A big celebration of 10 years of The Lighthouse culminates with this double-bill special!

VIPERTIME

“That was Vipertime. I wouldn’t mind hanging out somewhere where that was going on. I guess I’d have to go to Leeds” – Iggy Pop

Aggro-jazz four-piece Vipertime explore the borders of modal jazz, post-punk, dub and afrobeat to create a sound that is simultaneously unique to the band and a microcosm of the thriving UK scene.

Born as a free-improvising group in the basements of Leeds house parties, Vipertime swiftly moved into the studio to create 2019’s Shakedown, 2020’s Limbs/All Our Heroes Are Dead and 2023’s critically acclaimed Arise. These releases received airplay on BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3, BBC Introducing and Worldwide FM while the group made a series of incendiary appearances at venues and festivals across the UK, honing their craft while pushing their line up of saxophone, bass guitar and twin drum sets to its sonic limits.

Both on the stage and in the studio Vipertime display a ferocity and razor sharp edge as well as an increasing maturity as composers. Bass-driven juggernaut ‘Thumb Claw’ shows the group flexing their garage rock roots, drawing on the visceral sounds of The Stooges, Black Flag and Thee Oh Sees. In stark contrast, ‘The Wiser’ was inspired by drummer Luke Reddin-Williams’s extensive studies of Carnatic music, and sees Ben Powling channelling saxophone demigods Joe Henderson, John Gilmore and Yusef Lateef.

Despite the influence of the Coltranes, Count Ossie and the Ethiopiques, Vipertime are a distinctly British band. Their sound contains the legacy of Joe Harriott, The Pop Group, Acoustic Ladyland, The Jazz Warriors, Rip Rig & Panic and The Slits as well as their peers in the current UK jazz revival. Their punk aesthetic is a direct descendant of Leeds legends Gang Of Four, Xero Slingsby & The Works and Trio VD, and Vipertime themselves are now inspiring a new wave of LS6 hell raisers. 

“Technically outstanding and phenomenally imaginative” – Louder Than War

“Dance floor ready” – Jamie Cullum

“They have that deep, angry sound that you find in Gato Barbieri and Steve Grossman…” – Colin Curtis

CLUSTERS OF EYES

Two brothers versus the machines. Clusters of Eyes debuted at Smugglers Festival 2018 and have since been inhabiting coastal Kent’s subterranean network of tunnels, honing their set of spectral electronica and robot-rocking gutter funk.

With special guest DJs …

MOBILE LIBRARY MUSIC