Something to do in Leeds on a Sunday...
THE SOUND OF MODESTY: Something gentle to ease us into Sunday? Not a bit of it! TSoM's perky J-rock/indie-pop blend cuts nicely through the hangovers.
PEACH: Excellent post-punk from, I think, Bristol, featuring Ellie Godwin of IN VIOLET on vocals. I would've bought a CD from them, but they don't seem to deal in such out-dated technology.
TAYNE: Bumped up the bill because COWBOYY got held up in traffic. London industrialists, any resemblance to HEALTH is totally co-incidental. They're really good, but hard to photograph, bathed in red lights as they are.
COWBOYY: Here at last. Worth the wait, though. Ridiculously talented super-widdly math-rock, pedal boards the size of Belgium. Huge fun.
SHAKING HAND: More math, but math of a completely different colour. This is progressive, chin-strokey math. It's equally excellent, but in a very different way to COWBOYY. Less dance, more think.
SUGAR HORSE: And now we step away from math-rock. Far, far away from Math-rock. Sugar Horse are explosive, devastating sludgy post-metal. Their guitars sound absolutely feral. They are colossally loud. One of my very favourite bands. I wish they could play for longer.
KOWLOON WALLED CITY: My microphone has barely recovered from the battering by Sugar Horse, and now the poor thing has to endure KOWLOON WALLED CITY's brutal sludge assault. Californians stopping by after a Euro tour, they are phenomenal. I knew nothing of them before this, but I shall proceed to correct that forthwith.
DARKHER: So happy to see DARKHER here, as her show in Edinburgh not long ago was cancelled when the tax-man shut down the venue (BOOO!). Haunting, delicate and doomy, utterly beguiling. A special way to close the fest. Also, not that it's particularly relevant, but she has SPECTACULAR hair!
Thanks to Stewart, Kerry and the StrangeForms crew for everything. See you again next year.
