Festival Focus

Incubate Festival

In the small province of Noord-Brabant lies an even smaller city. Not only famous for hosting the largest funfair of Benelux, one that kicks off with a ‘Pink Monday’ and runs for ten days, Tilburg is also home to the annual week-long  music, art and culture festival Incubate, a funfair in its own right. This year’s outrageous lineup is comprised of no less than 388 incredible acts. So many in fact, picking out just a few is an almost insurmountable endeavour. Always up for the challenge, we selected five of the top caliber acts to check out at this year’s Incubate Festival. That’s just a  fraction of the hundreds of possibilities – for an extensive overview of the programming visit the Incubate website here.

 

K-X-P 

The krautrock gods from Helsinki released their self titled debut in 2010 and have since put out two more albums. While the records are nothing short of great, the live experience is next level. On top of their flawless music, dressed all in black and hidden away beneath hoods, they are sincerely cool.

K-X-P play on Saturday, September 19th @ Dudok.

No Joy

Signed on to Mexican Summer, No Joy’s most recent album More Faithful is one of the top shoegaze albums released this year. We had the pleasure to experience it live when Montreal’s four-piece brought us very much joy in May with a short but all the more sweet set at De Nieuwe Anita in Amsterdam. We can go as far as to cross our hearts and hope to die, No Joy will not disappoint.

No Joy play on Sunday, September 20th @ Extase

Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe

Brian Jonestown Massacre virtuoso teamed up with Canadian singstress Tess Parks, which resulted in the co-written I Declare Nothing that was released in June on Newcombe’s label ‘A’ Recordings. With closed eyes you’d be sure to imagine Parks spending her days in a dark cigar room but on stage in reality that dusky voice, harmonious with low key drone rock jams, spells out a bewitching collaboration.

Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe play on Friday, September 18th @ Extase

Profligate

Following the split up of speed dub group Social Junk, Noah Anthony set up an electronic solo project in Philadelphia. The careful design of heavy beats and synth lines that are trademark of Profligate’s sound waver between obscure and unpredictable to climatic dance-inducing beats, all within the darker domain of electronic music. Anthony’s gift of finding balance between influences from industrial, electronic and pop music hopefully unfolds as a passionate, sweaty and manic live set.

Profligate plays  on Sunday, September 20th @ City Hotel, De Stadskelder.

Wire

British art punk legends Wire have undergone many phases over the last almost four decades of their career. Throughout the years members have left and later returned, some dropped out and found replacement. Wire go way back to 1977 when they handed the world some fresh resonance after the British punk wave in the form of debut album Pink Flag. Wire’s influence transcends past their rather modest record sales; their guidance had solid ramifications on American hardcore punk in addition to praise from a legion of 1980s and 1990s noise and punk groups – think Sonic Youth, The Urinals. This year marked their 14th release, the self titled album on their own Pinkflag label. This year’s Incubate experience will reach zenith when the post-punk icons take on the stage together with an orchestra of over a dozen guitar players from bands playing the Incubate Sunday.

Wire brings Incubate to a close on Sunday, September 20th @ Midi.