The days are getting longer, the skies (sometimes) a bit brighter – and so thoughts start to turn towards the spring and summer, and all those festivals we’re looking forward to getting back to.
One of the best of the lot is Brighton’s Bad Pond Festival – a small but perfectively formed event taking place at Brighton’s Concorde 2 on Sunday, 1st May. Curated by Small Pond Records and packed with up-and-coming, alternative and leftfield talent, it’s one not to miss.
With a line-up including headliners Bossk and God Is An Astronaut, it’s also playing home to a few of our absolute favourite new and emerging names – so here’s a quick run-through of three sets we beg you not to miss. You can grab tickets and find all the details you’ll need here.
With their new album ‘Bob Vylan Presents: The Price Of Life’, it’s no secret we’ve been longtime fans of the London two-piece – who finally seem to be starting to get the attention their musical output deserves.
Set to drop on 22nd April, it’s a record that only further guilds the reputation of a band who cross the sonic divides at will, all the time with something vitally important to say. Never just repeating the same thing over and over again, they’re an act that treat every show like a community gathering. One to reinvigorate your belief in music’s power for positive action.
Brighton electro-punks CLT DRP are flickering back into life following their debut album ‘Without The Eyes’, released back in 2020. After dropping latest single ‘TORX’ in January – packaged on a limited edition 10″ vinyl alongside previous effort ‘Ownership’ – the hometown three-piece cut a righteous path of innovative, brilliantly abrasive music that demands attention. That, and that just dropped 10″ also includes a cover of Dolly Parton’s ‘Why’d You Come In Here Lookin Like That’, which you can check out below. An instant win.
Manchester’s Witch Fever are a prospect quickly fizzing up the buzz charts. Their debut EP, ‘Reincarnate’, landed to almost universal critical acclaim – and it’s easy to see why. Signing to Music For Nations last year, they’ve got an urgent immediacy that pummels as much as it punches through. One of those bands to get in on immediately, before they become absolutely massive, Bad Ponds 2022 might be one of your last chances to get ahead of the curve.
If, after all of that, you still need more convincing – here’s a live vid shot at last year’s Bad Pond Festival, featuring the brilliant Phoxjaw, performing their track ‘Half House’.
Bad Pond Festival takes place on 1st May at Brighton’s Concorde 2. Grab tickets here and find out more here.
