricks.

Venn is Norwegian for friend and Qu Junktions is Venn's. Venn '07 goes astral. Pulling in acts of the very highest calibre from divergent musical constellations, this year's line-up is Venn's broadest yet. Maverick originators like Faust, J Spaceman and Einar Orn (Sugarcubes) mix it with young firestarters like Cooper Jones, Helena Gough and Islaja; there's rare performances from key sonic protagonists like Vladislav Delay, Lawrence and Stephen O'Malley, plus sound sorcerers shrouded in reclusive mystique like Aufgehoben and Paavoharju (both playing on Saturday).

Hard pop songs with killer aural juxtapositions. Scout Niblett rocks like the Pixies and swings to heartbreak. With a new album and single on Too Pure and a drummer in tow, welcome back this classic character drummer/guitar player/singer. She also swings to heartbreak and soars as she engages with the audience.

Hypnotic bleeped-up math attack from New York. A head-spinning, high-tech assault to the senses from Warp Records. Plus the controlled, literate and head-spinning Safetyword.

Two acts from The Leaf Label who create deeply expressionist music that invigorates the imagination. Live, their micro-sensitive sounds blossom into expansive, dynamic and emotive performances. From Brisbane, Australia come Triosk who are updating jazz for the post-digital age. Cinematic electronics and explosive post-rock action mixed with all action jazz. Based in Paris, Colleen creates music that appears to transfigure time and melody. Her beautiful, hermetic sound world will be created playing rare instruments including viola de gamba and spinet.

Free Noise is an eagerly awaited first-time collaboration featuring major names from the burgeoning noise and free jazz scenes on both sides of the Atlantic. As free jazz was originally seen as an abuse of established musical forms, so is noise today. This Contemporary Music Network tour brings together the revolutionary genius at the heart of both for a visceral, revelatory and often explosive experience. Over two sets, and through a series of improvised combinations, the paths of these two unorthodox musics will converge to create something both beautiful and terrifying. Expect riotous freeform squalls, minimalist meditations and breathtaking cliffs of extreme volume.

No earthly man can captivate a room like Alasdair Roberts. A purveyor of timeless, tuneful songs full of inner mystery, love and death. The Scottish troubadour is touring 'The Amber Gatherers' (Drag City), his most joyful album yet and bringing a four piece band with him on the road. He has been produced by Will Oldham, collaborated with Jason Molina and recently toured the UK's concert halls with Joana Newsom.

The Bastard Kings of the noise highway Wolf Eyes come to town. Rock 'n' Roll 'n' Redneck poses from the band who've played with free jazz legends and release everything they record on a myriad of labels including Sub Pop. Live they rob you of sight via their ‘take no prisoners’ sound - friction, intensity and squalls of 21st century noise and a heightened sense of cathartic stage antics...Hard-Ferocious-Spazz-Jazz-Core.

A night for starry-eyed dreamers. Straight for the heart, 12-string guitar music from James Blackshaw, one of England’s finest. Spacious, spellbinding and lush. Magic spirit-lifting compositions for the agnostic age. Meditative in quality, like a twig in a river, this music gracefully moves and spirals into different patterns, motifs and harmonics. Moving and elegiac mantras from the deft hands of a gifted 23 year old. Open folk tunings, fine ears and an ability to drift into extended emotional pieces puts him alongside Jack Rose, John Renbourn, M Ward and Sandy Bull.

Master jazz/funk maestro musician meets future electronix/f***ed folktronics boy live on the stage and sparks fly. Basically Four Tet (Domino/Fridge/remixer extraordinaire and purveyor of good vibes) sets out his keyboards, effects and guitar to make all kinds of squelch and whizz while his mixing desk goes to work dubbing and double-tripling out the wonderful and exceedingly spirited beats, fills and drum magic from one of the most gifted and still ON IT drummers in history, Steve Reid.

A Qu Junktions triple shot of the hot stuff. Primal rhythms, swirling heavy riffs and ecstatic rites in an almighty three band pile up at Seymours. A final funktion at the Family Club before it closes. Cacophonous stuff.

Head on collision between two widescreen jazz/rock acts. Both completely distinct but stunningly different. A killer Bristol line up that manages to combine heavy bottom end with tunes and delicate touches, all sealed with stunning Technicolor burn out visuals. Expect a bespoke set from each band followed by a duel-pronged freak out at the end.

