It’s upon us again. Bad Owl presents another weekend of diverse, progressive, and brilliant heavy music and associated curios. We love this festival as it heralds the start of a jam-packed summer, so let’s get stuck in.
Day 1
Love Rarely
This is a band firmly within the “ones to watch” category of lively new UK acts, loads of math rock twists and turns bring to mind a punkier Rolo Tomassi and a savvy use of dynamics with Courtney Levitt’s switch from serrated roar to croon dancing in the space in between the bands measured colour play dipping expertly around a wide palette of shades. They deliver belters like the brilliant Entropy showing us exactly why people are standing up and giving this excellent act their full attention. We are truly off!! As Love Rarely leaves us with the Morello-esque groove of PAF we can definitely say we are primed for the amazing weekend ahead.
Din Of Celestial Birds
Next up are one of the most talked about acts in the post everything scene, Din Of Celestial Birds. These guys trade in transcendence and truly live up to their high flying wonderfully descriptive moniker. Opening with ‘Laureate of American Low Life’ transcend they certainly do; they soar off from the first note. Something about Dins triple guitar bass and drums instrumental attack says more than words ever will. Instant goosebumps accompany every track as standard. It isn’t all ambience and skyscraping leads on ‘Junebug’ when they lock into a chugging metal groove it’s utterly thunderous and totally compelling. The DnB percussive barrage on ‘Schoolyard Skeletons’ proves that this is a thoroughly switched on band that will take you wherever they wish at any time without a warning. Thunder samples herald the arrival of ‘Downpour’, which actually compared to the thunder onstage pale by comparison, this indeed is an elemental experience. As they leave us slack jawed with an amazing closing ‘MMEC’ we can safely say they conquered today.
Pleiades
Following that takes a mammoth band and thank you to genius programming from Bad Owl that’s what we get with the awesome Pleiades, a perfect follow up. ‘Siberian’ announces their arrival in signature angular fashion and from there they do not let up with their brand of post hardcore/math rock or as the band also put it, post everything. ‘Honeyguide II’ sounds utterly huge as it soars on those ever-catchy melodies. It’s in that keen sense of melody and hooks that Pleiades thrive. Breaking it down like pulling back a catapult and taking aim, ‘Universal’ focusses and then releases straight into the ears of the crowd with precision and skill. This band are so tight in their looseness it’s quite a unique sound. A band 100% in control of their chaos and it’s very exhilarating indeed. This mate’s fest’s early start to the festival is underlined with the shout outs onstage. It’s one big noisy family! Pleiades bow out with ‘No Living Thing’ and a room of converts, top bombing lads!
Demcats
Experimental two piece on drums and guitar, Demcats sit somewhere between math rock and free jazz with polyrhythms flying left right and centre. This is deeply complex music, and it has a thoroughly hypnotising quality to it. The first truly experimental act of the weekend provides pause for thought and makes everything that has gone before look like straight up rock music even though we’ve already danced in the outer reaches by modern rock and metal standards. The hammer on – pull off and slap guitar techniques here are easily as technical as you’ll see from a band like Polyphia say, but presented in an altogether more abstract, freeform way. The drumming is intense and sits between jazz and full-on blast beats, it’s frankly bewildering and quite brilliant. The crowd who were banging their heads 30 minutes ago are now lost in a sea of abstraction and seem to be loving it. Demcats are definitely a challenging band but a very rewarding one at the same time.
Other Half
This tight power trio brings good vibes by the ton with punchy post rock and a great sense of humour. Their set includes songs about having two wet dreams in one night and there is a complexity under their happy go lucky delivery that shows that you can make difficult music with a smile on your face! Who knew! Other Half are just the tonic right now and cleanse the palette of the StrangeForms throng ahead of the serious pummeling up later. Other half also remind me of early nineties Sub Pop and even Dischord at times, they have a spiky punk rock edge that definitely has been missing for a while. Fans of Silverfish, Gallon Drunk and even Jesus Lizard will find a lot to love here.
