Forwards Bristol 2023
Includes booking fee
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Appearing:
Featuring
Aphex Twin
Richard D James, electronica and ambient music legend, whose dark and disturbing journeys into the world of ambient breaks and drum'n'bass have led to fans never listening with the lights off. A true innovator.
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Primal Scream
Loaded with a massive eclectic body of work, from their early C86 jangly guitar releases to the ambient baggy indie-rock sound of their Mercury Prize winning 'Screamadelica', their mid-career pastiche of the Rolling Stones, right through to their later more experimental dance-based material, Bobby Gillespie and the boys are forever movin' on up.
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Arlo Parks
Parks struggled with her identity growing up; a self-confessed tomboy who was super sensitive and "uncool", she says it was like "I'm a black kid who can't dance for shit, listens to emo music and currently has a crush on some girl in my Spanish class." By the time she reached 17, she shaved her head, figured out she was bisexual and produced/wrote an album's worth of material. Growing up in South West London, half Nigerian, a quarter Chadian and a quarter French, Arlo Parks learned to speak French before English. A quiet child, she'd write short stories and create fantasy worlds, later journalling and then obsessing over spoken word poetry, reading American poets such as Ginsberg and Jim Morrison and watching old Chet Baker performances on YouTube. These days she references Nayyirah Waheed, Hanif Abdurraqib and Iain S. Thomas as her favourite modern poets, and it is clear that their works are as influential on her songwriting as any musician. Fela Kuti's 'Water' and Otis Redding's 'Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay' soundtracked Arlo Parks' childhood, but it was aged around 13 that she discovered King Krule; an artist who would heavily influence the music she writes today. Later listening to more hip-hop (from Kendrick Lamar and Earl Sweatshirt to the more confessional sounds of Loyle Carner) and rock (Jimi Hendrix, Shilpa Ray and David Bowie), as well as the subdued, pained sounds of Keaton Henson, Sufjan Stevens and Julien Baker, Parks explains, "I would write stories so detailed you could taste them, while maintaining the energy and life of the hip-hop I loved." There's a visual, almost cinematic quality to her writing too, which is born from her love of horror films, streetwear and abstract art.
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Leftfield
Spinning deep roots and dark drum'n'bass, fusing organic sounds and music technology to create a unique vibe, Neil Barnes and Paul Daley led the dance music charge of the early '90s. Since 2010, Barnes has toured and recorded under the moniker Leftfield without the involvement of Daley. Their major breakthrough came with the single 'Open Up' featuring PiL's John Lydon on vocals, followed by the 1995 Mercury Music Prize nominated album 'Leftism'. The UK no.1 album 'Rhythm And Stealth' followed in '99, then after a lengthy hiatus, 2015 finally brought third album 'Alternative Light Source', as Leftfield continues to produce some of the most vibrant and innovative electronic music around.
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The Downs
The Downs
Find places to stay on Sat 2nd September 2023