SMOTE once again return to the land of Bristol, armed with their uniquely distinguishable sounds of hypnotism and intensity. A band noteworthy for their powerful live performances, SMOTE combine elements of drone, doom and psychedelia, forming an indestructible wall of sound, to be believed only through self-witnessing.

Benefits are an issues-based music collective from Teesside in the North East of England. They write songs about the urgencies that concern them, and they play them loud. Forming in 2019 and consisting of Kingsley Hall on vocals, Robbie Major and Hugh Major on synths and noise, and Jonny Snowball on drums they quickly evolved from a fairly standard IDLES-lite shouty punk rock outfit to a politicised group that merges noise, hip hop, industrial rock, garage and an angry twitter feed to get it’s point across.

One thing you won't be able to avoid on Bambara's Stray is death. It's everywhere and inescapable, abstract and personified - perhaps the key to the whole record. Death, however, won't be the first thing that strikes you about the group's fourth - and greatest - album to date. That instead will be its pulverising soundscape; by turns, vast, atmospheric, cool, broiling and at times - on stand out tracks like 'Sing Me To The Street' and 'Serafina' - simply overwhelming Bambara - twin brothers Reid and Blaze Bateh, singer/guitarist and drummer respectively, and bassist William Brookshire - have been evolving their midnight-black noise into something more subtle and expansive ever since the release of their 2013 debut Dreamviolence. That process greatly accelerated on 2018's Shadow On Everything, their first on New York's Wharf Cat Records and a huge stride forward for the band both lyrically and sonically. The album was rapturously received by the press, listeners and their peers. NPR called it a 'mesmerising...western, gothic opus,' Bandcamp called the "horror-house rampage" "one of the year's most gripping listens," and Alexis Marshall of Daughters named it his 'favorite record of 2018.' Shadow also garnered much acclaim on the other side of the Atlantic. Influential British 6Music DJ Steve Lamacq, dubbed them the best band of 2019's SXSW, and Joe Talbot of the UK band IDLES said, "The best thing I heard last year was easily Bambara and their album Shadow On Everything." The question was, though, how to follow it? To start, the band did what they always do: they locked themselves in their windowless Brooklyn basement to write. Decisions were made early on to try and experiment with new instrumentation and song structures, even if the resulting compositions would force the band to adapt their storied live set, known for its tenacity and technical prowess. Throughout the songwriting process, the band pulled from their deep well of creative references, drawing on the likes of Leonard Cohen, Ennio Morricone, Sade, classic French noir L'Ascenseur Pour L'Echafraud, as well as Southern Gothic stalwarts Flannery O'Connor and Harry Crews. Once the building blocks were set in place, they met with producer Drew Vandenberg, who mixed Shadow On Everything, in Athens, GA to record the foundation of Stray. After recruiting friends Adam Markiewicz (The Dreebs) on violin, Sean Smith (Klavenauts) on trumpet and a crucial blend of backing vocals by Drew Citron (Public Practice) and Anina Ivry-Block (Palberta), Bambara convened in a remote cabin in rural Georgia, where Reid laid down his vocals. The finished product represents both the band's most experimental and accessible work to date. The addition of Citron and Ivory-Block's vocals create a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Bateh's commanding baritone on tracks like 'Sing Me to the Street', 'Death Croons' and 'Stay Cruel," while the Dick Dale inspired guitar riffs on 'Serafina' and "Heat Lightning" and the call-and-response choruses throughout the album showcase Bambara's ability to write songs that immediately demand repeat listens. While the music itself is evocative and propulsive, a fever dream all of its own, the lyrical content pushes the record even further into its own darkly thrilling realm. If the songs on Shadow On Everything were like chapters in a novel, then this time they're short stories. Short stories connected by death and its effect on the characters in contact with it. 'Death is what you make it' runs a lyric in 'Sweat,' a line which may very well be the thread that ties these stories together. But it would be wrong to characterize Stray as simply the sound of the graveyard. Light frequently streams through and, whether refracted through the love and longing found on songs like 'Made for Me' or the fantastical nihilism on display in tracks like the anthemic 'Serafina,' reveals this album to be the monumental step forward that it is. Here Bambara sound like they've locked into what they were always destined to achieve, and the effect is nothing short of electrifying.

