Sugar Mountain Festival first line-up announcement.

Sugar Mountain Festival – Saturday 30th April 2011 – The Forum Theatre, Melbourne

FIRST LINE-UP ANNOUNCEMENT

The Sugar Mountain Festival will provide a welcome boost to Melbourne’s thriving arts scene on Sunday 30 April 2011.

Taking place over multiple locations in Melbourne’s city centre, including The Forum Theatre, No Vacancy Gallery at Federation Square, and The Atrium, Sugar Mountain will celebrate the diverse creative forms of music and visual art, with a focus on the natural meeting points between.

Curated by Melbourne indie label Two Bright Lakes and touring company Egadamia, Sugar Mountain’s music and sound program is an inspired selection of local and international acts, and some not to be missed one-off performances. We are pleased to announce that the following world-class musicians will be performing at The 2011 Sugar Mountain Festival:

House music’s most enigmatic duo VIRGO FOUR (USA) will bring their timeless melodies and luxuriant sound design to the Sugar Mountain Festival. Pioneers of the Chicago house movement, Merwyn Sanders and Eric Lewis’s small discography is highly rated by connoisseurs of the deep Chicago sound, and some might go as far as to say that their debut EP from 1989 is arguably the finest house music 12-inch ever created.

Brooklyn’s Aa (USA) – say Big A little a – have been honing their unique blend of intensely stylized DIY maximalism in the lofts and clubs of New York since 2002. Featuring multiple drum sets, a tangle of synthesizers and samplers, and vocal shouts make for an utterly unique and giddily engaging gasp of fresh air; Aa are a densely imagined, obsessively structured, hyperactive shoplifting spree through the polyrhythmic post-post-punk digital landscape. In recent times Aa have shared the stage with the likes of Health, Lucky Dragons, Zs, and No Age, and they played in Boredoms’ 77 drummer event ‘Boadrum’ in New York’s Brooklyn Bridge Park. To celebrate the release of their forthcoming album mAate on local label Sensory Projects, Aa are pleased to make their maiden voyage to Australia this April.

YELLOWFEVER (USA), the captivating minimalist art-pop duo from Austin, Texas, are poised and ready to pounce as they ready themselves for their first Australian tour. Since their 2006 inception, the band have released a string of EPs and singles which were eventually compiled onto their self-titled album of 2010, released locally by Lost And Lonesome. Originally formed as a four-piece, the band have slowly whittled away to the core duo of Jennifer Moore and Adam Jones. The pair manage to balance the complex and the refreshingly sparse perfectly, applying drums, guitar, organ and synth bass to their jerky rhythms and willowy arrangements. Jennifer’s arresting vocals add a restrained sophistication to the garage-y undertow. Think Stereolab covering early-Go-Betweens, or Young Marble Giants, if they had have existed in Dunedin in the early 80s.

Striking the elusive balance between creativity, originality and pop sensibility, CANYONS are Perth musicians Ryan Grieve and Leo Thomson. With an aural likeness to elements of psych, folk, house and everything deep, what is essential to Canyons is that their music evokes a sense of feeling and truth, Ruth. The band are currently putting the finishing touches on their debut album, set for release this year on Modular. Close your eyes, feel the sun on your face and prepare yourselves for the sonic vision that is Canyons.

Melbourne’s QUA is electronic extraordinaire Cornel Wilczek. His music began as dreamy, electronic soundscapes in Adelaide sometime last century. Fast forward to 2011 and we present the new Qua – heavy, danceable and more abstract and as psychedelic as ever. Fusing techno sounds from a decade past with bleeps and beats from a distant future, this new sound forming in 2011 will culminate in a album to be released before the years end. As Qua he has released albums on Mush Records (USA), Headz Records (Japan), Surgery Records (Australia) and Someone Good (Australia). For the Sugar Mountain Festival performance, Qua will be joined by the Ritmo Giallo Ensemble, a fleet of drummers composed of some of Melbourne’s finest percussionists. Performing new works, the ensemble will take the peaceful world of electronic music to new heavy heights.

Travis Cook (Cyst Impaled) and Marcus Whale (Scissor Lock) formed COLLARBONES over the internet in late 2007, and within a few short weeks they had committed to a long-term music-making relationship. Since then they’ve divided time between Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne, playing shows with the likes of Samiyam, making mix tapes, covering Justin Bieber with great fondness and releasing Pitchfork-adored single ‘Beaman Park’ in 2010. The pair are about to release their assured debut album Iconography via Two Bright Lakes, an album full of confidence and brimming with ideas that document of the pairs shared love of glitch, RnB and fractured hip-hop.

