What we said at the time…

Quintessentially British, and with an air of ingenious lab technicians, The Bohman Brothers’ music is a thrilling, home-made and DIY conflux of some of the most virulent strains of experimental music. They’re kind of conceptual magpies, filtering musique concrete, sound poetry and improvisation thorough their personal sense of humour. Their pieces collide in informed, strongly visual performance that at first seem unbelievable messy, but on closer inspection are totally nailed.

Those live performances take on the air of an electrified and amplified car boot sale: amplified shoe brushes, plastic cups, home-made strings, rubber bands and hosepipes are all worked into layer upon layer of sound. And their vocal work is totally inspired: text is sourced from local pub menus, Chinese take-aways or DIY catalogues and then read by one brother whilst the other seemingly tries to put him off by reading the same text back at him, or by firing electric shard of noise in his direction. “…sounds like a couple of guys trying to keep their card game focused while the cruise ship they’re on is burning and sinking around them” (Byron Coley, The Wire)

Memorably, the improvised sound poetry reading of the menu from their local Chinese takeaway formed a large part of the set.