Three acts who embrace pop whilst proudly defying its accepted logic. Arctic Circle's imminent third album, their first as a full band, is the sound of an unlearned guitar ensemble exploding out of the bedroom and into full bloom.

Support is from a very a special guest from Hong Kong: Shiu-Yeung Hui, who follows like-spirited lines to Domino's errant pop collective Maher Shalal Hash Baz, who he has played with since 2003: hum-worthy songs suffering improv accidents and bleeding a warm, sloppy humanity.

New addition to the bill: arrive early to hear MSHB guitarist Naoto Kawate open.

A fucking incredible mix of wide-eyed hardcore, ecstatic noise, free rock, Indian drone, sweat and bone. Welcome back to Bristol... Mick Flower (last seen joining the Sunburned Hand of the Man melange at Seymours) and Chris Corsano (last seen warming the floor up for Tony Allen at the Trinity with Alan Wilkinson).

Jason Molina will warm the room with that famous quiver and croon. On a very brief UK tour, the man known as Songs: Ohia, and Magnolia Electric Co visits the Microplex. With very special support from Korean cellist Okkyung Lee. Warm-hued instrumental music and blessed noise from a  performer with no barriers.

End of season special event with musical thrills projected via inner-tranquillity and outer-chaos by two very different acts.

Josephine Foster is a singer that silences a room and a one off. She moves you back through the ages with a voice so clear and lilting. Nothing prepares you for the whirlwind of a Magik Markers show...NME, EMO, NEW RAVE, ROCK N ROLL beware!

A Qu Junktions triple shot of buddha-psych tracks, heavy, loose-hummed thunder funks, and enigmatic hush hush songs by three stunningly individual acts.

Ben Chasney is a world traveller whose music writes its own page. Absorbed by its own enigma, and transcendental otherness, Six Organs' music seems quietly cinematic with raga-like guitar, plaintive voice, effects and bursts of percussion.

The legendary, all encompassing freak out groove ensemble return again. Whether it be accident or design is not the question - SHOTM are soul grabbing, backwoods hermits, urbane city dwellers and a punk rock force of freak nature.

Lisa Germano thankfully re-scheduled her tour to make this appearance.

A truthful, unabashed storytelling singer on Fat Cat.

A timeless classic.That’s why we are having him back for the third time this year. A man in the prime, able to capture a memory or emotion in his perfectly pitched voice. The moment you hear his songs they seem familiar. Full of Buckley and Banhart-isms, there is an androgyny to his work that elicits a hushed reverence. Enjoy the intimate, relaxed emotional ride of his live performance.

Rock that arts and hearts.

A full spectrum of colour is poured into the complex, hook-enlivened songs of Safetyword. Formerly of the Isle of Man now at home in Bristol, they report historical peculiarity, esoteric remedy and sundry apocrypha to the nodding head and tapping foot. Reference Beirut, The Magic Band, Johnny Marr, Talking Heads for their UP sound.

Oh golly gosh. A true exponent of 'everything is possible' comes to Bristol. Erratic is not the word for his amazing career. Born in North Carolina in 1954, he has drawn from Dada, improv, country music, folk art, sound collage and a kaleidoscope of rock and jazz guitar techniques as well as from the chaotic structures of Charles Ives to make his cult brand of funnily experimental and queerly awesome music.

Talismanic pure hearted music making from MV/EE (Matt “MV” Valentine and Erika “EE” Elder), who have formulated a modern-ancient cosmic-blues universe of sound via their own Vermont-based Child of the Microtones imprint and now Ecstatic Peace.

This is a fine, fine night - a quadruple bill of rock, country, folk and psych. Move in early for this one. The atmosphere produced by Espers (Drag City) is intensely great, out of time and supernatural. The band have a sense of space and pace that belies an uncanny gift.

Lisa Germano is of those rare singers that transfix you the moment they start moving the air. Her soundcraft shows a breathless segue of beauty, sorrow, tenderness and strange emotional travels.

A flowering of the strange and the beautiful from two bands who make deep multifarious music and dazzle the spectator. Songs and sound pattens that weave esoteric narratives around their joyous centres, bands that are chameleon like in their ability to change without losing shape. Two tight-knit ensembles from Britain's hidden heritage, a tradition that extends from Robert Wyatt to Current 93, Richard Youngs and Volcano The Bear…get giddy.

Richard Bishop has been traveling the planetary system since 1981 as 1/3 of Ethno-Improv Pioneers, Sun City Girls - one of the most unpredictable, prolific and down right baffling bands around. Also tonight catch ascreening of new Sublime Frequencies film Phi Ta Knon.

