A new UBTV series highlights the best of Bristol’s music scene

A new documentary series from UBTV has been released focusing on local DIY record label Howling Owl, who in the last few years have helped foster a new underground scene in Bristol, putting on gigs in crypts, scout huts and prison cells and other eclectic venues.

The show features live showcases, interviews and a load of incredible music, ranging from improvised techno played with guitar pedals to psych-rock where the members all switch instruments between songs. You can watch the trailer here:

Suiting a range of tastes, the series tells the story of Howling Owl’s development and is all available on YouTube in four parts. These are the artists covered in the documentary, and the links to their episodes.

Taos Humm

Three piece garage/psych band Taos Humm are musical chameleons; over the course of this live-set at The Louisiana, they switch instruments between songs, and their sound ranges from the melancholically beautiful to the brutally danceable.

Oliver Wilde

Howling Owl’s Adrian Dutt discovered Oliver when they both started working at Rise Records on the Triangle (where, by the way, they both still work). His woozy, heartbreakingly beautiful brand of electronic folk nods to Bon Iver, Nick Drake and Elliot Smith.

Featured on guitar in this video is Harry Wright, one half of the next band in the series…

Giant Swan

This electro-dub duo are one of the city’s most unique artists. They stand facing each other, each with a table in front of them covered in guitar-pedals, electronic drum-kits etc, and turn the singer’s coughs and screams into euphoric and terrifying dance music in improvised sets.

However, this was originally a side-project for their main band…

The Naturals

Sounding a bit like Optimus Prime punching a whale, The Naturals blend Giant Swan’s electronic experimentation (again, no keyboards, laptops or synths) with heavy alternative rock, featuring elements of noise, psych and more. They’ve been together 11 years, and this shows them launching their first album, Hive, at Thekla. It sounds like nothing else you’ve ever heard before.