Formed in 2000, Black Carrot released their first album "Cluk" in 2003 on their own Moon City Musik label to great reviews (see below) culminating in a feature on BBC Radio 3's "Mixing It". The original line-up of Oliver Betts (woodwinds, keys, vocals), Stewart Brackley (vocals, electric/double bass) and Tom Betts (drums) was augmented in 2006 with the addition of Euan Rodger on clattering, daring percussion and live samples. More recently Olly Warren's fuzzed guitar scratch has widened the scope still further.
Dark stories
As well as support slots with Faust, The Fall, Polar Bear, Damo Suzuki,
Evan Parker, The Blessing, Chris Corsano, Kling Klang, Das Pop, many
festival dates (including The Big Session, Leicester; Drop Beats Not
Bombs, Birmingham; Faust's Avant Garde Festival, Schiphorst Germany)
and two Polish support tours, Black Carrot have recorded and performed
a selection of improvised
stories with their pet bard Nigel Parkin, they include Essays in
Mutilation and Despair: An Improvised Take on Edgar Allan Poe, Franz
Kafka's Metamorphosis, Hansel and Gretal and a completely improvised
composition: The Mariner's Rest. These are all available on CDR from
www.blackcarrot.net .
Quotes
"This British midlands based outfit are an adventurous improvising
group...Brackley's apparently extemporised vocals seem to flirt with
the cadences of composed songforms in a manner indebted to Can's Damo
Suzuki, but with an almost psychotic edge. The music, meanwhile, builds
and recedes according to its own logic, but retains a fetching intimacy
and warmth." Keith
Moline - The Wire Magazine
"As febrile and hostile as Van Der Graaf Generator, as pounding and
grainy as Faust, as instinctive and mercurial as Can, this is one
far-out combo." Pat
Fish/The Jazz Butcher
"A crisp and sharp trio, comprising drums, both double and electric
bass, electric piano and tenor sax and assorted woodwind instruments.
Dedicated to the virtues of improvisation, it is hard to actually
categorise them easily – which
is to the good. This is music that has the rigour of improvisation done
well but also is accessiblevia the jazzy rhythms, at times they
reminiscent of a New York-style
band like Defunct or James Chance and the Contortions from the punk
jazz/loft side of the no-wave days." Rod Warner/Plexus