"Rhythmic blues thunder and lustrous harmonic bliss". This is glorious guitar music where everthing riffs, crashs and rolls in synch. Many try it and many but fail Jonathan Kane and band deliver BIG time. The Dream Synidicate has got a new forger of harmonic maximalism.

Jonathan Kane is a downtown NYC legend - as co-founder of no-wave behemoth Swans and the rhythmic flutter behind the massed-guitar armies of Rhys Chatham and the rock excursions of La Monte Young. Released on Table Of The Elements Kane summons the perpetual propulsion of 70s krautrockers Neu, then steers it head-on into... the blues.

As part of a weekend of contemporary music at Bristol's Arnolfini, Qu Junktions presents a rich mix of non-linear post-gamelan drumming and the noise thrill of power electronics from two pivotal subterranean musicians. A display of intensely modern sound-sweeping.

Traditional English Folk Singer, collector and writer…Shirley is a legend and she is at the Microplex to enthrall with a story of love, travel and the folk music of the American South.

Whilst attending a party hosted by Ewan MaColl she met the famous American musical historian and folklorist, Alan Lomax. They became romantically involved and before long Collins found herself alone, boarding the S.S. America to begin an adventure almost unheard of for a young working class English girl at the time. This unique and powerful show takes you on an epic song-hunting journey through the heartlands of America's deep South in 1959. Illustrated with rare and remarkable music and pictures, this enthralling story is told by Shirley and actor Pip Barnes with passion and humour.

Aye, James Yorkston (Domino) paints a picture with his soulful song and country-folk pickings and lush arrangements. He has a brooding and very engaged feel, one that suggest the audience will always trust where he takes us in his songs. His songwriting and sound is focused but atmospheric, less whimsical than some of the fellow Fence Collective clan and full of wholesome imagery. James has played two sell-out shows at the Cube Cinema and tonight will entertain a specially seated audience at The Trinity.

with The Electric Kasey O, Artamonova, Rasha Shaheen, Chipper, Jess Marlowe, Lady and the MPC, Lea & special guests

Unhinged, off-the-peg and out-there, here's to the female Quwackers! Brace yourself for further specimens from an unheard of Bristol microclimate who work solo and play weird. The first QuWack was a handsome all-male romp QuWack (F) plans to cram a more feminine fringe element onto the Cube stage for your nerve-end entertainment.

Stomp, sway and swoon to these men with guitars.

Charlie Parr is a legend round these parts, the sheer energy and good time vibes that circle his authentic country-blues. Parr attracts attention the way bug-zappers attract moths. Timeless, stripped down, lovelorn and whiskey-fuelled songs full of character and resonance. As a guitar player he has been compared favourably with Doc Boggs, Charlie Patton, Jack Rose and John Fahey.

An abundance of delicate and divine songs, fantastic soundscapes and audio rides to other worlds.

Mi and L’au are gentle on the ear but full of romance and heartfelt lyrics all delivered in a suitable refined dramatic European style. This French/Finnish couple met in Paris a few years back, where they fell deeply and immediately in love. Now they live deep in the woods in Finland together, where they devote themselves to writing music together. 

Celebrating the summer, ripping up gypsy licks, de-funked rock, boogie woogie, Balkan beats and getting with the collective spirit. This is a special pre-Green Man Festival warm-up, a chance to enjoy the delightful hospitality of Seymours and celebrate the fact that Qu Junktions have been piping the music to Bristol and beyond for two years now. Music will come from all angles as the room is turned into a mixture of skittle alley, speakeasy, sports club, beatnik playpen and dada social lounge.

Joyous gypsy song cycles that reel effortlessly through Eastern European folk traditions, klezmer, mariachi and American folk.

With rings on their fingers and bells on their toes A Hawk and A Hacksaw skip before the whooping audience with multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Barnes on accordion, vocals and percussion (simultaneously!) accompanied by Heather Trost on violin, glockenspiel and melodica.

Cum feel the mega-surge of the regenerating underground Finnish rock band Circle. They seem to circumnavigate the outer-regions of rock music with their Sabbath riffs, deranged leather wear, kraut-synth action, vocal aerobatics and prehistoric primal atmospherics. Circle never change, never rest up and always deliver, be it in their early prog/rock Can style workouts, thrusting instrumental stoner rock releases on Static Caravan and Klangbad, or their hypnotic space psych.