RAT VS POSSUM, have come a long way since their beginnings in inner-Melbourne in late 2008. The five friends have gone from playing as a ramshackle noise outfit in living rooms to a fully formed, well-oiled musical Terminator, hell-bent on destroying the Death Star and the Temple Of Doom. Rat Vs Possum have played to bemused crowds at major music festivals all around the country, including Meredith, Laneway and Campus A Low Hum, and now Sugar Mountain. The band’s debut effort Daughter of Sunshine is an album filled with multi-coloured ecstatic indulgences, chiming guitars, experimental rhythms and blissful beats. Leading the way locally with their invigorating psychedelic and neo-tribal pop tunes, this Melbourne five piece have developed a reputation for their intoxicating live performances, creating a type of pop music you can dance to, mung out to, lose yourself in and freak out to.

OSCAR + MARTIN is the work of Melbourne alt-pop wunderkinds Oscar Slorach-Thorne and Martin King. Born from the ashes of local ensemble Psuche, Oscar + Martin have moved towards making joyous pop music, using drum machines, synthesisers, children’s toys and Thorne’s tape loop experimentation. All these elements make for energetic live shows, enjoyed equally by dancing manically or listening intently. With Thorne’s enigmatic vocal lines laying down with Dilla inspired beats, Oscar + Martin produce wonderfully forward-thinking pop music. Having recently played support slots for Caribou, Four Tet and Coco Rosie, Oscar + Martin are set to take big strides in 2011.

OTOUTO (pronounced otto-ootoe) is melting pot of art/pop; a band from Melbourne made up of sisters Hazel and Martha Brown, and Kishore Ryan. Whether playing warmed, warped vocal notes through a midi keyboard or hitting a banjo with a drumstick, this trio’s take on pop music is fantastically unique. The vocal harmonies created by the sisters cause beautiful juxtapositions with the dissonant guitar work and frenetic percussion and beats. Following the release of their acclaimed debut album Pip in 2010, Otouto went on win hearts across US, on tour with Casiotone For The Painfully Alone. Otouto will perform at the Sugar Mountain Festival with the No Lights, No Lycra Dancers.

Loveable lo-fi foursome TWERPS have quickly risen to become one of Melbourne’s favourite pop bands. They play their own brand of warm and incredibly infectious pop, with elements of the 80s Flying Nun sound and 90s lo-fi. Charismatic guitarist and vocalist Marty Frawley’s cheeky but heartfelt songs are complemented by the crystalline guitar lines of guitarist Julia MacFarlane (ex Batrider), bassist Rick Molovanoic, and the sympathetic percussion of drummer Patrick O’Neill. The band has had the pleasure of supporting the likes of Deerhunter, the Bats, Yo La Tengo, Black Lips, Thee Oh Sees and Robert Forster, and are set to release their debut album on Chapter Music this year.

Led by classically trained musician Sophia Brous, Melbourne outfit BROUS play expressive, evocative pop. Sophia has assembled a gifted group of musicians that have been captivating audiences around Melbourne over the past few months. Sophia’s songs are a bold vision for pop, reminiscent of the widescreen riches of Mina and classic melodies of Scott Walker, all brought together by shimmering guitar lines and one powerful voice.

NO ZU is the wild sounds of delayed trumpets, heavy percussion and an obsession with the ideas of ‘exotica’ and ‘Australiana’. The rhythmic songs evoke imagery of deserts and heat ravaged landscapes while sparse, minimalist vocals cry out from the abrasive mixes. NO ZU began as a lo-fi recording project for Nicolaas Oogjes (also a member of TTT, formally Tic Toc Tokyo, and until recently Tantrums) in 2007 and has evolved naturally into an intense live performance act of experimental sounds.

