ArcTanGent Festival 2022: The Review – Wednesday

ArcTanGent Festival is – quite frankly – an event like no other within the UK.

Whilst the nation’s festival circuit boasts a number of events that cater towards alternative and heavy music in it’s all it’s various forms, ArcTanGent tightly focuses on a tightly niche demographic, with the Bristol based event opting to host and champion the best talent in the global math, post, progressive, noise and generally experimental rock scene. Those unversed in the genre and scene may palm off the festival due to it’s genre, but ArcTanGent has become the de facto mecca for those chasing the best and freshest talent in all things left of the field, ultimately resulting in the isolated Fernhill Farm becoming the desired destitution for those in pursuit of sounds that defy the notion of convention. So with the festival returning after a three year hiatus and with it arguably boasting it’s biggest lineup to date – with Cult Of Luna, Tesseract and Opeth sitting atop the bill – it’s no surprise to see the 10,000 capacity event selling out for the first time in history.

With the stakes high and the early bird tickets long sold out, one would be forgiven in thinking that Wednesday openers Lightning Sharks would be experiencing the most rattling of pre-show nerves. Those acquainted with the band will know this is not the case though. As the ashen skies ominously threaten to open and turn the farm into the mire that ArcTanGent typically sits upon, Bristol’s answer to Botch cut all pretence and cast electrifying fury down. Kickstarting a day hosting the best progressive talent from the local area, the band ring true to their namesake by offering up gnashing nonsensical riffs, animalistic bellowing and gnashing rage. Continuing in the vein of oceanic density, My Octopus Mind only double down on the distorting time signatures and obtuse structures offered by their opening predecessors. Featuring an upright bass that’s so large it could double as an obscene anime weapon and dealing in obscene in the kind of off-kilter math rock that’s so left of the field they’re pretty much miles removed from the paddock, the eight limbed Bristolian quartet deliver their take on sprawling prog rock with infallible weirdness that’s impossible not to love; its easy to see why this act are such a dearly beloved band in the Bristolian scene.

The Road take a more crushing approach. Whilst their peers prior to them whipped up the Elephant In The Bar Room with their sidewinding riffs and bewildering tempo switches, The Road are glacial, granulating and downtuned to stomach gurgling depths. As the pulverising likes of ‘Gyro Electro Destroyer’ and ‘Thrall’ threaten to flood the farm with viscous sludge before skies above have a chance to, moments of atmospheric space open amongst the mire of sound the band revel in. These moments of sparsity are infrequent and only amplify the concussive density of the band though; forget the dodgy festival food, The Road’s heaviness is more than enough to disrupt anyone’s stomach – in the best way of course.

Photo Credit:
Joe Singh

Olanza bring back the twisting and turning math rock riffs. With a welcome infusion of groove, swagger and southern desert rock vigour, the group duck and dive through a selection of tracks from their self-titled record in a way that’s just resonates a sense of funk. However, it’s the proceeding Mutant-Thoughts that turn out to be an early festival highlight. Even with all the acts so far delivering brilliant sets, Mutant-Thoughts arrest the attention of the Elephant stage, with the impeccable falsettos of Han Luis Cera fluttering alongside effervescent synths that defy the gravitational pull of the latin drum patterns that serve as the bedrock of their genre-defying sound. As their namesake implies, the group’s sound transforms across the span of this criminally short set, becoming more expansive, alien and spacious in the process. Motifs of world music, post rock and aforementioned latin become integral components of their musical biology in a way that feels organic and effortless, and whilst Mutant-Thoughts are merely in the early days of their career, they are clearly one of those rare acts that have the drive, mercurial inspiration and integrity to go forth and become a crucial staple and influence of the national experimental scene. There’s absolutely no denying that they’ll be welcomed back at ArcTanGent soon, albeit on a more lofty stage.

Offering up a sound that’s sleek yet ominous and complex as modern life itself, Modern Rituals’ unsettling take on distressing post-punk once again plunges today’s early arrivals back into the thrall of animosity. Choice cuts from their brilliant 2020 record This Is The History rightfully go down a storm with the crowd gathered, with punters revelling in the ashen intricacies that bound the band’s volatile sound that sways from soothing to troubling impulsively. In regards to impulsive music, the following Luo is a delight to behold. Bridging the gap between electronic IDM and progressive rock, the duo’s output is effortlessly ensnaring, with intricate synthetic melodies elegantly slipping to-and-fro different polyrhythms without becoming dislocated in the process. Whilst it may not be overt on their recorded material, the juxtaposition between analogue precision and synth-produced textures and melodies is magnetic and a joy, with such a contrast only highlighting the profound chemistry of the band. They may have used to set to focus on their more cooling and mollifying work in contrast their more confrontational electronic onslaughts, but yet Luo haplessly hold what feels like the entirety of Wednesday’s arrivals in their collective hands.

Photo Credit:
Jonathan Dadds

Hearing a passing attendee describe the next band – Mother Vulture – as “Måneskin for the progressively minded” may cause alarm for all those in earshot. And whilst it’s true that Mother Vulture do deal in vigorous rock energy removed from the experimental nature of their peers tonight – something they joke about by introducing each track as being yet another song in 4/4 – that’s not to say they don’t belong on this bill. Expelling more energy then their contemporaries on today’s bill combined, the Bristolian suited and booted Hellraisers treat both the stage and nearby bar as their own personal playground, scaling and bouncing off the environment as they tear through a high octane set of swaggering alt-rock rage. Motifs of a fang-bared Turbowolf are evident within their confrontational set, but perhaps what’s most surprising about this show is how Mother Vulture sound absolutely ferocious this evening. Whilst their recorded output shivers with electric excitement, tonight the band have seemed to tap into the layline of intensity that runs through Fernhill Farm, with vocalist Georgi Valentine bellowing up some authentic blacked screams not heard within their work thus far. Memory Of Elephants also appear to channel this energy from beyond the veil, infusing their typically dynamic work with lacerating rage, further bolstering their typically unpredictable and coiling riffs to dangerous degrees.

Wednesday’s warm up on the Elephant In The Bar Room stage is capped off by the one-two punch of Sugar Horse and The St Pierre Snake Invasion. Arguably two of Bristol’s finest acts, the former deliver 25 minutes of miserable progressive music covering shoegaze, post metal and a myriad of others in their genrephobic, overwhelmingly loud assault. ‘Shouting Judas At Bob Dylan’, ‘Slam Dancing In A Burning Building’ and the absurdly titled ‘Pictures Of Dogs Having Sex’ see the band enter a trance like state as they pull from a musical oeuvre of their creation, bathing the now fully packed Elephant stage in a sound that ebbs from crushing and annihilating to tentative and contemplative. In contrast, the latter stack their set full of older songs, rarities and dad jokes between their mathy punk hits, that the packed crowd adore. Tracks from The St Pierre Snake Invasion’s second record Caprice Enchantè slot perfectly will with the rarely aired likes of ‘David Ickearumba’, ‘Jesus, Mary & Joseph Talbot’ and ‘Thanks For The Answers No’, igniting what is first of the many pits of the weekend. However, the real treat of this set is the new material, with the premiere of ‘Submechano’ and ‘I Pray To Liars’ from their upcoming third full length seeing the band entering new musical territory whilst not relenting on the progressive, unrelenting fury that made the band so arresting in the first place. It’s a brilliant end to a day that highlights how this unassuming pocket of the country is actually a hotbed for non-confirming art and why ArcTanGent couldn’t be held anyone else but here.

Photo Credit:
Jonathan Dadds

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