Two festivals in two weeks - Part 1
First I went to Maschinenfest.
I was not so excited about this as it was my fourth time and I'd seen most of the bands before, also I was looking forward more to Drop Dead in Lisbon. But as it turned out I had a really good time (apart from Emma not being there of course).
I skived off work early the Thursday and got a flight from Manchester to Düsseldorf, everything fine and on time. I got very excited on the way as Peter Hook from New Order was sitting across the aisle from me and I chatted him up on the way off the plane. He was quite pleasant considering what a wally fanboy I must have seemed. Trains were fine and I got to Krefeld before half nine, reached the venue to hear the end of Scorn. So then it was Maschinenfest and I met many friends and had some fun. I watched the first bit of Architect before the Enduser bits happened and then enjoyed dancing to Roger Rotor's industrial disco sounds; I wasn't so much in the mood for the high paced madness of Iszoloscope but managed to get back in in time for shit pants scary dark ambient of Camanecroszcope, which finally turned into Ah Cama-Sotz doing a decent spooky electronica set. Finally Mono No Aware was a bit too intense for my liking at this time, so drinking, talking and laughing around the bar ensued. After I was with Alice alicia_ahh and Timmy from Synapscape, on the way back to the Etap kindly offering shelter to a couple from Leipzig who didn't have a room that night. We crashed Bret and Lucie from Prague's room and drank vodka, but the homelesses tried to make a sex party and it was bad and wrong. Later they showed up at my room at 10am asking to sleep and then sat around talking loudly and smoking smellily until noon. This was not good.
Friday I had to extra sleeping and hangover fighting but felt ok in time for the bands. Kraken did a great dark ambient set to start, hiding behind a massive opaque projection screen, before Rasputeen In Heavy Leather made an early party time with paper bags, kölsch beer and leather strides. Friday was a good day with no bands I didn't like, but after a few tracks of Larvae's interesting electronica it was dinner time, then Empusae came on and showed off how many friends he had, with two guests for each track. Xabec was great melodic experimental ambient, except it was nearly the same set as two years ago, then we got another collaboration special; Asche, then Morgenstern, before becoming the older industrial band which spawned those two plus Synapscape, Ars Moriendi, who were very enjoyable. Then it was meant to be Orphx, but they had technical issues so swapped with Imminent, who played a bit of a wonky wanky set by his standards, so fun times until Orphx finished the night in style. After that I think it wasn't long before the venue shut and it was running home in the rain clutching large Turkish pies and then sitting on the Etap stairs with various characters until the sensible early bedtime of 6am.
Managed a huge sleep on Saturday and got out in time for metal bashing heroics from Militia, great way to start the day, very strong show! Config Sys and Ahnst Anders did a good collaboration producing a mixture of ambience and rhythms more interesting than their usual works, then it was a big rest time during Hypnodull and Ambastardor 21. Back in for the industrial mummies Monokrom, who looked very impressive behind the huge screen featuring giant images of themselves dancing, and plenty of proper noise interludes between the rhythmic stuff worked brilliantly. Possibly my favourite band of the weekend, Klangstabil, were all emotional and intense, with electro beats, warm synths and much impassioned shouting, very nice, I like! Then I ignored Punch Inc for food, watched a bit of Mimetic but found it too technical and cold, before finally Sonar did their classic rhythmic industrial machine music, which was great until the second encore of a possible four! After this we went to the gay bar next door only it wasn't a gay bar. There was much dancing to silly house music and messing about with flowers, including characters like Sonar, Orphx, Adam X, Eric from Dublin, Anke, Patii, Patrick from Bern, Mirko Audiophob etc. This was quite late and in the end, for some reason, Eric and I got in Dirk Ivens' van even though he told us not to. Then Eric did a loud sick in my toilet and slept in my spare bed.
Sunday was still feeling fine and the earlier start was no problem. Law Rah Collective was the best I've seen them yet, my only prior complaint about it being too minimal dark ambient being addressed by the first inclusion of subtle rhythms and more tunes. Monolith and MS Gentur both were on a bit too early but provided some good dancing, the latter with more proper noise in between the beats. Watched a bit of Proyecto Mirage from the back but they were a bit too fast and shouty (i.e teenage), before Contagious Orgasm was rather interesting with a more coherent and consistent electronica sound than usual and a cheeky Kraftwerk cover. Ignored drum 'n' bollocks hero Boring Ra and then got Vromb's minimal soundscapes for last band of my weekend, before two very loud tracks of Winterkälte before I ducked out to the party room. There was some silly balloon football and then it got busier and the Dutch jumpstyle party got going. Things got drunk and crazy and then suddenly Johnny Dave appeared, dancing on the tables and making a scene! Luckily he was joined by Peter Boxman, a mysterious ninja and a Mexican wrestler man, and everybody had a lovely time. This was all quite late and so there was only time for one drink on the Etap stairs before a reasonable 7am bedtime.
Monday I got out the hotel ok and went to the bakery by the station with Miguel, Rich and Olli, where we met many Dutch, some Danish, plus Andrea, Henrik and Krista. Then there was a nice train journey with Miguel, Henrik and Rich, before I bumped into Debbie and Adam from Edinburgh at Düsseldorf airport, who were on my plane, changing at Manchester. So that was a good journey and then I got home a little earlier than expected and Emma was there to give me a warm welcome.
Festival two to follow shortly, photos maybe tonight.