Subbacultcha Fall/Winter Highlights

Getting dark early would have probably been depressing, had we had nothing to look forward to in the later hours of the day. Luckily, this wasn’t the case, and while it remained cold outside, our spirits remained warm thanks to the incredible shows we got to witness. Here’s a glimpse.

POiSON GiRL FRiEND

Photo by Josinematography

Noriko’s voice sounds soft, but she moves through the stage with the confidence you can only get by decades of out-weirding everyone. In her jester-hat and a pair of sunglasses, Noriko blends cult classics and strange experiments, inviting the audience to co-conspire with her. She ends the set by turning her back to the crowd for a giant selfie, like an aunt stretching her arm around her nieces at a family reunion – a disarming gesture to break off the mystique. 

Mahne Frame

Photo by Anni Nöps

Drummer or stand-up comedian? Disciplines fuse in the world of Mahne Frame, from self-deprecating jokes to new media visuals commenting on internet culture and critiquing the normalities of today, I could no longer tell if I was attending a music gig or straight up performance art. Frame’s performance was one of those rare moments presenting that experimental music’s limits are… truly limitless. 

Fine

Photo by Gosia Kalisz

Fine delivers raw, piercing vocals that cut through the room with startling clarity. On stage, she stays composed, barely talking between songs, letting them speak for themselves. The fragile voice set against her glacial composure creates a contrast hard to look away from. Swaying side-to-side, the small, unsteady motion cuts through otherwise controlled stillness. 

Mel Keane

Photo by Theo Colin

Mel Keane is one of those artists who creates worlds for you to fall into. From droning synths to reverberating chanters that filled up the Dokzaal hall: his performance felt like a spell more than anything else.

In:Resonance

Photo by Anni Nöps

Something is bubbling in the field of listening sessions, and In:Resonance is strongly at the forefront. The striking brutalist architecture of De Thomaskerk was met with delicately crafted compositions and drones of Farzané, Casimir Geelhoed and Tegnander. Droning further, the site-specific performance of Inga Hirsch & Maarten Keus danced around subtle meditative oscillations arising from the air pressure changes of their self built pipe based instrument.  

Jazz Lambaux

Photo by Sanae Oujjit

Chanson française meets soundcloud via scream metal and instruments you have never seen before? It’s really hard to pin down to words about Jazz Lambaux’s appearance at de Roode Bioscoop, but that didn’t matter cause it felt like a long time friends meeting again. Everything was both new and familiar leaving a smile on everyone in that building. 

Snuggle

Emerging band Snuggle popped-off after the popular reception of their debut album Goodbyehouse. A sold-out show evoking many expectations that fully were realized. Andrea Thuesen Johansen’s vocals are light and piercing, like a shoegazey sad-girl that finally found her happily ever after in the world of sensitive soft rock. This and a bunch of extremely fine tuned (electric and acoustic) guitars guided the evening towards blissful headbangs and pure smiles. Interluding tracks with somewhat awkward reflections on their tour showed the humility Snuggle reverberates, creating an incredible hygge evening while it was freezing outside.

ear

Photo by Clara Franke

With heads banging from left to right, and an overwhelming amount of skirts over pants, the night would surely give flashbacks to the 2010s indie-sleaze had there been a person in the crowd who lived through that. With an aura of nostalgia for a past never lived, ear managed to create a unique, signature sound, and most importantly, gather an enthusiastic audience not afraid to jump into a mosh pit at any given moment. With the room filled to the brim, the only thing one could ask for is for the show to last all night.