ArcTanGent Festival enigmatically bills itself as “the world’s ultimate music festival for connoisseurs of Math-rock, Post-rock, Noise-rock, Alt-rock and everything in between”. It’s its own special little thing, an idiosyncratic off-shoot of the generic festival scene, and the first 15 acts have just been announced for the 2018 event.
- And So I Watch You From Afar are firm ArcTanGent favourites, so you’ll find them headlining the Thursday night performance with their fifth album, The Endless Shimmering.
- Giraffes? Giraffes! are experimental math rock pioneers making their European debut – this will be the only place you’ll see them perform in the UK.
- Pianos Become The Teeth will be making their way from Maryland to support the release of their long-awaited fourth album Wait For Love.
- Foxing will be bringing Missouri’s freshest indie post-rock.
This year’s ATG will also see two of the UK’s best independent UK labels matched head-to-head in the Holy Roar vs. Big Scary Monsters takeover. In the words of Big Scary Monsters founder Kev Douch: “We’ve been at every single ArcTanGent and it’s always one of the best weekends of the year. This is the first time we’re putting our name to a stage though and the only shame is that we have to share it with Holy Roar.”
The Big Scary Monsters corner will include Jamie Lenman, Alpha Male Tea Party, Talons, Tangled Hair and Gulfer. Holy Roar have their own heavyweights in the form of Rolo Tomassi, Bossk, Svalbard, and Body Hound.
And the infamous Silent Disco will also be back. In fact, it might be the best yet. Experimental electronica noise rock trio Gallops will be premiering an all-new live show by remixing tracks on-the-fly to the accompaniment of “warped visuals”. As summed up by guitarist Mark Huckridge, “it’s one for the wide-eyed dreamers.”
The final band to be announced – at least this far – are GUG. It’s a new group that features none other than former Cleft turbo-prog riff-wielder Dan Wild-Beesley and Alpha Male Tea Party’s Tom Peters. They had to miss last year due to medical issues, so a warm welcome is more than expected.
Taking place from August 16 to 18 just 10 miles south of Bristol, ATG is set to keep exploding in popularity. Tickets are on sale now – with capacity strictly limited to 5,000, you should act fast.