We can understand that you don’t got all the time in the world to check all our blogposts, so that’s why from now on we give you every Friday the highlights of the week.

First of al we are really proud of our live recordings from some artists at Incubated. Listen to Gary War, R. Stevie Moore and Malcolm Middleton. If you done with listening to their full live sets and you still got some time left check out the new albums of The Hickey Underworld and Mux Mool.

Did you al ready make plans for the weekend? If not go check out Raw Art Fair and Re:Rotterdam Art Fair. If you just want to enjoy some art behind your computer go check out artists like Banks Violette, our local hero Ibo Pompe and Valérie Bluess.

And we’ll end these highlights with some good news; the band Palais Schaumburg are back together, Deftones-bassplayer Cheng has emerged from his coma and the winners of the Textures-tickets are noted and they will get an e-mail any minute now. By the way, did you know that there is a leaked picture of David Guetta’s piano?

The Sonic Acts festival is well-known for interdisciplinary projects and the focus on developments at the intersections of art, technology, music and science. The festival consists of live performances, a conferance, film programme and an exhibition. The fourteenth edition will take place 23-26 February at various locations in Amsterdam

The theme for this edition is ‘Travelling Time’ and offers an experience of time and ideas relating to time. Time is a complex and ongoing technological developments continually change our notions of time. Communication networks operate at light speed and computers process data in real-time without human mediation, resulting in a gap between machine time and the human experience of it.

Masterclasses
In collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum and STEIM, Sonic Acts will host a series of Master Classes as part of this year’s festival theme Travelling Time. The master classes will be supervised by Catherine Christer Hennix, Peter Kubelka, Olaf Nicolai, Pauline Oliveros and Tino Sehgal

The master classes provide a unique opportunity to work with five internationally renowned artist whose work critically reflects on time and timing. In a concentrated and intimate setting, participants will gain insights into the ‘artist’ concepts, creative processes and methods of composition and production through hands-on workshops and seminars.

The deadline for applications is February 12. Send a biography and a short statement of motivation to take part in a specific master class to masterclass@sonicacts.com.

Dates & locations
The masterclasses take place in Amsterdam at STEIM, SMART Project Space and de Balie.

February 20 – Olaf Nicolai
A German artist whose conceptual approach and use of diverse media question the way in which we view our everyday environment. He also translates theories from science and the arts into aesthetic-artistic idioms, rendering them accessible in a new context. His works deal with the perception of time in the reception of art. Nicolai has participated in international solo and group exhibitions. His works were shown at Documenta X, and at the 49^th and 51^st Venice Biennales. Several of his works can be found in public collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Thyssen Bornemisza Art

February 21 & 22 – Catherine Christer Hennix
Composer, philosopher, mathematician and visual artist. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, she worked with illustrious figures such as La Monte Young and Pandit Pran Nath, who were very important for her own work. She has frequently collaborated with the American anti-art philosopher, composer and violinist Henry Flynt. Hennix also draws inspiration from Japanese Gagaku music and early vocal music of Perotinus and Leoninus. All her major compositions, including The Electric Harpsichord, are regarded as part of an ongoing, endless cycle. Hennix’ two-day master class will investigate the relationship between modern music, programming and linguistics, and relate the latter to mathematical structures.

February 22 – Peter Kubelka
A multifaceted artist and theoretician who has worked in film, cooking, music, architecture, speech and writing. He communicates through lectures, which also use non-verbal elements  “to free our world view from being the exclusive property of language.” Kubelka’s cinematographic work is short and highly condensed. His “Metric Films” preceded and laid the foundations for structural cinema. Kubelka will lead a master class on film and cooking.

February 23 – Pauline Oliveros
Composer, performer and humanitarian, she is an important pioneer in American music and electronic music. She has explored sound for five decades, breaking new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation, she created a body of work with such breadth of vision that is profoundly affects those who experience it. Oliveros will lead a Deep Listening session.

February 23 – Tino Sehgal
A British-German artist whose works, which he calls “constructed situations,” involve one or more people carrying out instructions conceived by the artist. What all of Sehgal’s works have in common is that they reside only in the space and time they occupy, and in the memory of the work and its reception. The artist himself describes his works as “constructed situations,” whose materials are the human voice, language, movement and interaction, without the production of physical objects. His pieces are choreographies that are regularly staged in museums or galleries, and continuously executed for the entire duration of a show. In 2012, he will present a newly commissioned work for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, London.

