This weekend, BIMFEST 2018 kicks off with Covenant, Leaether Strip, Light Asylum, Clock Dva & Agent Side Grinder amongst others!
BIMFEST XVII
14 + 15.12.2018 - De Casino - St-Niklaas - B
(THE Belgian Independent Music Festival since 2002)
This weekend the 17th edition of the renowned Belgian Independent Music Festival 2018 or for short, BIMFEST, will take place. Like every year, BodyBeats Productions have managed to compile a very varied, appealing and interesting line-up in the best 'BIMFEST tradition! BIMFEST is not a festival that focuses on mass tourisme with only big and popular names but rather tries to focus on the real alternative and underground music lovers.
Let us briefly introcuce the line-up, in alphabetical order:
AGENT SIDE GRINDER (SE)
Agent Side Grinder is an electronic band from Stockholm, Sweden, which was formed in 2005. The band has made four albums and toured extensively throughout Europe. Their first two albums, Agent Side Grinder (2008) and Irish Recording Tape (2009) were rooted in post-punk, industrial and dark electro. The band quickly gained an underground following throughout Europe. Agent Side Grinder has a reputation of being a powerful and mighty live band and have recently released the long awaited new and stunning videos/singles "Doppelgänger" & Stripdown
AMNISTIA (D)
AMNISTIA is a German electro/EBM duo who call the music they create BodyWave. The band was founded in Leipzig by Stefan Schötz and Tino Claus. The latter is also know from EBM act MRDTC and his solo project TC75. The name AMNISTIA is both the program and a philosophy. In many languages it means amnesty.
A new album is in the pipline!
CLOCK DVA (UK)
Clock DVA returns to BIMFEST as the headliner for the Friday night, 14th of December. CLOCK DVA have played BIMFEST once before in 2011, stunning our BIMFEST audience with their mesmerizing multimedia performance! This time these electronic music pioneers, since 1978, will be performing an exclusive Belgian show with tracks from their legendary albums Buried Dreams, Man-Amplified, some new stuff and much more!
The Hacker (Video)
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COVENANT (SE)
Covenant's 9th studio album, 'The Blinding Dark', was released in November 2016 and showed a remarkable development in style, something that Covenant definitely wanted to do with this album - not least because of the subject that they dealt with on this album. With this release, this Swedish / German outfit has probably released their most artistically ambitious album so far. As many music lovers and critics agreed, this album was perhaps also their most obscure and moody album since their first two albums Dreams Of A Cryotank (1994) and Sequencer (1996).
Therefore it was a more than logical consequence that BodyBeats, after their successful The Blinding Dark Tour’ passage in 2017, asked Covenant if they could be up for to the idea of presenting some gems from their first two albums to the BIMFEST audience. Being great admirers and supporters of BIMFEST, frontman Eskil Simonsson and his companions immediately agreed and started working. Of course, besides these lovely vintage songs, they will also play some of their most famous clubsongs to please their fans!
Call Ships To port (Video)
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FIRST AID 4 SOULS (HU)
First Aid 4 Souls is one of the electronic music projects founded by Hungarian musician Istvan Gazdag. With this project he mixes the brutality of noise music with the psychedelic pulsation of trance/acid, the rich melodies of new-wave / synth-wave and the strict grinding of electro industrial / EBM. Recently he fired-up a brand new project called Stalgeist which has a more straightforward EBM sound. Together with Tamás Bank (Munkás/Worker) they summon the classic EBM sounds with harsh precision and commitment. At BIMFEST they will present the best of both worlds to us as opener on Friday 14th December.
GERTRUD STEIN (CH/UK)
Is the visual art & electro music project of the London based Swiss artist Gertrud Stein who drew our attention with her contribution to the Daft Records compilation 'Deep' and her subsequent successful, stunning and enchanting performance at the Daft Festival in Antwerp (2017). Getrud Stein's live shows with her virtual live bandmembers Mike Line, Tom Delay and Diana D.I. are not to be missed!
LEÆTHER STRIP (DK)
It has been 30 years since the Dane Claus Larsen started his Leaether Strip project and released his debut on the now defunct Zoth Ommog label shortly afterwards. In addition to having more than a handful of side projects, this man has released already as many studio albums (30) under the Leaether Strip moniker. No wonder he can't be ignored by dark music festivals and clubs from all over the world. He already played BIMFEST 2009 and the BodyBeats Festival 2011. And this year he is returning to BIMFEST 2018 to celebrate Leaether Strip's 30th birthday with a special and exclusive birthday and career overview show!
LIEBKNECHT (D)
LIEBKNECHT is an alter ego of Daniel Myer, also known as head and voice from German 90s cultband HAUJOBB. LIEBKNECHT is Techno, Dance-floor Elements mixed with Dark Textures, Cryptic Messages, Eclectic Experimental Sounds and Straight Forward Beats, always on the edge between Old-school Electro and Club Culture. After some successful DIY teaser releases through Bandcamp the band has now signed to Lenny Dee's label Hard Electronic from NYC for the release of their debut album 'Produkt', due to be released on January 9th, 2019!
LIGHT ASYLUM (USA)
Light Asylum is a NYC/Brooklyn-based electronic music project founded by Shannon Funchess. The band released their first EP 'In Tension' in 2010. The self-titled début album Light Asylum has been released in May 2012 and received positive reviews all over the world. Shannon collaborated with many artists such as: The Knife, Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) and ADULT. Light Asylum's music incorporates elements of dark-wave, synth-pop and post-punk and is heavily influenced by bands like Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb and Nine Inch Nails. In 2012 Light Asylum played the renowned Belgian Pukkelpop Festival, now it's time for BIMFEST !!!
NZ (A)
NZ is THE Austrian EBM revelation of the last years and is a band that doesn't seem to make any efforts to cover up who influenced them the most. Even their own band name can be taken as a clear reference to one of the biggest names in EBM music history Nitzer Ebb. With their pounding beats, cutting sequencers and slogan-like vocals they will set every EBM fanatic in motion in no time. After their first DIY EP release 'Your Pure Heart,' the German Emmo.biz label signed them almost immediately, releasing another three very strong EPs. In 2015, these EPs were bundled in a 3 CD collector box, so now we are looking forward to their new and first full album!
STAHLR (NL)
With only one EP to her name so far, this female Dutch electronic artist can already be called the discovery from the low lands. Stahlr is about contrasts and opposing, overwhelming futuristic forms of Brutalist architecture, masculinity, concrete versus wavy lines, subtle expressions and femininity. Stahlr sounds like Cocteau Twins playing a musical version of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein in a concrete parking garage.
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Tickets & more info on: www.bimfest.be