Sugar Mountain’s visual arts program is curated by Creative Director Pete Keen, with support from No Vacancy Gallery. We are pleased to announce that the following selection of Australia’s finest young creatives, alongside some very special international guests, will be exhibiting at Sugar Mountain: Visual artists AINSLIE FLETCHER, ALEX KOPPS (USA), BECI ORPIN, BEN BARRETTO, BRETT CHAN, CHARLIE CALLAHAN (USA), CLARK GOOLSBY (USA), CORNELIUS BROWN, DAVID POTES (USA), FERRIS PLOCK (USA), JAY HOWELL (USA), JULIAN HOCKING, KATRINE HILDEBRANDT, KELSEY BROOKES (USA), KILL PIXIE, KYLE FIELD (USA), LEIF PODHAJSKY, MARK DREW, MARK TRZOPEK, MEL KADEL (USA), MIKE PERRY (USA), MONICA CANILAO (USA), NAILS, NAT RUSSELL (USA), NEIL KRUG (USA), OLIVER HUNTER, OSCAR VINCENT SLORACK THORNE, RHYS MITCHELL, RAPHAEL RIZZO, RYAN JACOB SMITH (USA), RYAN TATAR (USA), STEFAN MARX (DE), STEVEN HARRINGTON (USA), TWO ONE, EIGHTY FOUR FILMS (USA), THE AMIGO UNIT (USA), THE CREATIVE LIVES (USA) and more to be announced.

Also featuring at Sugar Mountain is the following spread of creative exhibitions:

A live painting performance from influential Californian artist THOMAS CAMPBELL (USA), best known for his involvement in the Beautiful Losers exhibition.

A live, band-responsive, projected visual and light show from KIT WEBSTER & JAMES WRIGHT, who are collaborating to create a captivating, immersive environment.

‘Every Shape Has A Secret’, a reenactment of the ‘Dream Operator’ scene from David Byrne’s 1986 feature film ‘True Stories’. Staring chanteuse JANE BADLER. Curated by ANITA SPOONER & DANIELLE GEPPERT.

‘Gaudy Romp’, a re-imagined adventure through the landscape of 1970s Australian cinema. Scored by FOOTY. Curated by ANITA SPOONER & DANIELLE GEPPERT.

Whispers of on-going social experimentation via TAPE PROJECTS COLLECTIVE in conjunction with guest curator LOUISE KLERKS.

SUGAR MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
Presented by Inpress, Triple R and Threethousand.com.au
Saturday 30 April 2011
The Forum Theatre and Federation Square, Melbourne

VIRGO FOUR (USA)
Aa (USA)
YELLOW FEVER (USA)
CANYONS
QUA with the Ritmo Giallo Ensemble
COLLARBONES
RAT VS POSSUM
OSCAR + MARTIN
OTOUTO with the No Lights, No Lycra Dancers
TWERPS
BROUS
NO ZU

Visual artists AINSLIE FLETCHER, ALEX KOPPS (USA), BECI ORPIN, BEN BARRETTO, BRETT CHAN, CHARLIE CALLAHAN (USA), CLARK GOOLSBY (USA), CORNELIUS BROWN, DAVID POTES (USA), FERRIS PLOCK (USA), JAY HOWELL (USA), JULIAN HOCKING, KATRINE HILDEBRANDT, KELSEY BROOKES (USA), KILL PIXIE, KYLE FIELD (USA), LEIF PODHAJSKY, MARK DREW, MARK TRZOPEK, MEL KADEL (USA), MIKE PERRY (USA), MONICA CANILAO (USA), NAILS, NAT RUSSELL (USA), NEIL KRUG (USA), OLIVER HUNTER, OSCAR VINCENT SLORACK THORNE, RHYS MITCHELL, RAPHAEL RIZZO, RYAN JACOB SMITH (USA), RYAN TATAR (USA), STEFAN MARX (DE), STEVEN HARRINGTON (USA), TWO ONE, EIGHTY FOUR FILMS (USA), THE AMIGO UNIT (USA) and THE CREATIVE LIVES (USA).

Plus a live painting performance by THOMAS CAMPBELL (USA), live visual and light show by KIT WEBSTER & JAMES WRIGHT, ‘Every Shape Has A Secret’ starring JANE BADLER, curated by ANITA SPOONER & DANIELLE GEPPERT, Screening of ‘Gaudy Romp’, scored by FOOTY and curated by ANITA SPOONER & DANIELLE GEPPERT; and social experimentation via TAPE PROJECTS COLLECTIVE in conjunction with guest curator LOUISE KLERKS.

And more to be announced!

www.sugarmountainfestival.com

Tickets on sale now via Ticketmaster – www.ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100.
Limited early bird tickets available for $55 + bf.