Live preformances
The acts we think you shouldn’t  miss.

Eleh, mysterious minimal electronic music project, best when played very loud

Mark Fell, one half of SND, experimenting with rhythms

Youth Lagoon, new kid on the dream pop block

Incubate has launched the Incubate API to make all festival-data available for use in apps, websites or even art created by Incubate-minded developers. The Incubate API is an Ally API, a REST oriented JSON Web Service Interface to communicate with the Ally database. Information about artists, time schedules, venues or the latest festival news can be easily collected using the API.

Contest
Everyone who thinks he has a good idea and makes an app or a website for it using the Incubate API, gets the chance to win 500,- euros. You can participate on your own, with a team or with your business. All apps are welcome, iOS/Android/BlackBerry apps, (mobile) websites, mashups with other apps like FourSquare and Spotify; whatever you want! And if you got multiple awesome ideas, you can even submit more than one application.

There are three prizes 
1st prize: 500 euros
2nd prize: 2x Incubate festival passepartouts
3rd prize: 2x Incubate festival daytickets for a day of your choice

If you want to participate in the contest, you can submit your finished application before May 10th, 2012 12:00 PM via api@incubate.org. Please include the following info:
- Application name + description about the app and the idea
- Platform information
- URL (if website/online mashup), or installfile (if possible) for app. We’d like to test the app.
- A video of the app is a plus, but not required.
- Screenshots of your application + descriptions
- Full names of all people who created the app

All submitted apps will be published on the Incubate website on a special app page, including all necessary information and links to the app or app store. Of course you do not transfer any intellectual right to Incubate when you submit your Incubate API app. You will be responsible for submitting the app to the app store of your choice if needed, you can make your app free or charge for it.

Judging
After May 10th, 2012, a jury of employees from the Incubate and Freshheads organizations will judge the submitted apps and pick the winners. Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:
1. Quality of the idea (originality, creativity)
2. Implementation of the idea
3. Potential of your website/app; is it a good addition for Incubate fans?

How do I enter the contest?
1. Register for your personal API key on http://incubate.org/2012/api/register. We only need your name and e-mail address
2. Save your API key
3. Check the API documentation on  http://api.incubate.org/docs/
4. Create your awesome app
5. Submit your app before May 10th, 2012 12:00 PM via api@incubate.org. If you got any questions, please leave your feedback on http://incubate.org/2012/api/feedback or, if confidential, e-mail api@incubate.org.

Registration: http://incubate.org/2012/api/register
Documentation: http://api.incubate.org/docs/
Incubate festival information: http://incubate.org
Contact: http://incubate.org/2012/api/feedback or api@incubate.org

Please note, we’re updating the API regularly the upcoming months, adding new features. Think about geo-tags for eat/sleep/travel-addresses, news, etc..

Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory

Cloud Nothings. Or: how to go from “meh” to “cool!” in one album. Their last album was that summer garage poppunk. There are 50 coming from the USA every year. So we couldn’t care that much about this band. But this album is different. They turned 180 degrees and started making this dark, pretty loud indierock. We like how they didn’t even try to use pro-tools on the vocalist.
For fans of: Rats On Rafts, Male Bonding, Smith Westerns

Listen to Cloud Nothings – Attack On Memory on Spotify

Earth – Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II

We don’t think we have to introduce this band to you right? Ever since their album ‘The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull’ this band have released top notch cd’s. Last year, the first part of Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light got released, and now here is the second part. Expect more brilliant, slow, minimal post-stonerrock like you’re used of Earth.
For fans of: Earth, Sleep, Ancestors

Listen to Earth – Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light II on Spotify

Dr. Dog – Be The Void

Dr. Dog from the USA love the 60′s. They love pop music. They love folk melodies. They love a bit psychedelica. So that’s what their album sounds like. Add to that a lot of DIY ethics, some oddball music and a happy vibe and you’ll see that this band is extremely catchy.
For fans of: Local Natives, The Beatles, Cloud Control, Fleet Foxes

