With a name like the OFF Festival, we know we\u2019ve got a high bar to clear. So we\u2019re pleased to announce the first batch of artists heading our way next year. They\u2019ll charm you, shock you and enthrall you with their uncanny and unpopular music. Please welcome Daughters, The Gaslamp Killer, Perfect Son, Boogarins, Lebanon Hanover, and Bamba Pana
\n& Makaveli.<\/p>\n
Daughters<\/strong> The Gaslamp Killer<\/strong> The Comet Is Coming<\/strong> Perfect Son<\/strong> Boogarins<\/strong> Lebanon Hangover<\/strong> Bamba Pana & Makaveli<\/strong>
\nH.P. Lovecraft himself couldn\u2019t have envisioned this monster in his most terrifying nightmares. Hailing from the author\u2019s hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, Daughters emerged from the ashes of a grindcore band, and thought they\u2019ve slackened their pace a bit, they haven\u2019t given up their intense, incalculable way of playing music as if the world were about to end. The album You Won\u2019t Get What You Want\u2014already hailed as one of the most noteworthy releases of 2018\u2014combines that passion with noise rock, industrial, post punk and metal. How does that blend fare on stage? Let\u2019s just say there\u2019s a reason why The Dillinger Escape Plan took Daughters along on their goodbye tour. The king is dead, long live the king?<\/p>\n
\nCalifornia\u2019s William Bensussen launched his music career early, holding dance parties for family and friends when he was still a kid. He\u2019s all grown up now, and throws parties that draw a worldwide audience. Bensussen is a producer who combines rock with underground hip hop, dousing it all in a psychedelic sauce or launching it into outer space. To find out what you can expect from The Gaslamp Killer, be sure to check out his debut LP Breakthrough or Gonjasufi\u2019s A Sufi and a Killer, which he co-produced with Flying Lotus.<\/p>\n
\nThis comet is coming straight out of London. It might kill us, but only to bring us back to life. \u201cThe Comet Is Coming, signalling an end to life as we know it, heralding the dawn of a new age. In the inevitable physical destruction of the planet, a space is created where all notions of political, social and economic hierarchy will be at once obliterated and transcended,\u201d reads the band\u2019s manifesto. Sound familiar? This music is clearly influenced by Sun Ra, as the The Comet Is Coming\u2019s frontman and sax player Shabaka Hutchings (who also heads of Sons of Kemet and Shabaka and the Ancestors) proudly admits. Hutchings has actually collaborated with Sun Ra Arkestra, but he\u2019s devised a new motor for cosmic jazz, and, with the help of his pals, the electro-funk duo Soccer96, he\u2019s sending it into ever distant reaches of the galaxy.<\/p>\n
\nWe\u2019re always thrilled to welcome new and intriguing musical projects from Poland, and often feature artists from our friends at Sub Pop in Seattle, but we\u2019ve never had the opportunity to combine both aspects\u2014until now. Tobiasz Bili\u0144ski, who performs under the moniker Perfect Son, is the first Pole to join the ranks of this legendary label, and though he first caught their attention as Coldair, he recorded his upcoming record, Cast (due in February) under a new name and with a new sound. His latest incarnation is just as good, but more distinctive, massive, and catchy. Congratulations to our friends at Sub Pop on making an excellent choice!<\/p>\n
\nIn 2018 Boogarins released an excellent live album titled Desvio On\u00edrico, which couldn\u2019t have had a better title: the band\u2019s music truly combines dreams and flights. They start with psychedelic rock rooted in the Tropicalismo era and give it an original, modern twist. Things like this only happen in Brazil. But they\u2019ve earned a following all over the world, touring with tUnE-yArDs, recording a session with KEXP, and performing at Coachella. There\u2019s hardly a better setting for this sort of music than a warm summer night, so get ready: Boogarins\u2019 show just might be one of the most intense experiences at next year\u2019s OFF Festival.<\/p>\n
\nLarissa Iceglass and William Maybelline make music that\u2019s cold and raw, and yet endlessly romantic. It\u2019s rooted in the post-punk and goth aesthetics of the 1980s, with nods to Joy Division, Krafwerk, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, but soaked in the absinthe and opium of turn-of-the-century artists. The duo released their latest album in March 2018: titled Let Them Be Alien, the LP is sad, dark, riveting and refreshingly different from everything else delivered by the main trends in European alternative music.<\/p>\n
\nIn the search for new sensations, the world of Western music has long been eating its own tail. Luckily, sources of fresh sounds still flow beyond the borders of Europe and North America. One noteworthy label is the recently established Ugandan outfit Nyege Nyege Tapes, which offers a portal into the crazy underground world of east Africa. One of the scene\u2019s crown jewels is the producer duo Bamba Pana, virtuosos of the ultrafast genre known as singeli, the party soundtrack of Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam. These beats make footwork sound like music for hopeless romantics. Bamba Pana will be accompanied by the rapper Makaveli.<\/p>\n