BRDCST is AB’s outstanding indoor spring festival spotlighting musical boundlessness. The name is a direct reference to the retro futuristic electronica-pop of English band Broadcast that released inspiring albums like ‘Haha Sound’ and ‘Noise Made By The People’ over the past decade. Artists who feel strongly about musical innovation form the focal point for BRDCST. Our musical gut-feeling does the rest.
At the end of October, BRDCST proudly released the first wave of names including the angelic voices of LE MYSTÈRE DES VOIX BULGARES, the (political) punk/rants of SLEAFORD MODS, the impelling live-electronica of JAMES HOLDEN & THE ANIMAL SPIRITS, the tribute by BARST for the 50th anniversary of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’s ‘White Light/White Heat’ and to cap it all off THE MUSIC OF ‘STRANGER THINGS’ by KYLE DIXON & MICHAEL STEIN (S U R V I V E).
‘English Tapas’ by Sleaford Mods has now made it into the upper regions of many a end-of-year chart (see: Q, Mojo, Uncut, Rough Trade Shops,...) and – due to the popularity of the Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’ – we felt obliged to upgrade the Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein concert to a location with greater capacity. Even more good news for BRDCST fans: both Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares and James Holden made outright impressive appearances at the latest edition of festival Le Guess Who?. De Volkskrant, as well as VPRO and AB, catapulted them into their AB-solute Top 10 of LGW? highlights.
But it's time to share a new shipment of names with our BRDCST adepts, you all. The bill is gradually being completed by a series of artists that have intrigued us, knocked us sideways or sent us completely head-over-heels in recent months (or years even).
BRDCST EXPANDS WITH 2-DAY JAZZ PROGRAMME & MORE JAZZ ACTS
BRDCST spreads its wings! Doing so with two extra concert evenings at a location just a stone’s throw away from AB: just recently renovated, jazz club The Music Village. Our focus in on The New Wave of Jazz that BRDCST paid abundant attention to last year (see: Yussef Kamaal, Shabaka & The Ancestors, Thundercat,... ).
Present: two jazz musicians who are strongly associated with hip-hop: JOSEF LEIMBERG and VELS TRIO. Josef Leimberg signed for a handful of guest appearances on Kendrick Lamar’s iconic album ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’, worked together with Kamasi Washington and signed with ‘Astral Progressions’ for one of the best spiritual jazz albums of recent years . Flying Lotus mate The Gaslamp Killer said this of it: ‘Holy Moses this shit is dope!’
Also dope: VELS TRIO PLAY MADLIB’S ‘SHADES OF BLUE’, a tribute for the 15th anniversary of the album by hip-hop producer/multi-instrumentalist Madlib (see too: J Dilla, MF Doom,...) that appeared in ’03 on the renowned Blue Note label. On this album, Madlib reworked Blue Note classics by the likes of Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, Herbie Hancock and Bobby Hutcherson ‘into downtempo and instrumental hip hop art.’
MDC III is the project of Nordmann saxophonist Mattias De Craene, who has himself assisted by no less than two drummers: Simon Segers (De Beren Gieren, Stadt, Black Flower,...) and Lennert Jacobs (The Germans, Hong Kong Dong,...). Echoes of John Coltrane’s ‘Interstellar Space’ album from ’67, with drummer Rashied Ali, are never far removed. MDC III can proudly share a stage with his hero James Holden. Lastly, with YODOK III, ambient/dronemaster Dirk Serries will go totally improv as central figure during the Consouling label night.
2018: YEAR OF THE CONTESTATION
In May ‘18 it is exactly a half century ago that turbulent student revolts took place in Paris and spread throughout Europe. To mark the occasion, the city of Brussels has designated 2018 as ‘Year of the Contestation’ and asked all cultural players to offer an answer to the question: ‘What remains of the social, political and cultural revolution 50 years after May ‘68? Which forms of contestation are we familiar with today?’