Listen to Dr. Dog – Be The Void on Spotify

Mark Lanegan Band – Blues Funeral

Mark Lanegan is a hero. End of.
For fans of: Mark fucking Lanegan

Listen to Mark Lanegan – Blues Funeral on Spotify

A Place To Bury Strangers – Onwards To The Wall EP

Finally, some new material by A Place To Bury Strangers. One of the loudest livebands known to man released a new EP this week and it’s what you can expect of them: loud, stuffed, screeching shoegaze-rock. And yes, we fucking like that.
For fans of: Odonis Odonis, My Bloody Valentine, Hood

Listen to A Place To Bury Strangers – Onwards To The Wall EP 

Almost weekend! Hang on! Just 2 more hours!

Elk jaar in september komen er duizenden mensen van over de hele wereld naar Incubate. Een probleem voor deze bezoekers is het gebrek aan betaalbare overnachtingsmogelijkheden in Tilburg.
Daar willen we wat aan doen.

Samen met architectenbureau Buro 013 willen we lege kantoorpanden, leegstaande scholen, en andere niet-gebruikte gebouwen omvormen tot tijdelijke slaapplaatsen. Aan Tilburgers willen we vragen hierbij te helpen door tips te geven welke gebouwen hiervoor geschikt zijn. Via http://incu.at/leegstaan of hieronder kan iedereen tot 1 maart makkelijk tips doorgeven.

Frank Kimenai van Incubate: “Door leegstaande gebouwen in te zetten als tijdelijke verblijfplaats willen we niet alleen verloedering tegengaan maar ook een impuls aan de buurt geven. Niemand wordt blij van ongebruikt vastgoed. Daarnaast zullen ontmoetingen tussen internationale festivalbezoekers en de Tilburgers toenemen, wat de buurt levendig houdt.  Zo hebben de stad én de bezoeker er wat aan.”

Tilburgers kunnen hun tips tot 1 maart doorgeven via het formulier op http://incu.at/leegstaan, (of print het formulier uit), maar het makkelijkst vul je het gelijk hieronder in:

Eva Wijers, and other participants will be accompanied by ‘professional’ director Joost van Ginkel and will take place next Tuesday the 14th.

Incubate Re-edited by Eva Wijers from Incubate Festival on Vimeo.

The producer Mux Mool is rising. After a couple of singles, EP’s and one full album his new album ‘Planet High School’ is now completly on Soundcloud. His music is a bit hard to catogorize, but I guess you can describe it as eletronic hiphop with some glitch, between  Nosaj Thing & Rustie.

His label, Ghostly, did a lot of other interesting releases last couple of years.  Producers like Matthew Dear, Gold Panda, Com Truise and Tycho are all booming right now. WARP, eat your heart out!

Not many artists released their first record at the age of 62, even less started a successful career with it. Charles Bradley, now referred  as “The Screaming Eagle of Soul” is one of the very few who did, maybe the only one. His debut album ‘No time for dreaming‘ even got listed on Mojo’s (#40) and Rolling Stone’s (#48) ‘Best album of 2011′.

Charles Bradley had a turbulent life. Despite being abandoned as a child, poverty, periods of homelessness and the loss of his brother, he never stopped pursuing his dream to become a professional singer. The documentary Soul of America follows Bradley’s journey during the months leading up to the release of his debut album. The documentary will premiere at the SXSW 2012 Film Festival in March. Check out the trailer below.

So Monday we posted the complete live show by Gary War on Incubated 12, yesterday R. Stevie Moore at Incubated 12 and today another new show. The fun doesn’t seem to end

“I hope you’re all feeling festive and happy. So I can destroy it and make you feel miserable and depressed”. Enter Malcolm Middleton. The self-confessed arch-miserablist. And with song titles such as ‘We’re All Going To Die’, ‘The Whole World Has Gone To Fuck’ and ‘The Loneliest Night Of My Life Came Calling’ you know what you can expect. It’s a surprise then, that the music of this singer/songwriter and ex-member of Arab Strap is actually kinda uptempo. And that he is, although a bit shy, a very funny guy.

Those that missed the show on Incubated in Paradox, Tilburg – or those that want to hear it again – can now listen to it, because we just released the entire live-show on our Soundcloud!

