Every year Slam Dunk Festival seems to outdo itself. After our music writer Amber had such an amazing time meeting the crowd to create last year’s Slam Dunk Street Spotter we couldn’t wait for her to head back for the 2017 edition…
Name: Kirsty Instagram:@kirstycee Job: Fashion and print designer Tattoos: Arm (top half) by Jamie Eskdale, arm (bottom half) by James Walters, shin by Christine Davies, thigh by Danny Brown. There to see:Bury Tomorrow, Don Broco, Beartooth, Enter Shikari
If you haven’t heard of In Colourful Company yet you may have spotted their colourful community walking around a city near you. The group is ‘an all inclusive community of kindness, encouragement and adventure’ that started out in Sheffield just over a year ago.
Their goal is to bring people together in fun and creative ways, and to encourage each other to take chances and make changes, all whilst grabbing their cameras and searching the streets of their favourite cities in search of colour.
Our music writer Amber caught up with a few from this colourful lot during their Leeds walk to find out more about their creative careers, tattoos and their experience of In Colourful Company…
Arctangent returns for its fourth year at Fernhill Farm, celebrating the very best that math-rock, post-rock and noise-rock have to offer. With so many diverse bands on the line-up, freelance writer Mat Ombler has gathered a list of eight that you simply cannot afford to miss…
Nordic Giants live performance is out of this world, and their breath-taking sets have been melting the minds of their audiences since 2010. The duo incorporate visuals into their live set, performing alongside cinematic projections that provide a narrative to their songs.
Alongside these projections, Nordic Giants become a collaboration of true artistry, capable of evoking serious emotion from their audiences. It’s rare that at a festival with a crowd three thousand strong, a band could manage to wow their audience into complete silence – but Nordic Giants manage to do just that, time and time again.
Blackened post-rock music doesn’t get much better than this! Svalbard is a combination of black metal melodies and epic post-rock progressions, perfectly executed with the aggression you would expect from a thrash metal or punk band. Their latest release, ‘One Day All This Will End‘, is one of the finest albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to in a long time, with not a single weak track on the album.
Their combination of mad synth sounds, wacky electronics and wild drum patterns make Three Trapped Tigers a highlight of any line-up. The musical trio is a beautifully choreographed mess of intensely unique sounds, with all the energy from both the band and crowd you would expect from a set at an illegal underground rave.
Perhaps one of the most influential post-rock bands of all time, Godspeed You! Black Emperor headline the main stage on Friday at this year’s festival. Featuring a large ensemble of various musicians – with various percussionists and even a violin player – Godspeed You! Black Emperor promise to deliver a headline performance unlike any Arctangent Festival has seen before.
Toe are a Japanese rock band from Tokyo and they’re performing an exclusive UK set at this year’s festival. They’re unlikely to be returning anytime soon, so don’t miss them, yeah?
Toe’s back-catalogue is as diverse as the festival line-up, featuring melodic instrumental sections with some beautiful vocal accompaniments in certain parts.
La Dispute make their debut appearance at this year’s Arctangent Festival. Jordan Dreyer’s vocals are essentially spoken word, sitting atop experimental guitar drones and muddy bass to help draw their audience into the short stories they’re telling. La Dispute’s experimental take on melodic and post-hardcore is unlike any other and it’s not to be missed.
This psychedelic prog-rock band features a bassoon, alto saxophone and even a baritone saxophone, their songs usually consist of around seven or eight different instruments coming together to craft a sound that’s somewhere in-between contemporary prog bands and alternative mainstream music. There are tracks on their most recent release, ‘Bottled Out Of Eden‘, that are reminiscent of Between The Buried And Me’s ‘Colours’ masterpiece, but with the influence of more popular indie artists. If you’re a fan of progressive rock music, the recreational uses of psychedelic drugs – or perhaps both: don’t miss ‘em.
Formerly known as This Town Needs Guns, this math-rock band from Oxford are one of the most well known bands from the math-rock scene. Their technically driven melodic guitar progressions draw influence all the way from Spanish to jazz music, and their deployment of various time signatures is enough to keep any listener on their feet – and for the right reasons.
Arctangent Festival takes place 18th- 20th of August and tickets are still available here.
Opening with ‘Goodness Pt.2’ from their latest album ‘Goodness’ it was incredible to hear Christian Holden’s vocals open up the set, accompanied only by Sam Frederick’s drumming. This track opened the set in such a beautiful way, then they moved into ‘Piano Player’. They swiftly picked up the pace with ‘In Framing’ from the incredible ‘Home, Like NoPlace Is There’, which brought some difficult subjects to the crowd who simply responded by singing the lyrics. It was clear from the sold-out show that the themes in their songs resonate with a lot of people. The iconic ‘Your Deep Rest’ created a choir in the crowd as they were singing ‘I called in sick to your funeral’.
‘Among The Wildflowers’ continued and as the band brought the track to the audience they changed it with screams, heaving with desperation that reflected the song ‘Life In Drag’ that followed.
‘Soft Animal’ continued the poignant tone, every sound in the room was silenced as Holden sang ‘make me feel alive, make me believe that all my selves align’ before breaking into ‘Weathered’ from The Hotelier’s first album ‘It Never Goes Out’ from 2011.
‘Sun’ settled the crowd into a calm – to me this really is the most beautiful and organic track. It has a subtlety that makes it clear just how much work and understanding goes into the breadth and timing of their songs. It’s interesting how the space and the quiet makes The Hotelier such an outstanding band with a raw live performance that could have been so easily fleeting.
‘An Introduction To The Album’ is emphasised with the echoing crowd and begins to end the set with ‘The Scope of All of This Rebuilding’. Closing with ‘Dendron’ was perfect. It showed how the band can word difficult moments and ideas, bringing the crowd to a frenzy of fists and screaming.
The Hotelier have this incredible talent of delivering an engaging set that will always resonate with the audience, but at the same time they are able to hold back to create a striking live performance.
Our music writer Amber had an incredible time at music festival Slam Dunk North seeing a ton of bands and snapping this beautiful lot. She found out who they were there to see and who they’ve been tattooed by…
