When Audioscope rolls into town you never know what to expect. But Tim Hughes knows it’ll be something good...

IT is one of the best-loved dates in Oxford’s musical calendar; a 12-hour celebration of some of the finest alternative music, held here in the intimate setting of a pub.

But Audioscope is more than just another all-dayer. It raises crucial funds for a great cause – Shelter.

Since being launched in 2001 it has raised more than £25,000 for the national homelessness charity. In the process it has brought some legends of the electronic, experimental and avant garde world to the city – names like Wire, Four Tet, Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, Clinic, Pram, Explosions in the Sky, and Michael Rother and Damo Suzuki of, respectively, Deutsche-rock bands Neu! and Can. Locally, it has played host to the Mercury-nominated Young Knives, and The Edmund Fitzgerald, featuring Yannis Philippakis and Jack Bevan who went on to form Foals.

Saturday sees the 13th instalment of the annual indoor festival, and features a vintage line-up of 12 bands at The Jericho Tavern, headlined by American experimental folk act Califone.

The Chicago band, currently promoting their new album Stitches, splice Western themes with folk, drum machines and sparse electronica, and are typical of the calibre of headliners which have made the event a must-do for serious music lovers.

Oxford Mail:

They are joined by Brighton’s Esben and the Witch, Eat Lights Become Lights, Grumbling Fur, Fonda 500, Pye Corner Audio, Thought Forms, Tomaga, and Sauna Youth. Local talent, meanwhile, comes courtesy of Andrew Mears’s anthemic indie-pop project Pet Moon, Ute and Grinding Young star Ollie Young’s alter-ego Salvation Bill, and Listing Ships – fronted by Stuart Fowkes, who runs Audioscope with fellow musician Simon Minter.

So what is it all about? “It’s about bringing bands to Oxford which people wouldn’t normally get a chance to hear,” says Stuart. “It’s also about reflecting the diversity of musical talent that appeals to us,”

There can be doom metal, experimental drone, post-rock, acoustic singer-songwriters, techno and there’s always something really weird. It’s generally alternative verging on experimental, but it’s not a drone-fest.

“Pet Moon and Fonda 500 both play pop.”

And who is he looking forward to seeing? “Grumbling Fur and also Tomaga,” he says. “They play freeform jazz drumming while running keys and guitar through effects to create weird, burbling analogue chaos.

“Headliners Califone are also an extraordinary band. One the one hand they play straightforward Americana with great songs, but they also mix in drum machines, electronica and proper weirdness, and don’t sound like anyone else. They do whatever they want – and that is true for all the bands playing.”

And he says the day is a perfect opportunity to discover something different: “We want people to come along and discover their new favourite band – and that has consistently happened over the years. People come to see a band they’ve heard of and end up seeing something incredible they didn’t know existed. What we are getting now is a hard core audience of people coming because it’s Audioscope. They know the quality will be high and that it is a day well spent discovering unknown treasures.”

He adds: “The other thread that runs through it is that it’s for charity. Every band playing is doing so because their hearts are in it and they want to help Shelter. None of them are playing for a fee.”

Stuart’s band Listing Ships open the event as they have done ever year. He and Simon previously played Audioscope with their band Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element.

“We play nautically-themed instrumental post-Krautrock,” he says.

Stuart and bandmates Mike Bingham (guitar and keys) and James Pamphlion (drummer) have a reputation not just for their engaging live shows but for their uniquely salty recording style, which has seen them convert an old lifeboat station into a studio and, more recently, a whole island.

The band chartered a boat to take them to tiny Flat Holm, four miles of the South Wales coast, where they recorded music and soundscapes.

“Our music is a reflection of what everyone in the band is into,” says Stuart.

“I’ve always been into slightly abstruse instrumental bands. Instrumental music gives more freedom than having a singer as you are not constrained to a structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus. It forces you to be more interesting as you don’t have the crutch of vocals to fall back on.”

listen to ‘The Oxford Mail talk about Listing Ships recording on Flat Holm Island’ on Audioboom

  • Audioscope runs from noon to midnight at the Jericho Tavern, Oxford. Tickets are £14 from wegottickets.com

Who to see: 

Stuart Fowkes gives his take on the line-up:

  • Califone: “Spaghetti westerns and dusty folk clash with drum machines, sparse electronics to create a music like no other.”
  • Esben and the Witch: “Taking inspiration from nature and literature, art and science, as well as the odd PJ Harvey and Scott Walker record, Esben and the Witch have been ploughing a unique furrow of what they call 'nightmare pop' since 2008.”
  • Pet Moon: “Pet Moon takes everything Andrew Mears learned as a sometime member of Foals and Youthmovies and distils it into a mutated blend of r’n’b with twists of skittering electronics, twisting guitar lines and anthemic indie pop.
  • Eat Lights Become Lights: “Two drummers, growling Moog basslines, pulsing electronics and the transcendent Neu! beat. Eat Lights Become Lights are krautrock heaven updated for 2013.”
  • Grumbling Fur: Psychedelia driven by pulsing electronics, shamanic chants and some beautifully innovative pop songs.”
  • Fonda 500: “Imagine a joyous live experience, with Led Zep, Super Furry Animals, the Beastie Boys and Cornelius each writing a quarter of their songs.
  • Pye Corner Audio: “Exploring a parallel universe in which Boards of Canada were allowed to soundtrack every 80s children’s TV series.”
  • Thought Forms: “The two sides of Thoughts Forms sound like Sonic Youth playing doom, with an awesome array of sounds at their disposal.”
  • Salvation Bill: “Hometown musical icon Ollie Thomas serves up dusky, alcohol-soaked tributes to a mysterious Piedmont blues musician nicknamed 'Salvation Bill' from the American Deep South.”
  • Sauna Youth: “Riotous punk rock that explodes all over the stage.”
  • Tomaga: “Bat For Lashes drummer and Oscillation bassist come together in a union of improvised drum, synth and processed guitar.”
  • Listing Ships: “Oxford-based, nautically-inspired instrumental post-krautrock band inspired by tales of the sea as much as by Can, Tortoise or Fugazi.”

​SUPPORT: A fundraising album, Music For A Good Home 2, featuring 40 new and exclusive tracks from the likes of Four Tet, Wire, Ride and many more, is available for a minimum donation of £5 to Shelter from musicforagoodhome.com