Two woman/man duos of sublime musical creation.

Charalambides (Christina Madonia and Tom Carter) have a history and their music is deeper still. The couple were once married and based in Texas - now they assemble in different configurations - with MMVE, Gown, Pelt, Loren Mazzacane Connors among many – but their unique special music together is still exceptional.

Pumajaw (Pinkie Maclure and John Wills) make chamber-folk torch song. A sensory experience that melts June Tabor with Tom Waits and acoustic era Swans.

The third year of wayward musical magick is upon us. Set in the Stokes Croft quarter of Bristol but spilling into special venues throughout the city, over three days Venn burns all your musical maps and jigs like a loon on the smoldering pyre of festival convention.

Acts include Vashti Bunyan, The Aliens, Optimo, Ariel Pink, Baba Zula, Fog, Toolshed, The Chap, Oren Marshall, Tony Allen, Tape, Euros Childs, Max RIchter, Knowledge of Bugs, Cobra Killer, Crescent, Assdroids and Scion amongst the throng.

Just announced! Semi-secret one-off show for the Super Furry Animals frontman, who plays tonight as a warm up for his forthcoming Canadian tour with Bright Eyes.

Wide eyed, screwball Welsh folk rock pop from a delicious man and his guitar. Last seen in Bristol headlining Ashton Court Festival with SFA and playing a memorable psych solo set as a special guest to the Flaming Lips.

Soft velvet spookiness incarnate. Her songs are a Gothic country siren call for all those that love wounded, melancholic beauty in song.

One of the most consistent and, dare it be said, visionary, artists of the last 25 years happens to be a reclusive 'outsider' musician from Houston, Texas. Over 50 releases to the name, all released through the equally enigmatic Corwood Industries, all recorded, released, packaged and distributed in the most self-contained and enigmatic of ways.

Tonight the wonderful Howe Gelb, American pioneer of off the rails musical schemes and songs, plays with a full band and eight piece Canadian gospel choir known as the Voices Of Praise Gospel Choir.

They are supported by the sweet, gracious harmonies of the San Francisco based folk rock troupe Vetiver. Their second album will be released by Fat Cat records in the UK and they are over in the UK as special guests to Devendra Banhart, who played with them at the last Venn Festival.

Maybe like Moondog, Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons fame) and Joanna Newsom, Baby Dee is something special, combining ethereal atmospheric songs with a bawdy street finesse. A treeclimber, a classically trained harp player, a transgender Coney Island freakshow performer...she comes from somewhere else.

The extraordinary rootless but cocooned 'Finnish Feral' scene is nestled amongst post-industrial Tampere and the coastal cities, Helsinki and Turku. This is a fluid and non-hierarchical group of artists existing by their own rules and influcences. Tonight highlights their magic realist tendancies and patchwork pysch-dream music.

An evening of dangerous experiments and electronic perversions as Bristol's Tom Bugs and Leicester's kREEPA present a special collaboration in a darkened auditorium.

Friday 10th: Twocsinak, Men Diamler, special guest, Colin Smith, SJ Esau, mr_hopkinson, My Ambulance Is On Fire, Ian Green
Saturday 11th: Team Brick, Kid Carpet, Paul Bradley, special guest, Don Mandarin, Defcon Stlus, Freeze Puppy, Twocsinak
 
Two nights of live music from Bristol’s una-control freaks and unhinged solo artists. A mini-gala, a boot sale, an-off-the-peg display of Bristol artists who seem to avoid gentle-categorisation, work solo and play weird. QuWack celebrates a role-call of extraordinary musicians from an unheard of Bristol micro-climate.

Qu teams up with Plug 58 to welcome King Creosote to town. He's a royal among the ramshackle folky pop brigade and boy he writes a fine rain-soaked dity.

Few artists today come close to locating the heart of traditional American music like Charlie Parr. Playing both traditional and original folk and Piedmont-style blues on resonator guitar, 12-string and banjo he invokes the spirits of Mississippi John Hurt, Carl Perkins and John Fahey.

Having been frontman of fabulous Welsh troupe Gorkys Zygotic Mynci from the age of fifteen onwards, debut solo album 'Chops' sees Euros Childs edge away from the playful acid-folk-pop his band so successfully ply, instead stepping firmly into party town.

A huge night of burlesque from the Sunburned clan – side projects, films, stand up, all sorts.

The vast phunked up freak out groove ensemble return to Bristol for their first show in this double-vison two day special.

