Chicago-based noise-pop band Forgotten Species wouldn’t be a band without modern-day bootlegging, a classical metal band and a Ouija board.

 Forgotten Species started, as most bands do, as bar talk. Drummer Matt Zemburski and bassist Lizz Kannenberg were bartending at the bar owned by keyboardist Chris Nixon when they met singer and guitarist Blake Smith, who frequented the bar for its “house” beer, an unnamed farmhouse ale smuggled over the border from Wisconsin and served from a conspicuous antler tap handle. In addition to good beer the foursome soon discovered a shared history playing music – Smith in major label acts Fig Dish and Caviar, Nixon in Sono, Zemburski in quirky Chicago trio Eiffel Tower and Kannenberg in bedroom pop group Grammar.

 “What we first noticed about Blake was that he loved our house beer and hated every DJ we had in the bar,” says Zemburski. “He would start sending shots to the DJ until the poor dude was too drunk to operate the turntables. Then he’d hide the guy’s box of chillwave 7”s and put on the copy of The Jesus & Mary Chain’s Darklands he carried everywhere. I can’t say we didn’t appreciate it from time to time.”

 Five years later the band is set to release Hades Fades, their debut EP of noisey, guitar-driven power-pop. The five-track EP will be released digitally on November 18th via Long Nights Impossible Odds and on limited edition 12" vinyl in January 2015.

But it took a few exceptional instances to get to this point. Bar talk about starting a band didn’t actually become Forgotten Species until a classical black metal outfit they sometimes drank with asked if they wanted to share a practice space. Despite the illustrations of dark rituals and incantations scrawled on the walls, they wiped the years of filth from their gear and moved in. 

“The bar stopped serving the house beer and the DJs started playing Dinosaur Jr.’s You’re Living All Over Me more often, so we took it as a sign that it was time to occupy ourselves a little differently,” says Smith. “We took went to look at the practice space and found a 4-foot-high pentagram with “PORK: LA OTRA CARNE BLANCA” scribbled above it, and we knew we’d found our home.”

 The prevailing styles of sparkling electro-pop and the "hey! ho!" folk-rock of art school students dressed like civil war buffs felt rather wan and gutless to this foursome, so instead they busied themselves with seeing how many fuzz and delay pedals they could string together without blowing their amps. They molded and formed in this shared, strange preference for sophomore albums over seminal debuts and mutual abhorrence of bands that whistle.

 From the riot of cables and tortured signal chains, melodies bloomed in the gloom. From squawk and clang came ragged pop. Before their first show, they set up a wax splattered Ouija Board they found behind the beer fridge in the practice space and implored those from the other realm to name them. Those from the other realm ignored them, so they decided to call themselves Forgotten Species.

Don-Qui Five stretches the limits of improvisational music into new territory. 
The music has its roots in jazz and progressive rock but is at the same time closely related to free improvisation and world music. 
With the deep seriousness and the hyperactive playfulness of a child - the hyper-energetic quintet kicks a hole in the modern jazz scene. 
Don-Qui Five is the band that grabs a hold of you and that doesn't let go until you fall in to ecstasy and for a short while forgets that there is a tomorrow.


Don-Qui Five is:
Adrian Åsling Sellius - alto saxophone
Signe Dahlgreen - tenor saxophone
Henrik Büller - baritone saxophone
Jonas Nilsson - double-bass/composition
Axel Larsson - drums

donquifive@gmail.com

The Black Heart Blues are a British Hard Rock trio from Southport. Featuring Gazmasters on guitar/vocals, JB on bass and Alun Matthews on drums. They meld melodic elements with heavier ones whilst showing their punk rock, metal and alt-rock and roll influences on their sleeve. They bring an element to the stage that is all about just having fun and letting yourself go to the music. It's all about the riffs that chug at your heart strings, beats you can beat your heart out to and lyrics to shout your heart out with. It's all about having some Black Heart Blues.

Producer →  DJ → Singer 
AUS; living in Paris
Creator/Founder of Mood Lab 


MOON WATER EP - OUT 07.10.2025 > https://bit.ly/marli-moonwater


EU Bookings → bookings@ace-sessions.com
AUS Bookings → jeremy@weaveragency.com.au
Chit chat → marlimusicau@gmail.com

Releases → Skylax (FR) D.KO (FR), Unknown To The Unknown (UK), Homage (NY), Club Elevate (AU), ILIO Records (AU), Love Above Records (AU), Yellow Island (BRA), Revolver Upstairs The Late Show Records (AU), Back Pocket Slammers (AU) + Motorik (AU).
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Marli is part of a new breed of artist taking inspiration from the whole spectrum of electronic music. With a sound rooted in Detroit Techno, Chicago House and UKG, a Marli set harbours a warm nostalgic vibe, heavily syncopated rhythms, and rich samples oscillating effortlessly between deep house, soul, breakbeat, and UKG. 

She's featured on lineups on Australia's biggest events, such as Let Them Eat Cake, Pitch Music & Arts, Beyond The Valley, Strawberry Fields, Lost Sundays, smalltown, Xe54, Forum Melbourne, as well as being a crowd favourite and rotating resident at Revolver Upstairs The Late Show. 

Rubbing shoulders with the world's biggest artists, she's warmed the stage for Omar S, Gerd Janson, DJ Koze, Caribou, Dam Swindle, Folamour, Sally C, Loods, DJ Boring and more. 2022 also saw her added to PBS and Triple R's rotation of artists.

With her debut vinyl EP 'Mood Independent' released via ILIO Records selling out in only 3 days, she has released a string of originals and remixes on Yellow Island (Brazil) Homage (NY), Motorik (AUS), Backpocket Slammers (AUS), Love Above Records (AUS), The Late Show Records (AUS) and Velodrome (AUS), all of which are imbued with a class and maturity beyond her young age. With her productions and sets already gaining traction as some of the best in the Australian music industry, Marli is about to shift gears in a very imposing way...

A bassist named Ruby was a kid in Melbourne. She's still a kid in Melbourne but now she records her own music. Have a listen!
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Shoot me a message if you'd like to make some kickin' tunes together! ☼

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