Japan's Atsuhiro Ito performs using his device the Optron, essentially fluorescent light tubes with integrated guitar pick-ups sent through guitar amp stacks. When the voltage applied to the tubes is altered, the lights flicker and the pick-ups harvest the electromagnetic noise perfectly synchronized with the flickering light, the intense noise creating a visual hallucination and the sounds veering from some kind of extreme techno to outright noise.

Ito also performs with the Optron in the duo Optrum, where he vies cacophonously with drummer Yoichiro Shin and he's also previously collaborated with C. Spencer Yeh. (Burning Star Core). For his first UK tour though, he'll be performing solo in a live show that straddles extreme noise and performance art to create a genuine sonic spectacle.

Ito seems to wrangle a blend of techno and noise from simple pedals and his optron, creating blistering volumes of noise cutting in and out, dense with analog textures, while also producing repeated rhythms. The rhythmic in-and-out can be dense in the low end, and lithe in the high, creating a defacto drum kit of noise, mechanically pulsing just so atop the blistering screeches.
However, it is not just the sounds that thrill. The entire performance is compelling, not just because of the light show (exciting and disorienting though the strobe from the brilliant optron may be), but because of the manner with which Ito utilizes his instrument. Slung in a manner resembling a guitarist wielding his axe, Ito takes this novel device and produces anything but rock and roll, but it makes the viewer remember the old adage that "punk is an attitude." It is the attitude of the player that defines the instrument, and the instrument that often determines the players mood. For as rock as Ito comes off, the harsh sounds, the techno feel, give his performance, and the visuals that accompany it... a noir, futuristic, dirty look. By drawing attention to this interplay, the tug and pull of intent versus inspiration, Ito's conceptual work can blow minds and ear drums in equal measure." - www.killedincars.com

Bristol's intensive solo act Team Brick creates music from wildly diverse elements of drone, environmental samples, electronic instrumentation straying into harsh electro beats and acoustic and found objects. Binding all this together with rather unexpectedly deep and resonant vocals he achieves a unique and powerfully climactic sound.

His album 'Alogon' was released last year on Geoff Barrow's Invada label and he is also part of Barrow's BEAK> project. Last seen in Cambridge at Bad Timing last November with Circuit Breaker and Local Radio (and often heard between acts at Bad Timing since then).

Ever-evolving and revolving Cambridge motorik noise project with mystery lineup.