An evening in the company of Jack Rose, one of the few heirs to the solo folk guitar tradition paved by John Fahey and the young but legendary free, punk, jazz, folk-bastard-groove drummer, Chris Corsano.

Two feverish and honeyed musical singers supported by a melodic backwoods instrumentation and style. They come all the way from the USA with great endorsements. Out-there and welcoming, country and urban, spiritual but with one eye winking. Voices to behold.

Cult American bands Clogs and The Books come together for their first major UK tour and a one-off musical collaboration.

A singer/songwriter from the depths of hidden Britain. With Vashti Bunyan, Bill Fay, Shirley Collins all re-recording, touring or being re-appraised, please add Simon Finn to the mystical folk rock canon.

A return for everyone's favourite travelling band, doing what they do best. What larks, what treats.

Last time Herman Dune played the Cube they stayed for two nights due to popular demand. This time they plan to fit two shows into one lazy Sunday: a matinee for children of all ages, plus an evening show.

Pack in early for this one. Support is provided by Bristol's only real pop star, Freeze Puppy, who last year toured the UK and returns with a special set for your ears.

Last time Herman Dune played the Cube they stayed for two nights due to popular demand. This time they plan to fit two shows into one lazy Sunday: a matinee for children of all ages, plus an evening show.

Nanoplex invites you to an afternoon brimming with entertain suitable for all. As well as a specially devised performance from Herman Dune, you can look forward to The Junior Kochalka Puppet Theatre, animations from Russia (including Hedgehog In the Fog), and usherettes with ginger bread men for the hungry!

Soft velvet spookiness incarnate. Her songs are a Gothic country siren call for all those that love wounded, melancholic beauty in song.

Intense, zoned out meditations from Fursaxa plus support from one of Britain’s best weird nuts and Sharron, whose honest voice is pure and good medicine.

One of the most fiery acts on the planet - pure, damned and dirty Dalek. A dense and bewildering clash of challenging sonics and densely cryptic verbals, there is no denying they are merciless, straight-in-your-face, and brutally good musical force.

Two visionary percussionist pioneers play a special double headline show. The sum of trillons of backbeat influences including Robert Wyatt, Art Blakey, Gamelan, Hans Bennink, Tony Allen, industrial machines and the rhythm spirit.

Moonshine music, campfire songs and shape-shifting sounds from two bands from North America who trip out.

Treasure these two purveyors of myth and memory. PG Six is loved for his gentle but grounded voice, his dreamlike, psych compositions and his lack of pretence.

After nearly two years, to the day, the hardcore Japanese space punk rock band return to Bristol with skitzo hooks and shaven noise bursts.

Got Giddy presents one big old night of freeform dance, funkin' folk, rock n roll and DJs plus a specially installed Blackout Cinema make for a rave in the nave with a difference.

Beguiling Norwegian vocalist Hanne Hukkelberg brings her band to the UK for a special show with Jeremy Barnes' incredible A Hawk And A Hacksaw. Both are a sign of things to come from Leaf but they are already a huge success and gaining a strong word of mouth reputation.

The globe-spanning, post-digital beauty that The Leaf Label specializes in is very much apparent in this specially formulated show of force. Three acts that compose, crunch, glide and glisten with electronics, deep acoustics and future boogie.

A singular musical personality right up there with Mike Patton, Peaches and Drew Daniel, Kevin Blechdom's irreverence and warped sense of humour give electronic music a much needed kick in the teeth.

Smiles, tears, love, guts and rock 'n' roll from one of the best singer-songwriters recently seen creeping out of a computer. Prepare for his fearless and unpredictable live show.

A kaleidoscopic mutant of faux-naive nursery rhymes, turbulent riffage and gonzo surrealism, San Francisco's Deerhoof are one of the most fascinating and vital bands around.

Got Giddy present the Cube 7th Birthday party featuring The Chap, who undercut the obligatory disco punk influence in 100 ways - English eccentricity, lyrical absurdities and sonic non sequitars make for a cerebral hotch potch.

An inspirational guitar player, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer, John Parish now sings to support the release of new album out on Thrill Jockey.

In the UK to play two sold out shows with Mudhoney in London, Qu is mad to welcome Steve Turner, lead guitarist with the superfuzzin' band, to do his solo acoustic show.

Gypsy turbo-folk-punk from modern day nomadic duo who devour shreds of ancient Chinese folk songs, eccentric stand-up cabaret, and surrealistic verse in a whirlwind of dervish energy.

