A Weird New World: Gudrun Gut

The good folk at Altmusic have some great things coming up as part of the Fringe Festival. In association with the Goethe-Institut, who are also very renowned in the international art scene, Altmusic present Gudrun Gut on March 4 with Disasteradio and Mr Hayday. An early member of Einstürzende Neubauten (a weirdo experimental/industrial group from Berlin), Gudrun Gut plays really cool, spacey indie/electronic laptop pop. An established experimental artist dabbling in new wave/techno/multimedia art/spoken word, Gut was a founding member of Malaria!, Mania D and Matador, and a member of Project Miasma. The Wire magazine described her as a “feminist agitator, festival organiser, entrepreneur. Plus of course musician, performance artist, DJ, radio presenter, club organiser, cultural ambassador and label owner…” I’m really excited to see Gut, who will seemingly fit in well with our own artistic entrepreneurs Disasteradio and Mr Hayday. I’m sure they will produce an intriguing and intelligent show at Cassette #9.

Slowing Solace: Grouper

Also coming up is the Grouper and Pumice show at Whammy Bar on March 12. For those of you outside of Auckland they’re also playing at Happy in Wellington on March 14, St Lukes in Christchurch on March 19 and Chicks Hotel in Dunedin on March 21. Pumice fascinated me when I saw him years ago at the now-defunct Schooner bar, his simultaneous drum kit and guitar playing alone on stage had an eerie, isolated feel, but he was very charismatic in his shy and impersonal kind of way. Grouper is Elizabeth “Liz” Harris from Portland, USA. She plays stunning, simple, ethereal, cold-sounding haunting pop. Touring the states with Animal Collective in May, she’s also collaborated with Xiu Xiu, releasing Creepshow in 2007. Grouper has three albums out, the latest being the Type Records release Drag A Dead Deer Up A Hill. If you enjoy your music slightly surreal and hypnotic, and if you enjoyed the fascinating and lilting experimental bliss of High Places’ recent New Zealand shows, make sure you check out Grouper!