With more than 20 new names, an extra shipment of jazz, folk, explosive punk and a night curated by Tirzah, the line-up for BRDCST 2024 is complete.
Discover the line-up on Friday 5 April, Saturday 6 April, and Sunday 7 April, or entirely immerse yourself in the newly announced artists first.
Curated by Tirzah
Tirzah recently surprised us with her third album trip9love…??? And enthusiastically accepted our invitation to curate an evening at BRDCST. It is also her first curatorship ever. “Some of my closest connections in music have been felt listening to these artists. I'm honoured and so chuffed they are going to be sharing the stage, and playing for us all”, she says. Anja Ngozi, Coby Sey, Loraine James, Meril Wubslin, and Mica Levi have signed on to be here.
Mica Levi is the musical right-hand and partner in crime on all of Tirzah’s albums and together with producer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Coby Sey they form the collective CURL. Sey is also to be heard on Tirzah’s albums Devotion and Colourgrade. His debut Conduit bathes in glorious post-grime.
London DJ and artist Anja Ngozi already reworked a track for Highgrade, the remake of Tirzah’s
second album Colourgrade, that Loraine James also contributed to. According to NME, “Lorraine James continues to prove why she is so vital in the electronic music scene. Never afraid to push boundaries or show vulnerability, James creates a compelling world of sound”.
Nothing is a mere coincidence because, lastly, there is also Meril Wubslin. The upcoming album by this compelling, intriguing, Swiss-Brussels trio is produced by Tirzah's significant other Kwake Bass.
One Leg One Eye (Lankum) and Clarissa Connelly complete the folk programme
Lankum‘s superb False Lankum was just recently described by Mojo as “modern folk music’s own OK Computer”. So The Guardian, Uncut, and Loud & Quiet rightly torpedoed False Lankum to Album of the Year. It may have been the most striking trend of the past year: folk is totally back. Doing so in an exciting capacity.
Lankum-frontman Ian Lynch now also manifests himself under the name One Leg One Eye. His debut And Take the Black Worm With Me received five stars from The Guardian. CTM aptly wrote: “The
weight of Irish history and myth, infused with the raw aesthetics of black metal and noise”. Lynch and Clarissa Connelly round out BRDCST’s folk programme, in which Shovel Dance Collective, Brìghde
Chaimbeul, Gordan, and Lenhart Tapes are also to be found. Scottish-Danish Connelly has already pocketed a Nordic Music Prize and was signed by Warp, just like BRDCST acts Autechre, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Slauson Malone 1. Influenced by Celtic mythology, Connelly navigates between the musical realms of both Kate Bush and Vashti Bunyan.
The Necks complete the jazz section
Well worth a separate entry: The Necks from Australia. They complete the jazz section together with Alabaster DePlume, ambient jazz guru Cole Pulice, and Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas. Strange: The Necks have been around for more than 35 years and now ‘suddenly’ seem to be having their breakthrough. Their latest album Travel topped the BRDCST year-end chart for 2023, stringing up the superlatives. De Volkskrant gave five stars. The Wire wrote: “Stunning”. And all that in the borderlands of jazz, minimalism, improvisation, and classical. Hats off!
A triple uppercut
BRDCST goes hard thrice with Benefits, Chalk, and PRUILLIP. Anyone viewing the Benefits website immediately knows what they’re all about: “We are benefits | we are a band | we shout”. Their fanbase includes such notorious fans as Steve Albini, Sleaford Mods, and Modeselektor. Geoff Barrow (Portishead) was so impressed that he signed them up to his Invada label right away. Their debut NAILS really does hit the nail on the head and will resonate until BRDCST 2025. Wanna bet?
Closer to home, we found the explosive duo PRUILLIP: a project by Annelies Van Dinter (Echo Beatty) and Louis Evrard (Grid Ravage). At the invitation of Dennis Tyfus, they played their very first show at De Nor in Middelheim. Their debut - via Cortizona – received immediate accolades: "Traces of punk, ambient, rock noir and stoner grunge prove how versatile PRUILLIP is", according to Knack Focus, which also gave the debut four stars.
