Hmpty014 - South of No North - Octopussies Liquor Store
Release - 24.10.2011
Cédric Stevens, a.k.a. Acid Kirk, is one of Belgian techno's pioneers. Since 1993, he has been DJing all through Europe's biggest clubs, sharings stages with many of the world's finest DJs. In 1997, increasingly obsessed with free jazz, psychedelic, experimental and avant-garde music, he co-founded Elf Cut Records, where he worked as A&R. At the same time, he started working on a new project, Syncopated Elevator Legacy (S.E.L.), where he could explore new musical territories.
S.E.L.'s studio work has been praised by many artists (Christian Fennesz, Vibracathedral Orchestra, My Cat Is An Alien), and some of its songs caught John Peel's ear, who played them on his BBC show.
In 2003, Cédric, Flash Bunny (Jean-Henri Rigo) and Naan (David Meunier) founded the DRIFTING BEARS COLLECTIVE. South of no North, their epic psych-noise debut, was released in 2007 thanks to Le Bonheur, Brussels’ “multimedia grocer's”. Vinyl only, the album did well, and was highly praised by english magazine The Wire.
The trio shifted to quintet with the arrivals of Squeaky Lobster (Laurent Delforge) and Sun Papa* (Laurent Baudoux) and soon began working on a new album, with a radically different approach, much more professional and cohesive. The band changed its name to SOUTH OF NO NORTH to deliver a second album, Octopussies Liquor Store. This new record marks a big step forward, in the production as well as in the writing, more mature and daring, not afraid to extend one of the compositions to 35 minutes. Their love of psychedelic, free jazz and obscure forms of world music is still patent, but this new step sees them evolve radically, and add krautrock and experimental noise to the trip.
*Active for many years under the aliases, or as member of Sun Ok Papi Ko, Scratch Pet Land and Fan Club Orchestra. All three projects were released by german avant-garde label Sonig.
