in 1928, a group named aether flyer made a phonograph recording that laid the foundations for western popular music. almost every genre familiar to us today - from dub to metal to free jazz and hip hop - had its origins on the 78 known as 'the loose and pasty rootchunk medley'. using the technology of their time (as well as inventing much of their own), aether flyer pioneered such techniques as circuit bending, sampling and time stretching. they invented the electric guitar and a crude early form of the digital synthesiser. there is hardly a musician alive today who does not owe aether flyer something.

that same year they played a legendary concert in the leas cliff lift to an invited audience which included george burns, george formby and king george v. exactly eighty years on, aether flyer are still alive thanks to a scientific experiment gone bizarrely wrong, what physicists have called “a maelstrom of ionic starfish torment”.

aether flyer returned to folkestone to celebrate the anniversary of their concert with an exhibit of their music, and documents and photos of the time.

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