Anyway, this is No Bad Vibes night. Agaskodo Teliverekdon’t so much turn that frown upside down as spray paint it green and deep fry it in beer batter. Singer Hiroe Takei emerges Ring-like onto the stage in hoodie and impenetrable veil of hair and spends the set as the grinning focal point of AT’s pointillist noisepop rush. It’s the perfect synthesis of band and frontwoman: both are chaotic, cheeky, waywardly brilliant and fizzing on some childlike energy. Weekend drinkers wander up the stairs: Hiroe drinks from their glasses and shakes their hands. There is keytar abuse, but there are also songs that atomise guitar pop, rescrambling riffs and forcing them through electronic mangles. Best song? ‘The Gay Hussar’ – three minutes of repetitive, serrated rhythm with a wailing banshee adding random vocal sounds by whacking her own larynx. Give them a trophy.

More Meze treats for your undeserving ears. The last time Agaskodo Teliverek played South Wales their singer was seven months pregnant. She may not be this time. They were though, absolutely sodding brilliant, an amazing mess of weird noises and screeching set to a riotous party beat, like a bomb in a Dulux factory. Miss them and you deserve to be struck by lightning.

AGASKODO TELIVEREK

Agaskodo Teliverek (meaning rearing stallions in Hungarian!) are a London based Japano-Hungarian-Swedish-Scottish-Nepalese four-piece, featuring guitarists Miki Kemecsi, Tamas Szabo, Hiroe Takei on vocals and latest member Pharoah S. Russell on drums. They produce a unique mashed-up style of guitar based music which they call “Psycho Goulash”, combining Dick Dale-esque guitar riffage with manic electronic beats and screeching vocals. Since releasing their self titled debut album (2006 ADAADAT) they have extensively toured the UK & Europe playing alongside acts like Les Georges Leningrad, Trencher, DAT Politics, J.G. Thirlwell, Max Tundra, Lightning Bolt, and also been Damo Suzuki’s (Can) as part of his never-ending tour.

“AGASKODO TELIVEREK are wierd, they make frantic, electronic guitar concoctions, wear matching body hugging football uniforms… all of these things, however, somehow combine to create a super cool off-the-wall dream team of fun.” – DAZED & CONFUSED

“Their self-titled debut attains a level of self conscious wrongness so wholly woven into it’s own fabric it resembles a gourmet meal in the shape of a flesh-eating virus” – PLAN-B MAGAZINE

“Agaskodo Teliverek are so far removed from modern cliché’s that it’s as if they spike you with a special Hungarian Acid” – ARTROCKER

“Like Val Valentino revealing the secrets of the Magic Circle, AGASKODO seem to break what could be indulgent guitar solos down to the simplicity they are really built from, creating playful pop riffs layered like three-minute flirtations with Yes. “ – DROWNED IN SOUND

“They claim to be ‘an ordinary bunch of Hungarian accountants’. Accountants with a hideous seething pit of  weirdness just below the surface of their sensible day-to-day exteriors.” – ORGAN

Link: Official Website

Link: Some Very Colourful Photos

Record Label: Adaadat Records / Midfinger / Fantome

THE CLAY

The Clay are brothers Anthony & Jonathan Hill, along with Dougie Humphries form Newport’s newest trio who released their debut single on London subsidiary of the industry giants Sony BMG -1965 Records back last year. The band also bagged with BBC 6 Music airplay and a Radio One session and significant airplay on indie network ‘XFM’ and on several other stations on different continents including Japan and America.

The band are in the studio writing and recording for the next quarter. Next year we should see a debut tour and release in Japan and in the UK.

Link: Official Website

please note: SHAPES / BOBBIE PERU were originally also on the bill but due to live curfew restrictions this night, it has to be just the two bands.

for full into regarding the month festival in association with The Joy Collective, see http://www.mezefestival.co.uk