A virtual TUSK Festival serves up some choice improvised/free rock

October 27, 2020 3:09 PM

The long-running UK avant music festival TUSK moved to an online streaming format this year in early October. They've posted the sets on their YouTube channel.

Some highlights: Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O'Rourke • The Dead C. (set one | set two) • Horse Lords • Matana Roberts • Crank Sturgeon • Blood Stereo

Past TUSK performances include:

Fushitsusha (2012)
Gate (Michael Morley) 2012
Hijokaidan (2014)
Terry Riley & Gyan Riley (2018)
75 Dollar Bill (2018)
Demdike Stare (2015)
Aaron Dilloway (2015)
Endless Boogie (2015)
Nurse with Wound (2017)

posted by porn in the woods (12 comments total)

"Don't tell me that you love me...!"
posted by Windopaene at 3:25 PM on October 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Horse Lords!
posted by Going To Maine at 3:35 PM on October 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Listening to Horse Lords after the enthusiastic comment from Going to Maine.
Love this. Unfortunately, I can tell my SO would hate this. As we sometimes say to each other, "I married in you spite of this."

Will have to listen alone.

Thanks.
posted by grimjeer at 3:49 PM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Yes the third for Horse Lords. Only two songs in and my jaw has met the floor. Such musicianship and discipline. Don't miss Crank Sturgeon for the best elbow ink desk synth performance I've seen all week.
posted by erebora at 3:57 PM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Horse Lords are dynamite, first heard them on the live stream.
posted by porn in the woods at 4:03 PM on October 27, 2020

Great post!

Some personal favourites from the Tusk archives:

Hild-Sophie Tafjord
Soldier Garage
The Eiko Ishibashi Trio
Laura Cannell
Borbetomagus
and of course, related to the most excellent Hijokaidan link above,
the force of nature that is Junko Hiroshige.
posted by remembrancer at 4:17 PM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's been so good to see the attention and success that online Tusk has had this year, in light of an annus miserablis for live music and it's performers.
It's been a highlight of Newcastle's avant calendar for a decade now, and the enforced move to a streaming-only format this year has let everyone else catch up - and that it's all been offered free of charge is highly commendable. Props too to the organisers for their strict no-repeats rule when booking acts too, it gives completely varied & fresh line-ups every year - unfailingly 90% unknown to me despite keeping half-an-ear out for odd & challenging sounds.
I was a bar volunteer for the first few years and saw a lot of the performances below the line here, but my personal Tusk highlight remains Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio* headline set at the inaugral 2011 event. Doesn't look like that one's been archived (yet?) unfortunately..

*nonet
posted by anagrama at 5:00 PM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

I love Hijokaidan. Check out their original inspiration, the blowout Live at LACE LP from Airway (1978).
posted by porn in the woods at 5:14 PM on October 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Oh, wow, putting Horse Lords aside for when I can appreciate them.
posted by mollweide at 5:26 PM on October 27, 2020

Thanks for the post, I had never heard of Tusk before. And scanning the list of performances... It's like all my favorite bands. Now where to start? Demdike Stare? Dead C? NWW? Christ, I'm gonna lose an entire week to this post.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 6:14 AM on October 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

That Airway LP is an all-time classic... the whole LAFMS crew really deserve a post of their own.
posted by remembrancer at 8:42 AM on October 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Airway's Live at LACE is my favorite American noise LP of all time.
posted by porn in the woods at 2:28 PM on October 28, 2020 [1 favorite]