Dance/Electronic

Grievous Bodily Calm are a five-piece instrumental band from Perth, Western Australia.

Their genre-blending signature instrumental sound and high energy live show infuses IDM, beat music and jazz improvisation with modern electronic production and has seen them support artists such as Tame Impala, Black Midi, The Avalanches, Hiatus Kaiyote, Beach House and Pond as well as numerous festival appearances and sold out headline shows off the back of two acclaimed independently released EP’s.

Their previous EP 'Arc' received acclaim from outlets such as Clash Magazine, COLORS, NME, Earmilk, Worldwide FM, The Lot Radio, Triple J, Triple J Unearthed Feature Artist & more. 'Spirals' is the first taste of their highly anticipated follow up EP due for release in 2023.

Ausecuma Beats formed as a combination of musicians from Australia, the Senegambia region, Cuba, and Mali… And hence the name Ausecuma, combining the four regions into one word.

As a result, Ausecuma Beats as a band stands for unity among diverse peoples, and it shows through their combined influences from Africa, Cuba, and Australia.

Yusupha Ngum is the lead singer of Ausecuma Beats. He is a superstar in his native Gambia, where he has had many hits in the complex rapidfire percussion style of West African “mbalax” music. He spent many years as the opening act in West Africa for African superstar Youssou N’dour. Yusupha’s soaring and passionate voice grabs you by the heartstrings and moves you, just through its incredible sound (you have to hear it to believe it).

Boubacar Gaye is from Senegal in West Africa, where his magic with the djembe (African drum) led him to become a member of the famous percussion group Mama Afrika. Boubacar’s career led to tours of Europe and a long career in Japan, and finally to Australia. Until you’ve heard Boubacar play, you would have never thought so many complex rhythms could come from a simple drum!

Rodolfo Hechavarria, known as “Panga”, hails from Cuba, where he became a virtuoso with the congas. He joined the traditional Cuban music band Sonora La Calle, with whom he toured Europe, and shared the stage with some of Cuba’s most famous musicians. In Australia, he combines his skill with the congas to contribute to the complex percussive rhythms of Ausecuma Beats!

Ed Crocker is a very successful drummer, having played with many successful bands, at many music festivals in Australia, and at the Glastonbury Festival in England. His incredible energy on the drum kit is astounding, and he has an uncanny ability to knock out very complex beats. Ed rounds out the incredible three-person percussion section of Ausecuma Beats!

Bassidi Koné comes from a Griot family in Mali, and achieved virtuosity on the balafon – an African wooden xylophone-like instrument. No matter what the genre, he infuses the music with the heritage of centuries of his family’s musical tradition. Bassidi has won many prestigious national music awards in Mali.

Adam Halliwell has had a very successful career on the electric guitar, having worked in free jazz and with bands in both East African and West African musical styles. He’s toured both Europe and Japan. Adam is known for his incredible skills at improvisation.

Desire Marea is a South African multidisciplinary artist whose tense, challenging work draws from several post-industrial and club music styles, and addresses themes such as loneliness, trauma, and displacement. Also a member of performance art duo FAKA, Marea released their debut solo album, Desire, in 2020.

EgoliBorn Buyani Duma, Desire Marea majored in Performing Arts at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg, and also earned their bachelor's degree in Visual Communication at the Vega School. They pursued acting and worked at a top South African advertising agency. They formed the queer performance art duo FAKA with Thato Ramaisa (aka Fela Gucci) in 2015. Appearing on 2015's NON Worldwide Compilation, Vol. 1, the pair released the 2016 EP Bottoms Revenge on the label, and Marea was additionally featured on Angel-Ho's Emancipation EP. FAKA's second EP, 2017's Amaqhawe, was more club-ready than their debut, reflecting the influence of South Africa's gqom scene. The duo performed at numerous festivals, including MELT!, Roskilde, and Sonar, and were commissioned to write music for several high-profile fashion shows. They were also featured on Africa Express's 2019 album Egoli.

