Movement81 is the musical offspring of Swansea-based duo Jason&Becky, exploring the interconnected wormholes between 80s indie synth and 90s dance in a spaceship from the future, powered by the collective energy of today. Piloted by two Swansea-based Fine Artists and philosophical researchers, Jason&Becky, their flightpath often connects with the wider themes of their art practice, realised through immersive, interactive audio-visual (AV) installations. Their electronic music & live AV performances meander between uplifting dance & pensive minimal techno, blending resampled audio & visuals with new & original material.
A typical track is recorded and performed using a mix of analogue and digital synths, hardware and software, including Eurorack modular, AKAI MPC Live and Ableton. Having recently joined independent label Petite Victory Collective (PVC), their debut release “Pride/Bassic” featured on Adam Walton’s BBC Introducing Radio Show as well as forming part of their live AV set supporting Plaid at Clwb Ifor Bach and Max Cooper at Tramshed, Cardiff in October ‘23. Their latest release, “Gift”, featured on BBC Radio 1 on Jaguar’s Introducing Dance in January 2024, and is available on Bandcamp and Spotify.
The Ways of Exile
Movement81 play 90’s tinged electronica, which is a good way of softening me up before they even start. Gift is a light, breezy, dash of melodic techno, with a synth line that has a Smokebelch II feel to it. It’s a perfect track for warming dark evenings. They seem to only be getting started with a few releases so far, so I’ve stuck them all on a playlist and have been enjoying what’s become a great ep. You should really give it a listen. I’m going to be keeping an eye on this lot, hopefully, they’re going places.
BUZZ Magazine
This Swansea duo also trade under their actual names, Jason & Becky, and make multimedia art, of which Movement81 is a component. Musically speaking, two-track single Pride (three if you count a superfluous edit which halves the length of the title cut) is chipper IDM of the more melody-centric and danceable kind, comparable perhaps to The Black Dog or other early 90s-originated acts with electro roots (including TBD-related duo Plaid, who they’re supporting in Cardiff this week!). Conceptually, Jason and Becky claim to be inspired by Futurism, and its credo of allowing technological advances to guide artistic practice – in a modern context, this refers to AI, although it’s not clear if anything answering to that description helped to compose Pride or Bassic. I dig ‘em either way.
JUN 2024 Movement81, Cities, Z Machine // Elysium, Swansea
JUN 2024 Dublin Castle, Camden
MAY 2024 Cornish Bank, Falmouth
JAN 2024 Central Visions AV Phaeleh, Amino, Movement81 & Tikoda // GreenWorks, Bristol
NOV 2023 Swamp Parti // SHIFT, Cardiff
NOV 2023 Radical Community Festival // Elysium, Swansea
OCT 2023 Max Cooper (Live/AV) // Tramshed, Cardiff
AUG 2023 Temple of Art & Music, Elephant & Castle, London
AUG 2023 Brewroom, Blackpool
JUL 2023 Dubrek studios, Derby
JUL 2023 Jericho Tavern, Oxford
JUN 2023 Electric Soup presents Plaid // Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
JUN 2020 Electric Soup Lockdown Sessions // CardiffMADE
