another Bungalow party

Saturday 20th August 2011, Canterbury

Another excellent party at The Bungalow on the Old Dover Road, courtesy of the various members of Delta Sleep and Lapis Lazuli who inhabit the place. This one was outdoors with eight acts scheduled to play in the garden. I arrived about 6, having unfortunately missed the three acoustic acts: Chris Banks (plays amazing free, modal 12-string, saw him once at an open mic and played with him a bit a while later), Leonie Evans from Rae (as seen flying past me in The Bell in Bath a few days earlier, down in Kent visiting friends and family) and Wheels (Neil and Adam's acoustic band, with a couple of friends from Gillingham).

There was a bit of a delay going on, waiting for various members of various bands to arrive, so Cameron (bass player from The Boot Lagoon and Lapis Lazuli) suggested a jam in the indoor rehearsal room with Phil on accordion and me on saz. Cam had his double bass there, had been accompanying Leonie, so we got an interesting little acoustic thing going, led by his bass lines.

After a while, a band had arrived and set up, so we drifted out to watch. Three bands followed, all electric, all with varying degrees of postrock/mathrock influence. The first two, "Adults, Children and the Eldery" (I think that was their name) and Cats and Cats and Cats featured mostly muffled, incomprehensible vocals, as befits the style, the latter band being a bit more on the poppier/indie end of the spectrum. The best of the three played last, Suffer Like G Did, who were entirely instrumental. Excellent stuff.

Delta Sleep were on next, playing a set rather like the one I saw at LOTF, though shorter (all the bands were playing short sets due to the earlier delays). Possibly a new piece in there? The thrash-style vocals seemed a bit at odds with the tranquility of the summers' evening in a garden full of peaceful people, but that's what they do, at least some of the time. There was a mellower piece that I asked Adam about afterwards (it followed their long intro involving a recording of Alan Watts talking about consciousness), but I've already forgotten what it was called. I recorded their set on my Zoom H2 and I think that piece will probably end up on a future episode of my Canterbury Soundwaves podcast.


Delta Sleep play "Jesus Bill" live at The Prince Albert, Brighton 2011-07-19
Meanwhile, in the front room, a circle of party people were playing a very entertaining "pass the mic" game involving a Loop Station. There were a couple of competent beatboxers among them to lay the foundations, then everyone got to add a layer of vocal weirdness before handing the mic on, the results sounded hilariously disorienting...

Sitting off to the side of the garden in a rickety old summerhouse like thing, I ended up having a couple of interesting conversations with members of Zoo For You (saxophonist Owen, who's also in Arlet, just back from a cycle trip from Budapest to Berlin via the Bosnian Pyramids and Andrew, bass player and visual artist) while Lapis Lazuli were setting up to play. Suddenly, Neil was announcing from the stage that the police had shown up and told them to shut off the PA. It was announced in the nicest possible way, entirely free of bitterness or anger, so although it was a shame they couldn't play, the vibes stayed good. Adam lit a small fire in a brazier, Cam and I got our instruments and did some more saz and double bass jamming, eventually joined by Neil on acoustic guitar. I recorded a few bits of this (as well as the earlier indoor jam):

Listen Here
Cam eventually had to leave, so Neil and I carried on, playing increasingly spacey/weird/minimal saz-guitar improv until almost 3a.m. Looking forward to more of this...