The All Seeing Hand (NZ)

The All Seeing Hand has been going since 2011 and began life as a turntable and drum duo playing largely improvised tunes with electronics, monophonic bass and frantic drumming as the common threads. Soon they began to  experiment with a few ‘wordless’ vocalists (Noel Meek and Samin Son) and slightly more structured compositions. In 2012 vocalist/throat singer Jonny Marks joined the band.

Of their recorded output the first album documents the turntable and drum duo; the second album “Mechatronics” represents the current line-up; and the third album “Fog and Debris” was a retrospective release that documents the work Ben and David did with a slew of different vocalists before Jonny joined the band (although he is on some of the tracks). They have a fourth album coming out in November 2016. 

They have become known for their theatrical shows in which they collaborate with various artists to build a set and develop strong visual elements such as projection mapping and costume; there is often a loose narrative to the performance. Many of these shows have been in collaboration with visual artist Erica Sklenars.

Some of the shows performed are: “The Death Of St Cosmos” where one of the early vocalists of the group was sacrificed and eulogised; “Rebirth” where the new vocalist Jonny gestated and emerged from a cocoon; and a ghoulish coming of age “Ritual” at Camp A Low Hum involving twenty performers surrounding the band as a living backdrop. But probably the show that gained the most attention was  “The Blob”, where all three band members were in a single costume made of lycra and latex; they eventually all emerged from this “blob” as disfigured horror caricatures.