Afro Noise

AFRO NOISE I VINYL LPS NOW AVAILABLE

2012-01-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

Both volumes of Cut Hands : Afro Noise I vinyl LPs are now available in limited quantities direct from Susan Lawly! Please don't miss out on these beautiful records.

CUT HANDS LIVE UPDATE 5

2011-11-27T21:30:00.001-08:00

Some new shows added at what are going to be unmissable events. More details soon.

28th Nov : Sonic (Lyon, France)
30th Nov : (Geneva, Switzerland)
2nd Dec : Unit (Tokyo, Japan) - Incapacitants 30th Anniversary + Ramleh
4th Dec : Club Metro (Kyoto, Japan) + Ramleh
10th Dec : Occii (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

2012
19th Jan : Rhiz (Vienna, Austria)
21st Jan : KLICKclub @ Kunsthaus 54 (Berlin, Germany)
26th-29th Jan : Supersimetria (Barcelona, Spain)
1st Feb : CTM Festival (Berlin, Germany)
4th Feb : (Manchester, UK)
14th-25th Feb : (USA)
tbc Mar : (Saint Etienne, France)

SIBERIA DOCUMENTARY

2011-10-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

The first part of the new Vice documentary Siberia: Krokodil Tears featuring soundtrack by Cut Hands has now been posted.

SUPERSONIC PHOTO SET

2011-10-27T10:34:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Jamie Robinson for a very nice photo set of Cut Hands from Supersonic 2011.

QUIETUS INTERVIEW

2011-10-26T06:33:00.001-07:00

An interview with William Bennett with Rory from The Quietus after the Cut Hands performance at this year's Unsound Festival in Krakow.

CUT HANDS AT UNSOUND FESTIVAL

2011-10-16T13:34:00.001-07:00

William Bennett presents Cut Hands from LACE on Vimeo.

CUT HANDS LIVE UPDATE

2011-10-15T08:44:00.001-07:00

New Cut Hands shows added for Vienna, Berlin, and Poznan now confirmed for 21st November.

10th Oct : Unsound Festival (Krakow, Poland) - sold out
21st Oct : Blackest Ever Black (London, UK) - Regis + Raime + special guest
23rd Oct : Supersonic Festival (Birmingham, UK)
2nd Nov : Mayhem (Copenhagen, Denmark)
11th Nov : www.magasin4.be (Brussels, Belgium)
19th Nov : (Gdansk, Poland)
21st Nov : (Poznan, Poland)
28th Nov : (Lyon, France)
30th Nov : (Geneva, Switzerland)
2nd Dec : Unit (Tokyo, Japan) - Incapacitants 30th Anniversary + Ramleh
4th Dec : (Kyoto, Japan) - Ramleh
10th Dec : (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

2012
19th Jan : Rhiz (Vienna, Austria)
21st Jan : King Kong Club (Berlin, Germany)
tbc Jan : (Paris, France)
tbc Jan : (Barcelona, Spain)
4th Feb : (Manchester, UK)
tbc Feb : tour (USA)
tbc Mar : (Saint Etienne, France)

CUT HANDS VINYL UPDATE

2011-10-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

Reason for the delays is we're having a third lot of test pressings made, really want to get this sounding as special on vinyl as I think it deserves. The song 'Kongo' originally to be included has now been replaced by the new 'Krokodilo'.

Cut Hands - Afro Noise I
Volume 1
A01 Welcome To The Feast Of Trumpets
A02 Stabbers Conspiracy
A03 Rain Washes Over Chaff
A04 Nzambi Ia Lufua

B01 Who No Knows Go Knows
B02 ++++ (Four Crosses)
B03 Brown-Brown
B04 Shut Up And Bleed

Cut Hands - Afro Noise I
Volume 2
C01 Munkisi Munkondi
C02 Impassion
C03 Ezili Freda
C04 Nzambi Ia Muini

