«10»: Our most anticipated performances of Roadburn Festival 2024 - Part B'

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When a festival, as we commented last week, essentially focuses on the global music underground, then exploration is a one-way street. This year, the great four-day festival, probably goes deeper than ever into contemporary experimentation, with the aim of redefining what is considered "heavy". A modus operandi, which rarely adheres to sub-genre labels, or excludes musical scenes. Roadburn 2024, in its full lineup, stubbornly insists on bringing to the fore artists and formats with a particular artistic point of view.

We from our perspective, true to our constant motivation of constantly searching for new interesting artists, sometimes find the festival's announcements to match our tastes, and sometimes they excite our interest for new discoveries. In the second part of our extensive festival coverage, we pick ten sets from the second day of the festival, Friday April 19th, in Tillburg, The Netherlands, from artists that intrigue us, and share takeaways, expectations, and love. For more information about each day and the very interesting side program, you can find out through the following link.

You can revisit here the first part of our article series about this year's festival, focusing on the sets of Thursday, April 18.

1

Ragana & Drowse (14:20 - 15:00, The Terminal)

Sister bands, both under The Flenser label, Ragana and Drowse seemed destined to team up at some point. Both artists will also have their separate, personal sets, and as much as the presentation of the entire "Desolation's Flower" is predicted to be evocative, here the stakes are raised. "The Ash From Mount Saint Helens", is expected to awaken memories of landscapes, forests, rivers, with a pagan step, but also with obvious roots in the alternative scene from which the 2 bands "come". In any case, on Friday we will travel early to soundscapes free from human oppression.

2

Home Front (16:40 - 17:30, The Terminal)

Here In Rocking, our editorial team has honored and spinned endlessly both the debut EP “Think Of The Lie” and the full length album “Games Of Power”. After last year's High Vis unforgettable set at the festival, we were betting on what could be this year's equivalent moment. Roadburn gives us the gift of seeing the awesome Canadian political post-punks on their rise, and we're already preparing our voices to lose them to one of the best songs of the past year (yes, we are talking about “Nation”). In any case, it is with such announcements, that our faith in the artistic vision of the festival remains unwavering. Home Front, to put it mildly, is one of the best acts in their scene. You can't miss this set.

3

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys (17:50 - 18:50, Hall Of Fame)

Classic case of hidden gem. This isn't the first time we've come across something like this in a pre-festival studying session, and we don't expect it to be the last. If we had to place Lucy Kruger's music next to a genre, we would probably choose our favorite atmospheric rock. If we wanted to make it somewhat more specific, we would place the names of Emma Ruth Rundle and Esben And The Witch somewhere next to each other. More like a mindset than a one-to-one stylistic match. Darkness, grooves and deep red. How far is Tilburg from Santa Carla, we said?

4

Deaf Club (18:10 - 18:50, The Engine Room)

On the harsher side of the Roadburn Festival sound spectrum, we will meet an up and coming band that fills in many gaps from bands that we no longer have around us. Hard-necked powerviolence, hardcore punk but with mathematical proportions and rhythms to own it, one listen to "Productive Disruption" will convince any skeptic that Deaf Club are a band that's about today's hard sound in ways we wish other behemoths of the harder side of music would have. On the day that touches the wildest sounds for the Roadburn festival, their appearance should almost monopolize the interest.

5

Dool (19:10 - 20:10, Main Stage)

Taste of rain. Gray as far as the eye can see. Essentially heavy, direct rock. Far from empty impressions and commercial oversimplifications. On the informal list of elements that make up the 'Roadburn sound', the quintet have ticked off enough to respectably justify wondering about the eight-year gap since their last festival appearance. Certainly, we wouldn't say no to a look back at their opus "Summerland" along with their previous work. The chance to experience the all-new "The Shape Of Fluidity" in a world premiere, however, is too good to pass up.

6

Hedvig Mollestad Trio (20:00 - 21:15, Paradox)

Here at Rocking, you should know that there is a whole faction of Hedvig Mollestad fanatics. With each of her projects, especially with the Hedvig Mollestad Trio, the Norwegian virtuoso of jazz rock (and not only), manages to perfectly combine technique, imagination, substance and emotion. Her set so, is an opportunity, since we swallowed the propaganda and believed our comrades here, to visit the beautiful Paradox venue to listen to an experimental group that does not insist on the romance of the past but has a strong reason for the present of moving sound colors. Something tells us that HMT's set will probably be one of the heaviest we will witness.

7

Xiu Xiu (20:10 - 21:10, Next Stage)

Having come to the forefront of the experimental rock music scene for two long decades now, Xiu Xiu do not need much of an introduction. With the deafening name they've chosen for their set, "The Police Bear Such Reemblance to That They Pursue" Xiu Xiu promise to deliver a show filled with new compositions from their as-yet-untitled new record, as well as many re-runs and improvisations of their older material. After all, they are famous for their ability to improvise resulting in explosive sets on stage, while the very environment of Roadburn Festival goes out to clothe those in a happily suffocating atmosphere.

8

Health (21:20 - 22:20, Main Stage)

There are parties, and there are parties. The group from Los Angeles never stops proving, both in the studio and on stage, that they can take a quiet night and turn it into a party, just like that. And if two years ago, the stage was somewhat squeezed into the small Koepelhal stage, this year the main stage belongs to them. Between the humming basslines, hypnotic hooky lines and industrial atmospheres, the pack seems doomed for endless games with lights and even more tastes in the square of 013. With "Rat Wars" in their luggage and a load of really big songs, the sixty minutes are predicted hot.

9

Stormo (23:30 - 00:10, Hall Of Fame)

We really appreciate thisItalian extreme hardcore/screamo menace. And, taking into account their fourth album, last year's storming “Endocannibalismo”, we can confidently claim that their explosive sound mix, and especially Stormo's personality, rightfully make them one of the best bands of their generation. So, knowing that the festival has a tradition of honoring the modern extreme underground-core sound, we think that their announcement came at the right time. It only remains to be seen, if Stormo can also cause as much listening on the board as their records. Zero risk, as you correctly guessed.

10

Patriarchy (23:40 - 00:30)

On a journey of personal self-fulfillment, Patriarchy's music is not only one of the best dark electronic sets we will have the chance to see at Roadburn Festival. Their danceable style, which is dressed in an eerie but revelatory way, hides behind transition stories, remixes that present the allegory of second nature, compositions written for a parallel universe that exists to offer us a safe way of escape. In a day with many options, one of the most ideal ways to finalize your schedule is to lose yourself in the vibrant, sensual world of Patriarchy until you fall, mentally or from dance exhaustion.