Marea digitally released their first solo album, Desire, on Izimakade Records in 2020. With nearly operatic vocals sung in English and Zulu, the record's tracks ranged from sophisticated art pop to noisy IDM. The album received word-of-mouth acclaim, and Mute picked it up for a physical release in 2021.

Boy Harsher is an American electronic music group, formed in 2013 in Savannah, Georgia. Currently based in Northampton, Massachusetts, the band consists of vocalist Jae Matthews and producer Augustus Muller. The band has amassed a cult following since their formation,[1] and their song "Pain" has become an underground hit.[2][3] Matthews and Muller own and run the label Nude Club, which is exclusively devoted to Boy Harsher and related artists.

Knowing each other from film school in Savannah,[4] Muller and Matthews started the project Teen Dreamz in 2013, which acted as a precursor to Boy Harsher. The project consisted of Matthews performing her spoken word pieces and Muller providing a musical backing. Throughout the year, Teen Dreamz's sound became more danceable, as Matthews's vocals developed into a more expressive singing style. The band renamed their project as Boy Harsher in 2014.[1]

Boy Harsher released its home-recorded debut EP, Lesser Man in the same year. Following their relocation to Massachusetts, the band recorded and released its debut album, Yr Body Is Nothing in 2016 on DKA Records. After the release of 2017's Country Girl EP, the band formed their Nude Club imprint in 2018, re-issuing their catalog. One of the first releases on Nude Club, "Pain II", is a reissue of their 2014 single with a remix by The Soft Moon.[1] Their sophomore studio album, 2019's Careful,[1] was backed by an extended reissue of Country Girl as Country Girl Uncut.[5] In that year, a remix album of Careful, titled Careful Remixes, etc. was also released; it featured remixes from techno producers such as Marcel Dettmann and Silent Servant.[2]

On April 10, 2020, Muller released his debut soundtrack album, Machine Learning Experiments (Original Soundtrack), which featured original scores composed for two short adult films, Orgone Theory and Hydra. The album was issued on Nude Club.[6] In 2021, the band remixed the Perfume Genius song "Your Body Changes Everything." The remix was featured in the album, Immediately Remixes.[7] In January 2022, the band's directorial debut film, The Runner, was released with an accompanying soundtrack. The short film starred Kristina Esfandiari.

Boy Harsher is often labeled as a dark wave group,[2][9] with influences ranging from early forms of industrial to electronic body music.[10] Paul Simpson of AllMusic referred to the band's music as "dark, danceable electro pop" that references synth pop and EBM. He has characterized Boy Harsher's music by its minimal beats and synth textures, as well as by Matthews's dynamic vocals that depict "desire, fantasy, and loneliness."[1] On his review for Careful, Kevin Lozano of Pitchfork listed the band as one of the acts that spearhead the minimal synth scene along with Essaie pas, noting the "brisk drum machine loops, oscillating synths, and Matthews’ haunting incantations" that permeate the album's sound.[11] Lozano has previously described the band as "making coldwave that could turn any space in that quiet town into a seedy nightclub."[12] Michael Lawson of The Skinny thought that the band "straddled the middle ground between melancholic cold wave and regimented synth workouts."[3]

Boy Harsher draws heavily from cinema, theatrics and graphic design to tailor the band's visual imagery;[2][10][13] Matthews and Muller both have a background in filmmaking.[1] They have likened the band to the movies Body Heat and Lost Highway,[14] latter of which was directed by David Lynch, a professed influence on the band.[13] Matthews has expressed appreciation for various female vocalists, including Nico, Circuit des Yeux, Alison Lewis of Linea Aspera, Chelsea Wolfe and Zola Jesus, whereas Muller named Sleep Chamber, Suicide, DAF and Yello as early musical influences on Boy Harsher.[4] Gearwise, Muller mostly employs synthesizers and samplers, stating that he "tries and borrows as much [instruments] as he can for recording."[4] On the band's minimal instrumentation, he said: "I’m obsessed with how successful the minimalism is with 80s music. It’s really a masterclass of what can be done with a drum machine and a couple of synths."[13] A "half-functioning" Roland Juno-106 was used extensively on Lesser Man EP; their live set features synth lines sampled into an Akai MPC, as well as backing tracks.