Chalk is an Irish, electronic post-punk trio from Belfast. "Musically, they fish in the same pond as Shame, The Murder Capital, and Fontaines D.C., but they sound more electronic and cinematic", says Dansende Beren.
BRDCST takes you to church (of Notre-Dame aux Riches Claires)
At the nearby Church of Notre Dame aux Riches Claires, we land a line-up that will lift BRDCST connoisseurs to the highest musical ranges. With Niecy Blues, we head to South Carolina. Her debut Exit Simulation meanders between ambient and gospel, R&B and melancholy soul. Boomkat: “We've been knocked sideways by this one. Essential listening if you're into Grouper, Erykah Badu or Dawuna.”
Equally gripping is Lebanese oud player and musicologist Youmna Saba. She explores the interrelationship of the Arabic language and electronica. De Subjectivisten wrote of her album Wishah: "Moving, goosebump-inducing, profound splendour. An overwhelming masterpiece."
Amor Muere is an experimental collective from Mexico with, as pivotal figure, cellist and singer Mabe Fratti who originally hails from Guatemala. Their debut a time to love, a time to die was described by Pitchfork as “avant-garde compositions grafted from gritty electronic textures, discordant strings, and soaring vocal melodies.”
Just like Tirzah, Swedish-Iranian pianist Shida Shahabi recently received a rather unique invitation from PJ Harvey to join her at her Gunnersbury Park show in 2024. Shahabi’s work will surely charm fans of Max Richter and A Winged Victory for the Sullen.
Flora Yin Wong is a London-based producer and DJ with Chinese and Malaysian roots. She often works with religious images as a point of departure. Her latest album Cold Reading hovers between dreamy pop, contemporary classical, and musique concrète.
Italian sound artist Freddie Murphy presents The Night Shows No Dawn: a sonic exploration into the practice of funeral laments that express and channel grief.
BRDCST x HIP-HOP 50
In the season in which AB celebrates 50 years of the genre, BRDCST couldn’t lag behind. Enter LIONSTORM, in their own words, the very first queer rap act from The Netherlands. This duo from Amsterdam - Skerrie Sterrie and Vuige Muis – recently stormed the Dutch underground with their rebellious, activist hip-hop and punk about squirting and inspecting erections. "Lionstorm is raw, dirty, sexy, and confrontational", headlined Trouw. They already impressed last year at BRDCST, and they now return with brand new work.
Beans is a founding member of the recently reunited Antipop Consortium, one of the most visionary hip-hop bands. His flow remains inimitable and unique. His latest album Zwaard was surprisingly canned by Finnish glitch-master Vladislav Delay.
And because all good things come in threes: enter H31R (read: heir/air), is a female New York rap duo consisting of JWords and maassai. Their latest album HeadSpace was released via Big Dada/Ninja Tune and reflects their “mutual desire to bridge the gap between hip-hop and electronic music.”
BRDCST CELEBRATES CAN’S ‘FUTURE DAYS’ (1973)
During BRDCST 2022 and 2023, SERGEANT, OÏ LES OX, L. JACOBS, and MILAN W. made an indelible
impression by completely reworking Can’s legendary albums Tago Mago and Ege Bamyasi. Also during this edition, this crew – again with Brussels-based Japanese saxophonist SHOKO IGARASHI – will put the equally legendary Can album Future Days through the wringer. “Future Days remains one of the band’s most significant works, forming an unofficial ‘Damo’ trilogy alongside ‘Tago Mago’ and ‘Ege Bamyasi’, demonstrating the band at the height of their career”, writes Far Out.
BRDCST by night: Accidental Meetings (DJ)
Accidental Meetings originated in Brighton during the lockdown with cassette-only mix releases and then exploded into a DJ collective, label (with a graphic in-house designer, as befits any good label), and organiser of much-enjoyed club nights. Check out their annual mixtapes AMF&FFO and enjoy Elijah Minnelli, wzrdyAV, or the equally illustrious dub/folk of Abu Ama. Kiosk Radio: “Accidental Meetings is pushing the boundaries of experimental, dub, jazz and techno.” BRDCST is a fan! Welcome to the dancefloor.
Kurt Overbergh
Curator BRDCST
