It was indeed an excellent fest. Any of the acts could have been the highlight of an ordinary show. When they're all playing the same gig, it's difficult to choose only a handful to praise. Nevertheless...
Kyle Flanagan - Excellent textures and array of sounds. I think that he was mostly if not exclusively manipulating and mixing pre-recorded junk metal sounds, but I couldn't really tell despite seeing him play three times this past week. If it was junk metal recordings, the presentation was far from typical (though I don't mind typical in this regard). I saw Kyle play as part of Crazy Doberman earlier in the year, but his solo work was new to me. He's definitely on my radar now.
Body Carve - What needs to be said except that Body Carve is one of the best new(er) harsh noise acts from the US. Dense but detailed. He doesn't seem to mind letting things ride for a while, but nothing ever seems to stagnate. His set played out like well-edited tape, but it seemed to be mostly if not exclusively live contact mic noise.
Kiran Arora - You know the perfect NOISE sound that some 90s tapes have that is unparalleled by any modern recordings? The sound of full-on, in-the-red, +10db and beyond maxing-out that is coated in numerous layers thick tape saturation? Nothing cold, nothing sterile; all warm, all nasty. His live set sounded like this, and it was incredible.
Charmaine Lee - Another performer that was new to me. Mostly vocal noise that reminded me of some of Spencer Yeh's work, but it came off as sincere, unique, and well-honed. Not only was the set great in and of itself; it was a refreshing departure from the onslaught of harsh noise that constituted most of each night.
Deterge - Jim gave a great sample of the wide range of styles that he's developed over the past several years. It seemed like he was presenting a particular, meticulously-crafted palate of sound, playing through it perfectly for a couple of minutes, and then moving onto the next one via well-timed transitions. Sounds ranged from harsh noise, classic American PE, Euro-inspired PE, industrial, and much in between.
Machismo - I don't have the appropriate vocabulary to describe this set. Somehow it was utterly chaotic
and well-executed PE.
Paranoid (FUCKING) Time - The most simple set-up elicited the most enthusiastic response of the fest. Rock-n-roll attitude brought to rusted gutter noise. By the end of it, Pat's table was lifted above all of our heads, yet he was still (barely) able to reach his gear and continued playing until the table slammed back down on the ground.
Worth - Such interesting harsh noise. No one else does noise like this. That strange microphone that has been protruding from the mixer for at least 6 years. That even more strange white thing that either is a microphone or is at least treated as if it's a microphone. Will took full advantage of the PA at its max volume and let the bizarre textures ride until their potentials were fully realized.
Unsustainable Social Condition - One half California wall of harsh noise, one half Nikudorei (and, perhaps, Spacegrinder) style crowd attack. Why choose one or the other when you can have both?
VMS Elit / Sewer Election / Heinz Hopf - I lump these three together because I'm running low on time and stamina. VMS and SE were each superb on their own, but Heinz Hopf brought the fest to quite an appropriate conclusion -- the perfect mix of experienced know-how and wild, uninhibited chaos. Dan cut his hand quite badly (it seemed) on his piece of metal, but that didn't stop him from raising and slamming it over and over again -- with many close calls to my own head. Special thanks to Luke Tandy for sneakily turning up the PA speakers during their set!
If you're interested in videos and are a luddite like me, it appears that you can get a good sample from Oxen's publicly viewable Instagram account:
https://www.instagram.com/oxenrecords/