BRDCST is happy to meet that request. The current social and political climate unfortunately provides the ideal conditions for a wave of new protest music. Pitchfork: ‘It’s remarkable that—in a year hijacked by Trump’s reckless, witless Twitter belches—artists didn’t dive to meet his level. We heard more broad, embracing statements of community than we did rebukes and secessions.’ What's more, protest music was pervasive in ’17, and in all genres too. Pitchfork’s overview of ‘The Year In Protest Music’ was packed with diversity, containing tracks by the likes of Ibeyi, Fever Ray, Kamasi Washington, Kendrick Lamar, Perfume Genius... all the way to young country-star Margot Price.
BRDCST already got hold of ‘The angriest/most political band in Britain’, Sleaford Mods. With Scottish hip-hop trio YOUNG FATHERS we get even more political. The roots of these former Mercury Prize laureates are to be traced back to Nigeria and Liberia and their passion for politics – they actively speak out against anti-Islam demonstrations by Pegida and refuse to speak to Rupert Murdoch affiliated media – is clearly to be heard. The soundscape of electronica-artist CHINO AMOBIO is less cheery. Amobi’s debut ‘PARADISIO’ sounds outright brutal. The Wire: ‘PARADISIO’ is the soundtrack to all that’s wrong in the world, but very few artists have managed to capture such horror in such detail. If Hieronymus Bosch were to repaint hell today, it would look like ‘PARADISIO’ sounds.’
LABEL NIGHTS: tak:til & CONSOULING SOUNDS
BRDCST has a big soft spot for headstrong independent record labels and that is why, ever since the very first edition, we've spotlighted labels like Glitterbeat and Consouling Sounds. That's how it happened that BRDCST gave Ghent’s quality underground label Consouling Sounds instant carte blanche for the coming editions. And see here: in ’18 we’re actually celebrating the 10th anniversary of the label in style with ambient/improv/drone-master Dirk Serries as central figure.
Also in the spotlight: tak:til, the brand new instrumental sub-label of superb house-of-global-sounds Glitterbeat (see: Noura Mint Seymali, Bixiga 70, Tamikrest,... ). tak:til saw the light of day in ‘17 with the release of ‘Wood/Metal/...’ by New York duo 75 Dollar Bill. On the programme: the Slovenian ŠIROM that hovers between ‘Hauschka’s acoustic techno, the Sun Ra’s Arkestra’s galactic wanderings and Kronos Quartet’s omnivorous chamber folk.’ and JOSHUA ABRAMS & NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY that was described by The Guardian as a mix of ‘spiritual jazz, spiky post-rock and Terry Riley-inspired systems music’. BRDCST is about to present the first Belgian tak:til night ever.
A NIGHT WITH/CURATED BY SLEAFORD MODS SLOWLY TAKES FORM
Lastly, the lines of communication with Sleaford Mods have been running hot over recent weeks and the programme is gradually taking form. We'll be screening the brand new documentary ‘BUNCH OF KUNST: A FILM ABOUT SLEAFORD MODS’ that followed the band closely for two years and was recently crowned ‘Best film’ at the Q Awards. Sleaford Mods members will carry their weight on the night too. Frontman JASON WILLIAMSON will read from his own work for the very first time (see: ‘Grammar Wanker’, with the lyric-writer's collected works) and beatmeister Andrew Fearn will finish up behind the turntables under his own moniker EXTNDDNTWRK. The live acts being added to the programme are pretty much all associated with HARBINGER SOUND, the outlet of Sleaford Mods manager/boss (sic) Steve Underwood – who deals in glorious underground post punk and experimental noise. The label put out not only earlier Sleaford Mods releases but also albums, 7 inches and split EPs by the likes of Mark Wynn, Nachthexen, The Lowest Form, Consumer Electronics and Steve Ignorant (Crass).
The last portion of the BRDCST programme will be made known in the course of the month January.
Kurt Overbergh
Artistic Director AB
