Lorelle Meets the Obsolete
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Lorelle Meets The Obsolete
+ Special Guests
Saturday 9th May
The Flying Duck
18+
Originally from Guadalajara and now based in Ensenada, Baja California, Lorelle Meets The Obsolete formed in 2011 around the core duo of Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto González. They quickly caught the attention of the psych scene with their first two albums, On Welfare and Corruptible Faces.
Since signing with UK label Sonic Cathedral in 2013, the band has toured extensively across Mexico, the UK, Europe, and the US. Over the past decade, their sound has gradually evolved from its psychedelic roots toward a more exploratory direction, incorporating analog synths and sonic search reminiscent of bands like Wire. This progression is evident across albums such as Chambers, Balance, De Facto, and Datura. Along the way, they’ve collaborated with artists like Emma Anderson (Lush), Dälek, and Pye Corner Audio, and have earned fans in the likes of Henry Rollins and Iggy Pop.
ARTIFICIAL GO
SPITE HOUSE X POP MUTATIONS present…
Artificial Go
with Radio Banter
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Hailing from Cincinnati, OH, Artificial Go, brings the beat to live like the world is your runway.
Echoes of post punk chime through jingles, jangles, hips and hops as the four piece marches inward and onward, exploring the tastes of music.
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Age restrictions: Over 14s, under 18s with a responsible adult.
Dylan Henner
Little is known about Dylan Henner, who landed on the ambient scene in 2020 with cassette releases for Phantom Limb, Belgian label Dauw, and cult tastemakers AD93. He barely promotes himself publicly, instead choosing to communicate through disarmingly poetic song titles. His debut album “The Invention of the Human” (AD93, 2020 - a recipient of BBC 6Music’s Album of the Year honours) responds to a set of philosophical questions - what exactly makes us human? What good is civilisation when there’s so much misery attached to it? How will technology affect humanity in the long run? In 2022, he released follow-up You Always Will Be on AD93, which traced the course of a single life from birth, to childhood, to adolescence, adulthood, parenthood, middle-age, old-age, and demise. He has also covered Raymond Scott, Terry Riley, Aphex Twin, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and Su Tissue among numerous further projects.
Henner is not to keen on promoting himself on socials, instead choosing to communicate mostly through wondrously imaginative soundscapes and disarmingly poetic song titles (’The Sun Made the Sea Look Gold’, ’Children Were Climbing The Old Tree in the Park’, ’A Spring With The Remains Of A Fire’) and ditto visual artwork.
The Invention of the Human attempts to tackle a set of basic philosophical questions - what exactly makes us human? What good is civilisation when there’s so much misery attached to it? How will technology affect humanity in the long run? - through the mind and soundcard of a computer.
The result is a collection of superbly constructed human-not-human soundscapes built from synthesized vocals that are morphed into two pocket symphonies, with moods ranging from serene and cerebral to alienated and desolate, referencing ambient and experimental music, sound design and field recordings. The invention of the Human is a bleak vision of a future in which humans are only a small part of the equation. A new world that’s neither utopic or dystopic, with nature and technology in a strange yet perfect balance.
2022 saw the release of a brand new full length on AD93 You Always Will Be. The album, a single 40-minute piece, tells the story of a single life from birth to death. Dylan writes “I've been thinking about the passage of life a lot recently as I lost all four of my grandparents but celebrated the birth of my daughter all within a short period of time. The brevity and preciousness of being really hit me."
The record enjoyed critical acclaim on release, including being named as Album of the Week by The Quietus, by leading music writer Shawn Reynaldo and by 6Music’s Tom Ravenscroft.
Dylan Henner has also covered Terry Riley and Su Tissue and released a loveletter to a train journey through rural Pennsylvania in late 2021 EP Amtracks. He has released cassette and digital records for Brighton-based Phantom Limb, Belgian label Dauw and AD93’s tape-only imprint Syon.
The Ex
Pop Mutations presents:
The Ex
+ Special Guests
Friday 22nd May
The Flying Duck
18+
Few bands are as focused on potential challenges, on what is yet to come, as The Ex. Which is pretty remarkable for a band that celebrated 45 years of existence last year, a turbulent journey filled with an impressive series of highlights. However, nostalgia has never been this band's forte, as they like no other succeed in reinventing themselves, finding new alliances and fascinating challenges along the way. Stay out of that comfort zone for long enough and it just might disappear.
Take a look at the band's story - an unpredictably winding road you can partly keep track of with the chronological series of reissues that they have been making available - and you'll conclude that there never was any stagnation. What started with raucous punk, rooted in the squatting and punk movements of the late 70s, turned into an impossible-to-label range that made its mark nationally as well as internationally.
The Ex played more than 2000 concerts in 45 countries, often as a pioneer. In the 80s, they were one of the very first Western bands to explore Central and Eastern- Europe, from Hungary to the former Czechoslovakia, Poland and Russia. Only after that, Canada and the United States followed. A crucial link turned up at the start of the new millennium, when the band traveled to Ethiopia for the first time, backed by a VPRO TV crew. It was the start of a unique chapter in the band's history: several tours (on several continents), an intense collaboration with Ethiopian artists (from Getatchew Mekuria, with whom they played more than 100 concerts, to dancer and cultural ambassador Melaku Belay, and many others) and lots of releases ensured The Ex also became a pioneer in the 'crossover' world, where music from different regions collides.
The pandemic was a standstill for many, including The Ex. Or perhaps it was more a kind of recharging, as the band is back on national and international stages with new music, ready to return to the studio. Once again, their versatility is evident. Whether you're talking about a legendary rock venue in Amsterdam (The Ex played more than three dozen concerts at Paradiso, with a.o. an Ex Festival during its 50th birthday celebrations) or a festival in Austria where the best of the international free music scene gathers (in november the band plays the legendary Wels Unlimited): the band is so unique that it's all possible.
Just like in the previous decades, new opportunities keep turning up. Only recently, Andy Moor and Terrie Ex contributed to a contemporary live soundtrack to Limite (a classic of Brazilian cinema), during the Holland Festival. Once again an illustration of the fact that the band is so much more than four musicians in a straitjacket. The Ex is still an eager sponge for diverse inspirations, as well as a generator for ideas, a way of life, an ode to vitality and an extended hand.
And they celebrated this with a festival for their 45th birthday. Not a predictable rearview mirror event, no tribute to what once was, but an opportunity to show what living, organic interaction can lead to in the moment. And right now, early 2025, there's a full new album called If Your Mirror Breaks, and a big tour all around Europe, yes, indeed again: "Forward In All Directions".
— Text by Guy Peters.
Blind yeo
Pop Mutations & The Glad Cafe presents:
Blind Yeo
plus supports tba
Tuesday 26th May
The Glad Cafe
‘Anam cara’ means ‘soul friend’ in Gaelic,” says Blind Yeo singer, songwriter and guitarist Will Greenham. “The human face is the window to the soul. Your soul friend can know more about you than you know about yourself. These connections can last seconds or a lifetime. Sometimes you have to say goodbye to that moment that will never happen again. We captured the song live in a turbulent and emotive time and in true Blind Yeo spirit you will never hear the song this way again.
The project began in the quiet and solitude of lockdown, before coming alive in a creatively explosive residency at the newly opened Cornish Bank in 2022 – a vibrant not-for-profit community arts space in the centre of Falmouth which has become the heart of a thriving underground Cornish scene of which Blind Yeo are very much a part. The band has since grown into a psychedelic carnival of sound best experienced live'
The Sleeves (Tara Cunningham & Jack Cooper)
The Sleeves are the duo of Jack Cooper and Tara Cunningham, both likely known to you as one half of Modern Nature. Following an all-instrumental Mossy Tapes release last November, Cooper and Cunningham have recorded 10 new songs showcasing their vocal and guitar interplay with only the faintest echoes of prior efforts (individually or collectively), representing a fully realized leap forward from their largely improvised debut.
'The Sleeves' is a somewhat counter intuitive take on the guitar/vocal duo formula (provided you think there is such a thing) though it's not nearly as simplistic as "the space between the notes" -- it would be the height of exaggeration to say an album this simultaneously expansive and incandescent is unprecedented. But it doesn't happen nearly often enough, either.
The Sleeves have London and NYC dates planned for this July and September respectively, with further touring to be announced in the coming weeks.
“What I initially found so familiar and exciting about playing guitar with Jack - and continually do - is that our approach to music is pretty much exactly the same. And that is - to celebrate the space that frames ideas, embraces silence, to play simply, simultaneously championing our respective unembellished guitar sounds, whilst looking for sounds that aren’t like a guitar at all - bells, birds, switching between radio stations etc. It’s rare to find someone who - whatever this means to you - ‘gets it’ - and I think when we started playing guitar together, we both knew the other had something of whatever our ‘it’ was.”
