London Zine of Music, Arts and Miscellaneous Happenings. Monthly updates & seasonal physicals.
/ˈpɪnˌdrɒp/
1) adjective describing the silence produced when a performance leaves the audience speechless (ie: one could hear a pin drop)
2) verb to indicate the location of a particular happening
NEW September (Recommendations & Live Reviews of Avalanche Kaito, Squid & Geordie Greep)
BRAND SPANKING NEW Issue No.1
02
___MADMADMAD @ Shacklewell Arms £15.4 - Infectious and glitchy dance punk for those whose pocket money will allow it. The blind could not tell that this band is a trio – their live looping induces a dense rhythmic fugue state akin to a 2 hour Daft Punk set. You cannot not move! tickets
___Doris Wishman Double Bill: Deadly Weapons & Double Agent 73 @ Rio Cinema £5 [FILM] - Two restored classics from the fairy godmother of sexploitation films – your favourite director's favourite director (if your favourite director is John Waters). The films follow characters played by 'Chesty Morgan' as she enacts her revenge on antagonists by smothering them with her 73" bust. For those susceptible to high-camp trash flicks! tickets
03
___Gan Gemi @ Servant Jazz Quarters £8.5 – The 19 y'o jazz electronica artist blends beautiful chordal and textural movement with wonky rhythms. Backed by a 4-piece band that draws as much inspiration from jungle as they do from funk. tickets
___Painted Bird @ George Tavern £6.5 - Opus Kink’s Angus Rogers keeps it chilled with this rustic side project. Pianos, poetry, and lyricism collide for a warm and literary evening. tickets
04
___Anthony Moore Trio @ Cafe Oto £8/14/16 - The newest turn in the British Avant-Prog legend's career. After working with Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, This Heat, & Pink Floyd, Moore showcases his new improvisatory group [p.s. students can sign up for free Oto discounts]. tickets
___Frank Lloyd Wleft's 4th July Party @ Paper Dress Vintage £6 - Come down to annual rodeo and forget the election dread! Frank and his orchestra will charm you with americana kitsch and some of the most original poetry and aesthetics London has got! tickets
05
___The Orchestra (For Now) @ The Windmill £6 - Keeping with South London’s current love of orchestral styling emerges The Orchestra (For Now). Always mellifluous, never dull. Expect layered soundscapes from this septet imminently playing Green Man Festival and releasing a debut EP. tickets
10
___Modern Woman @ George Tavern £11.33 - It is not often that Sophie Harris' sound clash of pastoral poetry and tense instrumental dissonance pops its head out – when one is given this opportunity, one must take it! Misanthropy and grooves are guaranteed; we can only hope they bring their percussion collection of tin cans and colanders. Check out support act Hank. tickets
11
___English Garden @ The Windmill £5 - The only shred of zolo left! Jerking. Spurting. Scattered counterpoint over scattered drums. Worth seeing for the electric frontman's display alone, but the pure power of their sound and the modest ticket pricing makes this a no brainer. tickets
12
___Dream Emulator Film Club @ Rio Cinema £8/10 [FILM] - Dream Emulator film club convenes monthly, situating itself in the liminal space between esoteric video gaming and film. Screening a double bill showreel of gameplay experiences, organiser Rosa PMS invites you on a collective psychedelic trip that transports viewers out of the basement on Kingsland High Street and into a fragmentary journey through cyberspace. "Expect Body, Lovecraftian, and Religious horror.” tickets
16
___Gobjaw Poetry Collective Open Mic @ Paper Dress Vintage FREE [POETRY] - A warm and welcoming community of poets from every creed come together for their monthly night. On any one night, beatniks, cockneys and video-game enthusiasts may coalesce and together spit sincerities and/or cynicism. Everyone's welcome to read their poetry, just get there early to get on the list. rsvp
___Black Fondu supporting Deliah Holiday @ The Social £5 - The greatest opening act in London's underground scene – no hyperbole. Explosive abstract grime glistening with sweat. Will you be able to say you saw him before he blew up? tickets
17
___Heartworms @ Moth Club £15.87 - When everywhere you look members of orchestras have crept their way into bands, where can you go from there? What will sate London's hunger for unorthodox instrumentation? Jojo Orme has the answer. Sailing atop dynamic songs of gothic guitar chimes, electronic drums and unrelenting chants, a lone theremin. tickets
19
___Deptford Northern Soul Club @ Moth Club £10.3 [DJ] - Needs no explanation, it's in the name. tickets
21
___Whip Night #6 - Seth Evans, Glass Eel, Sonny @ The Windmill £7 - A night of new songs and first performances. The debut full band show of HMLTD/Black Midi's keyboardist Seth Evans. Expect the unexpected. tickets
26
___Pull Up to the Bumper @ Moth Club FREE [DJ] - For those who should have come to age in 70-80s NYC amid high energy disco, soul, italo and punk-funk clubnights. rsvp
27
___Martha Skye Murphy @ Cafe Oto £10/14/16 - A fragile piano and a delicate voice nestled in a cucoon of guitars and strings, found sound and electronics. Her debut album 'Um' has just come out; über consistent and beautiful. tickets
___Cameron Picton @ Dash The Henge FREE - black midi's bassist and vocalist goes acoustic with his new solo-project. Offering everything from Spanish guitar-inspired ballads to Charli xcx inflected octatrack stylings – certainly not to be missed. In fact, I'd get there early!
