Tickets HERE
Hyde Park’s own bushpilot are live in Leeds for the first time in Leeds since Sound City 1996!
Back in the 1990s the Hyde Park Book club was still an all-night garage, and bushpilot plied their trade at venues like the Duchess of York and the The Royal Park alongside bands such as Zoopsia and the Pale Saints.
We’re back because in 2020 cult record label God Unknown Records released two albums recorded by bushpilot between 1992 and 1995 but not released at the time.
The first album Already! channelled influences like Slint, Can, and the Jesus Lizard into a motorik rhythmic post punk krautrock noise attack.
The Sleeping Shaman featured Already! in writer Reza Mills records of the year. He wrote in his original review:
“Sounds like Malcolm Mooney fronting the much-overlooked Minutemen ... almost African tribal influence a la Fear of Music era Talking Heads with some truly offbeat and amazing guitar playing ... even evokes shades of early 80s Adrian Belew fronted King Crimson as well. Extraordinary ... This as with their contemporaries Slint is how great post-rock can sound”
New Zealand noise music blog also made Already! one of its albums of year writing:
“I found its urgent mix of Hardcore, Post Rock and most noticeably Can like kraut impossible to resist.”
Already! on Bandcamp: https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/already
The second album ‘23’ was recorded live in the studio and upped the Krautrock quotient in a series of spontaneous compositions including the eponymous side 2 filling near 20 minute track ‘23’.
Manchester area music blog Bagging Area wrote:
“23 is Bushpilot's magnum opus beautifully crafted and totally way ahead of its time”
Edwin Pouncey in The Wire wrote:
“More techno tinged with a prominent Krautrock influence burning through. This is particularly evident on ‘I Have The Egg’ and the extended title track that takes up the entire second side of the LP. Both carry the heavy influence of Can with vocalist Ross Holloway evoking the spirit of Damo Suzuki over the bands metronomic trance beat.”
23 on Bandcamp: https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/23
A final single from the archives Rockitman, recorded around the time of Leeds Sound City in 1996, is out now on God Unknown Records: https://godunknownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/rockitman
In our humble opinion, we have totally amazing video for Rockitman which was created by Leeds born and bred artist Sarah Doyle and casts the ‘Rockitman’ from the song as iconic early British American rocker Vince Taylor known for tracks like Brand New Cadillac and 20 Flight Rock. Taylor thought he was a hybrid god and alien from another world, and his wild performances in the late 1950s and early 1960s were said to have caused riots. He was a key influence on David Bowie and one of the main inspirations for Ziggy Stardust.
Video for Rockitman here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYQs-VxZvMI
In 2025 bushpilot will be playing Rockitman, as well as songs from the 2 albums on God Unknown and some brand new material.
There are some other videos on YouTube you can watch to get a flavour of bushpilot.
Lumen Arts in Leeds created a video for the epic ‘23’, title track from the acclaimed LP of the same name. You can view that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7yyeGVMx6M
Bushpilot live at the Royal Park pub in 1995: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs4u7_VcWW8&t=266s
Fellow God Unknown recording artist the amazing Dez Dare joins bushpilot in Leeds.
He has a brand new single out called ‘Brutalised Robotics’ https://dezdare.bandcamp.com/track/brutalised-robotics
The Dredge wrote that “Dez Dare is a punk rock astronaut. A psych-noise shaman. A DIY Doctor Manhattan."
Buy his album ‘A Billion Goats. A Billion Sparks. Fin.’ Here: https://dezdare.bandcamp.com/album/a-billion-goats-a-billion-sparks-fin
We also welcome Leeds’ own Lymon Willis. It’s country, it’s folk, it’s different.
Listen to Lymon Willis play the excellent ‘Wonder on the Whee’l here: https://shorturl.at/AsWOj
Follow bushpilot in Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bushpilot1993/?hl=en-gb
Follow Dez Dare on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dezdareriffs/?hl=en-gb