«10»: Picks for the third day of Arctangent Festival

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The penultimate days of multi-day festivals are always the most difficult. You are already tired, but the adrenaline of the final day has not yet burst through your system to push you, with your last reserves of strength, through the ultimate marathon. Everything, of course, becomes much easier when a festival has made sure that every day of its schedule is filled with highly interesting bands, local and otherwise. With our interest undiminished, we arrive at Friday at Arctangent Festival, which in fact is also the day whose tickets disappeared faster than all the others, thanks to the much-anticipated appearance of Primus, who are playing a limited number of dates in Europe and the United Kingdom.

Around Primus, however, a multitude of artists will appear whom we at Rocking.gr have loved for a long time or have come to love recently. Although we have chosen our somewhat personal favorites below, major events also include both the return of Arcane Roots to active duty and, of course, the opening up of such festivals to very extreme forms of metal sound, as in the case of Napalm Death - who, in fact, have recently set about making every kind of audience they appear before their own, and are succeeding. We will also make a brief mention of Lili Refrain, whom we discovered as part of this year’s Roadburn Festival, and who is a folk-based artist who will occupy attention - if she is not already occupying certain audiences. So let’s see what will draw our presence among the many very interesting options.

Cover photo: Arctangent Festival Facebook page

Spotify Playlist

1

Moksha (Main Stage, 12.10 - 12.40)

Yes, I know, it is not exactly the most common thing to say that you are looking forward to a band you have never heard before. But when you know that the newly formed moksha (stylized in lowercase) are the natural continuation of the much-loved Ithaca while introducing themselves as Caroline meeting Jimmy Eat World (from whose concert, in fact, we will have recovered only a few days earlier), then there is zero risk in rushing to support this new venture. With only one concert a few days earlier under their belt and just one single to introduce themselves, Moksha are putting a lot at stake with this appearance. From festivals that honor and support the underground, however, we know well that the biggest surprises come from where you least expect them, from the band with no release that took the risk of introducing itself live. We wish them to confirm the rule.

2

Zatokrev (Main Stage, 13.20 - 14.00)

There is something in the universes and atmospheres that Zatokrev build that has won me over irreparably. The chaotic post-sludge of the Swiss band with the Czech name runs deep through time, since their latest discographic work, “… Bring Mirrors To The Surface”, is the spiritual continuation of their decade-old release, “Silk Spiders Underwater…”. It is a work that required a very long time to complete, and rightly so, judging by the result. Having had no chance to see them live in the meantime, the first steps of the third day of Arctangent Festival will be a very good opportunity to let Zatokrev’s difficult, stagnant waters embrace us and wash away our existential gloom.

3

Conjurer (Main Stage, 14.40 - 15.20)

Theodosis’s had called them a “rotten monster” at the time of the release of “Pathos”, and that can only be a good thing for anyone who knows how he uses words; Vlasis called them “incapable of making a mistake” last year with the monumental “Unself”. For me, they were the most staggering performance of last year’s Damnation Festival. With that memory still very much alive, I am counting the minutes until I find myself once again amid Conjurer’s roars of existential crisis, and let my soul fly with them to distant worlds. The gloom of imagination is, after all, always more attractive than the real one. Night Swimming, who will be playing at the same time nearby, may deserve attention, especially if you cannot withstand Conjurer’s heavy and crushing post-sludge, but I know very well that my heart will not let me move away from one of my favorite bands of recent years.

4

Barrens (Bixler Stage, 15.25 - 15.55)

Although choosing between them and the contemporary sound of The Intersphere at exactly the same time seems difficult, who can truly resist a midday, enigmatic gathering of instrumental post-metal? Barrens, soon discovered by the tireless radar of Pelagic Records, have a unique talent for composing guitar melodies that flow into one another as if they had been born together in some primordial recipe for magic, yet ended up as sheet music for an instrument. It began with “Penumbra” a few years earlier, but the macabre “Corpse Lights” brings a culmination to the course of a band that seems to have a great deal still to offer. Personally, we are thirsty for it.