Jesus H Christ a night brimming with smiles and lush devilishly homecrafted songs. Three wilfully wayward West Country eccentrics join forces.

Another magical find Michael Gira with this Finnish/French couple whose music is bare and austere, like a soundtrack to a glacial landscape.

Legendary and mysterious New York band (and formative influence on Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo) make their European debut after twenty years.

The big-hearted sweet man of many voices returns to Bristol - a finger picker, a spectral folky, a weaver, a doer, a freak scenester, a co-conspirator, a sight to behold.

Unstoppable Finnish firepower from five musicians who effortlessly circumnavigate a world of skewed progressive rock rhythms, gleaming minimalism and hymnal incantations.

A boundary-breaking, British eccentric electrionic soul vocalist Lidell plus big hearted slabs of primal blues from Black Mountain. An insane double bill beyond your wildest expectations.

A lady's man whose songs inhabit a darkly glorious world full of introspection, cinematic touches and comic pathos. He has enormous stage presence known to silence a room and touch your mindful soul.

Crash-landing from Los Angeles, USA, comes a Ziggy-esque outsider who makes an unclassifiable lo-brid of Brian Wilson's songcraft, the rickety psychedelia of The Flaming Lips and the mutated glam-disco of Bobby Conn.

Got Giddy presents a night brimming with raw live-action acts, glam giddy DJs and riotous projections. Leading the invasion is the explosive and colourful heavier than thou R'n'R of The Fucking Champs from the USA. Plus the zany, crazed electro-disco of Max Tundra doing his famous karaoke set.

The wistful and wise sounds of ex-Galaxie 500 members and the guitar god genius from Japanese pyschers Ghost combine to make for heavenly accessible horizontal music.

Nervous New York energy from a band whose legendary, mystical live shows bombard the audience with Middle-Eastern chants, dub inflections, and a trainwreck of synths and keys.

Original underground action with krautrock, spiritual americana, Eastern electronix and driving Rock dynamics from Cul de Sac and ex-Can vocalist, Damo Suzuki.

Two nights in the company of the wonderful travelling band with special guests, cameos, films and a special recording of a live album.

Two nights in the company of the wonderful travelling band with special guests, cameos, films and a special recording of a live album.

Music that distills the essence of all things heavenly and earthbound. If Sun Ra, Bjork or Silver Mount Zion sit on your shelf you will enjoy the primitive beauty of this.

Fuggin' hell...Kelley plays warped multi-layered beat songs with fuzz guitar, tubas and moogs galore. A hazy, crazy pop style and Spector-esque wonders from a performer who is gonna be a dog man star.

Hear it here first....a beautifully nuanced voice that fragments raw country-folk with soaring operatic undertow and primal forest rock emotion.

One of England's finest unsung, melancholically gifted groups return to Bristol, having assimilated a very English neo-folk sensibility with the sounds of urban electronix and Anticon atmospherics.

Along come three maverick individuals of music, together to represent Paw Tracks - a label fashioned by the members of magical mantric forward-folk men the Animal Collective.

Coming in on a tide of killer manic stoner rock, noughties pysch revival and a slow burnin' subterranean wash...Comets On Fire surf on the big ones.

They are loose and over here. The hermetic seal around the free folk scene is split wide open and oozing out are all kinds of beguiling and beauteous musical configurations.

Sunn O)) levitate you on the mystical power of thundering sub-bass and sheds of heavy crone-bone-drone texture, draw you in and feed you heaven and hell.

Two men pounding the living-freeform-body-rocking-hell out of their kit, who make pussy cats out of hardcore traditionalists, throw punk a bone that says SIT ON THIS and freak out the avant-hard.

The elfin 21 year old harpist brings her one off compositions and beautifully skewed lyrical gifts to the Cube before she hits the big time.

Zoned out meditations from two women who trip out. Call it free folk if you will, but there's something more universal about the way they distort and reimagine the art of song.

Unstoppable Finnish firepower from five musicians who effortlessly circumnavigate a world of skewed progressive rock rhythms, gleaming minimalism and hymnal incantations.

The Argentinian comedienne is moonlighting as a musician on Domino Records and she makes it all sound so easy - deceptively subtle acoustic-electronic songwriting from a natural iconoclast.

A magical potion of angelic torch singing, coos and otherworldly emotions from the brother and sister axis whose English Gnostic undercurrents and liquid songwriting are making a quiet, inspired revival.