Middle Name John [album launch]

VÄLVĒ + Sarah Carter

Presented by: Slowfoot Records

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0	LONDON: The Waiting Room
P	Thursday 18th April, 2024
N	7:30pm

Event information

Album launch party to celebrate the release of the debut album by Middle Name John - 'Obviously Confidential' on Slowfoot Records / Juicy Records. Support comes from label mates VÄLVĒ and and a solo set from Sarah Carter.

Tickets: 7.50adv/10 door

MIDDLE NAME JOHN
Middle Name John created Obviously Confidential cornered between the fatigues of late-stage capitalism and the overwhelming feeling that doomsday is always one step ahead. Composed of eight groovy, trippy and often witty songs, the album is a blend of electronic experimentalism with the occasional swagger of a guitar riff. Effortlessly interspersing a post-punk attitude, well-penned lyricism, and experimental blends of rock and electronic music, the artist guides audiences through a dystopian atmosphere, challenging their perceptions of the world.

Every track dives down a new musical rabbit hole, ‘Hello Friend’ adds off-kilter drum rhythms to indie-rock guitar licks, ‘Give Me Time’ weaves tight rhythms into experimental production, and the frenzied performances on ‘Be Gone’ contrasts optimistic delivery with gritty sound design. The album closes off with the rollercoaster of ‘Too Much Too Soon’ where the live drums of Marijus Aleksa are paired with a glitchy emotional climax that leaves a powerful lasting impression on the listener.

More runaway train conductor than narrator, Middle Name John distills disillusioned poetry that oscillates between a purge of incisive social observations and a collection of elaborate indagations of subconsciousness, holding a two-way mirror into the personal and the collective. ‘Obviously Confidential’ highlights the shortcomings of modern-day individualism and reminds us that perhaps the glimmer of hope at the end of the dark tunnel of human ugliness can only be achieved through empathy.

https://middlenamejohn.bandcamp.com/album/obviously-confidential

VÄLVĒ
What is VÄLVĒ?
A duo, formed of multi-instrumentalists/ composers Chlöe Herington and Emma Sullivan, who first met when playing together in the notorious Chrome Hoof. Folk lullabies re-imagined by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Found-sound collages interrupted by Welsh language orations and sudden outbursts of fuzz bass. Gleaming synthpop workouts that collapse into swirling dreamscapes of sax and harp. Tiny sounds opening out onto the epic. Hi-tech and no-tech, deployed with equal measures of discipline and abandon. Carefully sculpted disorder. Uncanny geometries of noise and melody. Dizzy and gleeful and drawn in notebooks. That is VÄLVĒ.

VÄLVĒ’s recent second full album release ‘Tiny Pilots’ [Slowfoot Records], was recorded over a few years in various locations and featuring an array of talented musical contributions and unusual instrumentation, is a sonic exploration of imaginary worlds and literary influences, through experimental song forms.

“Tiny Pilots perfectly treads between chaos and tranquility on a body of work that is soothing and startling. Intricately detailed and masterfully produced, these ten songs contain great imagination and artistic vision.” [The Quietus]

https://valvemusic.bandcamp.com/album/tiny-pilots

SARAH CARTER
Sarah Carter is a London based artist, songwriter and producer. She creates dark, haunting, vocal layered soundscapes, blended with lush synths and reverb drenched guitars. Letters is her first solo self produced EP of carefully arranged cover versions, with an EP of originals being released later this year.

https://cartercarter.bandcamp.com/album/letters-2