5

Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs (Main Stage, 16.00 - 16.50)

The writer’s adoration for Japanese post-hardcore is particularly great. This can only mean that attendance at Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs’ appearance on the festival’s main stage is a one-way street. The band with the name that means nothing - literally, the original members simply chose random English words that sounded good to them - went through many waves, including a period of inactivity, but they are here again, stronger than ever. Now a trio, Mass Of The Fermenting Dregs unfold their sweet, almost girlish world (though no longer made up only of girls) despite its optimism, over bitter melodic guitars, placing the essence of their self-defining idiom in a completely new context that we like very much.

6

Kulk (PX3 Stage, 17.55 - 18.35)

Nothing delights us more around here than a track appearing on some platform’s autoplay that excites us, by a band we do not know. All the more so if that band has no release to its name, but one is approaching soon. We are talking about Kulk, the British duo who combine noise with sludge and hardcore in a particularly appealing sound, and who will certainly concern us soon. Their first album, “Choose To Die”, is approaching, and we will discuss it in much greater detail then. Until that time comes, however, the track “An Endless Knife” impressed us, as did their promise of chaotic stage appearances. While many people will, rightly, support the return of Arcane Roots, the underground needs a little care in order to bloom.

7

Nothing (Yohkai Stage, 18.45 - 19.35)

What have we not written about Nothing? The band that has captivated us with its unique revival of particularly noisy and provocative shoegaze, release after release, has moved beyond the effort to convince and seize impressions, and has entered a continuous attempt to surpass itself. Monuments like “Dance On The Blacktop” are not repeated, but no one is asking for repetition. The previous “The Great Dismal” and the recent “A Short History Of Decay” prove their multifaceted ability to praise the sounds to which they remain faithful. Their volumes are monumental, so let us not forget that Arctangent Festival is collaborating with ACS Custom to produce earplugs for the festival, while it is also crowned the first “Safe Listening” festival in England with academic standards! Keep them close while watching Nothing, along with a pack of tissues.

8

Perturbator (Main Stage, 19.40 - 20.30)

As we also wrote about the previous day of the festival, France is being honored in this year’s edition, especially in electronic sound. Naturally, after such an observation, the prince of French synthwave (since we recently and unfairly lost the king Kavinsky) could not be absent from the rule of the main stage: Perturbator - James, to his friends. The Parisian of the same age as me, no longer needs introductions, I think. The shy black-metaller and his keyboards, which once, began a strange journey into the unknown with hope as their vessel, have now become one of the most recognizable figures of a sound that built its own scene. He embraced the guitar again, created a live band of two people, and produced a discography many around him could envy. From the beginning, up to “Age Of Aquarius”, Perturbator is not interested in nostalgia itself, but in its present-day impact in a new form. We will dance until our legs can no longer hold us.

9

Bruit ≤ (Bixler Stage, 20.35 - 21.25)

The lure of going to see Napalm Death after their excellent Tiny Desk Concert is not enough, since we will soon meet them in our little Athens. Even more so when, at the same time, Bruit will be building their terrifying walls of sound a little further away. Some years ago, while I was certain of the complete fall and imminent death of the post-rock genre, I came across the excellent “The Machine Is Burning And Now Everyone Knows It Could Happen Again” and changed my mind forever. Indeed, since then the genre has been undergoing a renaissance; Bruit also released “The Age Of Ephemerality”, further intensifying the expression of their political discourse, following the path laid down by our spiritual fathers Godspeed You Black Emperor, and I have been chasing the chance to see them. The appointment will come to pass at Arctangent Festival.

10

Primus (Main Stage, 21.30 - 23.00)

My first encounter with Les Claypool’s absolutely mad, very likable, and ultimately very sweet persona came, as it did for most people my age, through: “I’m going down to South Park gonna have myself a time”. Before rock and metal, there were other forms of entertainment in our lives, and in their own way they too led us toward our beloved music. After all, you would have had to be a very indifferent child not to be shaken by Claypool’s bass notes, no matter how much he humorously denies his talent in every interview and speech. Falling in love with his main band, Primus, was the immediately following reaction. A performance we have been waiting for a long time (we ourselves, and England itself as it seems, judging by how quickly the single-day tickets specifically for Friday disappeared) will close the main concert part of the penultimate day of Arctangent Festival.