JOY. This is an 18+ event .

Forever Grey is a darkwave band from Los Angeles, California. The first album was released in 2015 and was titled Poems About Eternity. Young & Cold Records produced Autumn Calling, Alabaster Chamber, Departed and Sympathy Garden on vinyl. Kevin and Anna are the artists behind musical projects Milliken Chamber, Prudence and Belladonna Grave. Presented by DM Generation. This is a 16+ event, under 18’s must be accompanied by an adult.

Gwenno Saunders is a music producer, DJ, radio presenter, musician and singer from Cardiff. She is a native Welsh and Cornish speaker and it is this, along with co-producing and co-hosting Welsh language show Cam O'r Tywyllwch (A Step Away From The Darkness) with Peski for Radio Cardiff and more recently, Resonance FM, that has led her to create music that translates her Internationalist influences into layered, home-fi keyboard sounds wrapped in echoed vocals and musique concrète-inspired beats.

Mohammad’s own brand of ecstatic music takes elements from Middle Eastern and North African music to create an atmosphere of joy, love and happiness. Mohammad Syfkhan is a Kurdish/Syrian Singer and Bouzouki player. He began playing music in 1980 while he was in college studying nursing. When he got his degree in 1983, Mohammad moved to the city of Raqqa, Syria where he began working as a professional singer and started his own band, The Al-Rabie Band which played concerts, parties, weddings and festivals all over Syria. The Al-Rabie Band were a much sought-after group. Their live sets included Kurdish, Arabic, Turkish and some Western songs as well as Mohammad’s own original material. Presented by The Beauty Witch. This is an 18+ event

A pioneering force in electronic music through the 90s, POiSON GiRL FRiEND is a solo musical project by nOrikO. A singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and DJ based mainly in Japan, POiSON GiRL FRiEND's three era-defining 1990s albums MELTING MOMENT, Shyness and LOVE ME were recently reissued digitally and then physically, bringing her fusion of ambient house and string orchestration to a new audience. Presented by Grey Lantern. This is an 18+ event

Water Damage is ten people from one town and one sound from twelve people. For Instruments, the plus two are guitarist David Grubbs and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, neither of whom blunt the angle or confound the aim. The tempo? Slow and low. Four tracks, averaging twenty minutes each, the pace never above a comfortable walk. The damage creeps, a forest becomes a mountain, and the faithful move forward. The album is named after Fugazi, in a manner, and "Reel 25" takes after the Shocklee Brothers, in a cry. Stop asking the lord how many drummers this band has and and ask him how much of your mind, babe. Some people say drone and same people say trance and some people say invocation through patterned unity. Some people just say rock and we let them set their clocks back. Lie down and let these holy treads flatten you. Just because Water Damage know what they are doing doesn't mean you have to. Fix your hearts or die! Presented by The Beauty Witch. This is an 18+ event

Hotline TNT is an American rock band from New York City. The band is fronted by singer and guitarist Will Anderson, who writes and records all of their music and performs live with a rotating lineup of musicians.

The eclectic London-based band fuse a perfectionist ethic with versatile musicianship – latest album ‘Field of Reeds’ traverses more intimate and melodic territories than previous work, whilst maintaining an extrovert streak.

For her third album, ‘Bobbie’, Dutch singer-songwriter Pip Blom decided to rip it up and start again. After making her name as one of the brightest indie rock singers around through two albums – 2019 debut ‘Boat’ and 2021 follow-up ‘Welcome Break’ – and a lauded live show honed over gruelling years of touring, the new album sees her take a delightful left turn into thumping, carefree synth pop.