D01 Bia Mintatu
D02 Krokodilo
D03 Backlash
D04 Rain Washes Away Every Thing

CUT HANDS LIVE UPDATE 2

2011-09-03T16:39:00.001-07:00

4th Sep : Music Is The Music Language Festival (Glasgow, UK)
24th Sep : CCA (Aalst, Belgium)
30th Sep : Endtyme (Manchester, UK)
10th Oct : Unsound Festival (Krakow, Poland)
21st Oct : Blackest Ever Black (London, UK)
23rd Oct : Supersonic Festival (Birmingham, UK)
2nd Nov : Festival (Copenhagen, Denmark) - NEW SHOW ADDED!
11th Nov : (Brussels, Belgium)
19th Nov : (Gdansk, Poland)
tbc Nov : (Lithuania)
tbc Nov : (Estonia)
tbc Nov : (Latvia)
tbc Nov : (Lyon, France)
tbc Nov : (Geneva, Switzerland)
2nd Dec : (Tokyo, Japan) - NEW SHOW ADDED!
tbc Dec : (Oslo, Norway)
tbc Dec : (Leeds, UK)
tbc Jan 2012 : (Barcelona, Spain)
tbc Feb 2012 : tour (USA)

FORTHCOMING SHOWS

2011-08-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

16th Aug : Edinburgh Festival (Edinburgh)
19th Aug : DOMMUNE ZERO Festival (Kawasaki)
4th Sep : Cry Parrot Festival (Glasgow)
24th Sep : Nettwerk (Brussels)
30th Sep : Endtyme (Manchester)
10th Oct : Unsound Festival (Krakow)
21st Oct : Blackest Ever Black (London)
23rd Oct : Supersonic Festival (Birmingham)
11th Nov : (Brussels, Belgium)
19th Nov : (Gdansk)
tbc Nov : (Lithuania)
tbc Nov : (Estonia)
tbc Nov : (Latvia)
tbc Nov : (Lyon, France)
tbc Nov : (Geneva)
tbc Dec : (Oslo)
tbc February 2012 : tour (USA)

CUT HANDS : CRY PARROT FESTIVAL

2011-07-28T11:04:00.001-07:00

Cut Hands performance at Cry Parrot Festival in Glasgow on Sunday 4th September!

more details!

CUT HANDS : EDINBURGH FESTIVAL

2011-07-25T06:16:00.001-07:00

A Cut Hands performance at Edinburgh Festival (part of the Edge Festival) on 16th August before flying to Japan the next morning! It's taking place at Sneaky Pete's in the mysterious Cowgate at 7.30pm. Tickets are £6 and can be booked online via TicketWeb.

INSIDE SYRIA

2011-07-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

The Cut Hands composition Rain Washes Over Chaff is featured in VBS's new documentary film Inside Syria.

CUT HANDS ALBUM UPDATE 5

2011-06-27T05:47:00.000-07:00

Cut Hands - Afro Noise I

Volume 1
A01 Welcome To The Feast Of Trumpets
A02 Stabbers Conspiracy
A03 Rain Washes Over Chaff
A04 Nzambi Ia Lufua

B01 Who No Knows Go Knows
B02 ++++ (Four Crosses)
B03 Brown-Brown
B04 Shut Up And Bleed

Volume 2
C01 Munkisi Munkondi
C02 Impassion
C03 Ezili Freda
C04 Nzambi Ia Muini

D01 Bia Mintatu
D02 Kongo
D03 Backlash
D04 Rain Washes Away Every Thing

CUT HANDS ALBUM UPDATE 3

2011-04-20T04:43:00.001-07:00

http://www.susanlawly.freeuk.com/pricelist/pricelist.html

preorders now available! US$18.99 including worldwide shipping

get 2 exclusive limited Cut Hands art postcards included with each copy ordered while stocks last!

the official release date for the Cut Hands album (CD version) is 23rd May 2011; the CD comes with a 16pp booklet with special texts and vévé artwork

preorders can also be made with direct PayPal payment to susanlawly@freeuk.com
GBP£12.00 : USD$18.99 : includes worldwide shipping

CUT HANDS ALBUM UPDATE 2

2011-04-07T09:19:00.001-07:00

(from William Bennett blog)

Official release date for the Cut Hands album (CD version, 16pp booklet, catalogue no. VFSL101) has now been set for May 23rd. Still can't believe it. Planning a special limited edition vinyl edition at a later date.

