Interview: Noctone

The music scene isn’t only about bands and artists. Just as important are the promoters, DJs, shops and labels who join the dots. A good record label is like a friend with great taste – they might occasionally push you too far but you can usually trust their judgement. Bristol has its fair share of influential labels, with tastemakers like Idle Hands, Invada, Howling Owl and Tectonic dotted around the city, but there’s always room for another. Step forward, Noctone – a new Bristol label you’d do well to keep an eye on.  

“Noctone is run by the three of us – Jamie, Jon and me,” says Mark Hartshorn. “We all grew up in the same town between Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and shared an interest in guitars and weird electronic noises since school. Growing up not far from Bristol we’ve all been influenced by the city’s sound. We’ve been coming here to skate and go to gigs since we were kids. Over the years separately we’ve run some nights, played gigs, DJ’d…but it’s only since moving here and setting up Noctone that we’ve really started to feel we have something to offer back to the city. In turn we’ve discovered the sort of weird and wonderful music you don’t hear unless you delve into the city’s real music scene in the pubs, bars and small clubs.” 

Bristol’s music has always leaned towards the maverick. The Pop Group – founding fathers of the city’s modern scene – were one of the lairiest and most experimental bands of the post-punk era. Since then, the city’s been home to any number of inspired contrarians, from Madnomad (whose furious live shows involved fire, nudity and raw meat) to the blackened English pastoral of Gravenhurst and Third Eye Foundation’s doleful blend of shoegaze and drum & bass. Before its adoption by bandwagon-jumping opportunists, trip-hop was radical: its expressions of urban tension (“city slickers, gunmen and maniacs”) and degradation (“I’ll fuck you in the ass, just for a laugh”) framed by restless sonic experimentation. The Bristol music that matters now – Spectres, Thought Forms, anything from the Young Echo stable – is equally bold and brave. In a city under siege from metastasing property inflation, vacuous low-wage café culture, rampaging inequality and a PR-driven sense of civic self-satisfaction increasingly at odds with reality, we need music more than ever. And the music we need isn’t swing-ska-folk-hop made by coked-up graphic designers in pork pie hats.   

“There really is a sense of adventure in the music we are hearing all the time”, says Mark. “Not just from Bristol – it’s all over if you look for it – but a diverse range of influence and styles has always been what Bristol music has been about for us.” He thinks it’s a special time to be a music fan in Bristol, and is conscious of being part of a thriving community. “Labels like Invada have paved the way and provided inspiration for lots of smaller labels like us”, he says. “They have really put time into Bristol bands too – the new Thought Forms album is stellar, and last year they put out Scarlet Rascal’s album which was great too. Then you’ve got labels like Lava Thief, who has been really supportive from the start. She put out records by Repo Man, Vena Cava, Deej Dhariwal, SJ Esau and The Brackish. Also Spectres and the Howling Owl lot have both been pretty influential for us, having released some amazing records themselves as well as stuff like Giant Swan, Silver Waves, Oliver Wilde…” Other Bristol labels he rates include Stolen Body (“pysch and garage rock type stuff on vinyl”) and Aphelion Editions (“drone / ambient and electronic stuff”, as well as “tape-only labels popping up like Breakfast Records.” 

Noctone announced their arrival last August with the first instalment of The Void, a podcast which artfully tied the various strands mentioned above. Featuring Bristol24/7 favourites (Twin, Kayla Painter, Repo-Man) and a few that were new discoveries for us, it was full of risk-taking music from alternative rock to electronica, improv and the experimental fringe. Crucially, the podcast hung together incredibly well, like a well-constructed DJ mix. “The podcast came about really from a bit of a throwback to the old days of mixtapes…it’s great to be able to mix music people may not have heard before alongside some that they have. Maybe they’ll want to go see them live or buy some of their music… but ultimately it’s just about getting it heard. When you listen through you just kinda get a feel for it, very much like a DJ mix I guess yeah! We’re basically inviting you back to ours for some late night tunes!”

Not all the music featured in The Void is from Bristol, but much of it is, and the rest comes from artists who have played locally and made connections here. A second instalment followed in November, featuring The Hysterical Injury, Lice and Run Logan Run, and a third dropped this week: “Some of it’s from a bit further afield this time including a band called Radian from Austria who played at Exchange a few months back. We’ve also got tracks from Thought Forms, The Dead Astronaut and Iyabe, whose debut EP [the excellent Biology. Biography. Culture.] came out recently, as well as a welcome return from Bridget Hayden with a track from her new record.” They plan to continue putting out new podcasts every other month, as well as one-off playlists from guest artists (Kayla Painter is scheduled to do the first, apparently).

December saw the label’s first proper record release, a split 12” featuring punishing, melodic Bath-based rockers Charivari, and Iceman Furniss Quintet, whose blend of free blowing jazz and post-punk dynamics makes them easily one of Bristol’s most exciting live bands. “We’d watched IFQ grow over the last few years and been taken a back by how they come across live”, says Mark. “Each time they play, their improvised sets take another direction and it was really something quite inspiring. We wanted to find a way to document it, knowing it would sound just as great in a hazy late night playlist as it does at a show. So we set about recording some of their live shows, experimenting with different ways of doing it with the help of Tom from the band. That peaked in the recording that we got that night at the Old England.”

Bath-based Charivari are new to us, but their track Purge blew us away when we first heard it, and it sounds even more powerful on vinyl. “It’s intense stuff,” says Mark, “and just a great bunch of guys who are really into their music. We knew it would sound great on record. They had been doing some recording with Dominic over at Nine Volt Leap in Melksham and gave us a rough mix of Purge to listen to.  It had really big sound and the fact that both Charivari and IFQ had played together in the past kinda made the the split 12” a reality. It was a great way to set the tone for things to come. The Bristol / Bath Split is pretty cool too because there are some great bands, shows and venues over there too that deserve to be heard. And the two are very intertwined.” 

Noctone have described the music they champion as “uneasy listening”, and while it’s far from inaccessible, it’s not exactly dinner party music either. “The releases are never likely to be club anthems or played at a wedding,” admits Mark. “I guess we’re trying to say that Noctone is about challenging the listener somewhat. It might be full-blown drone assault, or it could be dulcet, late night jazz…or a combination of the two. Uneasy listening just seemed to perfectly encapsulate what we’re trying to do. Expect the unexpected.” 

Purge / 180716 is out now on Noctone. Listen to the podcasts at www.noctone.co.uk

Top image: Iceman Furniss Quintet, photograph by Nicholas James Paul Foot