The Maifeld Derby Diaries 2017 Day 2

Looking back to the first day of the festival I listened to a lot of new electronic music and you might think it is a space for computer based DJ-music. But there were lots of bands playing in a smaller venue that made real handmade guitar based music. Sadly I couldn't watch them all because I wanted to see the main acts today. I know I missed a lot of new bands but it was hard to make to right decision. So we started into the day with a band I featured a few month ago. Klez.E. is a band formed in Eastern Germany a few years ago and they were announced as the German Cure. And indeed, they had a lot of influence of them. Playing a bass inspired music with a charismatic singer in front and added with some post-punk guitar licks they made big fun watching them.

The next band that is worth to be named at this place is Zeal & Ardor. Listening to their songs you might think that they should be based in Southern USA but they are from Basel, Switzerland. They make a very unique mixture of gospel influenced sacred pop with and mix it with the best of black metal. For me it was the first time I listened to a sound like this and I have say that it impressed me the way they did their forward driven sound. Heavy guitars galore and an appearance that I won't forget.

After this I listened to Royal Canoe and Temples, both bands working on a new guitar pop and art-rock. Both bands were not too bad but when I can't remember any song a few weeks later I think it is not worth to write about them. Respecting their work I think I go further to the next one. American Football is an American independent band formed 20 years ago in Illinois. They made a few records and vanished after a few years in the scene. Now they made a reunion with a timeless unique independent sound. Their sound could be described as high-school soft emo-core. I didn't know them before and don't know their output from years gone by but their relaxed guitar inspired sound was perfect for a warm Saturday afternoon. They persuaded me at this time and I think I will listen to them during the next months for more than one time.

After watching Metronomy, another electronic band supporting some main acts during the last years I had to decide between Kate Tempest and Ryley Walker. It was hard because I really like Kate Tempest and her last album and I am a fan of Ryley. I decided for Kate Tempest first to watch out what will happen. She was in a good mood to wake up the audience with her lyrics and a band that fit to their songs very well. But after 15 minutes it was too stressful to listen to her and so I moved to Ryley Walker in the smallest venue. And this choice was perfect. He once made a great appearance. Playing his blues inspired songs with great soli on his guitar. It is always a pleasure to listen to him. He is probably one of this artists I would go to a concert and leave without being disappointed.

We finished the evening watching Moderat, an electronic music group originating in Berlin, Germany. They are famous at this scene and I was very excited to see them live. It is always difficult to perform electronic sound live on stage. But these guys impressed me very much. Their combination of drifty beats, reggae inspired vocals and the balance of pure electric music and krauty improvisations made a perfect finish of the second day.

Devil Is Fine

In mid June there will be for the seventh time an open air festival in Mannheim, Germany. I am there with my youngest brother since a couple of years and we've seen a lot of bands in a few days that I could agree with. Mostly guitar based bands that come from the underground and didn't made it big at all and bands like Mew, Soon and others that are close to get famous. This festival is always inspiring to me with new sounds, great artists and you get a survey about what is new and worth investigating for. This year the highlights for me will be Thurston Moore, Kleez.e, Trentemoeller, Primal Scream and Kate Tempest among others. The latest sign was Zeal and Ardor, a band I've never heard before. It is a project by Swiss born Manuel Gargeux and his music is a crude but fascinating mixture of blues and black metal. If they are live as great as on the video it will be a perfect sound for a later concert in the evening.

Europe Is Lost

It is a very small ridge between poetry, rap and protest song and one the only one I know is Kate Tempest. I saw her early this summer on a festival promoting her new book and was astonished about rapping about social drawbacks in the UK. These days she released her new record called Let Them Eat Chaos. It's a title that might be program. She's one of the few that have something to say without uplifting trigger finger. She's able to give you some impressions of our world today. I don't agree in any word she raps but it makes me think about some things in a different way.

Listen to her poem and think about it (just if you want it). I didn't heard words that are more concrete than hers for months.

Europe is lost, America lost, London is lost,

Still we are clamouring victory.

All that is meaningless rules,

And we have learned nothing from history.

People are dead in their lifetimes,

Dazed in the shine of the streets.

But look how the traffic keeps moving.

The system’s too slick to stop working.