“‘The Sleeves’ is the sum of our shared musical journey thus far, an exciting mix of familiarity and uncharted territory in its approach to structure and how we use our guitars and voices. It feels to me like we are both citing shared references and traditions, whilst floating in our own, single-cell world that is completely genre-less. That grey area is where we seem to thrive. As Jack says, it feels like music that really couldn’t be made by anyone else.” - Tara Cunningham
“Tara and I started playing guitar together at the start of 2024. It was an improvised music night in a railway arch in South London. The set was great but there was a couple of minutes in particular where Tara and I really sort of locked in. We made a record a few weeks later. There was something in the way we played together that felt very intuitive from the start. We recognised a shared approach right away and an affinity to the way each other played.”
“During the summer we got stuck in a traffic jam coming home from a show in Glasgow. We spent a few hours singing along to the Mamas & The Papas and Simon & Garfunkel and over the course of the day, like magic we became The Sleeves."
“We're excited about it because it feels like music that really couldn’t be made by anyone else. We don’t bring different elements to it. We both bring exactly the same things. It’s the result of our similarities.” - Jack Cooper
Faraquet
Pop Mutations presents:
Faraquet
+ Special Guests
Friday 17th July
Stereo
18+
Formed in the late ’90s in Washington, DC, Faraquet began as a low-key side project but quickly gained momentum, becoming an incubator for a group of three friends eager to create something unique.
Over the next few years, they crafted a sound that fused diverse influences, marked by dynamic shifts, intricate melodies, and a dedication to pushing the boundaries of traditional rock structures. Though their time together was brief, Faraquet left a lasting impact on the indie and progressive rock scenes.
In 2025, the band celebrates the 25th anniversary of their lone LP, The View From This Tower, released by Dischord Records. While initially somewhat overlooked, the album has since become a touchstone of ’90s experimental rock. To mark the occasion, Devin Ocampo, Jeff Boswell, and Chad Molter will reunite for their first live performances since 2008.
Soledad Brothers
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Soledad Brothers
+ Special Guests
Tuesday 21st July
Stereo
18+
Toledo Ohio's Soledad Brothers are back from the near dead to spread their one-of-a-kind Rust Belt R&B Revolutionary Gospel.
These will be their first time setting footprints on European soil together as a band in 20 years.
Soledad have been long associated with the early 2000's Detroit garage rock revival along with cohorts The White Stripes, The Detroit Cobras, and The Dirtbombs.
Cut from the same fiery roots, time and local as those groups but very much hewing their own path, the Soledads were louder and looser.
They were influenced by John Lee Hooker, The Gun Club, Hound Dog Taylor, Sister Rosetta Thorpe as well as frequencies more distant such The Fall and free jazz pioneers such as Albert Ayler.
Sonically this all came together in a sound all their own with political insight and edges not explored by contemporaries.
Their much-heralded firebrand live shows have diminished not one iota in the intervening years, in fact the anger burns brighter and the stage slop more noisy.
ATA KAK
Pop Mutations presents:
ATA KAK
plus support tba
Live at Stereo
Monday 24th August
18+ show
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Ata Kak, the Ghanaian artist behind the cult classic Obaa Sima, crafted a singular blend of highlife, hip-hop and funk in the early ’90s that went largely unnoticed until decades later. Born Yaw Atta-Owusu in Kumasi, he moved through Germany and Canada, developing his sound using basic home equipment and sheer determination.
Initially released as a DIY cassette, Obaa Sima fused Twi rap with lo-fi beats and Afro-futuristic flair. It vanished into obscurity until 2002, when musicologist Brian Shimkovitz found a copy in Ghana and later reissued it in 2015 via Awesome Tapes From Africa. The internet lit up.
Despite late fame, Ata Kak remains grounded. “I don’t consider myself a legend, I’m just doing what I love,” he says. His global touring debut came well into his 50s, electrifying festivals across Europe with his infectious energy and joyful sound.
Once a mystery, now a pioneer of Twi rap and Afro-futurism, Ata Kak continues to write and record at home. “Music is like water,” he says. “Once it flows out, it can go anywhere.”
Cory Hanson
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Cory Hanson
+ Special Guests
Tuesday 29th September
Stereo
18+
Like a sweet spring breeze after a long, cruel winter, Cory Hanson’s blowing through town again. And like the wind, I Love People comes from parts unknown. Need a ride? Long as you’re ready to find yourself wherever it dies down, jump on! Despite all the complications of life here in Central Casting 2025, Cory and the boys are happier than ever to be playing music at its most beautiful for ALL the people: eminent hipsters bellied up to the bar alongside the ropers, riders and all the other jokers for whom freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose or do. Followers of Cory’s twin arcs as solo singer and Wand member will be intrigued to learn that the lineup here is the same band that recorded last year’s Vertigo. Yep, Wand — their Masters of Unbounded Space robes traded in for Wrecking Crew trucker’s caps, as they reel out licks both tasty and smooth, like chopsmeisters of yore. That’s Robbie Cody co-producing behind the desk, Evan Backer playing bass and arranging strings and horns, Evan Burrows on drums and percussion and Cory on piano, guitars and voices and songs.
Carla dal Forno
Carla dal Forno is an Australian composer, songwriter and producer based in Castlemaine, Victoria. Working between post-punk minimalism, experimental pop and atmospheric electronics, she has built a dedicated international following through a series of acclaimed releases and extensive touring across Europe and North America.
Her albums have been praised by outlets including Pitchfork, The Quietus and Resident Advisor, alongside airplay on BBC Radio 6 Music. Beyond her recorded work, dal Forno hosts a monthly radio program on NTS Radio, where she curates eclectic selections spanning experimental electronics, dub, post-punk and leftfield pop - offering insight into the wide-ranging influences that inform her own practice.
She has performed headline shows and festival appearances throughout the UK, Europe and the United States, including dates in London, Berlin, Paris and New York City, as well as appearances at Unsound Festival and Le Guess Who?.
Her fourth studio album, Confession, expands her signature sound while maintaining the minimal, immersive qualities that have defined her work to date. On stage, dal Forno delivers a focused and atmospheric set that moves between brooding electronics and melodic immediacy - a performance that is both restrained and quietly powerful.
Tara Clerkin Trio
Pop Mutatons & The Glad Cafe presents;
Tara Clerkin Trio
plus special guests
Sunday 15th November
at The Glad Cafe
18+ show
If – in some parallel universe (or perhaps a not-so-distant-future version of the one we’re already sentenced to living in) – the evil overloads of artificial intelligence were actually successful in their attempts to create convincingly enjoyable “original music,” more specifically tasked with wholly encapsulating my own personal tastes by data-chugging some cocktail of – oh, I don’t know – the posters on my wall, the records in my “most listened to” pile, the mixtapes I made for others, intensive physical scans of my auditory cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, heart strings, whatever else they have splayed out on their autopsy table with the intention of generating one all-encompassing “perfect band” based on the fruitful sum of their findings – that band, for me, would be (or would at least sound exactly like) the Tara Clerkin Trio. It is, quite simply, without exception, the music I wish to hear.
Formed in Bristol UK (where none of them are from yet all of whom are deeply engrained) in 2020, the Tara Clerkin Trio – as it somewhat democratically exists today, despite the singular authority implied by its name – consists of the titular Tara Clerkin, her partner Sunny Joe Paradisos, and Sunny’s brother, Patrick Benjamin. I’ll confess, I don’t know what their respective roles are within the operation and there’s only a very small part of me that cares to learn, as one of my favorite qualities in an objective listening experience is the mystery of who is playing what, which sounds are “authentic” versus synthesized, which chunks are performed “live” in a room together versus meticulously Frankenstein’ed from measure to measure, or how exactly the overall sound is so (seemingly) effortlessly achieved. Though, I suspect, if and when I do witness a live performance by this band at any point, my enjoyment of the music will not be lost in my better understanding of it.
With two extraordinary mini-albums – In Spring (2021) and On The Turning Ground (2023) – making a splash on London’s formidable World of Echo label in wake of their self-titled 2020 debut, this upcoming Somewhere Good LP is, in many ways, the band’s most realised work. In running their usual gauntlet of idiosyncratic (*an overused adjective for which here there is regrettably no sufficient alternative) approaches, Clerkin & co. color in and outside of compositional lines over the course of 40+ celebratory minutes - never wallowing, despite inherently somber subject matters of self-defeat, disease, displacement, restlessness, gentrification - allowing their arrangements and improvisations ample space and time to situate, stretch out, breathe, cross-pollinate, and ultimately take deeper hold on the listener’s imagination – all while somehow sounding more like themselves than ever before.