Fall Of Messiah
The French four piece are all sinew and muscle in as they explode onstage, tight and angular and then at the flick of a switch, they relax and the sound expands into sprawling post rock on ‘Contreforts’, the vocals are sporadic and sparing in their harsh delivery. There is so much depth on display here and we’re only one-track in. Then they shift shape once more with twinkling leads sparkling over breeze block bass tones. Individual songs here become an experience as a whole. There is a bit of brevity when their drummer declared, “fuck Brexit, please buy some merch!” Since cross channel gigs are much more expensive these days. Drummer, bassist and guitarist all share throat shredding duties with an impassioned display from their tub thumper pushing so much energy from the back of the Brudenell’s intimate up close and personal stage, so much so that I don’t think the bass drum was the same afterwards! The band blast out in fine style leaving us with an incendiary ‘Rust’, and we are in awe of the powerhouse performance we have just witnessed.
False Advertising
This trio brings a pop sensibility to their punky grungy sound that sometimes reminds me of Teenage Fanclub and early nineties, “proper,” indie rock. There is a groovy fuzz lead quality to their sound which is pleasantly plump and satisfying. In singer and guitarist Jen Hingley They have an excellent snarling delivery in amongst the melody that contradicts the prettiness in the music, a pleasing juxtaposition that means that when they bite, they bite hard. Lovely staccato post punk jerkiness gives way to lush choruses and occasionally reminds me of Belly (remember them?) the guitar playing is rich and tonally nods to Dinosaur Jnr as much as it does rhythmically to Talking Heads. False Advertising are as with everyone on this bill, a different take on a genre you thought you’d heard in full. By far the most, “regular,” act on display today but that’s not traditional regular by any means. False Advertising get feet tapping, faces smiling and heads nodding, and we start getting very excited at the prospect of who’s up next.
CLT DRP
This band delivered arguably one of the albums of the year in, ‘Nothing Clever, Just Feelings’ which made many people’s charts in 2023 and seemed to blindside the entire scene that was awash with excellent albums already. Their late coming release last autumn was stunning, and jaws hit the floor all round. This is a band that doesn’t sound like the instruments they’re playing, the guitar in particular rarely sounds like a guitar and it’s bloody brilliant. Oh, and don’t they shine tonight, CLT DRP do not come anywhere near disappointing and are a revelation from the off. Injecting more bass, more dance, more attitude, everything is on full for this band. In singer Annie Dorrett they have one of the best riot starters I’ve seen in any genre for a long time. Everything about this band is fresh and vibrant, they deliver better dance music than most dance acts with drums, guitars, vocals and a shit load of pedals. It’s pure innovation and it’s glorious. All your favourites from last year’s stunning album and 2020’s ‘Without The Eyes’ are on display from ‘I Don’t Want To Go To The Gym’ to ‘Nothing Clever Just Feelings’ title track, this is an inspired booking for this time of the day when punters might have started flagging, they’re all dancing their asses off now that’s for sure! If there’s a more inspired crossover of punk and funk out there, we’d be very surprised! Surely CLT DRP should be up for Gossip style success very soon with massive stages and the kind of light show this music deserves! CLT DRP destroyed the Brude tonight, which is a fact!
Employed To Serve
Employed To Serve are this year’s full on metal headliners this year, a spot filled by Conjuror last year and they fully embrace it. Bursting onstage to ‘Universal Chokehold’ the band show they mean serious business with barely concealed grins underneath those banging heads. Employed To Serve exists in a space between hardcore metal and proper metal, maybe think Machine Head type riffing influence by a little Judas Priest paired with Justine Jones’ more hardcore influenced vocal and you’ll be in the right ballpark…ish. Guaranteed pit fodder like ‘Sun Up To Sun Down’ and a feral ‘We Don’t Need You’ stomp Leeds into submission tonight with it’s fantastic juddering breeze block riffing. ‘World Ender’ seems to attempt to do just that in lieu of the Hadron Collider being switched back on. ‘Exist brings’ the hardcore bounce in spades. It really is a UK Modern metal classic, full on gang vocal action and a groove that makes your fist clench involuntarily! Sam and Justine are of course the people behind the incredible Church Road label so on every level they live and bleed the UK metal scene and are fast becoming heavy music royalty. Conquering, well…conquers doesn’t it! With a choppy chugathon that’s sharper than a chainsaw. The anthemic ‘Mark Of The Grave’ signs off a remarkable day of thoroughly diverse exciting sounds in true fist pumping fashion.