29
___Lost Lyra @ Shacklewell Arms 20th Birthday FREE - Dreamy polyphony, soft guitars dancing past eachother as textures and lines. Spoken wisdoms and vocal choruses of simple beauty. rsvp
by SE
Red hair aglow in the warm jazz club lighting, Bingo Fury’s crooning fills out the Denmark Street basement for the final night of the band’s extended UK tour, promoting their debut album ‘Bats Feet For a Widow’.
After some slow burners, the unindoctrinated in the crowd are shaken by the group’s calculated cacophony. Band members move from instrument to instrument: trumpeter double parked on piano, guitarist bashing out frantic 7/8 syncopations on clave and Bingo slinking between keys, guitar and centre-stage’s microphone. They play with a cool indifference and are telepathically tight. The drummer deep in the pocket; grooves subtly infectious, implying rhythms with jazz-solo sensibilities. Religious angst and heartbreak are communicated through witticisms and delicate references. The lyrics imply no fiction.
The signature Bingo Fury look would be incomplete without the signature Bingo Fury shaker. A dented can, held together by half a decade’s worth of duct tape, makes its way between conjuring the motif of ‘Happy Snake’ or scraping strings of a modded fuzzed-out Jazzmaster. They have no toy glockenspiel this time – shame. Perhaps it couldn’t fit in the van.
by MR
It’s been a big year for Charli, with both the album roll-out of BRAT and a widespread aping of her aesthetic by the likes of Katy Perry and Camilla Cabello. She is our favourite reference, baby. Still, with Charli’s PARTYGIRL DJ set, she proves her cult classic status once again. Joined by Sarah Midori, Easyfun, George Daniel, and AG Cook, Charli put on one hell of a party for those lucky enough to snag a ticket.
It’s only natural for someone who got their start as a Myspace rave DJ to return so proficiently to her roots. BRAT isn’t merely an album, it’s a lifestyle, and the PARTYGIRL set its bible or perhaps its beating heart. Songs from across Charli’s catalogue were remixed together, forming a mosaic image of a lifetime of partying. It was a convincing effort too, with the packed dance floor on the move for the entire gig. George Daniels’ remixes of “Club Classics” and “365” were particular highlights. Charli was sure to interact with the audience the entire set, holding a fluorescent Aperol Spritz high above the crowd as if on a victory lap.
BRAT and the accompanying promotional tour are proof that Charli has hit a new stride with her experimental hyperpop aesthetic. After the mainstream non-sequitur of the Crash era, seeing Charli pushing boundaries with such ease is both refreshing and reassuring. When the house lights went on at 3am, there was a collective groan. Nobody wanted the party to stop, and for good reason.
by SE
Lias Saoudi’s penis is looking larger than usual. Is there a baguette in his spanks or is he just happy to see us? No, there truly is a sandwich tucked across his crotch. It’s made obvious when Lias begins tearing off some of his wheaty member for a mid-set snack. “I’ve got butter in my eyes, my vision is all milky” he complains. I’ve never noticed his nude-coloured Balenciaga Speeds before – curious footwear for the frontman of a band formed in a Peckham squat.
It’s the tour’s finale for the 4th Fat Whites album ‘Forgiveness Is Yours’. On stage, there’s an air of uncertainty around the new drummer and bassist and a severe lack of Nathan Saoudi/Brian Destiny (we can only presume what may have happened), however, the rhythm section was booming and proficient. Songs from across their repertoire were granted extended build-ups, while Lias writhed and twerked, drawing a rare spotlight on the forceful canvas of spanking riffs and spring reverb, budget synthesisers and of course, those basslines. As always, the crowd responded by throwing themselves at each other violently.
Playing the new album live, it’s clear the Family are confident moving in a new direction: the songs were performed even slower than on the record, dripping with suave excess rather than mosh-inducing indecencies. Unexpected was the introduction of ‘Today You Become Man’, the machine-gun spoken word story of Lias’ belated and amateur Algerian circumcision. For a fairly free-form song, its tension translated well live, wrapping up in a slightly messy explosion of sound. Perhaps the song fills a piece of the puzzle which is the Fat White Family’s phallic enthusiasm.
DR
___A New World by Go Kart Mozart (2018, UK)
___Drip Dry Eyes by Yukihiro Takahashi (1981, Japan)
___TV by The Flying Lizards (1980, UK)
___ Reem by Joey Essex (2011, Essex)
MR
___Say you love me by Astrid Sonne (2024, UK/Denmark)
___Onde Andarás by Caetano Veloso (1967, Brazil)
___Guess by Charli XCX (2024, UK)
SE
___The World is as Soft as Lace by Felt (1984, UK)
___Stallion & Mare by Pretty & Nice (2013, US)
___Brazil by Geoff & Maria Muldaur (1968, US)
Pindrop is DR, MR, & SE
Contact us at @pindropzine (instagram) and pindropzine@gmail.com (email)