CUT HANDS ALBUM UPDATE

CUT HANDS ALBUM UPDATE

2011-03-08T09:48:00.001-08:00

(from William Bennett blog)

Yes, it's hard to believe. After several years' toil, all the songs for the Cut Hands album are finished and there's not going to be any more tweaking, enhancing, or indeed fiddling. The finalised track listing is here below. So now before there comes any more temptation for meddling and interference, it's going to be shipped off for mastering.

Welcome To The Feast Of Trumpets
Stabbers Conspiracy
Rain Washes Over Chaff
Nzambi Ia Lufua
Who No Know Go Knows
++++ (Four Crosses)
Backlash
Shut Up And Bleed
Munkisi Munkondi
Impassion
Ezili Freda
Bia Mintatu
Rain Washes Away Every Thing

CNN.COM

2010-01-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

Cut Hands at CNN.com!

CUT HANDS

2009-12-05T12:19:00.001-08:00

Cut Hands update
so listed below are the tracks completed for the project, several are being featured in the forthcoming Vice documentary on Liberia, and there'll be a few more too before long

Cut Hands - Who No Know Go Knows 4:08 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Who No Know Go Knows (percussion) 4:07 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Rain Washes Over Chaff 4:11 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Rain Washes Over Chaff (ambience) 2:38 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Rain Washes Over Chaff (percussion) 4:07 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Munkisi Munkondi 5:09 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2003)
Cut Hands - Nzambi Ia Lufua 2:44 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2006)
Cut Hands - Bia Mintatu 6:57 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2007)
Cut Hands - ++++ (Four Crosses) 2:57 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Impassion 2:59 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Backlash 1:53 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)
Cut Hands - Backlash (percussion) 1:52 (written and performed by W.Bennett, 2009)

WIRE WEB EXCLUSIVE

2009-10-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

There's a web exclusive track from Afro Noise I at The Wire magazine online site.

STADTGARTEN : 23 SEPTEMBER

2009-09-15T08:57:00.001-07:00

PATHWORKING

2009-08-20T07:52:00.000-07:00

Pathworking is a great brand new track from Brian Conniffe + Vicky Langan is available for download! More information can be obtained at the following sites: www.myspace.com/femaleorphanasylum
www.myspace.com/thewickermammy
http://brianconniffe.blogspot.com/

EVENTS UPDATE

2009-07-13T10:25:00.001-07:00

CUT HANDS : live at Salon Des Amateurs, Dusseldorf, Germany : 17th July
CUT HANDS : live at NK, Berlin, Germany : 18th July
CUT HANDS : live at GRV, Edinburgh : 12th September

ADVERSE EFFECT

2009-05-25T14:19:00.001-07:00

A review of one of the recent Cut Hands performances in Poland has been posted at Adverse Effect.

OLD BLUE LAST : 17th April

2009-04-02T09:42:00.001-07:00

Cut Hands afro noise set at Old Blue Last in London (with visuals) on 17th April. Free entry!

CUT HANDS III PS

2009-02-11T06:22:00.001-08:00

firstly, thanks to all who attended Cut Hands III at the Glasgow CCA, hope you enjoyed what was to me a most enjoyable night! hoping to be able to do more shows there in the future, and do nights elsewhere too - thanks also to the wonderful Heather Leigh Murray and the guys from Defibrillators for their great sets

by the way, apologies for the lack of updates at the MySpace pages recently, and for the delay in approving the latest comments - there's a simple reason for that: I forgot the password!! (oops)

WB.