Images By Miley Stevens
Day 2
Slow Loris
“That song is about selling shotguns, it’s called Selling Shotguns, this song is about a haircut.” We are away on Day 2 with instrumental act Slow Loris and this delightfully wonky band are here to ease us into another day of glorious abstraction and post everything sounds. There’s something delightfully tripped out about their sound and funky wonkiness is the order of the day with a journeyman meandering into different areas of music sometimes many places at once! They also have plenty of bite and energy which is something we all need after yesterday’s awesome bill. Frenetic bleeps and blaps emerge from a box beside the bass player and kind of front man who takes care of excellent stage patter, apologising for his swearing throughout as, “It’s early on a Sunday.” Another excellent bit of programming by Bad Owl as this group of misfits are perfectly placed to get us in the mood. They dedicate a track called ‘The Baron’ to cricket, because why not? Groovy and freeform but with plenty of punch when required. Then we get a lovely song about a bee called, ‘Bee Rude’, fair play lads, fair play!
Allora
Sultry slinky grooves are the currency Allora trades in with subtle three-part harmonies and midnight tones. These are fully on display on the shimmying ‘Mother’ which feels like a Sunday song to ease into. ‘Cold Blood’ injects an urgency and staccato attacking rhythms albeit in a soulful funky fashion. Bands like Allora are one of the reasons we love StrangeForms so much, this festival’s open-door policy to good forward-thinking music means that you can be assured of surprises and new additions to your playlist. New track ‘Petrichor’ gets introduced and not only is it named after one of my favourite smells it’s a great layered piece of soulful rock with those fantastic harmonies ringing out and some excellent lead work. On final track ‘Burned’ the four piece really get a chance to let rip and their sound expands and soars on big open chords and stately leadwork, it’s an impressive end to a builder of a set that definitely followed an upward trajectory from sullen and slinky to full and epic in the space of six tracks.
Jaguar Throne
Next up is Jaguar Throne who share a frontman with the mighty Bossk and some familiar faces from well-established bands like, The Hell, Krokodil and Cognizance. So, we’re very excited to hear what this is all about! Jaguar Throne is an altogether more melodic proposition than we were expecting given the band members’ day jobs. From post-metal and prog rock to hardcore and tech-metal, there’s a deep complexity at play here and whilst it has a dark heart there are elements of clear beauty as well. It’s a very pleasing mix of styles that even allows for groove and even funk to infuse the brew. Vocal harmonies live alongside the sandpaper grit harsh vocals we were expecting. Moshers fear not though, breeze block riffing is here too and is a deathly roar. Jaguar Throne is playing their third gig ever today and, on this showing, there is plenty of scope for this project to do a lot more serious damage.
Irk
Now this is the part of Sunday when we get rather unusual, Irk is a three piece of bass, drums and vocals and a whole lot of effects. Positioned on the floor in front of the stage their confrontational vocalist Jack barks and writhes his way through a set of noisy but funky experimental noise rock with track titles like ‘Toothache In Prison’ (which must be awful now we think about it) and ‘Insect Worship’. They’re startling, funny and really quite glorious. We even get the odd gag about a guest vocalist thrown in which I won’t spoil, you’ll just have to go and see them. Musically the bass and drums are not unlike a more primitive Primus at times and ‘Eating All Of The Apple’ sails dangerously close to being an actual song. Another reason to love Bad Owl and StrangeForms. We really weren’t expecting this at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon!
Dystopian Future Movies
Dystopian Future Movies deal in shoegaze fuzzy stoner rock with an emphasis on atmosphere and texture. Caroline Cawley is a great classic alternative rock singer and guitarist indeed and the shadowy band oozes menace and foreboding. Unfortunately, technical gremlins interrupt their set but as they say, it’s not how you fall but how you get back up and they certainly come back roaring with intertwined dual guitar parts dancing around each other and combining to thunderous distorted effect. Dystopian Future Movies clearly know their guitar tones and when they kick into high gear on ‘The Veneer’ it’s a psychedelic treat. Squalls of feedback are used and texture and the whole vibe is thick and luxurious rather than harsh and abrasive. This is definitely a band to turn on, tune in and drop out to. They’re truly effective when they break down to the most delicate almost acapella sections then erupt in a huge wave of elemental sonics. Shortened as their set might be there’s certainly enough here to ensure that we’ll be delving into their back catalogue as soon as we return home.
