The full lineup has now been announced for our For K-Punk all-dayer at Newcastle’s The Lubber Fiend. Read on for a full breakdown of the acts performing and feel free to share any of the posters below, beautifully designed by Joe Munsey.
The event has been organised by Sam Booth, Kitty McKay, Megan Johnston and myself, and we can’t wait for what is going to be a jam-packed day celebrating and extending the themes of Mark Fisher’s recently reissued second book, Ghosts of My Life.
Please note: the day is divided up into three segments, for which you can either buy separate tickets or certain combinations of ticket. More information on where to buy these tickets can be found below.
Distribution of Power
From 1pm to 3pm, artists Raf Alero and Zara Truss-Giles will lead a workshop focused on the exploration of modular and hardware synthesis.
It will be a session for experimenting and workshopping ideas and probabilities combining text, research, the voice, field recordings and archival documentation with synthesisers as a way to question, problem solve and highlight the accessibility barriers of these instruments and the learning limitations that are often attached to this art field.
Participants are encouraged to bring along synthesisers, but all participants will be able to use the equipment provided by Zara and Raf.
Raf and Zara share an interest in the history and research of marginalised (queer, female, non-binary and or black and brown) pioneers of experimental and minimalist music and performance art such as Julius Eastman, Eliane Radigue, Daphne Oram, Delilah Derbyshire, Rose Kalall and Drexciya.
The ‘Distribution of Power’ programme is open to all but specifically aims to carve space and prioritise participants who identify as having visible and invisible disabilities, being neuro-divergent, female, LGBTQI+ identifying and carers. Their focus is to diversify access and learning probabilities for those who are curious to learn how synthesisers sound and behave and access resources, research and reading materials connected to themes of community, identity and sound.
Tickets: Spaces for the workshop are limited and are sold separately to the rest of the day. There are two price options — £6 and £10 — with a reduced rate for those who may benefit from it in order to make the event more accessible to those on lower incomes. You can purchase tickets here.
Party Hauntology
The second part of the day will take place after the workshop and will involve a discussion of Fisher’s Ghosts of My Life led by Megan Johnston and myself. Specifically, we’ll be reading the chapter entitled “Another Grey World: Darkstar, James Blake, Kanye West, Drake and Party Hauntology”.
This part of the day will last from 3.30pm to 5pm and it is free and open to all.
You can download a PDF of the chapter here (with a large-format text version available here).
Aja
Using unsettling noise, distressed screams, handmade electronics and found objects pushed through pedals, Aja Ireland’s industrial beats and distorted drone, combined with a psychosexual, intense performance, challenges the audience by breaking down barriers and pushing limits sonically and visually.
Listen to Aja’s 2021 album Slug here.
Penelope Trappes
Penelope is a UK-based, Australian-born vocalist, musician and ethereal soundscaper who spent 2016 writing and recording what would become Penelope One in a small piano studio in East London. Composed of mostly percussionless, reverb-heavy, haunting atmospherics with dystopian themes, the LP was released via Optimo Music in 2017.
Penelope signed to the stellar Houndstooth label and released her sophomore LP, Penelope Two, in 2018 — a minimalist, ethereal album built around field recordings, meditations, guitars, piano and reverb, which deals with mortality, predestination and empathy.
The release of Penelope Three in 2021 marked the final instalment of Penelope Trappes’ quietly mesmerising and critically acclaimed trilogy.
Tickets: Similar to the workshop event, there are two tiered ticket prices, with a reduced rate for those on low or no income. These are, again £6 and £10. Tickets on the door are £15. You can purchase tickets in advance here, with the additional option of a joint ticket, which includes entry to both the gig and its afterparty.
After the gig, we’ll dance late into the night with sets from a number of local and out-of-town DJs. These include:
Jennifer Walton
A prolific producer releasing music that straddles various genres, including noise project White Nurse and glittering rave EP Flash On, Jennifer Walton is a touring member of Kero Kero Bonito. Her most recent project is a collaboration with KKB frontwoman Sarah Bonito, and together they released their debut EP Icarus under the name Cryalot.
Originally from the north-east, Walton has melted Newcastle faces on a few occasions recently and we are so excited to have her back for this event. She is not to be missed.
Jacklyn
London-born Jacklyn is a techno DJ, producer and record collector who grew up in the south of France.
Always inspired by Detroit techno — the original techno that took the world by storm and thus where all other techno came from — her productions follow this style and so do her DJ sets.
She is a regular feature on the European circuit, having made mixes for Rinse France, Dutch collective SPOKEN and London’s PHTM LIVE.
Cornbill
Lubber Fiend resident and Slack’s radio founder Jon Cornbill joins us for a set. When wearing his artist hat, Jon dissects questions of “community, purpose, value, space and time”, and this is something he carries over into his work at the Lubber Fiend and as a DJ. Don’t miss.
Kitty b2b Xenogothic
Kitty McKay, Slack’s radio resident and one half of local sociogeography duo Incursions, goes back-to-back with Xenogothic (that’s me). Kitty is a regular DJ around Newcastle and a storming junglist. Since moving up to Newcastle in March 2022, I’ve had the pleasure of playing a lot with her (mostly in her kitchen). This will be our second proper b2b outing, and we have so much fun playing together, we cannot wait.
W.H.Y. (Live)
Following the afternoon’s Distribution of Power workshop, Zara Truss Giles will be debuting her new live A/V project, performing live as W.H.Y.
“The project archives activists, political figures, theorists and celebrates those that have and continue to prop up community and social / human rights movements, from Audra Lorde, me mam and her mum, witches to the working class and every teenage parent who was told that they would never amount to anything and, despite the shit chat, held tight, sat patiently, and tried to make this hellhole of a world a lil better for all of us.”
Incursions
Having hopefully used Sunday to recover from a loaded day of music, Kitty McKay and Archie Smith will be leading a special city drift around Newcastle, “interrogating a neoliberal cityscape, haunted by futures that failed to happen.”
Open to all and free to join, simply show up outside the Laing Art Gallery in central Newcastle at 12pm on Monday 17th October.