Of course, there are traceable influences herein, if one felt that such comparisons were necessary to properly examine and enjoy this music (they aren’t)… Being the big dumb American from the small boring town that I am, cornfed on ‘90s alternative radio with the enchantingly exotic sounds of Maxinquaye and Mezzanine emanating from my chunky tube television, I can’t help but to make a blatantly obvious reference to a “Bristol sound”, ie the whole trip-hop trip, the pastoral crooning over the suggestive urban grime of cracked electro/piano treatments, the digitally-yet-primitively reconstructed James Bond soundtrack string-beats, etc.. But the Tara Clerkin Trio is so infinitely much more than that. There are elements of avant-pop, modern classical, kraut-folk, audio verité, dare I say indie rock (and not of the beer guzzling, masturbatory fuzz-flex variety but perhaps more like a Trish Keenan-fronted Faust, Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk of If You’re Feeling Sinister, or – in expanding on our alternate reality – a world in which High Llamas cut a full-length for Warp Records with Andrew Weatherall on coffee duty).
The hazy, unmappable skyline-mirage of droning harmonium, upright bass, peculiarly accentuated wind instruments, acoustic guitar, hushed yet literally mighty keys combine to hypnotizing effect. The band may make underlying nods to jazz, sure, but it’s not appropriation, it’s that they have the actual chops to build it out. Beneath the janky samples and oddball percussive embellishment lies actually great drumming. Beyond the manipulated vocal witchery and woefully reflective plain-spoke moments are Tara’s subtly inspired melodies, sung with what might honestly be the glue to the whole crazy equation. A calming consistency throughout the otherwise unpredictably dynamic, boldly intuitive, uniquely British exploration of this (their own) universe in song. – Ryan Davis (Chicago, February 2026)
My New Band Believe
Pop Mutations presents:
My New Band Believe
+ Special Guests
Tuesday 28th April
The Flying Duck
18+
My New Band Believe is an experimental project formed in February 2025 by Cameron Picton, formerly of black midi. The London-based group, blending art-rock and folk influences, released their debut single "Lecture 25" on February 14, 2025, which features lyrics adapted from poet Dennis Cooper.
claire rousay
claire rousay’s music cascades from a well of documented experience, reflections of the past that compose the present. A prolific multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer, rousay gracefully crafts boundaryless music. From her frequent and acclaimed collaborations to her film scoring, from her own compositions to her solo pop work, rousay’s music is delicate yet powerful, carefully constructed with a casual intimacy.
claire's live show brings a singular reflexivity, unflinching honesty and adroit humour to the performance space, with an ever-burgeoning audience accepting the invite into her soundworld.
Swell Maps
Mono & Pop Mutations presents…
SWELL MAPS
with Normal Service
18+
In the mid-1970s, a collective of six English teenagers started creating music together in their suburban home-town of Solihull. This project evolved to become Swell Maps, around a core of three musicians: Jowe Head (bass, guitars & vocals), his school-friend the late Nikki Sudden (guitar & vocals), and Nikki’s brother, the late Epic Soundtracks (drums & keyboards). They recorded their debut single, “Read About Seymour” in 1977, and released it on their own label, Rather Records. Swell Maps were one of the first punk bands to set up an “independent” record label. They are also known as one of the pioneers of “Alternative Rock”, mixing punk with experimental sounds.
Swell Maps proceeded to release four singles and two albums in a brief but eventful career, in partnership with Rough Trade Records. They topped the UK independent charts, and influenced various bands such as Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Stereolab, and Blur. The original line-up split in 1980, but those two original studio albums, “A Trip to Marineville” and “Jane From Occupied Europe”, are still attracting a new generation of enthusiastic listeners.
In 2021, Jowe Head organised performances with ten musicians to perform Swell Maps music over two concerts on consecutive nights at Cafe Oto, in Hackney, east London. They performed a diverse selection of Maps material, some of which had never been performed live before. Many of these musicians also performed together again at Rough Trade in 2022, at the launch party for Jowe’s book on Swell Maps. More concerts followed at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paris, Manchester, Leeds and Berlin, and more are planned. This ongoing project has resulted in a new album, recorded in early 2025, titled “C21”, and released through Tiny Global Productions.
The material was composed by Jowe and other band members at various times between 1979 and the present. For example, Jowe co-wrote two of them with Nikki Sudden, and two with Phones Sportsman. Swell Maps still offer memorable melodies and wild riffs with super hooks, while retaining radical ideas and eccentric musical shapes. There are contrasts of mood, including a new recording of Epic’s ballad “Jelly Babies”, his 1982 solo single.
The current collective of musicians features:
Jowe Head (vocals, guitar), a founder-member of Swell Maps.
David Callahan (vocals, guitar), from Wolfhounds and Moonshake.
Jeff Bloom (drums), from Television Personalities.
Lee McFadden (bass), from Alternative TV.
Lucie Rejchrtova (keyboards), formerly in Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.
Chloe Herrington (melodica, electonica), formerly in Chrome Hoof.
Luke Haines (vocals, guitar), formerly of Auteurs, Black Box Recorder.
EarthBall
EARTHBALL are a wild ensemble from Canada, mainly based on Vancouver Island. EarthBall's live shows epitomise their commitment to spontaneous composition, offering audiences a unique experience with each performance. The last two years have seen EarthBall release their debut LP 'It's Yours' and a live album entitled 'Actual Earth Music - Volume 1 & 2' featuring Chris Corsano and Steve Beresford on Upset The Rhythm. This winter they returned with their best effort to date 'Outside Over There’ - a gathering of sound at the forest's edge; where feedback, saxophone screams, and ecstatic vocals dissolve the boundary between chaos and clarity. Perhaps John Olson of Wolf Eyes sums up the album best:
“Outside Over There is an eight-track odyssey that unfolds like a dreamscape, where whispered incantations brush against the shadowy fringes of the cosmos, and wild, Cézanne-inspired rock anthems erupt like geysers of color in the midst of a western warm and wet rain storm… culminating in the sprawling eleven-minute masterpiece, ‘And The Music Shall Untune The Sky,’ aptly dubbed the Earth Crusher. A creation so utterly deconstructed and intertwined with the pulse of nature itself that if AI was called upon to conceive ‘Outside Over There’ anew, it would just spit back, “F.U. in Tree Font”. An enchanting invitation for even the flat-earthers to join the circle, if only just a little.”
https://upsettherhythm.bandcamp.com/album/outside-over-there
HOUSE Of ALL
Pop Mutations presents:
HOUSE Of ALL
+ Special Guests
Friday 24th April
Stereo
18+
HOUSE Of ALL return to the road next spring to support their new album, with the full Burns / Hanley / Wolstencroft three-drum line-up and a heap of golden new songs. Now easily the premiere band to arise in the wake of The Fall - and the best thing out of Manchester in years - HOA's first three albums are already regarded as classics. This is a hot ticket, and that's before any concrete details have leaked about their best album yet!
No one was expecting the arrival of HOUSE Of ALL, a group comprised entirely of former members of The Fall: Martin Bramah (vocals, guitar), Pete Greenway (guitar), Paul Hanley (drums, vocals), Stephen Hanley (bass) and ‘Funky’ Si Wolstencroft (drums), Indeed, the first news of the group for most was an article in The Guardian about a ‘scandal’ caused by Martin’s (technically accurate) use of the phrase ‘a Fall family continuum’ to describe the band and its work, a piece which arrived in tandem with news of the group’s HOUSE Of ALL album, which sold by the bucketload and received tremendous praise from all corners.
A year later, CONTINUUM arrived, a long-player every bit as good as its predecessor. The boys toured behind each record, as well as enjoying the odd one-off gig here and there to satiate fan demand. After each studio albums, they released new fan-only compact disc / booklet packages loaded with live tracks, remixes and radio sessions.
The group’s original pledge to open to other members of The Fall family has been kept with the recent news of a third drummer, Karl Burns, who plays on their last album, HOUSE Of ALL SOULS, as well as Phil Lewis filling in live for Pete on live dates and playing on the new album, too.
Sick Thoughts
Pop Mutations & Freakender presents:
Sick Thoughts
+ Gold Cup
+ Speedbong
+ Masonic Youth (debut)
Thursday 23rd April
The Flying Duck
18+
Sick Thoughts is the music project of Drew Owen, a
multi-instrumentalist who began releasing music under the name as a
teenager in Baltimore. From the outset, Sick Thoughts became known for
its raw intensity and prolific output, blending feral garage punk
energy with a clear reverence for classic KBD-era sounds. All
recordings—performed, recorded, and mixed by Owen himself
Now based in New Orleans, Owen has continued to refine Sick Thoughts
without sacrificing the chaos and urgency that defined its early
years. His songwriting has evolved to embrace sharper melodies and
tighter arrangements, all while remaining unfiltered and aggressive.
