PRIDE REFLECTS: Loud and Proud

03.02.24 Audio Foundation, Auckland

Pride Reflects is a collaboration between Rat World and Auckland Pride to document and celebrate the creative output of our local queer arts sector. Every week of Auckland Pride Month, two creatives will respond to their experiences of witnessing shows and events across the Auckland Pride Festival. We’ve given the creatives agency to respond in any way they like, which might range from traditional reviews to photoessays to anything in between.

Liam Hansen (they/them) reflects on Loud and Proud: A showcase of experimental and underground LGBTQIA+ musicians.

The Audio Foundation’s presence in the music community of Aotearoa is staggering. It’s borderline impossible to find a gig here within the experimental/sonic arts/sound arts realm that AF hasn’t had a hand in. And, if you do, you’ll probably see some characters from around the weird and wonderful scene they’ve cultivated in the crowd regardless. Tāmaki Makaurau has been gifted a wide variety of modular synths, field recordings, and archives for nearly twenty years. 

The 2024 revival of their ‘Loud and Proud’ festival series is a welcome return to Karangahape Road. Previously held at the Audio Foundation space from 2019 to 2021, the gig does what it says on the tin: brings some of the community's strongest LGBTQIA+ musicians and artists together to share any works that are experimental, underground, or out there in general. 

This year's iteration, curated and run by Tash Van Schaardenburg, expands on the festival ten-fold. Spaces expanded beyond the AF space to the Pitt Street Church and Whammy Bar, with the event beginning at 2PM and progressively ramping up in energy - from deep listening improv at the church, to a sausage sizzle in the Audio Foundation space, to a proper party at Whammy Bar. It’d be impossible to cover all of the acts from throughout the night, with many sets taking place consecutively and varying widely - these acts are just a couple highlights, from what hopefully won’t be the last Loud and Proud and AF has to offer. 

P.H.F

Photo Credit: Tash van Schaardenburg

What a classic! P.H.F is the brainchild of Tāmaki Makaurau based songwriter and producer Joe Locke, which has been active since 2008 and continued to feel fresh with every new release. His most recent release, ‘PUREST HELL’, combines every aspect of his discography so far, puts it through pitch-shifted distortion, and sends it to hell and back. The record is a utterly chaotic body of electropop - and this iteration of his liveshow is no different. 

P.H.F’s performance was relatively simple: it was just him, his laptop, and an effects heavy microphone. This was my first time seeing him live in person - but every archived set on YouTube tends to show him with a full band in his punkier days, so it’s a bit of a change of pace. Everything was DIY - in a landscape where the general approach for smaller, solo pop musicians in Aotearoa tends to be focused around backing bands or acoustic sets, a combination of backing tracks and the raw stage presence of one person felt surprisingly refreshing.

The energy P.H.F commands is staggering. Locke began the set quite modestly - introducing himself and the unreleased music he was going to play, before immediately launching into a chaotic menageries of heavy synths, bass, and 160 bpm breakbeats. Half of his set wasn’t even spent on stage; Locke was constantly in the midst of the crowd, singing as everyone surrounded him like a cult leader (complimentary). This isn’t to say there were no dynamics in the energy: some of the most special moments of the set saw him sitting down cross-legged on stage, taking a breath while sorting out the next track. The emotion and energy P.H.F brought into Whammy Bar was downright beautiful. I am not going to let this be my last time seeing them live. 

O/Pus

Photo Credit: Tash van Schaardenburg

I’m admittedly an annoying guitar music buff - a lot of my favourite recommendations that come from the Audio Foundation tend to be those that blend the regular sound art with more rock/punk/alternative soundscapes. O/Pus (pronounced ‘oops’) breaks into that scene flawlessly - or at the very least, manage to do some weird shit with a guitar, bass, drums, and a violin for good measure (and I mean, isn’t that what sound art is all about?) 

O/Pus is a bit of a supergroup of artists from around Tāmaki Makaurau, featuring Jade Farley and Stefan Neville from Pumice, alongside Ducklingmonster and Liz Mathews from Octopus. Their sounds merged aspects of post-punk with the regular AF flair of dissonant keys and heavy effects that sound borderline straight out of a horror movie. This is all kept consistent with a quick drum beat against each song - keeping the energy flowing in what becomes a transcendent experience that makes you feel like you’re losing your mind. 

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The Audio Foundation will also soon be hosting ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ by Josiah Morgan on the 17th of February for a six-hour performance marathon as a part of the Auckland Pride Festival.And if you’re still in the mood to dance afterwards, you can head along to Lychee Baybee at Raynham Park. The full programme for Auckland Pride 2024 is available at https://aucklandpride.org.nz/.