Kinetik Fest Phase 3 recap

[DJ Saint]

Woke up raring and ready to go for Phase 3.

The members of Melotron arrive and having played a show with them years ago, was reccognized by them and spent some time joking with those guys prior to the first band.

After the delay in opening doors yesterday things moved with much more urgency today.

Alliceffekt - Two guys behind laptops, a guitar player and a girl on cello. The bands sound incorporates many different styles. Interesting.

Iszoloscope - Excellent performance from Jan and crew. This Montreal based band has played several of the major festivals in Europe as well as the industrial tent at Movement a few years back. he'll be hitting Detroit along with Adversary in August (more on this later). With Iszoloscope each show is unique. With a catalog of music that explores techno, drum and bass, dark ambient, noise and other related styles the ability for Iszoloscope to shift styles throughout their set keeps the listener at attention. Excellent performance and I encourage all of you to get out to their upcoming Detroit show.

Komor Kommando - One of Seb from icon of Coils side projects (along with End:The DJ). Fun performance despite some technical sound issues that turned Seb into a complainer. The set up was seb with laptop and a small amount of gear and End tweaking a dj rig. At times this rig seemed to be peaking the levels on some tracks but slections like "Love Your Neighbor" and "Das Oontz" sounde great and were punishing.

Synapscape - One of my favorite Ant Zen label artist. My second time seeing them as well. Again a band that can be very versatile with the their sound - sometimes very soothign and ambient while others the complete contrast of being abrassive. Their performance tonight focused on distorted rhythms, complex synths and near other worldly lyrics, but there was a sense of calm rather than complete chaos that was very nice to hear from this band tonight. Looking for something unique, this bands discography comes recommended.

FGFC820 - I'm gonna let Elektrosonik take this one... *switching seats* ... I've got to see FGFC820 last year at Kinetik, so I had a basic idea of what to expect. Overall, I really enjoy their music: powerful beats with catchy synths. However on stage, I think could do with a little less talking between songs. The cover of Ich Bin Ein Auslander was fun. At one point, they did the typical pigface move and invited crowd members to lunge around the stage. Decent show. However, I heard that later in the evening that Rick (singer) made some snarky remarks, and I've unfortunately lost a little respect for him. Kinda sucks too cuz I really do enjoy their music. Anyway, I give them 2 and a half stars.

EDIT - Saint here... Rick and I smoothed over things from the comment that was made. Totally misinterpretted and everything is cool now. Known the guy for far too long and respect his friendship. Remains a stand up guy for sure and we're going to work on trying to get FGFC820 to Detroit (or close by) soon.

Thanks Elektrosonik and now to weather with...

Oh yeah...

S.A.M. - When it was announced SAM (synthetic adrenaline music) would be playing Kinetik I was plenty excited. Latched onto this band from early compilation appearances. Picked up the first CD right when it came out and continue to love what this band is releasing. Had heard nothing but praise and good things regarding their shows from my European friends who had been fortunate enough to see them. Joe and Daniel came out wearing skull face mask and just ASSAULTED the senses with their sound - a blend of noise and techno. These guys are like two Jack Russell Terriors on speed - constantly jumping all over the stage, running from one end to the other, toying with the crowd, demanding attention (and deservedly getting it). I had a feeling these guys were going to blow the roof off the place and saying just that is a HUGE understatement. They ripped through tracks like "24 Stunden", "Arm of Justice", "World of Shit" and "Bull Fucking Shit". The crowd already feeding off the bands massive ammount of energy were treated to two new tracks as well - which when these see release on CD will certainly be floor fillers at City Club. Absolutely amazing performance and then later in the night when meeting Joe from the band, super nice and humble guy.

Decoded Feedback - Like my 7-8th time seeing them and Yone and Marco from the band have been friends of mine for a long long time. Always fun to see friends bands perform, but then the review comes across more as partial than anything else. Their performance tonight was mild, they don't do much to interact with the crowd yet preferring the music to speak for them. Song Highlights included "Phoenix", a cover of a Psychopomps song whose title escapes me now and "Relic" while a lot fo the set focused on the just released CD "Aftermath. Enjoyed seeing them perform again and they are trying to get a stateside tour happening soon and you best bet we'll get them to Detroit.

Absolute Body Control - You wanna talk old school? This project (fronted by Dirk Ivens) dates back to 1979. One the true pioneers of early industrial music and one of the bands that first utilized Moog rhtyms in dance music and decades later continues great sound exploration. If you like the minimal wave electronics this band is superb. You can hear the influence this band had on so many in todays music scene. Do your history lesson kids and discover some great tracks from this bands catalog. They ened there performance with a cover of the Normals "Warm Leatherette" that was phenomenal.

Combichrist - Totally skipped their performance. Yes really. The place filled up with kids who probably don't know (or worse yet care) about any of the other bands on the festival. The combi fans are about on the same level as Juggalos now. I digress from saying anything further...

Alien Vampires - Sadly stuck with a horrid band name, but these guys have some great songs in their arsenal. Fans of Psyclon Nine should check these guys out for sure - similar sound style and seeing them live a similar look. Sadly these guys were experiencing some sound issues with guitar and vocals. Was simply just too loud.

I lost my energy about 3 songs into Alien Vampires. Elektrosonik and I decided to call it a night. Ended up skipping out on Edgey (seen him before however) and the rescheduled Caustic. The Caustic show was caught on camera for a DVD to be released later. I and you can see what you missed

Onwards to phase 4 today. Lineup is as follows:

Ivardensphere

Memmaker

Destroid

Ambassador 21

Nachtmahr

Terrorfakt

Tactical Sekt

Hypnoskull

Hocico

Dive

Fabrik C

I also got a TON of label sampler CD's from Yolk at Art of Fact to give to all you gals and guys upon returning to City Club

the disc features tracks from Blank, Haujobb, Standeg, Colony 5 and more!

Oh yeah, tons more good photos from last night too. Will get to posting those eventually.

More later

Edited May 17, 2010 by DJ Saint

[Eevee]

Wow...I like how you're able to remember all of the details to document later. Very nice, Saint

Sounds like a great time

[DJ Nocker]

Glad you are having such a great time. Im going to the next festival with you...

[phee]

I am more then a little jealous