Now in its fifth year, Brighton's Colour Out of Space festival continues to meld experimental music, art, and film into a beautifully structured, chaotic live event and fantastic, surreal party. Each year Dylan Nyoukis, Karen Constance, and Michael Sippings coordinate the festival, selecting artists and filmmakers from all over the world. Some of this year's include folks from the UK, Italy, Denmark, USA, Belgium, and Israel, who performed over a period of three nights, and afterward, celebrated outside pubs and in the streets into the wee hours of morning.
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(This award goes to the person who stayed the most fucked up, yet still managed to pull off one of the best sets of the fest, similar to wasted American noise artist Rodger Stella of Macronympha.)Winner: El Bootkeh of Wreck & Drool with Smack Music 7
Isreal's Wreck & Drool performed Friday, the first night, with co-coordinator Karen Constance (Smack Music 7). Their set was a perfect example of Nyoukis's musical tastes, which are, according to Rat Bastard, âmouth mumbling, classic crackling, and some drone.â This now legendary collaboration almost didn't happen when Drool (Isreal's El Bootkeh, founder of Redbootkeh record label) was arrested on the plane after landing in London late Thursday evening. El Bootkeh drank himself into a stupor, making the decision to smoke not one but multiple cigarettes in the airplane lavatory. (In case you are unaware, smoking on airplanes is ILLEGAL.) El Bootkeh was taken âdowntownâ where he spent the night in jail. The next morning he was DNA swabbed, fingerprinted, and was free to go on a âcaution.ââYou know, it wasn't really that bad, I just got drunk and wanted to smoke. They gave me a free place to stay the night and a ride to where I needed to go the next day,â El Bootkeh told Noisebloid. âBasically you can be obnoxious or drunk on an airplane, but if you are both, you are going to jail!â El Bootkeh made it in time for his set and stayed in a consistent âmega-wastedâ state all weekend. To prove he was âborn a mutant,â El Bootkeh showed off his prosthetic leg Saturday night after peeing his pants while selling records at the merch table.
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Winner: Tom DarksmithFriday night was San Francisco artist and musician Tom Darksmith's third-ever public presentation of his music. A grade school teacher by day, a moody, erratic performer by night, Darksmith's stage presence confused and taunted the audience. He was either smiling and showing confidence or he was cursing the audience, ripping his shirt, or trying to break his gear. An audience member from Belgium leaned over to his friend and said, âI'm feeling an asshole vibe, I'm going to go outside and smoke,â while others in attendance provoked and haggled him. âTake off your shirt!â someone yelled. âFuck you!â Darksmith responded. Then the music stopped and he screamed âNo, No, NO!â and started up another wall of overwhelming drones. This went on back and forth for about 15 minutes until the sound guy turned on the house lights, forcing him to stop. No one was quite sure of what was going on. âWas that serious? Is he pretending or is that for real?â I overheard from people in attendance. Most people were speechless while others ridiculed the performance.Was he serious? Who knowsâŠOn Saturday, Darksmith was overheard telling Dennis Tyfus that he takes the pills that are in the photo on the cover of his record.
âWhat are they?â asked Dennis.
âAnti-psychotics.â
âSo you are psychotic?â
âNaw, just bipolar.â
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âI have to have this!â He exclaimed, wondering if perhaps he should get two.
He eventually decided just the one would suffice.Random:Rat Bastard watched Lady Gaga's Monster Ball HBO special on the airplane on the way back to the States.Sleep Deprivation AwardWinner: Dog LadyMichael Collino, Michigan's Dog Lady, arrived at CooS Saturday morning after not sleeping for two days because of work and the traveling to the UK. When he got to the venue, co-curator Michael Sippings gave him a key to a room at a guest house about a 20 minute walk from the venue. After the show, Collino was so delirious he was nearly hallucinating, and he decided to go back to his room and finally get some rest. After walking with all his luggage and gear, his key did not unlock the door to his room! So he walked all the way back to the venue to let Sippings know he couldn't get in. Sippings told him to hold on, he'd walk him back to his room and try to figure it out.At this point Dog Lady had been up almost 60 hours and was starting to hallucinate and sweat. He left all his stuff at the club and ran outside and haied a cab. He tells the driver to take him to a place he can stay, he just wanted to go to sleep. After many failed attempts at full hotels, the cab driver took him way out of town into a sleazy neighborhood and dropped him at a flophouse. They told him he needed to fill out this paper work for the room, which included his passport number. He'd left his passport with his luggage at the venue so he left that part blank, filled out everything else, got his room and finally fell into bed. About an hour later he woke to someone pounding on his door. He couldn't tell if he was dreaming or awake. The knocking intensifies and he hears people yelling his name, ordering him to let them in. He opens the door only to get kicked out of his hotel because he didn't have a passport number. Dog Lady hit the streets, hallucinating from lack of sleep, having no idea where he is or where to go. He eventually found the beach, where he lay down on a bench to sleep. He didn't rest for long before waking up to the police telling him it was illegal to sleep on there. âYou can be on the beach," they told him, "but you can't be asleep.â So, in a dreamlike state, Dog Lady sat on the bench and watched six suns rise on Brighton Beach until the venue finally reopened.@NoisebloidPreviously - A Special Report from Pentress, WV