The live band has toured extensively across the U.S. and Europe, known
for explosive, high-energy performances that leave no doubt about the
project’s staying power.
In addition to releasing music through respected underground labels
like Goner Records, Total Punk, and Goodbye Boozy Owen also launched
his own label, ROKK Records, further asserting creative control and a
fiercely DIY ethic. With an expansive discography of singles, EPs, and
LPs—and the new "Another Piece of Plastic" mini album on the way—Sick
Thoughts continues to stand as one of the most vital and
uncompromising voices in modern rock.
Raisa K
Raisa K, also known as Raisa Khan, is a singer-songwriter, producer, and keyboardist who grew up in London. Her debut album ‘Affectionately’ was released in March 2025 and marks her first solo full-length record, following her previous releases with Good Sad Happy Bad, of which she is a member. The album consists entirely of self-produced laptop instrumentals, weaving Raisa’s signature vocals into a unique soundworld. Its overarching theme explores the intricate cycles of relationships and commitment with heartfelt sincerity. On stage, Raisa delivers these songs with newfound energy, joined by Coby Sey (bass/vocals) and Pike (drums).
Bhajan Bhoy + Radhika + Normal Service
Pop Mutations & The Glad Cafe presents:
Bhajan Bhoy
plus Radhika
and Normal Service
Wednesday 15th April at The Glad Cafe
Ajay Saggar has been making music under the moniker BHAJAN BHOY since 2020, releasing eight albums and touring around the globe. As a member of both Water Damage and CHELA, he appeared on 3 consecutive nights at Le Guess Who? festival in November 2024, and performed there again in his Bhajan Bhoy guise in 2025 to glowing reviews:
MOJO magazine : “Bhajan Bhoy delivers a highly affecting and brilliant set”
The Quietus : “Fridays’s highlight…an immersive experience that pulses with cosmic illumination”
Bhajan Bhoy’s music ploughs a peak time psychedelic furrow; from lazy interstellar ragas to lysergic electronic music, mellow psychedelic experimentation and all sorts of kosmische mutations. His new album, “Meditations” will be released on 17 April 2026 on Cardinal Fuzz (UK) / Feeding Tube Records (USA).
“With BHAJAN BHOY, Saggar synthesizes all of the stylistic approaches he’s explored over the years, swirling them into an intoxicating musical blend, with an earthy spirituality. Even the project’s name reflects the dual aspects of Saggar’s upbringing coming together in harmony. In Hindi, a “bhajan” is a devotional song, sung in the mandir, or temple, while “bhoy” is a Scottish and Irish derivation for a young man. There’s a searching quality to Bhajan Bhoy, as if Saggar is still hunting for transcendence with each track, whether through an expansive drone, an orchestral facility on the piano, or an electronics-augmented raga that threatens to dip into noise” (Erick Bradshaw / writer and WFMU DJ).
music : https://bhajanbhoy.bandcamp.com/
Lathe Of Heaven
Pop Mutations presents:
Lathe Of Heaven
+ Nurse
+ Callous Feedback
Sunday 12th April
The Flying Duck
18+
Formed in 2021, Brooklyn based Lathe of Heaven delivers a powerful take on post-punk and new-wave, pushing the boundaries of both genres into an untouched realm of sonic abstraction. With melodic riffs, urgent rhythms and science-fiction themed lyrics,
LoH carefully position themselves in the no-mans-land that ex ists between beauty and dissonance, offering a unique sound as reminiscent of Finnish post-punkers Musta Paraati as they are to pop-pioneers A Flock of Seagulls. Though Lathe of Heaven features members of many noteworthy Brooklyn based projects including People’s Temple, Porvenir Oscuro, Pawns, Android, Hustler, and more, this roster of past and alternate musical endeavors exposes a diverse range of genre and skill sets which can only be understood as a departure from such influences, exploring a sound entirely
of its own.
Lathe of Heaven released their debut full-length album Bound By Naked Skies in 2023. With careful consideration, this eleven track blends elements of British new-wave and Finnish post-punk into a nuanced juxtaposition of 80s sonic mania. This record pays powerful homage to the uncanny worlds of authors Arthur C. Clarke, Octavia Butler, Ken Liu, and of course Ursula K. Le Guin (whose novel the band is named after). They return with their second full length album Aurora, a bold expansion of their sonic and thematic palette that unfolds like a series of vivid, emotional vignettes.
Rather than following a singular tone or mood, Aurora un- folds like a collection of short stories, each track offering a different lens into the band’s evolving sound and deeply reflective lyricism.
Aurora is an iteration of Lathe of Heaven’s sound previously unexplored, one that offers a delicate balance of their punk roots with captivating new-wave and 80s post-punk aesthetics. Lyrically, Auro ra doesn’t shy away from heavy themes. Envisioned as a collection of sci-fi short stories, it is deeply influenced and lyrically driven by themes of anti-colonialism, diversity, and equality. Set to be re leased August 29th, 2025, Aurora stakes its claim; “tremble without fear into dreamless oblivion.” You are invited.
SUEP
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
SUEP
+ Special Guests
Saturday 11th April
The Glad Cafe
18+
Led by Georgie Stott and Joshua Harvey, SUEP have become fixtures of south-east London’s underground through a series of shared living spaces, improvised studios and DIY venues. Now with George Nicholls (The Tubs, Joanna Gruesome, GN Band), William Deacon (PC World), and Louis Forster (The Goon Sax, Expiry) completing the line up, their debut is finally on its way.
Georgie met car-boot-camera-salesman Joshua aged 18 in Winchester. Forming an instant bond, they proceeded to spend 72 hours together chatting and laughing, before forming a punk band with 2 friends. When Georgie went to university in Brighton, Joshua ended up living rent free on the floor of her squalid, now demolished, East Slope dorm-room for the entire year. They spent their time driving around the hills of Sussex, going to boot sales and listening to music very loudly on the speaker he’d hooked up to his creaking Morris Minor. The duo started experimenting with playing each other’s songs under the name ‘SUEP’ after moving into the Pupil Referral Unit - a property guardianship that once housed wayward adolescents.
An early formulation of the band fell apart after various breakups led to a member escaping to Australia, but after moving to London they soon locked in with Nicholls, Deacon and original bassist Oliver Chapman (who departed shortly after ‘Forever’ was recorded). During this era, Georgie and Josh lived in the Red Lion Boys Club - an ex-youth centre that hosted art exhibitions, raves and their weekly practices. Georgie lived illegally in a cupboard, just large enough for a double bed, and working as an early morning bakery delivery girl, while Joshua lived on a mezzanine platform he built out of scaffolding - the floor beneath full of obscure electronics and musical detritus.
It’s in the echoey expanse of the Boys Club sports hall that the 2022 EP Shop was recorded, and in which the songs of Forever were first honed. Lead vocals on the album are shared between Georgie (7 tracks), Joshua (2 tracks) and Oliver (1), and a spirit of easygoing collaboration exudes through every track - no member overplaying, everyone slotting in for the greater whole.
Forever is a glimpse into one of the best bands on the scene, not fitting into any trend, but also never fading into obscurantism - SUEP are a band that wear a joie de vivre loosely but fashionably. Now is their time to shine.
Black Doldrums
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Black Doldrums
+ Special Guests
Friday 10th April
The Old Hairdresser's
18+
Kevin Gibbard and Sophie Landers produce a contemporary form of gothic post-punk, with songs that contain hook and lead tribal drums and euphoric guitar textures that frame introspective lyrics. They are known for their intense live performances, creating their
own style of dark post-punk driven by vicious drums, distinctive atmospheric guitar and melodic bass.
After the success of their debut album ‘Dead Awake’ on Fuzz Club Records in 2022 and gaining critical acclaim across mainstream media outlets, such as Uncut, Rolling Stone and Sonic Seducer, the band released their follow up second album ‘In Limerence’ in October 2024. Described by Louder Than War as ‘ lush yet glacial soundscapes, ramping up
with bursts of energy before dispersing and cascading into an ethereal depth” ‘In Limerence’ is proving to be the album that pushes Black Doldrums further into the depths of their atmospheric post-punk.