You can also listen to it below. Have fun!

We want to give you a reminder that next week, 16th of February, we present our first cinema night: Incubios. It’s going to be held at the Hall Of Fame and the entrance is for free. This night we’re going to show a short film called ‘Het Bijzondere Leven Van Rocky De Vlaeminck‘ and a full-length movie called ‘The Kingdom of Survival‘. For the origin from the last movie watch an interview with the director and the director of photography below.

He’s the king of DIY. With more than 300 cassettes released since the 60′s, he never made it to the charts. It turned him into a prophet in the independent scene. We booked R. Stevie Moore for Incubated 12 in Paradox, together with Harry Merry and Gary War (stream his entire set here!). The show was… well… err… how shall we call it… unconventional? Inimitable? Authentic? Uncompromising? Let’s call it a bizarre clash between music, performance art, spoken word, absurdism, pop music and Ariel Pink.
And if, for some reason, you don’t know what we mean – you can now hear it for yourself! Because we’re streaming the entire show on our Soundcloud!

Listen to it below!

The cream of the crop of the Dutch metal scene Textures is hitting the road again.  Together with the British metal band Sylosis they’ll visit eleven european venues for an European tour. The last gig is on 11 March at the 013 here in Tilburg, and we are giving away 2×2 tickets.

What do you have to do? Simple, mail us to win@incubate.org and we will randomly choose 2 entries. Make sure you add your first and last name and put ‘Textures’ in the subject line.

Dualism by Textures

After 3 years the first signs of Chi Cheng  emerging from his coma are there.  Watch this video were they encourage him to lift his leg.

Oneloveforchi.com also released this docu about Chi Cheng’s recovery.

part 1

part 2

Last Monday we already told you about the Raw Art Fair that starts today in Rotterdam, but today it’s also the beginning of Re:Rotterdam. This art fair is organised by Galerie10 and wants to provide another kind of view of the modern art. By the way, if you are in Rotterdam this week go see Art Rotterdam & Object Rotterdam as well! Sunday is the last day to visit these fairs.

Belgium’s rawest rockers, The Hickey Underworld finally release their new album any day now. But you don’t have to wait any longer, because you can stream it on some site called Deezer. The band performed on Incubate 2007 (is that 5 years ago already?), in its early days. And now here’s their second major label release already. Damn. Time flies.

You can catch the band in Rotown this Saturday and Paradiso on Sunday. Go check them out!

The post-punk era of 1979-83 were one of the most influential times of pop history. Retaining the roots in punk, but more complex and experimental, post-punk constructed the blueprint for modern genres such as gothic rock, industrial, alternative rock and many more.

The Dutch collective ULTRA, short for ultramodern, were successfully riding this post-punk wave. Releasing some of the best experimental pop in Europe. Combining art, music and the energy, rawness and DIY philosophy of punk  with new ideas, methods and technology innovations. And now they are back on it again. Combining the mind state of that era with modern-day art, music and technology. With a 4 day city marathon, from 8 untill 11 March, headlined by ultra-figureheads Minny Pops and many others.

After 30 years Minny Pops is back. Incendiary Magazine, and many others, put a lot of work into it to get Wally and consorts performing live again. Together with Dutch prodigies Rats on Rafts,  Jack and the Beanstalks , talented and undefinable Womb and the Slits guitarist Viv Albertine  they recently concluded a successful UK tour. You can read the entire tour review by Incendiary Magazine here.

And now Minny Pops is back in the Low Countries to perform in a variety of surprising locations and configurations. These nights will combine the original movers with artist and bands who are currently exploring the borders. The four cities they attend are : Nijmegen, Eindhoven, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Every night will be different with unique performances, guest appearances and DJ sets. The  composition of these nights will be the following.

Thursday 8 march: NIJMEGEN, Extrapool + Onderbroek
The kickoff is in Nijmegen. For this occasion Ties van der Linden (Vice) and Laszlo Panyigay (Mekanik Kommando) will perform as MK-12. They will remix tracks from Mekanik Kommando’s debutalbum. Also Distel performs and remixes tracks from Mekanik Kommando’s debutalbum. Wieman (f.k.a. zébra) will reinterpretate songs of Minny Pops. Bertin , The Dear Listeners, Donné et Desirée, Belchsingersonggrinder and DJ Dance To The Radio are the modern bands present this evening. The night will start with a movie and interview with veterans of Ultra.

