High Altar and O/pus

HIGH ALTAR is a two piece semi-improv instrumental assemblage. Made up of Taipua Adams (Terror of the Deep, The Perms) and Brendan Moran (Hasselhoff Expt, Subliminals, etc), they play what they refer to as 'neon jazz'; lifted from the imaginings of Jello Biafra on the Dead Kennedys track 'This could be anywhere...', he vocalised 'no amount of neon jazz could hide the oozing vibe of death'.
Together as HIGH ALTAR they form an intense crackle of aural expression vis-a-vis a devotional offering of spectral sounds capable of evoking womblike warmth and cavernous dread.
Requiring only rhythm section components built on a bare-bones structure of electronic timbre, this potent audio tool of a personal liberation alights a crooked path across musical, religious and subcultural frontiers.

O/PUS are the Captain Planet-like combo of Liz Mathews, Beth Dawson, Jade Farley and Stefan Neville. The Tāmaki Makaurau quartet combine swirling melodies, skull-trepanning stomp and ritualistic incantations that are dimensional-ripping magnifications of the Mandelbrot set.