“A mix of gothic-rock and shoegaze sounds to die for” Rolling Stone
“A fierce combination of post-punk, reverb, drone and melody” Uncut
“Awe -inspiring…Black Doldrums create transient and euphoric dark post-punk” Louder Than War
Quest Master
Pop Mutations & The Flying Duck present
Quest Master
+ Coedwig
+ Mountainfog
Friday 10th April
The Flying Duck
18+
QUEST MASTER
Returning from the far southlands of Australia, QUEST MASTER has levelled up once again. New album OBSCURE POWER is a high power magic item, something every adventurer should seek out. After a debut performance that has passed into legend in 2024, the prophesied return of Quest Master is finally upon us. Soothsayers and mystics have long awaited this day, when one of the grand leaders of the dungeon synth scene returns!
COEDWIG
From the mystical lands of northern Wales travels COEDWIG, for the first time in Scotland! Bear witness to the spirits of the ancient forest being channelled through atmospheric synthesis!
MOUNTAINFOG
Out of the arcane mists of Scotland emerges MOUNTAINFOG, the battle mage feared throughout the land. New incantations being cast soon...
Purelink + Eas Partial
Pop Mutations presents:
Purelink
+ Special Guests
Tuesday 7th April
The Flying Duck
18+
Sailing beyond the boundaries of electronic music, Purelink embrace liquidity on their second album, washing live instrumentation and exposed vocals over their patented cascade of dubbed ambience and ebbing rhythmic experimentation. Since 2020, Tommy Paslaski (aka Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (aka kindtree) and Akeem Asani (aka Millia) have channeled their most euphoric musical whims into the Purelink project. Drifting between brittle '90s drum 'n bass and dub techno on their cult debut 12" 'Bliss / Swivel' and vaporizing Windy City jazz and post-rock motifs with muggy soundscapes on 2023's critically revered first full-length 'Signs', the trio have managed to define a painterly signature sound that's reflective but not reverent. Sure, Purelink's music can be graceful and bucolic, but it's powered by their innate devotion to the dancefloor's soundsystem.
'Faith' illustrates a period of upheaval for the three friends; relocating from Chicago to New York City, they found themselves surrounded by new scenery and fresh inspirations that permeated their compositions as they adapted to the change. On their previous records, the production process was relatively simple, just three laptops jacked into an interface in Paslaski's living room. Here, they augment the intermixed electronics with acoustic and electric timbres, opening up space for vocal contributions from Hyperdub luminary Loraine James and poet Angelina Nonaj. "Always time for rest," James ponders candidly on 'Rookie', "we settle." Her voice floats like smoke over the trio's familiar pattering rhythms and light-headed synths, now enhanced by capsized guitar motifs and subtle bass plucks.
On 'First Iota' meanwhile, Nonaj's deadpan narration grounds Purelink's dissociated echoes, sub swells and delicate improvisations. "Not everything beautiful has to be real," Nonaj repeats as organic and digital sounds sublime into a lysergic haze. And the softly propulsive 4/4 thuds that steered 'Signs' haven't disappeared entirely, either. On 'Kite Scene' a heartbeat-like pulse underpins Purelink's balmy pads and acidic synths, tactfully disrupted by hollow live percussion, and 'Yoke' muffles its chugging, broken beat sequences with swaddled trance hallucinations, gesturing cautiously towards euphoria. Each element falls into place on the album's final track, 'Circle of Dust', when Paslaski, Paulson and Asani find a fertile middle ground, ornamenting the kinetic, reverberating beats with evaporating whispers, evocative instrumental scrapes and hopeful, ecstatic harmonies.
Kulku
Pop Mutations & A Cut Above present:
Kulku
+ Special Guests
Saturday 4th April
The Flying Duck
18+
Kulku embodies an exhilarating Happening, a profound ceremony of raw music. Organic, driven, grounded yet floating. Kulku was founded by Johanna Riska and Andreas Riska alias Wenzlovar. The roots of their music grew out of influences from early minimal music (Moondog, Steve Reich), ritual music and art rock legends of the 60s. In the tradition of German Krautrock bands such as Can and Faust, the band is characterized by a sound whose raw material is made up of Orff instruments. With this special collection of instruments: metallophone, drums, orchestral timpani, xylophone, clarinet, saxophone, cello and an assortment of self-made instruments a universe of metaphysical stories is created. Stories about enlightened dogs or lost visionaries in the urban jungle full of light and shadows. An acoustic perpetuum-mobile that is fed by concentrated absorption. Exploring the sound spectrum of wood, metal and the human voice. Kulku calls their music No Age, a mix of un- kitsch spirituality and the raw energy of punk/no wave.
Tony Bontana
Pop Mutations presents:
Tony Bontana
plus special guests Thom Dehi + ladé
Tony Bontana is a Birmingham-based rapper, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who is a trailblazer in the UK's experimental scene, renowned for his self-coined "Splayed" style—a distinctive blend of degraded samples, non-linear rhythms, and deeply introspective lyricism. He is the founder of the Birmingham based independent label Everything is Perfect Records.
His extensive discography, including emotionally charged works like L’Humanité (a tribute to his late mother), the mellow, left-field mixtape TUMPIT (2025), and collaborative projects such as The Beautiful Malaise (2025) with Psychedelic Ensemble (which was picked as The Wire Magazine's 26th
Best album of 2025), fuses abstract hip-hop, post-hardcore, indie rock, punk and soul influences, showcasing his genre-defying versatility. His new album, "My Name" is set for release in February 2026 and will be supported by the PPL Momentum fund.
Known for his raw, evocative live performances, Tony Bontana joined several major UK tours in 2025, supporting: Nourished By Time, Mark William Lewis, Chuck Strangers, Dry Cleaning, YHWH Nailgun& More
Tony is also a DJ with eclectic taste, showcased on various radio platforms. He has appeared on NTS Radio with genre-spanning guest mixes of obscure soul, electronic, and experimental sounds. Further radio features include BBC Radio 1 , Loose FM and Balamii, where his unpredictable sets, ranging from jazz to distorted rap to indie rock, reflect his "Splayed" philosophy of transforming the familiar.
His innovative sound and creative philosophy have earned critical acclaim from publications like Pitchfork, which lauded TUMPIT’s imaginative qualities, The Wire, which explored his “Splayed” ethos in a 2022 interview, as well as Co-signs from, Matt Wilkinson (Apple Music) Mark William Lewis, Nourished By Time, Chanel Beads, Feardorian, DJ Python & Mike D (Beastie Boys) Afropunk, Cvltnation , Altpress and BABMAG, solidifying his undeniable growing influence in the global underground music scene.
Edwin R. Stevens
Pop Mutations presents:
Edwin R. Stevens "A Plague of Gimps" album launch
+ Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn
Friday 20th March
The Flying Duck
18+
Edwin R Stevens -
“Welsh recording artist and writer Edwin R Stevens (FKA Irma Vep/The Web of Lies) returns with ten new songs of ‘Hereditary Dumb Fuck Blues’. Dwellings on false memory, grief, nuclear bunkers and blood letting gimps, among other things, “A Plague of…” is Edwin at his most minimal and absurd…” - Tim Bishop
Tai Haf Heb Drigolyn -
Tai haf heb drigolyn are a musicband from wales. Obsessed with the elephant 6 collective, the band has members across the country. Putting tape front and centre, the band stumbles after the footsteps of R. Pollard and D. R Edwards.
Shampain
Pop Mutations & blankbar presents:
SHAMPAIN
+ Plantainchipps
Thursday 19th March - 10pm doors
Apollo Bar (The Flying Duck)
18+
Tickets available at the link in bio
In the wake of his debut electronic album Millenium Madness, Galway DJ/Producer Shampain brings the sweaty circus that is the Millenium Madness tour on the road. Blending the weird, the mad and the wonderful - the tour will take place in selected intimate venues across the UK & Ireland, with a unique twist for each show, delivering a special experience to every city. Expect signature Shampain high energy with special appearances from Beddy Minaj, MANTUA, Lu2k, Hannah Hession, Stella and The Dreaming and more TBA.
SHAMPAIN
Shampain is a Galway-born DJ and producer whose eclectic sets fuse ambient, bass-driven, club and cinematic elements. With more than a decade behind the decks, he has earned a reputation as one of the rare touring DJs whose path is built not on releases, but on a colorful music library, flawless mixing, and a distinctive persona. Now a key figure in Ireland’s underground scene, Shampain continues to push boundaries with his unique sonic style.
Shampain co-founded both VSN and G TOWN Records. He also directs the DIY operations at FREAK Magazine; an exciting art and music platform celebrating the weird and wonderful of the audio and visual worlds. Across his first two releases he has worked with acclaimed Irish artists Julie Dawson (Of Newdad) and Elaine Malone, along with underground icons Bethany and Rachel Trench.