Friday 9 March: EINDHOVEN, TAC
Eindhoven is the second city for the marathon and is the home base of Nasmak/Plus instruments. Toon Bressers (Nasmak) and Younes Riad present an electronic percussion interpretation of the Nasmak album ’4Our clicks’. Eighties pioneers World According To (W.A.T.) will perform and also newcomers Ongemotiveerd Kunstenaars Collectief and Hunting the Robot. An all-female Minny Pops will perform a unique and one-off a kind show of the single ‘Kojak’ (Plurex 005). More acts are to be announced.

Saturday 10 March: ROTTERDAM, Worm + Tiki’s
This night will start with in Tiki’s a discussion between young and old scene heroes from Rotterdam and also Ultra-protagonist like Harold Schellinx. After the discussion it will continue in Worm with music by April, shoegaze quartet AC Berkheimer, a special Ultra set with guitar rockers Hallo Venray, experimental craziness from Redtheplaneeet and Rogier. There will also be DJ sets by Minny Pops and Gonnie Rietveld (Quando Quango). More acts are to be announced.

Sunday 11 March: AMSTERDAM, Dansmakers
This night will be a contemporary ‘Drastic Measures, Drastic Movements’ suite performance of the Minny Pops debut album from 1979.  Musical collaboration from modern classical composers Wilbert Bulsink, Bart de Vrees, Dennis Duchhart and Thomas van Myrmel. Pieter Nooten will also play a live ambient set with improv violoncellist Lucas Stam and VJ. Pianist Franz von Chossy will play his minimal music piano compositions and there are 2 short dance performances. There are only 100 tickets available for this one time only show. More acts are to be announced.

The end of Ultra2012 will be celebrated on April 7th in the Melkweg. There will be an expo and films, debates, presentations. Besides musical performances by Minny Pops, The Tapes, The Tobacconist and many others.

Born in Swiss, but Valérie Buess worked in Germany for the last 20 years with.. paper. She makes wonderfull and sometimes mesmerizing art with just folding, rolling or cutting paper. Next to that the 3D-sculptures are also shot in strange views. If you were looking for a new, recycled wallpaper stop looking and enjoy!

Last thursday there was another Incubated at Paradox. Our very own Steph Byrne made photos and posted them here on our Flickr page. Also check out these videos made by Koen Gijsbers.

Sleepingdog
Library Tapes
The Caretaker

We are already looking forward towards the next Incubated edition with Shining and Pterodactyl. Hope to see you there.

 Sleepingdog

Library Tapes

Raw Art Fair is a new art festival in Rotterdam that got his focus on photography, street-art and sculptures. Besides that the fair also got theatre, music performances and DJ’s. With 10.000 m2 the fair got space for established and international galleries, but new independent artists as well.

The festival takes place from 8 till 12 february in the Fenix Loods. According to the organization the fair is going to be fresh, new and something different as we used to.

Adolf Butler released a new video clip for the song blind mouth. They played at ZXZW in 2008 and frontman Father Futureback also participated the Tilburg Ink Project at Incubate 2010. Blind mouth is from the album ‘Holland’ which they released some months ago. Enjoy!

Album art ‘Holland’

Father Futureback’s work for Tilburg ink project

Ibo Pompe Born in 1975 in Berkel-Enschot, Netherlands. Graduated at the academy for visual arts in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 2002. Living and working (as an artist) in Tilburg, Netherlands. He work explores the relationship between intellect and intuition. Between these extremes there seems no clear line, they run more smoothly into each other. The behavior of animals and people seem opposite. The fact that animals act instinctively makes their behavior very pure, very sincere. Pompe misses this in humans.
The rapid social changes now provide even more extreme marks of those interactions. Besides figurative and abstract visual elements he also uses lyrics in his work. These texts can be disempowering and have a relativistic effect, but they can also work in relation to enhancing the image.
All these elements are expressed in different ways in his work; a drawing can stand alone, but he also uses collage-like techniques where meaning arises from the composition.

