Category Archives: Shows

January 2026

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It may feel like it’s been a bit hibernate-y sin ce Taiwan, but that is truely not the case.

2026 has, as I’m sure you will be well aware, well and truely started, and shesh!! The madness of king Trump, our own invisible PM in times of crisis, the upending of global habits and fantasies (USA- land of the Free…pfft) into more uncertain territory, and all the rest… it’s like some weird dystopian’s wet-dream.

We, however, have been quietly getting on with doing what we do.

SHOWS:
Friday 30 Jan: vegetable.machine.animal(v.m.a) is playing at the POWER 2 PŌNEKE, a fundraiser collecting $$ for Wāhine ora o Te Waimāpihi/Wellington Women’s Health Collective. 13 Garrett St, from 8pm
Saturday 31 Jan: DSLB performing on Night 2 of the Anna Fält & Ira Hadžić season at Pyramid Club
Saturday 21 Feb: Quarry Concert #9: vegetable.machine.animal, Bone Chapel, and Tondo: 104 Ellice St, Mount Victoria, Wellington 6011

Anna Fält & Ira Hadžić season at Pyramid Club

Drawing blog:
A beautiful new set of drawing has been posted up at chrissiebutler.com – please go and check it out. Also, we invite you to subscribe if you’d like to receive sporadic notifications into your email when new images are post.

Recording:
vegetable.machine.animal has completed an intensive two-week period of recording in early Jan. The focus of this is the companion release to Guest, though this album will be collaborator-free, it will present the trio on its own.

The v.m.a recordings from Taiwan are also close to completion. Really looking forward to sharing them.

Social Media:
We have set up a profile on the new platform Upscrolled. @skirted
We hope it manages to unshitify the world of online connection.

Funding:
Kieran is thrill to be a recipient of CNZ Creative Fellowship funding for 2026. This will free up time for much more dedicated music making and playing.
If you are interested in having vegetable.machine.animal come and perform/present then please contact us at: skirtedrecords@tuta.com

DSLB – vegetable.machine.animal residency and tour

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We are hours away from hoping onboard a metal bird to wing our way to the island of Taiwan.

We are very fortunate to have the opportunity to spend two months in Tainan, a southern city in Taiwan, in residence at Ting Shuo Hear Say. We have a bunch of projects to explore and experiment with, and we look forwards to sharing these with you in time as they revel themselves to us.

And for added excitement there’s a bunch of show in the middle of the stay. The 7th is tentative, perhaps we go to Hualien, but they have just been impacted by the typhoon. We shall wait and see. The shows will be a combination of playing together as a duo, as solos, or in collaborations with local musicians.

Post-tour bLOG

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The last repose of Log.

Home again after four weeks on the road. Unpacked, reassembled, and now time for minor maintenance, repairs, and reflection.

It was a first to embark on such an extensive local tour. One that spanned both islands and explored venues from house gigs, chapels, record stores, bars, galleries, and community spaces. There were a bunch of new towns and venues, and a few familiar favourites. This tour also felt like a grand opportunity to get an update on what’s physically happening in other centres, build new, and reconnect with older, networks, and to experience a bunch of active musicians and bands around the motu. 13 shows were booked, two fell through but picked up a improv show in Lyttelton, and a Live-to-Air on Radio One in Ōtepoti/Dunedin, so, luckily, 13 remained. The log offered zero complaints.

Now in this post-tour-state, I am left with my optimism uplifted. There are strong pockets of community interest and activity who seemed to be interested in experiencing fungi-impregnated and log-powered music. Loads of fascinating conversations happen after the shows. I certainly had a brilliant time and feel confident that the many-varying audiences enjoyed the spectacle as well.

Many thanks to: Sam and Glory [especially for the log!], Tonamu and the Kirikiriroa/Hamilton crew, Jeff and AF, Mark and the rest in Heretaunga/Hastings [unfortunately didn’t get to play but seems like a great network and hope to go there soon], Campbell, Sarah, Snails, Porridge Watson, Ben and Hanna, Zac at Common Ground, Matt/George et al in Te Waiharakeke/Blenheim, Matthew Plunkett, Ruben Derrick, Te Atamira, Fi and the crew of Radio One, Mads & Liam of Hōhā, The Crown crew, Jordan/Matt of Murgatroyd and Threes and Sevens Records – Waihōpai/Invercargill. Also, to Radio Control, Ben at IN sessioNZ, Mark Amery at RNZ, and Radio One, for the radio interviews. Extra special thanks to Fergus Nm for the image for the poster. And to all the bands, bedding, and bonding, it was very much appreciated, let’s do it again sometime soon.