Memory Of Elephants
Bristolians Memory Of Elephants claim in their biography that they, “make a mockery of how difficult their music is to play.” Which at this festival is a promising prospect! Playing facing each other with only a sea of effects pedals between them gives their performance a dualling energy that serves to spur each band member on into a full-on wig out frenzy. There’s a huge amount of vibrancy emanating from the stage from the off and many music bases are covered in one big celebration of kick ass riffing. Memory Of Elephants are an instrumental act and this means that they are way pacier than conventional acts and shape shift continually. Their claim at the top of this review makes a lot of sense when you experience this three piece in action, there are a lot of moving pieces at play here and it’s very impressive indeed. If you’re a fan of the chaotic party vibes of Bi Curious or even God Alone, you’ll definitely find plenty to love here.
Straight Girl
Straight Girl is Leeds-based electronic musician Remy Enceladus and they are the producers of a sound known as Sad Dance, what is that you ask? Well, we’re about to find out. Well, the answer to that question is raucous vocal techno performed by Straight Girl who are neither straight nor a girl. It’s high energy all the way with the four squarely on the floor. Tons of fuck you attitude and bit crushed electronica. ‘They Keep Looking At Me’, was apparently written about two hours ago and the track previous to it was written two weeks ago we’re told, they don’t sound like it with fantastic production throughout, it takes a lot of knowledge to sound this spiky. Straight Girl recently collaborated with fellow Yorkshire alt rockers Artio who we reviewed recently on their support with Lake Malice, so seeing Straight Girl in the Brude feels like a very Leeds affair. One of the other experimental areas of music in this city is and always has been electronic music so it’s nice to see Bad Owl representing it once again at StrangeForms. The bass in here is definitely testing the structural integrity of the Brudenell this evening as Straight Girl swerves into low end exploration. It’s a highly colourful display of modern electronica and we can definitely see what all the buzz is about. Big respect also to Straight Girl for apparently dancing their way through that set with a broken toe! Warrior!
Gallops
Staying on an electronic vibe, the next band up are Gallops. At first glance before they started playing, you’d swear they were a post rock band but then they kick off and you’re into a deep electronic world and those guitars no longer sound like guitars. It’s a fantastic live show and the audience are definitely feeling it with Straight Girl being a perfect previous billing. They dive into deep techno and utilise gated guitar drones to give texture and warmth. Their drummer plays an acoustic kit with triggers for synthetic sounds as far as we can see and it’s all very modern, clever and truly sophisticated. Pulsing throbs give way to epic slow grooves and those shoegaze guitar swells wash all over the PA, its huge sounding! The advent of the perfecting of looper pedals has totally opened up the scope for this kind of performance as has the development of guitar interfaces. This kind of performance was something we dreamed of in the nineties and now it seems the sky’s the limit! For a moment we’re transported back to Megadog in 95 when the line between guitar music and dance music was frequently crossed and we’re so glad there’s a whole new generation of bands making frequent trips over that line now.
Delta Sleep
Seeing us out this weekend are math rock legends Delta Sleep with their chirpy, slightly wonky, and to a lot of this crowd singalong vibes. Awesome drumming and bass performances from the virtuoso rhythm section Dave Jackson on bass and Blake Mostyn on drums who give the deeply complex jazzy guitars room to skip around at will over the already skittish tempo flux and time changes. Jazz does seem to inform a lot of these arrangements more so than with other acts of this ilk. The StrangeForms crowd are swinging their hips and hanging on every word giving the Kent based act a hero’s welcome. ‘Lake Sprinkle Sprankle’ is introduced as the singer’s favourite song, a more straight-ahead rocking affair at first but that doesn’t mean it’s played straight at all, this is music for deep thinkers and good timekeepers, the complexity on display is both dazzling and bewildering. Delta Sleep have obviously played in Leeds many times before and their local big up is expertly dropped as the next head scratching beat skitters into view. Delta Sleep are the very best at this type of jazzy freeform math rock and there are times tonight when you can hear even the likes of Radiohead trounced within their remit. It’s a glorious sound and a fitting end to a fantastic weekend.
StrangeForms has been an absolute joy once again this year and its testament to the exquisite taste of the Bad Owl crew that they can keep us entertained and surprised year on year with the very best envelope pushing acts in the business. Its official, the festival season is now underway, and this is the best welcoming committee ever!
Review & Photos By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
Employed To Serve Photos By Miley Stevens