CUT HANDS III : NEW NOISE FOR VENDOR MOUTH

2008-12-20T06:27:00.000-08:00

CUT HANDS III : CCA, GLASGOW : 7TH FEBRUARY 2009
the night for music like no other : where the rules of the West no longer apply, where the sound of voodoo and santería is mixed with raw electricity : where we have the secret, and present you with the dilemma of the solution - welcome to CUT HANDS!

DEFIBRILLATORS
first time live in Scotland
HEATHER LEIGH MURRAY
special performance
CUT HANDS (WILLIAM BENNETT)
live DJ set + short talk/demo
NICK HERD
Cut Hands visual solution

Saturday, 7th February, 7.30pm
CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow
cca-glasgow.com/home
£4 advance guestlist (just email cuthands@gmail.com) : £5 on the door

(artwork by Stefan Danielsson)

DEFIBRILLATORS

2008-11-19T15:34:00.000-08:00

Check out this really excellent extended track from Defibrillators. Thanks to Anton Maiof for the link.

26/11/08
link updated to MediaSpace

CUT HANDS III

2008-10-22T07:42:00.001-07:00

CUT HANDS III will take place at the CCA in Glasgow on February 7th 2009 - more details soon.

VICE MAGAZINE

2008-10-03T04:07:00.001-07:00

The article and interview with William Bennett regarding the afro noise and the forthcoming Cut Hands I 2LP that was published in this month's Vice Magazine has now also been posted online.

CUT HANDS II : RAIN WASHES OVER CHAFF

2008-08-31T10:02:00.001-07:00

The much-anticipated 2nd Cut Hands clubnight shall take place on Saturday October 18th at Henry's Cellar Bar, 7pm-10pm, and, in addition to the un/usual weird and wonderful goings-on in the Cut Hands afro noise tradition, we'll be joined live by the legendary drone/experimental act Skullflower. An evening not to be missed under any circumstances.

Skullflower live performance!
Cut Hands (William Bennett) DJ set + short talk/demonstration!
Cut Hands visual solution by Nick Herd!

18th October
7pm-10pm
Henry's Cellar Bar, Morrison Street, Edinburgh

£6 for those on advance list - just send an email or pm
£8 on the door

(artwork by Stefan Danielsson)

DJ CUT HANDS : LIVE

2008-08-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

DJ Cut Hands (William Bennett) : live in Glasgow : Friday 7th November

more details coming soon!

AFRICA AND OMEGA

2008-08-27T09:18:00.001-07:00

New blog by Stefan Danielsson you'll want to hastily add to your bookmarks.

ARCHIVED 2

2008-07-30T12:17:00.001-07:00

If you missed the Resonance FM transmission of the Afro Noise I mix, you can still get it at the CYRK site.

update: 1,600+ total downloads so far as of July 30th!
update: first 2 vinyl afro noise vinyl releases are now completed and ready to be mastered

NEW FROM XENO KATUMBO

2008-07-23T12:32:00.001-07:00

A great new afro noise track by P. Turner (of Xeno Katumbo) has been sent in entitled Red Sky Changes. mp3 download

ARCHIVED

2008-07-22T05:50:00.000-07:00

The Afro Noise I mix is now archived at the CYRK site.

CUT HANDS BLOG

2008-07-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

Also now just set up the Cut Hands blog!

AFRO NOISE I

2008-07-18T03:37:00.000-07:00

Already more than 200 downloads of the excerpt mp3 - and thanks so much for all the amazing comments and feedback!

AFRO NOISE I : EXCERPT

2008-07-13T09:40:00.000-07:00

Finally. Sorry it's taken so long, a lot of work's gone into it and so I hope you'll find it was worth it. Link below for a short 8 minute (or so) excerpt from this weekend's Resonance FM radio broadcast of the first afro noise mix - the full version is 49:40 and being broadcast on Sunday 20th July. Enjoy.