Beyond these projects, he also performs and produces under the moniker Cathedral, he has sustained a long-running residency on Rinse France, fronted a documentary series for Irish- language broadcaster TG4, and re-scored classic silent films.
His multifaceted approach has brought recognition from major Irish cultural institutions such as An Taibhdhearc (the National Irish Language Theatre), the Bram Stoker Festival, and the Galway Arts Festival, as well as from world-renowned dance music institutions like Fabric, Amnesia, Oil Club, Rex Club, Boiler Room, Sub Club, Macadam and RSO.
MILLENEUM MADNESS
After 10 years of DJing around the world, opening a barber shop and putting on many gigs, SHAMPAIN's first full-length musical project Millenium Madness is out now on his own imprint FREAKMAG.
An experimental blend of techno, trance, and goth rock heavily inspired by Shampain's home, Galway, Spinning from ambient to heavy trance, 'Millenium Madness' is set to reflect the contradictions that run
throughout G Town; the constant chaos and noisiness to total serenity - something akin to a Shampain DJ set. The cold rigidity of its infrastructure takes the form of drum machines, pedals, mixers, and synths, set against real, raw recordings taken from the River Corrib, pub smoking areas, walks to and from work, and many days of pouring rain.
Lyrical and vocal contributions from Bethany, Julie Dawson (Newdad) and Elaine Malone cut through the industrial and raw instrumentals resulting in a symbiosis between hardware synths and distorted vocals.
Seamus Fogarty
Pop Mutations presents:
Seamus Fogarty
+ Faith Eliott
+ Curtis Miles
Wednesday 11th March
The Glad Cafe
18+
London-based Alt-folk alchemist Seamus Fogarty is delighted to announce the release of his new album Ships on Scottish label Lost Map Records, in partnership with Swedish label Sing A Song Fighter.
Packed with poignant and funny slice-of-life vignettes touching on everything from Geoffrey Chaucer to DIY coffins, and existing in a wonderful new sonic realm where songs and stories coexist peacefully with fragmentary electronics, drones and field recordings, Ships is his most expansive and uplifting collection of music to date. The first single from the album I Passed Your House has already made waves since its release, getting picked up by BBC 6 Music presenters Huw Stephens and Gideon Coe, and Radio 2’s Marc Radcliffe. It also spent 2 weeks on RTE Radio 1’s Recommends list in Ireland.
Born and raised on the west coast of Ireland but living in London since 2010, Seamus released his debut full-length ‘God Damn You Mountain’ on cult Scottish label Fence Records (King Creosote, Jon Hopkins) in 2012. This was followed by a pair of exceptional albums released via Domino Records – 2017’s The Curious Hand (“magical amplified folk journeys through modern life” ★★★★★ – The Guardian) and 2020’s A Bag Of Eyes (“a gloriously trippy journey” – The Sunday Times). His most recent release, the Hee Haw EP, was released on Lost Map Records in 2023 with the lead single ‘They Recognised Him’ receiving high praise from a range of DJs and personalities across the BBC and beyond including Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy who singled it out for recommendation on his Limited Edition show on 6Music (‘just brilliant’).
He has maintained a busy live schedule through 2025 opening two sold-out shows for Portishead’s Beth Gibbons in London’s Roundhouse & Luxembourg’s Neumünster Abbey and sharing the stage with Mike Heron in Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank, and at End of the Road festival, as part of an all-star band assembled to celebrate the music of The Incredible String Band. He also completed a sold-out Irish tour to celebrate the vinyl reissue of his debut album in the spring.
He has toured extensively around the UK, Ireland & Europe, both solo and with a range of artists including Lisa O’Neill and This Is The Kit, and has appeared at many notable festivals including the main stage of Green Man, Eurosonic, Latitude, Electric Picnic, Mosely Folk & Haldern Pop. He has also appeared on Other Voices in Ireland and recorded live sessions for Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2 and Cerys Matthews on BBC 6Music.
Recorded at studios in London, St Leonards-on-Sea and Margate and fine-tuned in his own home studio in Walthamstow, Ships boasts an incredible list of collaborators and musicians including string-arranger and multi-instrumentalist Emma Smith (Pulp, Beth Gibbons), drummers Chris Vatalaro (Anohni, Radiohead) and Aram Zarikian (Grasscut), and horn player Joe Auckland (Madness, Oasis). Additional production and engineering comes from by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins) and Mike Lindsay (Tunng, Lump).
Mint Field + Avishag Cohen Rodrigues
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Mint Field
+ Avishag Cohen Rodrigues
Thursday 26th February
The Glad Cafe
18+
Mint Field -
Mexico City based band Mint Field is one of these bands that make it shine. Guided by Estrella del Sol and Sebastian Neyra. Mint Field creates a unique blend of avant dream pop and shoegaze with some touches of trip hop that explores the nostalgia and melancholy of daily life with strong guitars and voices that are like sighs. Instrumentation and atmospheres are accompanied by delicate, harmonious and ethereal voices that are a fundamental part of the sound.
Avishag Cohen Rodrigues -
New York-based multi-instrumentalist and artist Avishag Cohen Rodrigues, guitarist of New York’s all-female punk collective cumgirl8 (4AD). Rodrigues’ music is intricate yet raw; aloof, detached, yet vulnerable. Drawing upon rock, low fi, dark electronic, noise, and experimental, Rodrigues tells sonic stories of raw electronic landscapes intercut with bold, cutting guitars and dark minimal vocals.
With a full-length ‘Islands’ and several EPs on the shelf, Rodrigues is known for bending the boundaries of genres while remaining unattached to any singular form. Her latest single ‘Some Are’ was released in December 2024 with a music video directed by Adeline Thery.
Her live set blends electronic beats with her signature guitar sound and vocals. Taking the listener on a journey through different cities, seasons, and smokey rooms. Beyond her work with cumgirl8, Rodrigues has collaborated,
performed, and recorded with ensembles including Laila, and Yonatan Gat (Stones Tapes/Joyful Noise), among others.
mark william lewis
Pop Mutations presents:
mark william lewis
+ Special Guests
Sunday 22nd February
Stereo
18+
Mark William Lewis is an artist that exists between the cracks. He eschews easy genre categorisation, plays with the traditional conventions of a songwriter, and creates music that is poetically sharp, visually vivid, yet texturally opaque. Writing songs that explore the intersection between intimacy and alienation, connection and disconnection, he is a singular and bold voice operating in a distinctly unique yet blurry space.
His recent track ‘Tomorrow is Perfect’ is the first release via A24 Music, a song that feels like the purest embodiment of him as a complete artist to date, blurring the boundaries of imagery, music and words pushed to the forefront.
Lewis has received praise from Pitchfork and The Fader for his previous releases Sparkles 22-24 and Living, as well as featuring on NYC rap figurehead MIKE’s “Let’s Have A Ball” and collaborating with Bar Italia’s Nina Crisante on the song “Thinner”.
Over the past few years, Lewis has become a fixture in more innovative spaces of London’s live music scene, with his performances and music becoming a word-of-mouth success. This led to sold out US debut shows at Elsewhere and Public Records (NYC) and The Echo (LA) last year and a full headline show at a sold-out ICA earlier this year. He has previously
released music via Scenic Route, with the vinyl release of joint EP ‘God Complex/Pleasure Is Everything’ selling out in under 24 hours.
Maria Somerville
Pop Mutations presents:
Maria Somerville
+ Special Guests
Saturday 14th February
The Flying Duck
18+
By the time Irish musician Maria Somerville started writing Luster, her landmark label debut afor 4AD, she had lived away from her native Connemara for quite some time. Having grown up amongst the wild, mountainous terrain of Galway’s rural west coast, she later relocated to Dublin, where she patiently developed an atmospheric dream pop signature inspired by the landscape of her youth – a spellbinding soundworld of gusting ambient electronics, ethereal guitar strums, sparse percussion, and hushed lyrical vignettes. In 2019, this culminated in All My People, a self-released LP steeped in reverb, nostalgia and a yearning for home that won praise from discerning press and listeners alike.
It was upon returning to Connemara, in a house near where she was raised overlooking one of the country’s largest lakes, Lough Corrib, that work commenced on the songs that would eventually become Luster, an album that illuminates Somerville’s music anew, pushing it forward in both sound and spirit. Where All My People conveyed memories and melancholic longing with misty slowcore balladry, these 12 tracks show us an artist who’s more assured in the path her life has taken, and the person she’s become in the process. As she sings in ‘Trip’ – “I can see more clearly than I could before. I know now what's true for me.”
