Upset The Rhythm Presents | Irma Vep | Es
Upset The Rhythm Presents |
IRMA VEP is a loner, a joker, a roamer, a ribald construct riddled with both earnest anxiety and mercurial songwriting talent birthed by a young Edwin Stevens in Llanfairfechan, North Wales. Thrust into life after his mum bought a four track recorder for him, Edwin started recording for the cathartic process rather than the outcome. Having since fully grown into Irma Vep and now residing in Glasgow, Stevens’ discography has expanded to document every aspect of his music, from ecstatically free group experiments to bare, sparse songwriting that cuts to the quick, shorn of ornament or pretence. Stevens moonlights in several other groups (Sex Hands, Klaus Kinski, Desmadrados Soldados De Ventura, Yerba Mansa), bringing with him an instantly recognisable guitar language. However, it’s in Irma Vep that his most life-affirming, troubling and thrilling music is made. Much Irma Vep feels like what “classic” music should feel like if it weren’t so Classic. Each record, each song and each performance exists as an evolving drama. Edwin has toured the West Coast of America after being invited by Chris Johanson to play his Quiet Music Festival of Seattle and Portland. Irma Vep’s latest offering ‘Evil’, talks of repression and the consequences of repression,channeling Edwin’s influences of The Rebel, Lou Reed, Katherine Dunn, Dennis Cooper, Michael Yonkers, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Cat Power, Smog, Henry Flynt and Nico. https://irmavepirmavep.bandcamp.com/”a bowerbird of outsider music that makes awkward compositions designed to tear you down just to build you up again… explosively euphoric” – The Quietus
“A wiry, minimalist piece of guitar pop, the surreal word play lends an outsider feel, a true dose of weird-pop that thrills at every turn.” – Clash
“a stellar piece of wonky psych-pop” – The Line of Best Fit
ES are the soundtrack to your no-wave nightmares, proffering ‘mutant synth-punk for our dystopian present’ (Jes Skolnik). Ethereal synths, tense basslines, wired drums and cold vocals collide, proving curiously dark, intense and unrelenting. After releasing their debut ‘Object Relations’ 12″ EP on La Vida Es Un Mus in 2016, all members now reside in London and are working towards an album in 2019. ES feature members of Public Service, The Worms, Primetime and Scrap Brain.