Britronica: Contemporary Music Festival (Moscow, Russia, April 1994)

[FilziSH]

I believe that this notorious and at the same time unique festival deserves a separate topic. And given that relatively recently two channels have opened on YouTube, whose owners took part in shooting Britronica in 1994, there’s a chance that in the future we will see previously unpublished material. So, in order.

The first one is Programma «A» - the author's program of Sergey Antipov, aired on a state-owned channels from the late 80s to 2000 and in their archives the highest quality material, as they filmed professionally. Despite the fact that Sergey Antipov died five years ago, apparently one of his colleagues decided to upload the archives of his programs, all the videos were digitally remastered. They have already uploaed one issue dedicated to Britronica, but it was a replay of October 17, 1998, which showed some performances. At the end of the video, Sergey Antipov himself was shown, who said behind the scenes that they broadcasted Britronica live in 1994 on their program, so let's hope that they will release this issue over time

 

Quote

02:03 Reload - Teq
06:10 Sonexuno
10:56 Bark Psychosis - Big Shot
17:32 Seefeel - Polyfusion
23:37 Dread Zone - Dream On

 

Скачать видео

The second is Ryba Morze (Morse Fish) a program founded by enthusiasts from Izhevsk, which aired on local television. From the description to the video:

Quote

We decided to break the chronology and start the story of how the Ryba Morze festival was held, dedicated to the 1994 anniversary festival in Moscow. The festival was called Britronica. MDM and several clubs have come together with bands and DJs who have defined the sound of popular music for at least the next decade.
It is unlikely that any of the current and peppy will understand the whole heroism of this story. A friend of my old friend Igor Kolyadny gave us the HI8 camera. It was a brand new Sony camera. The owner had no extra tapes for it, and I scraped money only for two. So it was not possible to shoot the entire festival from the beginning to the end by definition. Artem Troitsky handed me a press certificate and I could freely walk behind the scenes. I was unable to interview with Seefeel, but took from Aphex Twin and Bruce Gilbert. About 10 years later someone posted an interview with Aphex Twin on YouTube without any editing (of course it was completely different in the program), and it received an audience prize as the most monstrous interview of all time. It's funny that no one condemned the theft of unedited material. Now you can see it as it went on air
Trembling camera (hands are not iron) added life as opposed to professional shooting of the channel "Russia". And we show some groups that didn't get on the federal television channel at all. So, happy anniverary to you ... with the 25th anniversary of an unprecedented musical history, which happened absolutely imperceptibly in the capital of an ambitious country. Watch as quickly as possible because no one knows how YouTube will behave and whether it will ban our entire channel immediately after publication. Happy new year 1994 to you friends.

And as a bonus, I translated some author's answers on comments:
 

Quote

FilziSH: Thanks for uploading video! Once I saw an interview with Aphex in the same program a long time ago, but it was much longer and the translation was offscreen
x.iso: It seems that it was not translated correctly here. He mentioned how he was poisoned, and they translate "you have an infectious lifestyle" lol
FilziSH: Yeah Although the translator who was present at the interview knew what he was talking about, it's strange that in the end they translated differently

KAMA records: I think this misunderstanding arose because of my lack of knowledge of English. And talked with Aphex one, and for the program translated another.
It was longer, because the first time it was shown in 1995 and there was an off-screen one, but for 1996 we decided to clarify the translation and shorten it for greater compactness.
In any case, we believe that this is a landmark event and given the completely raw version of the interview that is available to you, you have the opportunity to choose what you like :)))

FilziSH: So Aphex Twin didn't play, right? I read at NME that his performance was supposed to be after Bruce Gilbert, but the local gangsters who ran the place didn't appreciate that kind of music and Richard was thrown out almost immediately as he sat down at his turntables. Alex Patterson and photographer Steve Double also fell into a mess. And in the same NME issue one of the organizers named Sasha was shown with black eye in photo. Do you know anything about these episodes?

KAMA records: Sure I do. This happened a couple of meters from me. Richard didn't seem to be planned. He, in my opinion, had already been poisoned by then. But Autechre should have. They were even connected, but because of a mess, they just toughly pulled out the wires and quit.

Deefrex: I would like to ask about Autechre performance.
Here once upon a time I saw Djarum in low quality, but without info banners: https://youtu.be/F6uM93pJ0UI
And here is Lost: https://youtu.be/USsvC9bx9fE
Will it be possible to see these records in a good quality and without info banners?