DJ Cut Hands (William Bennett) - Afro Noise I (excerpt) 8:14 - mp3/256kbps

DJ Cut Hands (William Bennett) - Afro Noise I (full version) 49:40
djembe, doundoun, ksing-ksing, synthesiser, electronics by William Bennett; produced by William Bennett
also excerpts from Florian Hecker, Whitehouse, East African witchcraft and Ghanaian funeral field recordings (with thanks to Brian Conniffe for his kind assistance), feline recordings

CUT HANDS : INAUGURAL NIGHT!

2008-07-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

William Bennett (DJ Cut Hands) - afro noise DJ set
Diva Abrasiva - live performance
Cut Hands visual solution by Nick Herd

7pm-10pm on 25th July
Henry's Cellar Bar, Morrison Street, Edinburgh

tickets £5 on the door, or leave a comment for us here or send us a message to cuthands@gmail.com and pay just £4 on the night!

MySpace
www.myspace.com/cuthands
FaceBook
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22425746825

CUT HANDS

2008-06-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

a new night for music like no other : where the rules of the West no longer apply, where the sound of voodoo and santería is mixed with raw electricity : where we have the secret, you have the dilemma, and we have the solution - welcome to CUT HANDS!

opening at Henry's Cellar Bar in Edinburgh on Friday, 25th July from 7pm till 10pm - I'll be doing an afro noise DJ set and there'll be live stuff too!

EDINBURGH 25 JULY

2008-06-12T15:34:00.000-07:00

We're starting up an exciting new night in Edinburgh starting on Friday 25th July at Henry's Cellar Bar (Morrison Street) from 7-10pm - there'll be a WB afronoise set, also we're hoping to get some live djembe players in, plus another act yet to be announced.

RESONANCE FM

2008-05-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

There'll be a special 60-minute afro noise mix I'm preparing on a special program to be aired on Resonance FM at 1600hrs (BST) on 20th July.

update: more details

MIX

2008-03-19T12:10:00.001-07:00

Coming here soon - free downloads of some afro noise live mixes I've done.

XENO KATUMBO RELEASE

2008-03-05T15:54:00.000-08:00

The Xeno Katumbo album is now available from neverender.org!

AFRO NOISE UPDATE

2008-02-18T18:35:00.001-08:00

Even though this blog has been quiet for a while now, it's certainly not for lack of activity. The music I've been working on has evolved quite a bit, and gone slightly further off course than I even imagined.

At Optimo's 10th Birthday event towards the end of 2007, Twitch and Johnny kindly invited me to do a midnight set of the new afro noise sounds to several hundred unsuspecting revellers, plus the chance for me to experience the music through a big industrial strength sound system and note the response. It was a revelation.

What I quickly learnt was that the most effective material involved types of polyrhythms that were eminently danceable yet would become increasingly too complex for the brain to identify or predict how the patterns would develop. So effectively - when this works - we get to a state where we have no parts of the body left to move, the music becomes internalised, and then the mad insane nature of the infused electronics creates an extraordinarily shocking (to the neophyte) trancelike almost frothing-at-the-mouth altered state. Much like you may have witnessed at voodoo ceremonies.

Buckle up. We're really onto something here.

The degree of complexity of the compositions though is clearly much greater than originally envisaged, and getting it all ready for the final recorded output is by no means a straightforward task. There are about a dozen compositions so far in rough mix state, all still requiring a fair amount of laborious fine tuning, intricate moulding and crafting to fulfil the desired intent.

HOMO RAPIENS

2007-10-21T15:01:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the lack of developments here, what with my accident in Belfast (and a couple of other major inconveniences) things have got quite a bit behind, nevertheless, the project is very much alive and on a personal level I have much that I'm working on and looking forward to getting ready for release. There's a new track from Homo Rapiens that we recently received and is well worth checking out, and now finally there's a permanent download link for it.

FORUM THREAD

2007-08-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

A discussion at Chondritic Sound forum.

SYPHA NADON

2007-08-20T02:29:00.001-07:00

A new submission just in.

