BIMFEST has announced the first selection of confirmed bands for their now 18th edition, taking place in December 2019!
As we are accustomed to from BIMFEST, they don't exactly drop the biggest and / or most obvious names but still they succeed in gathering an interesting line-up every single year.
This year the following delicious bands are already on the BIMFEST 2019 menu:
THE DEVIL & THE UNIVERSE (A) retrieved their name from two cards they selected from the 78 piece tarot card set as utilised by the most famous occultist of the 20th century, Aleister Crowley. ”The Devil” and “The Universe” were the cards pulled and thus a name for their musical-magical-transcendental composition and transformation project was chosen. Two musician friends, one goal! Ashley Dayour (Whispers in the Shadow) and David Pfister (Neigungsgruppe, Sex, Gewalt und gute Laune) set out to create music from magical systems, give up their musical creativity and allow the legitimacy of magic and religious mechanisms to form musical rules. Getting back to the tarot card reference, imagine allotting certain chords or rhythmic sequencing to certain cards. The pulling of the cards then becomes an exercise reminiscent of automatic writing. A beloved methodology of Surrealism, this exercise permits emotion and expression to emerge without the influence of the “critical self”. At the end of the process, Ashley Dayour and David Pfister were confronted with a homogenous collection of songs that were custom-made for the soundtrack of the cinema of the mind. The process and its system dictated and created not just phonetic anarchy but also examples of sound perfection.
ENZO KREFT (BE) released two obscure but widely acclaimed minimal synth cassette-albums in the early eighties, creating a dark and atmospheric sound, using lo-fi overdubbing techniques with synthesizers, rhythm boxes, tape loops and an electric guitar. His debut album "Me Is" (1983) has become a worldwide collector's item, containing his well-known tracks "Beauty Queen" and "Erotic Fantaseesz". This year, Kreft released his brand new and already critically aclaimed album "Control".
MOTOR!K (BE) is a brand new Belgium based band founded in 2018 by Joeri Dobbeleir (Guitars/Synths), Dirk Ivens (Guitars, Fx) and Dries D'Hollander (Drums). Stepping out of their comfort zone and leaving their musical habitat these key members challenge new experimental fields inspired by the Krautrock movement from the 70s but with an updated touch. Step into their world and let them take you by surprise. After their debut tape, released earlier this year by Wool-e Shop sold-out they were quickly spotted and signed by the renowned Berlin based Out Of Line Records. Their debut album has now recently been released as 12” vinyl and CD.
RADERKRAFT (NL) Somewhere between minimal synth, electro punk and new wave floats the irresistible sound of Raderkraft, a.k.a. Amsterdam-based musician and producer Willem Stinissen (1980). Equally cold and catchy, playful and hypnotising. Armed with throbbing analogue synths, staccato drumcomputer beats, quirky German vocals and miraculous visuals, Raderkraft takes you from the Autobahn straight into the galaxy. This summer Raderkraft dropped his boiling new single 'De Witte Streep'. This Dutch EBM track is an answer to Doe Maar, one of the most popular Dutch pop bands ever, and their song 'Heroïne’ from 1983. Just like that song, 'De Witte Streep' is a throbbing ball of frustration about a (fictional) friend who is addicted to drugs - cocaine in this case.
REIN (SE) Stockholm based all female Electronic act/artist REIN is raw, energetic, electro built from the seeds of early EBM. Formed in 2015, REIN is the lead singer, co-producer, writer, Joanna Reinikainen. Live on stage she brings two girls on drums together with her high octane fearless energy. In 2015 she became known on SoundCloud after she put out three demo songs: ”There Is No Authority But Yourself”, ”Born to Die” and ”Concrete Jungle”. With the release of her first EP 'REIN' (2016) she came to the attention of one of the main Swedish radio stations (P3 Sveriges Radio) and renowned music journalist Fredrik Strage. On her second EP 'FREEDOOM' (2017) she explored a broader and political electropunk vision, touching subjects like feminism, anti-racism, anti-capitalism and about being a misfit. She was nominated at P3 Guld Music Awards Gala 2017 for "Best New Artist" and "Best Dance Of the Year" 2017. REIN's debut album is in the pipeline as we speak!
STURM CAFÉ (SE) emerged in Gävle, Sweden 2001 when childhood friends Jonatan Löfstedt and Gustav Jansson decided to start making music together with sounds derived from synthesizers, drum machines and Akai samplers, sequenced by an Atari 1040ST computer. They managed to create their own distinct sound blending ideas of early 2000s Electronic music with inspiration from the early EBM/Industrial scene. Their music has one foot firmly in the bass driven EBM world, while the other stands in the more catchy melodious Neue Deutsche Welle. With 3 albums, numerous singles and EPs Sturm Café have gathered a strong and loyal following around the world. It is not uncommon to hear songs like ‘Stiefelfabrik’, ‘Koka Kola Freiheit’ and ‘Scheissnormal’ at the darker clubs in Europe and Latin America.
ZWEITE JUGEND (D) is the duo Eli van Vegas and Marcel Lüke, also known from their other project Combat Company. With this project the boys are celebrating their "Second Youth" and they do this with a quite deliberately DAF-ish sound in order to honour their heroes Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft. Their second and recently released album is named 'Elektronische Körpermusik', another hint that leaves little room for misunderstandings... Zweite Jugend is old school and hardcore EBM!
To keep the tension growing two headliners and two more bands are still to be announced in the coming days.
We are so excited!
Meanwhile the very limited Early Bird Combi-tickets are on sale on www.bodybeats.be
