10 Picks for Simple Things
Posted on: 06 Oct 2016With a horde of the finest performers in the business playing at myriad venues across Bristol on the 22nd October, negotiating Simple Things can appear more complex than its name would have you believe. Luckily for you, we at 365Bristol have plotted a course which takes in the choicest of the choice, the very pink of the weekend’s musical picks. Stay true to it and you will not be disappointed. Simples.
Warpaint
.jpg "Warpaint")
Jenny Lee Lindberg and co’s return to Bristol comes hot on the heels of the arrival third LP Heads Up, a record which saw the girls looking up from their shoes and moving them around a bit. To see jauntier tracks like ‘New Song’ and ‘Whiteout’ perforating the rich gloom of their back catalogue is a gorgeous prospect, and is enough to land them a place at the top of the bill on the Crack Magazine stage in Colston Hall.
Nina Kraviz
.jpg "Nina Kraviz")
One half of dance music’s hottest power couple, Mrs Ben Klock will bring a slice of Siberian cool to proceedings. Fresh from wrapping festival crowds around her little finger this summer with her austere blend of minimal house, expect an altogether sweatier affair when she takes over the Firestation, one of the festival’s smaller rooms.
Death Grips
.jpg "Death Grips")
No eye is safe when renowned hooligans and serial nudists Death Grips are in the building. The ears are in for a treat though: as intriguing as it is violent, the experimental project pairs a glitchy drum/keys combo with the rambunctious vocal stylings of MC Ride, creating a sound which baffles critics and defies the pigeon hole. It doesn’t disenchant, however - the trio’s five LPs to date have been met with unanimous acclaim. Even so, this is not for the faint-hearted.
Ben UFO
.jpg "Ben UFO")
Since founding Hessle Audio in 2007 with Pearson Sound and Pangaea, Ben Thomson has gone stratospheric. Anomalous in his lack of original production, he is identifiable as one of the finest selectors this country has ever produced. A mainstage berth at this year’s Dekmantel, where he went back-to-back with good friend Joy Orbison, is just one of the impressive bookings he has accrued of late. His headline slot at Simple Things is another, and is not to be missed.
Abra
.jpg "Abra")
Recent Crack cover-girl and first lady of Awful Records, Abra has risen to prominence on the back of her stylish lacing of ‘80s sounding R&B with her own dainty vocal, a formula which has seen her work compared to Janet Jackson’s early demos. Recent EP Princess, which finds her bedroom-pop inner-child drawn out further, has been rinsed by DJs like Benji B and won praise from all corners. Come and see what all the fuss is about.
Helena Hauff
.jpg "Helena Hauff")
Helena Hauff returns to Simple Things following a clattering set at last year’s festival, where she saturated sweat glands and tore ear drums like nobody’s business. An undisputed highlight of the evening, we can only hope her exploits haven’t won her promotion to a larger stage: the basement of the Island, on which she mounted such a sustained assault last year, proved the perfect claustrophobic surround for her shuddering techno stylings.
Twin Peaks
.jpg "Twin Peaks")
A head on collision of ‘60s surf-pop and the garage punk of the last decade, Chicago’s Twin Peaks sound like the accidental lovechild of the Beach Boys and Black Lips. Sun-dappled and snarky in equal measure, their three LPs to date have been roundly praised for their youth, punch and their restraint from dropping too many David Lynch references. Joviality isn’t really a word you would associate with Simple Things, so let these peaky blinders inject a bit of fun into your festival.
Flamingods
.jpg "Flamingods")
Plying a blend of guitar music as colourful as befits their name (and outfits), Flamingods are a five-piece with a dual-nationality split between the UK and Bahrain. Making use of unusual wooden instrumentation, percussive vocals and psychy guitars, they sound like Crystal Fighters might if they hadn’t crashed into rubbish self-parody. This combination posits a repertoire as eclectic as the band’s heritage and makes them an intriguing live proposition.
LICE
.jpg "LICE")
A significant portion of this year’s line-up is given over to the new vein of feral guitar music opened up by the Fat White Family. Sordid punk finds solid representation with the likes of Bad Breeding, IDLES and Shame popping up across the stages. The most exciting of this cohort are Bristol locals LICE who, without even a demo out, snagged a support slot with The Fall based on the strength of their live shows alone. With recorded material in the pipeline, now is the time to catch one of the city’s most exciting bands.
Rival Consoles
.jpg "Rival Consoles")
Ever since its origin, critics have doggedly insisted on using the horrible term IDM (or, Intelligent Dance Music) to brashly pigeon-hole anything that strayed briefly from the trodden techno path. With Rival Consoles, as it does for geniuses like Aphex Twin and Four Tet, the term feels rather justified. Ryan Lee West, under the Rival Consoles moniker, makes tracks using mainly analog equipment, coating purposeful breakbeat with melancholic synthesizer work which, in the flesh, sounds absolutely dreamy.
Tickets for Simple Things, which takes place on Saturday 22nd October, can be bought from the Crack Magazine website.
Article by:
An ardent Geordie minus the accent, Sam seemingly strove to get as far away from the Toon as possible, as soon as university beckoned. Three undergraduate years at UoB were more than ample time for Bristol (as it inevitably does) to get under his skin, and so here he remains: reporting, as Assistant Editor, on the cultural happenings which so infatuated him with the city. Catch him at sam@365bristol.com.