A sweaty ball of hair. That’s what Gary War looked like after finishing his show on the 12th edition Incubated. You can say what you want about him, but you can’t deny that he gave it all. His completely weirded-out feedback guitar strums, a programmed beat and completely blurred echo-y vocals made a psychedelic summer vibe on the winter day in Tilburg. This is music to close your eyes to and imagine you’re lying on a beach watching the sunset. Or maybe a summer day with a good spliff.

And we’re very happy that Gary War just confirmed that we’re allowed to release the audio for his show! So now you can eternally enjoy the psychedelic sounds of Gary War via our Soundcloud! You can find other artists there as well, such as that other Ariel Pink-protégé John Maus. And Dirty Beaches. And True Widow. And more.

But for now, enjoy the sounds and beats of Gary War!

Banks Violette, whose interests both in minimalist form and in the transmissions of subcultural communities have determined the course of his artistic practice since 2000, has been increasingly drawn to collaboration as the conceptual support for his installations. These collaborations have, more often than not, paired Violette with Stephen O’Malley, the musician most frequently associated with the drone metal band Sunn O))).

A battery of materials, and their deployment in stage-like and other performative and theatrical platforms, has also kept the practice grounded within a rich matrix of art historical, philosophical and socio-economic associations. As likely to use steel and salt as fabric and light, Violette shifts a viewer’s perspective by always implying more than what is on view. There is always a ghostly other that sits besides the installations and which frequently exists long-afterwards in the memories of spectators.

Source

Black Pyramid – II

Here’s an album that’s right up our alley. Somewhere on the filthy and rough line between stoner rock, metal and doom, resides Black Pyramid. And that’s pretty much all we have to say right? A quality band that makes stonerdoommetal. Can’t go wrong there. This is one motherfucker of an album.
For fans of: YOB, Sleep, Kyuss and the entire Roadburn line-up

Listen to Black Pyramid – II on Spotify

RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost & Found

RM Hubbert is a flamenco guitarist from Scotland. You may know him of projects such as El Hombre Trajeado. But for this record (and his last one, for that matter) he turned his back on flamenco and started making folk-based music instead. With banjos and all that. For this record he got help from the likes of Aidan Moffat, Alisdair Roberts (Incubate 2011) and lots more. And it works. This record doesn’t only include insane guitarpicking, but it brings some very strong songs along with it.
For fans of: Andy McKee, Norberto Lobo, Malcolm Middleton, José González

Listen to RM Hubbert – Thirteen Lost & Found on Spotify

John Talabot – fIN

Wow, where did this come from? Out of nowhere, John Talabot drops this extremely cool CD called ‘fIN’. It’s one of the most complete house releases we heard in a long while. No build-ups to loud climaxes (like that neanderthalic kind of dubstep), this is music to dance to on the beaches of Barcelona in the sunset. From really mellow tracks like ‘Depak Ine’, to a more nightly ‘Oro Y Sangre’ to the bouncy bass of ‘Missing You’. This LP has everything you can ask for in a house record.
For fans of: Julio Bashmore, Todd Terje, Pional, Ghosts On Tape

Listen to John Talabot – fIN on Spotify

Liberteer – Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees

With such an albumtitle, you know you’re in for something really loud. And you are. Liberteer is the project of Matt Widener. The grindcore fans may know him as the bassplayer in Cretin. In his spare time, he made this record and played all the instruments himself. Every sound you hear on this grindcore-crustpunk record is performed by Widener. Drums, guitars, bass, banjo, flute, horns… WAIT WHAT?? Indeed. Some will scream “Blasphemy!” others “Gimmick!”. And some will just call this LP what it is: “Awesome!”

Listen to Liberteer – Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees on Spotify

Shigeto – Lineage

It’s snowing pretty heavy in The Netherlands right now. We can’t give you a better album for that kind of weather than this one by Shigeto. Crackling electronics, soft basslines, warm beats. This is music you want to immerse yourself into. Especially the title track is really soothing. Time to chill after that face-bashing with a banjo by the album above.
For fans of: Four Tet, The Field, Flying Lotus, Demdike Stare

Listen to Shigeto – Lineage on Spotify

Have a nice weekend everybody!