KAMA records: The trouble is that when I moved I lost tapes somewhere. And what is there recording without the editors is hard to say. BUT for the broadcast clip was shot more than one composition, of course. If they suddenly are find out, then probably I will upload.

Ilya Vladimirovich: Was there a Richard set or did he just give an interview and lay down in the hospital?
KAMA records: Was. At an empty halls of MDM place. He just put Selected Ambient and went backstage.

 

Скачать видео

 

Quote

01:23 Seefeel - Industrious
07:00 Banco de Gaia
11:35 Locust
13:38 Aphex Twin - On (Music Video) + Interview
16:36 Bark Psychosis
20:48 Reload - Antacid (Link & E621)
25:55 ?
27:21 Paul Oakenfold
30:41 Sonexuno
33:23 Bruce Gilbert + Interview
38:00 Ultramarine
43:35 Autechre - Djarum

 

 

[hayhook]

Mark Pritchard's rundown of the event... https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2011/07/mark-pritchards-worst-tour-ever

Reload plays in both vids (opens the first and @20:48 in the second) "Teq" from A Collection of Short Stories...

It looks like Mark Pritchard is absent (in the hospital as per the article?) and I believe the drummer is John Parish?

[FilziSH]

1 minute ago, hayhook said:

and I believe the drummer is John Parrish?

Looks like him
https://www.discogs.com/ru/artist/220565-John-Parish

Who is he and what does he have to do with Reload?

[hayhook]

1 minute ago, FilziSH said:

Looks like him
https://www.discogs.com/ru/artist/220565-John-Parish

Who is he and what does he have to do with Reload?

He and Mark were friends from home... neighbors in Yeovil? He appears (credited) on The AutoReload EP  https://www.discogs.com/Reload-Autoreload-EP/release/4052

Global Communication also did a remix of John Parish and PJ Harvey's "Civil War Correspondent"

[Soloman Tump]

I (kind of) know a guy from Oxford who was part of this tour, worked with Paul Oakenfold and assisting the DJs.  I will point him to this thread and see what else he knows.

[FilziSH]

53 minutes ago, hayhook said:

He and Mark were friends from home... neighbors in Yeovil? He appears (credited) on The AutoReload EP  https://www.discogs.com/Reload-Autoreload-EP/release/4052

Global Communication also did a remix of John Parish and PJ Harvey's "Civil War Correspondent"

A little bit weird performance.. he only hits the cymbals and that's all, everything else played by drum machine

[hayhook]

maybe it came off better "live" vs on video...

as per most "live electronic performances" something visually "active" beyond someone standing behind a rack of electronics twiddling knobs and bopping keys definitley

give a better "show"... though, I recently saw Nitzer Ebb live, and while Bon Harris gave good energy banging away on the drum pads, there wasn't really any corresponding

addition to the music already being produced by the keyboards/computers coming out of the speakers (were his drums/pads not mic'd/patched into the system?)

and it was just... weird. 

I kept thinking to myself "why is he here? what does he actually contribute?" (other than a couple of verses on the mic during getting closer)

[FilziSH]

27 minutes ago, hayhook said:

maybe it came off better "live" vs on video...

Frankly, I liked this version even more than in the album :) We must pay tribute to those who work with sound on first video, excellent work. I can only dream that they will upload full Autechre and Seefeel performance

P.S. I edited text that was in description for Morse Fish. It was too google translate I didn't notice at first...

[Rubin Farr]

3 hours ago, hayhook said:

Mark Pritchard's rundown of the event... https://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2011/07/mark-pritchards-worst-tour-ever

Reload plays in both vids (opens the first and @20:48 in the second) "Teq" from A Collection of Short Stories...

It looks like Mark Pritchard is absent (in the hospital as per the article?) and I believe the drummer is John Parish?

Yeah I was thinking Mark was hospitalized, funny to see young Middleton so intense on stage.  Cool that footage of Reload live actually exists. +1

[hayhook]

Tom's 'Stache...

[Rubin Farr]

16 minutes ago, hayhook said:

Tom's 'Stache...

His days of dressing like Dr. Dre  

[FilziSH]

Nice one Mark Pritchard and Graham from Bark Psychosis are also noted in the comments. Seefeel post it on their fb and left comment on YT

[Goiter Sanchez]

^ - LOL his face in that thumbnail!