There Are No More Four Seasons (Sweden) / DSLB / Phil Brownlee

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Body

THERE ARE NO MORE FOUR SEASONS

There Are No More Four Seasons is the name of a Swedish duo of electronic musician Mattias Petersson and violinist George Kentros. Taking older pieces of music and recomposing them to once again become relevant to our times. Their self-titled debut was named one of the ten best classical recordings of the past decade by DN, and Time Out New York called them a must see concert. 

https://nomoremusic.se/

DSLB

DSLB is the solo project of Chrissie Butler (the shouty bass playing half of the now sleeping duo, mr sterile Assembly). An offshoot from Chrissie’s other band Ditzy Squall, DSLB (Ditzy Squall’s Lunch Box) is a showcase for a love of long endings and the hum things make when you hold them close to your ear. Performed live, DSLB is an improvised mash-up of ancient record players, purring keyboards, kitchen utensils and found objects. Soundtracks for short films and hand drawn comics are also residents in the lunch box. Recordings are released by skirted Records.

DSLB

PHIL BROWNLEE

Phil Brownlee is a composer and audio artist based in Te Awa Kairangi, working with computer manipulation of environmental sound. Performing ‘Filament’, a live drone event with kitchen recordings drawn out into long threads of sound.

https://sounz.org.nz/contributors/1130?locale=en

$20 presales via UTR

Special thanks to Creative New Zealand for supporting Pyramid Club’s programme

Neil Robert’s Day – Pōneke Fundraiser

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FROM FACEBOOK:

Nau mai! Haere mai!

Neil Robert’s Day is just around the corner, and it’s pretty big this year. We’re putting on two fundraiser shows – this one here in Pōneke and one in Whanganui.
Come see FOUR sweeeet bands and one alright DJ!
Doors at 9pm
Displeasure
Retaliator
Side Eye
vegetable.machine.animal
DJ Suave

NO stink cunts policy will be strictly enforced. 

–

Neil Roberts was a punk anarchist who died in an act of explosive defiance, with the Wanganui Computer as the target, on 18 November 1982.  Located in the city of Whanganui, the computer was the NZ government’s first digital database of accessible information on citizens, used by police and other surveillance services. His act is seen as a protest against the government’s growing surveillance mechanisms.

Film maker Russel Campbell has written about the events of the act and on some documentation that took place afterward.

Mundane Utopia

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I’m waiting now at the airport to return home after an intense week in Auckland. The focus of this intensity is the installing, and then opening, of the sound installation Mundane Utopia at the Audio Foundation. The Audio Foundation is an essential centre for boundary-pushing sounds explorations located in the middle of the Auckland CBD, and holds a massive role in ongoing adventurous sound making within Aotearoa, but also holds a substantial archive of what has come before. I had the opportunity to spend a week in residence there last year and this exhibition is the follow on from that.

I have never really been involved in the gallery installation process, so learning was required on the fly, but we had days to work on it as the install evolved through various arrangements.  The final layout feels organic and coherent,  and remarkably simple for the amount of effort required. The opening was well attended with a lot of playful interest in the sound project.

The following day was a full performance at the Whammy Backroom. The lineup was U R A Tooth, representing the home team, two drummers duelling like collapsing stars, unrelenting and explosive, plus bass and saxophone for any portion of the eardrum left unbruised. Then my turn for the first post-Java show. A nice touch at the end of my set was a gentle game of ‘have-the-audience-kick-the snare-and-ride-around-the-dance-floor’ while I let the the synth sound disappear. Very homely. And Hōhā, from Ōtepoti/Dunedin, on third to round out the sonically dense evening. Drums, guitar and dual vocals, improvised song-forms, with the last piece being only drums and processed vocals.  Superb.

On Saturday afternoon, I had the chance to present Office Ambiance back in the Audio Foundation. A seminar session hosted be MEL (the Musical Electronic Library located at AF), which gave me the chance to talk a bit about the process, thinking, and science behind my project. Some wonderful discussion followed, interesting questions, reflections, and similarities with others’ own creative projects.