Invigorated by her surroundings and emboldened by her community, Somerville found a renewed sense of creative energy upon returning to home soil. It provided “fertile ground” for free-flowing recording sessions in her small living room studio, where she stitched together demos that were then fleshed out with friends and collaborators, and later mixed by the renowned New York-based engineer Gabriel Schuman. Contributors included producers J. Colleran, Brendan Jenkinson and Diego Herrera (aka Suzanne Kraft), as well as Lankum’s Ian Lynch, whose uilleann pipe drones you can hear in ‘Violet’, and Margie Jean Lewis, whose violin bows reverberate through the ambient haze of ‘Flutter’. Sessions with musicians Henry Earnest and Finn Carraher McDonald (aka Nashpaints) helped “tie it all together”, while contributions from friends Roisin Berkley and Olan Monk enshrined the companionship they’ve shared since Somerville returned to Connemara.
Listeners have had a window into Somerville’s world every Monday and Tuesday morning since 2021 via her beloved Early Bird Show on NTS Radio, where her dawn chorus selections range from blissful ambient and shoegaze to traditional Irish folk songs. Since signing to 4AD that same year, Somerville has toured with her label mates Dry Cleaning, and released two
covers for the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations – taking on Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Kinky Love’ and Air Miami’s ‘Sea Bird’. With the release of Luster, she has signaled the arrival of a new era that will see her play around the world in 2025 accompanied by a live band. Rest assured though, no matter where Somerville goes, she’ll take a piece of home with her – a living, breathing, timeless essence you can sense in every note, as clear as the air by the Corrib.
Thorn Wych + Greet + Ancient Hostility + Bell Lungs
Pop Mutations & The Glad Cafe present:
Thorn Wych
+ Greet
+ Ancient Hostility
+ Bell Lungs
THORN WYCH makes instruments from tree branches in her backyard workshop which she feeds through a chain of lofi effects machines, and she sings in tongues, creating atavistic hymns and hypnotic dances. For this tour she will be bringing her new Yew tree instrument series. The Yew tree symbolises renewal, rebirth and everlasting life; and with these she will usher in the new year and sing praise to Asherah the Eternal Mother of All.
Thorn Wych's debut album "Aesthesis" was released on the label Hoodfaire in November 2024. https://hoodfaire1.bandcamp.com/album/aesthesis
"..haunted, sinister drones, glitched electronics and vocal incantations that reestablish the coordinates for England's Hidden Reverse... sounds and song that pull post-industrial and traditional music into a ghostly, mesmerising fog that's wholly unique " - World of Echo
From the ashes of Anarchist Black Metal band, Dawn Ray’d comes GREET, the solo project of former drummer Matthew Broadley. Greet uses a Harmonium and voice as the centre piece to this dark and rich contemplative folk; combining the undulating drone of the Harmonium with soothing melodies to channel grief, joy, nature, anger, revolution and revenge into enthralling folk vignettes. The enchanting sound evokes the dynamic, awe-inspiring and untameable landscape found in surrounding county of Yorkshire and conjures the cinematic atmosphere of Folk Horror films, blurring the lines between traditional folk and drone. The live Greet experience is beautifully minimalist; just voice, Harmonium, Earthen scents and your wandering thoughts.
ANCIENT HOSTILITY are a Liverpool-based close harmony & drone duo, comprising of members of of anarcho folk-punk outfit All In Vain, and black metal band Dawn Ray’d. https://ancienthostilityfolk.bandcamp.com/album/sing-as-loud-as-you-can
BELL LUNGS is the moniker of Scottish-Turkish vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer and creative facilitator Ceylan Hay. Taking a freewheeling, magpie attitude to ambient, noise, free improvisation, psychedelia, jazz, post-rock, minimalism and folk, her music creates subtly shifting sound worlds drawing on natural cycles, environmental disaster and the microcosmic aspects of relationships. A vaguely obsessive instrument collector, she integrates vocals, strings, keys, tuned percussion and woodwinds into lushly textured layers and loops.
Stella Rose
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Stella Rose
+ Special Guests
Friday 13th February
The Glad Cafe
18+
Stella Rose is excited to reveal her new EP, Hollybaby, out now via KRO Records. The New York dark pop artist’s latest body of work also comes alongside an official music video for ‘Beautiful Twentysomethings’, which was self-directed by Stella Rose. Speaking of the new EP, Stella Rose says: “The best kept secret between after hour bars. People that you’ve been before, fueling superstitions. The sedation in seduction, the day the music died.”
Stella Rose recently arrived in London for a sold-out solo live performance at The Shacklewell Arms as part of her UK/European tour, which also included a sold-out night in Paris. Her new EP Hollybaby follows the release of her acclaimed 2023 debut album, Eyes of Glass.
The Hollybaby EP was recorded alongside producer Yves Rothman. It invites listeners into deeper realms of Stella Rose’s dark and otherworldly lyrical poetry, emboldened with gritty soundscapes and introspective ruminations. The title track sets the ominous tone from the offset, with brooding guitars and hauntingly delivered vocals. ‘MS.45’ continues in a similar vein with its fiery metaphorical imagery, while ‘Beautiful Twentysomethings’, as Stella Rose describes, offers “a portrait of youth and the nativities of beauty in chaotic places”. ‘Drugstore Romeo’ concludes the EP with a contrast in sound, showcasing Stella Rose’s expansive vocal range with soaring vocal melodies which pair pensively with lyrics surrounding drug addiction on the streets of NYC. The writing process saw Stella Rose intentionally drift from familiarity. Not only did she shift from her native New York to Los Angeles whilst recording, she also adopted a more urgent style of writing. Each day reached 100+ degrees as Hollybaby came together during the hottest week of the summer in LA. Both Stella Rose and her producer Yves fed off that uncomfortable heat in the studio, which contributed heavily towards the EP’s visceral identity. The finishing touches were later added back in New York, culminating in Stella Rose’s loudest, rawest and arguably most entrancing material to date.”
Stella Rose now finds herself firmly among the buzzy circles of New York’s underground scene (as per Rolling Stone), having recently performed at the already notorious party The Hancock in Brooklyn, frequented by the likes of The Dare and Pretty Sick. She is also making a serious footprint in the fashion world, gracing the covers of publications such as POP, W Mag and Lampoon Magazine. In addition to earning praise for her work from outlets including Rolling Stone UK, Brooklyn Vegan, Paper, Clash, CREEM, and NME, she’s been embraced by like-minded artists, appearing in Hedi Slimane’s Dairies, the Buffalo Hotel Chelsea Issue 16 photographed by Richard Kern, and walking in the Enfants Riches Deprims show during Paris Fashion Week.
Kontravoid + Nuxx
Pop Mutations presents:
Kontravoid
+ Nuxx
Tuesday 10th February
Stereo
18+
Kontravoid -
Kontravoid’s masked mystique has remained for over a decade. Ever since the release of his self-titled LP in 2012, the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based Cameron Findlay has perfected dark pop with his oeuvre that teeters between the EBM, electro and goth genres. His productions, such as 2019’s “Too Deep” and 2021’s “Faceless,” dive to the most derelict corners of foggy, strobe-lit clubs: there is no choice but to dance. But there is an uncanny softness and obvious songwriting ability to compose heart-wrenching songs that are both captivating and drenched in melancholy—2018’s
“Undone” has been a fan favorite since it came out on Berlin’s Fleisch Records. Onstage, Kontravoid demands the audience’s attention with his powerful performance that balances his specific concoction of harsh beats with his signature bass line rhythmic patterns. He’s toured alongside Boy Harsher, ADULT., Drab Majesty and Hide, and has remixed the likes of Schwefelgelb and Kris Baha. Truly a man of the shadows, Kontravoid is an unparalleled fixture in the dark electronic arena.
Nuxx -
Nuxx is the electro project of musician and visual artist Madeline Seely, whose gritty, high-energy sound blends elements of EBM, 90's techno, drum and bass, and digital hardcore.
Known for her electrifying live performances, Seely has taken Nuxx on tours across North America, Europe, and Mexico. Her high-energy sets provide the audience with a raw, immersive experience. From the festival stage to the floor of a basement, Nuxx never fucks around.
Jennifer Walton
Skinny Dipping 03 x Pop Mutations x The Glad Cafe
Jennifer Walton
Alliyah Enyo
Craggyland
~
‘mesmerising / melancholic / diary pop’
Saturday 13 December at @thegladcafe
Quietly prolific DJ, producer, and all-around instrumentalist Jennifer Walton brings her bold and entrancing debut album ‘Daughters’ to Glasgow for an intimate evening harmonising autofiction, grief, and broken Americana.
Similarly employing memory-informed approaches to their own sonic practices, Glasgow’s Alliyah Enyo and Craggyland join the lineup, each digesting found sound and field-recordings to distinct ends.