ERZULIE

2007-07-27T01:11:00.001-07:00

Check out these 2 brand new tracks, Erzulie and Hashasheen, by Brian Conniffe.

XENO KATUMBO

2007-07-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

"A brief venture into the new world of afro noise" has been recorded live to tape June 19th, 2OO7 by P.Turner on processed djembe/electronics and Collin Weiland on processed percussion/vocals. It's to be released on August 30th, 2OO7 on an initial pressing of 300 hand screened CDs. More info and downloads at their MySpace page.

AUDITION 3

2007-06-24T04:58:00.000-07:00

Just received this new track, I think it best to attach the artist's own extensive background description below:

"For this project, I composed a long piece as The Domestic Front, entitled 'Go Slow (Igwe Ocha)'- 'go slow' being Nigerian pidgin English for a traffic jam, and Igwe Ocha being the original name of the city Port Harcourt, known for its many infrastructure problems that make 'go slows' (and much more besides) an inevitability.

The intent of this piece was to strip away all the political, social, and linguistic reference points that normally accompany a location / field recording from an 'exotic' area- what we are left with is an elusive haze of unstable electronics and manipulated, minimal West African percussion. I wanted to merely create an unorthodox vision of the shimmering heat and slow tension that might accompany a drive through the industrialized, oil-rich, teeming region of Nigeria's Port Harcourt, in the Niger Delta- why I've chosen this particular area as the focus for this piece, I'll leave up to the listener to decide. And, of course, I'll also leave it up to the listener to decide whether the fatiguing drones and malfunctioning machinery of this piece provide a believable audio metaphor for an area I have never traveled to. This piece is, at most, a ghost of an impression, but then again, so is much of our perception of the world."

AUDITION 2

2007-06-19T05:58:00.001-07:00

A new track just sent in by Norman William Long entitled Oceanic Memories 2005 which is well worth checking out - much of the sound is quite heavily processed but let it run its full course to appreciate how it was recorded and its implementation of the drums. Also check out the Myspace link.

AUDITION 1

2007-06-17T10:50:00.000-07:00

Cool new afro noise track entitled Less Than 3 by P.Turner/Furball.

DEMOS

2007-06-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

If you have, or are making, any demos that may be of interest to this project, please send them in CD format to our usual address: SUSAN LAWLY, PO BOX 914, EDINBURGH EH17 8BF, UK

Alternatively, send us links to MySpace pages or similar and we'll post the best ones here at this blog.

We can't promise to respond or comment on everything that's sent but we WILL listen to it all with much interest. Thanks!

ON BOARD

2007-06-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

I think it's been obvious for a while now my fascination with African (and Haiti for that matter), especially in terms of the music, language, and art - the inspiration has been utterly invaluable, and now my plan is to take this passion and endeavour much further with the pursuit of an open-ended genre that I've dubbed afro noise. Essentially to consist of obscure African percussion elements in free-form work-outs with almost any other type of (genuine) sound experimenting. Already in evidence in some of the latter-day Whitehouse tracks, I believe there are incredible and exciting possibilities here which will also serve to draw a firm line between - what seems to me at least, and I've said it before - the utterly staid, conservative, conformist, and oh-so-boring ageing 'noise' genre. Let's recapture the flame and the excitement.

We're going to soon begin putting out a series of albums of the best of these compositions beginning with Afro Noise I which will proudly feature the amazing art of Stefan Danielsson - so anyone who has any interest will be very welcome to get in touch or send us their own experiments; it's of no matter who you are, what you normally play (noise, jazz, classical, electronica, whatever), or what part of the world you're from; just that it comes from the heart and that it works, just that it hits the spot. Also, in the Edinburgh vicinity, if there are any percussionists, djembe players, or just eager pairs of demon hands, it would also be great to hear from you because we're going to be organising some regular sweaty work-out sessions.

In addition to this blog, there's also a website coming soon, and a MySpace page.

William Bennett