And finally, on Saturday evening, I hosted a screening of the independent film Jogja Noise Bombing with a bit of Q&A at the end. I offered some thoughts on my recent opportunity to perform at JNB, as well as answer questions that curious minds wanted to ask.

Many thanks to the Audio Foundation and crew, Jeff, Sam, Tash, and all the others, for their support in making this series of events possible…couldn’t have done it without you all.

Mundane Utopia: Installation @Audio Foundation, Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland

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Photo: by Wawan Sutiawan, Cirebon, Java, Indonesia. Photo say 13 June - 6 July Kieran Monaghan presents vegetable.machine.animal Mundane Utopis. There is an image of Monaghan hunched over the modular synthesizer, parts of a drum kit are behind him, in the foreground is a plant and then a lot of cables and equipment. This photo is taken from a performance in Cirebon,. Java, May 2024. Further text Opens 5.30pm, Thursday 13 June Live Performance, Friday 14 June, Whanny Backroom, 8pm. Offience Ambience artists talk, Saturday 14 June, Audio Foundation, 1pm. Jogja Noise Bombing Screening, Saturday 15 June, Audio Foundation, 5pm. The Audio Foundation is located at 4 Poynton Terrace, central Auckland. It is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 4 pm.

Mundane
1: of, relating to, or characteristic of, the world
2: characterised by the practical, transitory, and ordinary
– Some mundane online dictionary

Utopia
“…we should reinvent utopia, but in what sense? There are two false meanings of utopia. One is this old notion of imagining this ideal society we know will never be realised. The other is the capitalist utopia … of new perverse desire that you are not only allowed but even solicited to realise. The true utopia is when the situation is so without [solution], without the way to resolve it within the coordinates of the possible, that out of the pure urge of survival you have to invent a new space. Utopia is not [a] kind of a free imagination, utopia is a matter of inner most urgency, you are forced to imagine it, it is the only way out, and this is what we need today.”
– Slavoj Žižek, Public lecture at Universidad de Buenos Aires

What could utopia sound like? What if the mundane babble of things simply going about their livingness was how it sounded? Not in a state of idealised perfection, but a continuous and dynamic state of balancing. What if we could perceive this?

This installation aims to make audible a little piece of what is already, has been, and will continue to go on for a very long time. Just beyond ‘our’ world is the world of everything else, unfolding in its ordinary, continuous, mundane way. The machine in this exhibition holds the place of a translator. It detects signals of ongoing, other-aliveness and converts into crude signals audible to human anatomy. It is an unsophisticated interpretation. It provides no comprehension, but does enable us to perceive something that is not of us, in a way that may make some sense to us.

And how shall we interact with this. The ‘other’ knows when we are here, we can hear its signal change with interaction: touch, adding water, being neglected and dehydrating, and shining UV as if we pretend to be daylight. A mundane utopia for troubled and damaged times exists already, it’s not waiting for us.

—–

Opens: Thursday 13 June, 5.30pm, with refreshments by Liberty Breweries
Hours: 12 – 4pm, Tuesday – Saturday
Closes: Saturday 6 July

Public events:
Friday 14 June, 8pm @ Whammy Backroom
vegetable.machine.animal live in concert
Tickets here
More info here

Saturday 15 June, 1pm @ Audio Foundation
Kieran Monaghan Office Ambience performance and artist talk
More info here

Saturday 15 June, 5pm @ Audio Foundation, free
Film Screening: Jogja Noise Bombing (Indonesia)
More info here

Noise music at Covenant

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Rāmere (Fri) 24th May | [OFFSITE] Noise at Covenant: Bloodfucker / DSLB / Eveline Breaker / Hexus

Bloodfucker: Sparkle wave pixie demon noise pop

Eveline Breaker: Pixel ambient and bitcrush pop by Lilith Ercolano of Feshh  (for the girls)

DSLB: Ditzy Squall’s Lunchbox (DSLB), is the solo project of Chrissie Butler from Mr Sterile Assembly fame, whose “sideways lyrics and staked up patterns” bring a glistening glean to erogenous ears.

Hexus: @lady_stab

Covenant is an occult gallery and boutique located at 2 Adelaide Road, Mount Cook, Wellington, New Zealand

Koha Entry

Special thanks to Creative New Zealand for supporting Pyramid Club’s programme