Recommendations for 2011

Time to look forward in to a new year here at Connexion Bizarre. There’s already loads to look forward to, with festivals being announced and new releases being talked about already, but we thought we’d tell you about the stuff that we are really looking forward to in the coming year.

Bangface Weekender

2011 is already looking like a bonus year for festivals, with perhaps the most epic shaping up to be the Bang Face Weekender at the Camber Sands resort in southern England. The Pontins chain who own the resort have gone into bankruptcy, so this may very well be the final Weekender there, and the promoters have promised to “give Camber the send-off she thoroughly deserves.” With a first-wave line-up including Digital Hardcore agitators Atari Teenage Riot, Warp Records new-rave darling Clark, slaytanic breakcore prophet Bong-Ra and drum’n’bass supervillain Limewax, I think poor Camber is going to get more than she ever bargained for.

The Bloc Festival and Glade Festival

Meanwhile, the Bloc Festival – Britain’s other three-days-of-electronic-insanity-in-an-anachronistic-holiday-camp – has signed IDM supremos Aphex Twin and LFO to headline, lording it over a very diverse line-up ranging from Pinch to Venetian Snares. And according to rumour -and, well, its website – Glade will be returning in 2011, after 2010’s event was cancelled due unexpectedly high costs. No acts announced yet, just the dates (early June), but cross your fingers and hope for sunshine.

Cassette (Sub)culture

They’ve never been completely away, but what started as a symptom of mental depravation became a kinky thing to do. And for 2011 we expect it might be a wise thing to find an (over)used tape-deck from your local thrift store. That is, if you like noise, power electronics drones and experimental music. Labels like Danvers State Recordings, Licht & Stahl and Tape Fiend released some wonderful titles and even the well known Touch-label (known from Biosphere, Fennesz, BJ Nilsen and many others) did tape-only releases on their tape-only label The Tapeworm. As said: It’s not for everyone or every style, but it’s definitely something to keep in your mind.

Chrysalide

If you are one of those slightly disaffected Skinny Puppy fans, waiting for them to come out with something truly awe inspiring, you might be waiting for sometime. However there is a band out there making the kind of industrial noise that should very much fill that void. Chrysalide. If you haven’t heard them yet, what rock have you been hiding under? Having played numerous festivals in 2010 (Leipzig, Maschinenfest and Noxious Arts, amongst others), and supported Atari Teenage Riot, a live release of their 100th gig and a new album due anytime now, 2011 should be an interesting year for them.

Milhões De Festa

Complete and utter surprise was an understandable reaction when coming accross the line-up for the Milhões De Festa festival which took place in late July and featured an extremely eclectic international roster that ran the gamut from doom-metal to extreme experimental fuckery with pretty much everything in between (Electric Wizard, The Fall, Sickboy, Captain Ahab, Faca Monstro, etc). Portugal being located somewhere on the tail-end of Europe and the Summer festival season being a mainstream desolation, Milhões de Festa was certainly a breath of fresh air for those looking for something different. Nothing has been announced for 2011 yet but, this having been the third instalment of this festival, odds are that something comparable is in the works for the coming year.

Resistanz International Industrial Music Festival

A new festival for the UK will be happening in 2011, in Sheffield, and it’s already secured some major names for this 2 day festival, which is particularly impressive. So far announced we’ve got C/A/T, Eisenfunk (Both first time in the UK), Caustic, The Gothsicles, XP8 (including a ‘special guest’), Covenant, And One, Suicide Commando, SAM, Uberbyte and Deviant UK. DJ’s at the festival include Thomas Rainer (Nachtmahr) and A+D+A+M (Lab4) amongst others, and with more announcements to come! Can’t wait to see how many more bands they have to come, and see if Infest will bring in some even bigger names later on in 2011. Healthy competition is always a good thing.

Signifier

Signifier is a new label that we think will be doing some interesting stuff in 2011. They’re already working on “A Mere Invention of the Idle Mind Volume 2” in partnership with another of our favourite labels, Mechanismz, as well as releasing their own compilation, “These Sounds Will Have to Meet Somewhere in Between” which will feature tracks by Lucidstatic, Nin Kuji, Endif, Tzolk’in (remixed by Geomatic) and many others. Signifier will be releasing full length albums from Lan Formatique, NXV, Ex_Tension, Cruise [Ctrl], and an ambient/rhythmic side project called To Travel Without Any Certain Destination from the artist behind Last Days of S.E.X. For a new label to start so strongly, with so many recognised artists as well as those new to us, we’re really looking forward to seeing how they progress through 2011. Signifier will definitely be a label to watch out for.

— recommendations from Andrew Clegg, Bauke van der Wal, Kate Turgoose and Miguel de Sousa