CHOPCHOP: Booking info
“CHOPCHOP’s music snakes round its orator like a slippery thing, cymbals replaced by the clatter of hubcaps on toms, cutlery-jammed guitars – there’s an itchy jazzy vibe to the melodics, fuelled by a fertile imagination full of bruised shapes and punkish angles.“ – Michael Rodham-Heaps, reviewing CHOPCHOP live at the Moth Club, London, in FREQ magazine
“A fantastic life affirming noise… ” – Tom Robinson, BBC 6
Booking contacts
Mainland Europe: Alain Bolle / Some Noise (Belgium) info@somenoise.be
ChopChop are a high energy artrock band known for their compelling live shows, with frontman Xelís de Toro mixing angular frantic movements with yelped vocals, and the band pulling in wildly eclectic influences to form a unique sound. They have been called the ‘funky fall’ and although they soak all kind of sounds as musical sponges they have been often associated with New York post-punk and no wave.
Their latest release ‘Seven in the morning’ pays homage to two British punk icons Joe Strummer and Ian Dury.
The group has been played on the BBC 6 Music’s cult favourite radio show Freak Zone, and in Tom Robinson’s show who described their sound as “life affirming noise and wildly original”. They have performed at acclaimed festivals such as Supernormal, Acid Horse and Unorthodox Paradox. In 2025 they had a very well-received run of gigs in Galicia, Spain and have been invited back to play in festivals in 2026.
Xelís’s background in literature (multiawarded Galician novelist) and performance (live art and sound poetry) infuses his chopchop showmanship with controlled chaos and awkardness; his stage persona constantly oscillating between performance poet, eerie clown and punk puppet dancer is an apt touch to his energetic word delivery.
Drummer Ed Briggs is a sound artist and instrument inventor always looking for untried angles to art and music. Despite his ardent defence of the dabbler and the amateur approach to art, his creativity comes to the fore on his sophisticated and intricated percussion work, using a small set up kit that swaps cymbals for gongs, general cluttery and a small hat-kick.
Al Strachan with his broad music background (with Cardiacs-affiliated groups such as Crayola Lectern and Zofff) and instrument-kit bag (cornet, keys, synths, electronics) punctuates a multilayered melodic dynamics creating earworms and that keeps people’s feet on the air and the ears alert.
Bassist Eddie Hayden is a whizz in the sonics field – as well as sound engineer and producer behind acclaimed albums such as R Dyer’s debut – and Holy Clang’s first record. He is a traveller of music landscapes from noise metal to folk, that enriches his vast base technique that he displays with gusto playing with gloves. Together with Ed Briggs creates a clockwork machinery known as the ‘steady eddies’.
Releases (on Rose Hill Records)
2020: Debut album ‘Everything Looks So Real‘
2023: EP ‘Elástico‘
2024: Second album ‘Bell Well‘
2025 (Nov): ‘Seven in the morning’ single
For download links, interviews etc please contact info@chopchopsounds.com
Sample tracks
Lighthouse (2020)
Lifetime (2020)
The Lark (2020)
Elástico (2023)
Shake It (2023)
Gig list
28/04/2016 – The Albert, Brighton
04/07/2016 – Rialto Theatre, Brighton, part of Bleeding Hearts Club night
08/10/2016 – Coachwerks, Brighton, with LC Pumpkin
14/11/2016 – Rialto Theatre, Brighton, part of Bleeding Hearts Club night
04/12/2016 – Green Door Store, Brighton, part of Splitting The Atom
28/01/2017 – Rose Hill, Brighton, part of Beatabet Season 2
31/03/2017 – Cowley Club, Brighton
06/08/2017 – Supernormal festival, Oxfordshire
07/08/2018 – Green Door Store, Brighton, with Pardans
27/10/2018 – Campbell Road Studios, Brighton
01/12/2018 – Resonance FM live session, london
06/07/2018 – Rose Hill, Brighton. EP launch, with LC Pumpkin
03/11/2018 – The Con Club, Lewes, with Damo Suzuki & Zofff
08/11/2018 – Rose Hill, Brighton, part of Ceremonial Laptop
17/05/2019 – Hope and Ruin, Brighton, with King Champion Sounds
27/06/2019 – Hope and Ruin, Brighton, with Damo Suzuki and TAOS
13/09/2019 – Rose Hill, Brighton. CHOPCHOP special evening art cabaret
05/10/2019 – Strongroom, Shoreditch, London – Krautrocktoberfest, Baba Yaga’s Hut
26/10/2019 – Rose Hill, Brighton
24/11/2019 – Bar 42, Worthing
29/11/2019 – UCA Bar, Canterbury. With Oh Mama!
13/02/2020 – Hope and Ruin, Brighton – Album launch
25/02/2020 – The Goose, Worthing – Album listening party
29/02/2020 – Moth Club, Hackney, supporting Legendary Pink Dots
13/03/2020 – Bar 42, Worthing
13/08/2021 – Rose Hill, Brighton
14/11/2021 – Hope & Ruin, Brighton, supporting GNOD
02/02/2022 – Hope & Ruin, Brighton, with Kling Klang
06/02/2022 – The Piper, St Leonards, with Kling Klang
05/06/2022 – Green Door Store, Brighton, Splitting The Atom
07/07/2022 – Rose Hill, Brighton, supporting Yama Warashi
16/10/2022 – Lewes Con Club, supporting Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp
29/10/2022 – The Toad in the Hole, Worthing
04/03/2023 – Hope & Ruin, headline show by Melting Vinyl, w/ Yellow Door and Hill
03/06/2023 – Moth Club, Hackney, supporting Pram
01/07/2023 – Toad in the Hole, Worthing
14/09/2023 – Crash of Moons Club, The Ballroom, Canterbury
06/10/2023 – The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
26/11/2023 – Psychedelic Sundae, Green Door Store, Brighton
02/12/2023 – The Rose Hill, Brighton
17/12/2023 – Lewes Con Club, with Orchestre Tout Pusissant Marcel Duchamp
10/02/2024 – Walthamstow Trades Hall with Chunktini and Spirit Data
25/05/2024 – Unorthodox Paradox festival, Herefordshire
26/05/2024 – Acid Horse festival,Wiltshire
13/07/2024 – Rose Hill, Brighton, album launch
27/09/2024 – Lewes Con Club, with Prolapse
14/10/2024 – The Prince Albert, Brighton, with Crayola Lectern
16/01/2025 – Intox Extravaganza, Daltons, Brighton
09/02/2025 – Lewes Con Club, with Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp
21/02/2025 – The Prince Albert, Brighton, with Rats on Rafts
28/03/2025 – Crash of Moons Club, The Ballroom, Canterbury
03/04/2025 – Folklore Rooms, Brighton, with Holy Clang
24/04/2025 – Transistor, Bertamiráns, Galicia, Spain
25/04/2025 – A pousada (Boiro), Galicia, Spain
26/04/2025 – Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain
03/05/2025 – The Miller (near London Bridge station)
01/06/2025 – Concorde 2, Brighton
19/07/2025 – Paper Dress Vintage, London, with Lello
29/07/2025 – The Prince Albert, Brighton, with Lello