~
tix via thegladcafe.co.uk + RA
~
The Glad Cafe
13/12
7:30pm
THE END OF DEFINITION The Ballad of Creeping Bent
THE END OF DEFINITION
The Ballad of Creeping Bent
12.12.1994. - 12.12.2025.
The Creeping Bent Organisation will undertake a final action on Friday 12th December in Mono, Glasgow.
The End of Definition will feature a plethora of 15 minutes of fame sets (as initiated by Fire Engines) by Creeping Bent-adjunct artists performing 4 song sets. This will be followed by dancing and action into the wee hours to tunes supplied by DJs Bobby Bluebell, Divine, Gerry Love, Stephen Pastel.
Port Sulphur, The Leopards, The Bluebells, The Secret Goldfish & James Kirk will all be performing live (with others to be announced).
BENT 001 took place in the Tramway theatre in Glasgow on 12th Dec 1994, we are delighted to be collaborating with Pop Mutations to bring you BENT 100 in Mono on Friday 12th December.
STERÖID
STEROID
If an album called "Chainmail Commandos" doesn't sound like the best record you'll hear all year from the title alone, you can leave the hall. Steroid have heavy metal, punk, and a dangerous level lot of rock and roll going on, and there is no possible description I can write that truly conveys how unbelievably righteous this album is. With a live lineup featuring some heavyweight killers from bands like RMFC, Gee Tee, 1-800 MIKEY, Quest Master, Gloomy Reflections, and probably about 666 other bands, this is a battle-hardened hit squad ready for rocking, fighting, boozing, and rocking some more. If you know, you know, and if you don't, get with it.
VENOMWOLF
Medieval metalpunks, emerging from the crypt to kill with power once again. Bring out your battleaxe.
ATTEST
Fast old school hardcore from some of the usual punx suspects. Check the new demo, it's a rager.
SPËEDBÖNG
Speaking of usual suspects, here's some familiar faces from the likes of Piss Bath causing a ruckus. Fast, rocking, just what the doctor advised against.
NO WIMPS - NO POSERS - NO MERCY
Mo Dotti + Blue Zero
Pop Mutations & Freakender present:
Mo Dotti + Blue Zero
+ Special Guests
Saturday 6th December
The Old Hairdresser's
18+
Mo Dotti -
An accomplished work of punk ethereality, Mo Dotti's debut record Opaque (out September 2024) exemplifies the mix of Dinosaur Jr.-esque clamor cut with sweet Sundays-worthy melodies that the Los Angeles four piece have been meticulously crafting over the course of their brief but compelling discography. Building upon the glow-in-the-dark fuzz of 2020’s Blurring EP and the psychedelic pastiche of 2022’s Guided Imagery, Opaque showcases the sound of a band that has figured out how to bend and shape abstract washes of noise in and around memorable pop hooks into songs that reach for the stars.
A formidable live band who’ve been tapped to open for groups like beloved Japanese hardcore punks Otoboke Beaver and were invited by shoegazers Nothing to join the line-up of their inaugural Slide Away Festival, Mo Dotti bring the thrill of their live show to Opaque, which has the aggressive, in-the-room feel of Ride’s first four EPs mixed with the lush yet caustic beauty of My Bloody Valentine in their Isn’t Anything era. Through it all shines the essential quality that has always made Mo Dotti stand out in the oversaturated dream pop field: the songs themselves.
Blue Zero -
The Bay Area has long been a fertile landscape for arty DIY rock innovators to fashion together some of the best music to come out of the US- the local musicians pushing the boundaries of pop and counterculture aesthetics. In the middle of this creative oasis you’ll find multi-instrumentalist songwriter Chris Natividad making iridescent waves with his many projects including Marbled Eye, Public Interest, Aluminum, and now- Blue Zero. What started as a few outlier demos cultivated in Chris’ studio has now fully bloomed into a live band featuring members Lauren Melton of SUCKER and Rick Altieri of Blue Ocean, and a forthcoming LP titled Colder Shade Blue. The songs on the record harmoniously tow the line of warm and meditative artrock and fuzzy, damaged grunge a là Lily’s, Sonic Youth, and My Bloody Valentine. While Blue Zero pays homage to their predecessors, the music is wholly unique with its mesmerizing big hooks and blown-out radiating psychedelic atmosphere- a tonal yin yang.
With Blue Zero, Natividad effortlessly escapes the asymmetric and angular guitar stylings of his other projects on Colder Shade Blue. The songs are layered with natural and loose guitar riffs- alternating clean jangle and fried fuzz leads. These guitar parts are intentional and calculated, but never over-played, while the dialed-in and punchy rhythm section paves the way for the memorable vocal melodies and velvety choruses. Songs like “Lemon Year” and “Fortress” are more pop-forward with sugary, head bobbing melodies, while “Scar” and “Gone Again” have a more melancholic, heady quality that pulls you in and under. To say the least, this is an idiosyncratic and diverse rock n roll artifact. The instrumentation was performed solely by Natividad, however the expansive sound of the record was captured by Chris’ longtime friend and collaborator engineer Andrew Oswald resulting in a glowing and powerful wall of sound. Blue Zero’s Colder Shade Blue is an energetic, dynamic and shimmering river of tasteful arrangements and deeply stylized songs that will wash over the listener with continuous, tranquil, and ecstatic reverberation.
SANAM (Beirut)
Pop Mutations presents:
SANAM صنم (Beirut)
plus Man of Moon (solo)
Monday 1st December at The Flying Duck
18+ show
SANAM is a Beirut-based sextet that merges psych/kraut, improv/skronk, electronics, goth, and jazz elements with traditional Egyptian song and modern Arabic poetry in a compelling brew of widescreen hybrid avant-rock. Emerging from Beirut’s fiercely creative independent scene, the group features Sandy Chamoun (vocals), Antonio Hajj (bass), Farah Kaddour (buzuq), Anthony Sahyoun (guitar, synth), Pascal Semerdjian (drums), and Marwan Tohme (guitars)—each an accomplished musician in their own right, with ties to influential Lebanese acts like Kinematik, Postcards, Al Rahel al Kabir, and Oviid. Formed following an invitation to collaborate with Hans Joachim Irmler (of German krautrock legends Faust) at the Irtijal Festival in 2021, the band solidified its identity during a recording residency in rural Lebanon amid national turmoil.
SANAM captured its debut album Aykathani Malakon entirely live, forgoing overdubs, embracing improvisation and musical friction to create an immersive and otherworldly sonic landscape. With haunting vocals, deeply textured instrumental layers, and texts by Egyptian composer Sayyid Darwish and contemporary Lebanese poets Bassem Hajjar and Paul Shaoul, the album channels the urgency, mysticism, and emotional upheaval of contemporary life in Lebanon and the region. Mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem in My Heart) and mastered by Heba Kadry, the debut album was released in June 2023 by UK label Mais Um Discos, garnering notable critical acclaim from The Guardian, The Wire, BBC Radio 6 (from both Gilles Peterson and Tom Ravenscroft) and Bandcamp Daily.
SANAM brought its live show to Europe for select engagements in 2023-2024, including festival appearances at Le Guess Who?, Feeërieën, and End of the Road and recorded a live album at London’s Café Oto, released on limited edition cassette by Mais Um Discos, capturing the raw and transcendent energy of the band’s performances.
SANAM made its first trip to North America in June 2025 with a string of festival appearances in Canada, including Sled Island, Everyseeker, and Suoni Per Il Popolo, followed by European festival dates in July, including Roskilde. The band will release their sophomore album with renowned Canadian experimental label Constellation in September 2025, promising a deeper dive into their boundary-defying synthesis of folklore, feedback, and freeform fervor.
Since their beginning Man of Moon have been a standout live act. The Glasgow-based duo possess an extraordinary talent for cross-pollinating genres and styles but their sound is not hybridised, rather they are a synthesis of their influences; a pure sonic distillation of what has come before. You hear the mesmeric drones of Mogwai, the dynamic shifts of Radiohead, the harmonic angularity of Tool, the industrial amalgam of Nine Inch Nails, even hints of Pink Floyd’s austere and abstract lyricism. Man of Moon are so much music in one band. And yet they’ve always sounded uniquely themselves; there is deep intentionality in every song’s construction.
SOUP ACTIVISTS & CLASS
MONO & POP MUTATIONS PRESENT…
MONO
8pm doors
18+
SOUP ACTIVISTS
Completely jangled up and hook-laden group from the mind of Martin Meyer (Lumpy & The Dumpers) reconstituting the 80s indie scene, heavily recalling Television Personalities, Cleaners From Venus, and Flying Nun records oeuvre.
CLASS
Power pop group hailing from the USA giving you old school '77 punk with a glint in the eye.