Business is good. And there’s bands every night in the pubs,

And there’s two for one drinks in the clubs.

We scrubbed up well

We washed off the work and the stress

Now all we want’s some excess

Better yet; A night to remember that we’ll soon forget.

All of the blood that was shed for these cities to grow,

All of the bodies that fell.

The roots that were dug from the ground

So these games could be played

I see it tonight in the stains on my hands.

The buildings are screaming

I cant ask for help though, nobody knows me,

Hostile and worried and lonely.

We move in our packs and these are the rites we were born to

Working and working so we can be all that we want

Then dancing the drudgery off

But even the drugs have got boring.

Well, sex is still good when you get it.

To sleep, to dream, to keep the dream in reach

To each a dream,

Don’t weep, don’t scream,

Just keep it in,

Keep sleeping in

What am I gonna do to wake up?

I feel the cost of it pushing my body

Like I push my hands into pockets

And softly I walk and I see it, it’s all we deserve

The wrongs of our past have resurfaced

Despite all we did to vanquish the traces

My very language is tainted

With all that we stole to replace it with this,

I am quiet,

Feeling the onset of riot.

But riots are tiny though,

Systems are huge,

The traffic keeps moving, proving there’s nothing to do.

It’s big business baby and its smile is hideous.

Top down violence, structural viciousness.

Your kids are doped up on medical sedatives.

But don’t worry bout that. Worry bout terrorists.

The water levels rising! The water levels rising!

The animals, the polarbears, the elephants are dying!

Stop crying. Start buying.

But what about the oil spill?

Shh. No one likes a party pooping spoil sport.

Massacres massacres massacres/new shoes

Ghettoised children murdered in broad daylight by those employed to protect them.

Live porn streamed to your pre-teens bedrooms.

Glass ceiling, no headroom. Half a generation live beneath the breadline.

Oh but it’s happy hour on the high street,

Friday night at last lads, my treat!

All went fine till that kid got glassed in the last bar,

Place went nuts, you can ask our Lou,

It was madness, the road ran red, pure claret.

And about them immigrants? I cant stand them.

Mostly, I mind my own business.

But they’re only coming over here to get rich.

It’s a sickness.

England! England!

Patriotism!

And you wonder why kids want to die for religion?

Work all your life for a pittance,

Maybe you’ll make it to manager,

Pray for a raise

Cross the beige days off on your beach babe calendar.

Anarchists desperate for something to smash

Scandalous pictures of glamorous rappers in fashionable magazines

Who’s dating who?

Politico cash in an envelope

Caught sniffing lines off a prostitutes prosthetic tits,

And it’s back to the house of lords with slapped wrists

They abduct kids and fuck the heads of dead pigs

But him in a hoodie with a couple of spliffs –

Jail him, he’s the criminal

It’s the BoredOfItAll generation

The product of product placement and manipulation,

Shoot em up, brutal, duty of care,

Come on, new shoes.

Beautiful hair.

Bullshit saccharine ballads

And selfies

And selfies

And selfies

And here’s me outside the palace of ME!

Construct a self and psyhcosis

And meanwhile the people are dead in their droves

But nobody noticed,

Well actually, some of them noticed,

You could tell by the emoji they posted.

Sleep like a gloved hand covers our eyes

The lights are so nice and bright and lets dream

But some of us are stuck like stones in a slipstream

What am I gonna do wake up?

We are lost

We are lost

We are lost

And still nothing

Will stop

Nothing pauses

We have ambitions and friends and our courtships to think of

Divorces to drink off the thought of

The money

The money

The oil

The planet is shaking and spoiled

Life is a plaything

A garment to soil

The toil the toil.

I cant see an ending at all.

Only the end.

How is this something to cherish?

When the tribesmen are dead in their deserts

To make room for alien structures,

Develop

Develop

Kill what you find if it threatens you.

No trace of love in the hunt for the bigger buck,

Too Busy To Blog

Too much work and dates during the last days stopped me continuing the blog. Now I will do the rest of work for today so that I can catch the train to a familiar 3-days Festival in Mannheim. Looking forward to a few great gigs and Kate Tempest doing a reading. So there will be no post until next week.

You can check out more of this event here with some videos of the appearing artists

So have a good time