Drew McDowall is a Scottish born, NYC based composer and musician. He was a member of Coil in the ‘90s contributing heavily to some of their most respected and influential works and is known for his diverse collaborations, working with Kali Malone, Catarina Barbieri, Varg, Puce Mary and LEYA amongst others. He has been releasing solo albums on Dais Records since 2015, and his fifth studio album, A Thread, Silvered and Trembling, was released in May 2024. Presented by Grey Lantern + The White Hotel This is an 18+ event

Oakland-based musician Kathryn Mohr released her first EP, titled "As If", in 2020, an analog-synth based amalgamation of dark ruminative songs, which garnered the attention of DIY artists and the record label The Flenser. Mohr released her second EP "Holly" in 2022, which was co-produced by Madeline Johnston of Midwife, a shimmering collection of guitar songs with desolate electronic interludes. Her debut record, Waiting Room, which she wrote and recorded in isolation over a one month stay in Iceland, came out on on January 24th, 2025. Presented by Grey Lantern & The Beauty Witch This is an 18+ event

Phew Plus Special Guest FREDDIE MURPHY Phew is a legendary figure in Japanese underground music. Starting out in 1978 fronting one of Osaka’s earliest punk groups, Aunt Sally, and going on to collaborate with a whole host of notable names as a solo artist in the 80s, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Conny Plank, Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of Can, Alex Hacke of Einstürzende Neubauten, and Chrislo Haas of DAF. In recent years she’s made music on record or live with Ana da Silva of The Raincoats, Jim O’Rourke, Oren Ambarchi, Ikue Mori, and Yoshimi of OOIOO / Boredoms / Saicobab. In 2020 Disciples released Vertigo KO, a collection of material previously released on compilations, collaborations, singles and CD-r’s only, while in 2021 Mute Records released New Decade, a stunning solo new album recorded in her home studio in the Tokyo suburb of Kawasaki during the pandemic. Presented by Gotobeat Ltd. This is an 18+ event

Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith join forces as composers, producers, and multi-instrumentalists in support of the self-titled debut of their new collaborative project Disiniblud. Rachika Nayar and Nina Keith meet on complementary but seemingly disparate musical grounds. On her 2022 breakout LP Heaven Come Crashing, Nayar departed from her usual ambient guitar in favor of maximalist synths, sub-bass, and flickers of Amen breaks. Her distinct fusion of post-rock and electronica received Pitchfork's Best New Music designation, landed on several best of the year lists (The New York Times, Stereogum, Fader, GQ, Bandcamp, etc), and earned her an an opening slot on tour with M83. Keith, meanwhile, is best known for her self-trained approach to composition, as evident on her 2019 debut MARANASATI 19111 and its delicate medley of cello, piano, clarinet, and flute, used to explore a personal history marked by community tragedy and paranormal incidents. She expands into new territories on recent releases, like the single “Come Back Different” featuring Julie Byrne, by incorporating modular synths and intricate vocal arrangements with the help of various collaborators. Their combined artistic strengths exalt together on Disiniblud. Presented by Grey Lantern & The Beauty Witch This is an 18+ event

The quartet of Zack Borzone (vox), Jack Tobias (synth), Sam Pickard (drums), and Saguiv Rosenstock (guitar) display an innate ability to translate a primitive spirit into a modern form. Born during the lockdown as an experimental project between Borzone and Pickard in Philadelphia, the group expanded as the two moved to New York, adding Tobias for their debut self-titled EP, which was produced by Rosenstock, who was then integrated into the band. That first collection is one of self-discovery, of finding the tools necessary to make songs within the band’s own ecosystem. They honed in on their own world and their collaborative, close-knit writing process, discovering the essential structures and feelings that make YHWH Nailgun.

Presented by Now Wave. This is an 18+ event

For something to be “ecstatic,” the feelings and emotions it evokes must transcend what we tend to experience most regularly in our lives. Ecstatic joy isn’t just happiness; it’s a feeling of jubilation which impacts us emotionally and in a metaphysical, arguably spiritual sense too. Although it has long been associated with connotations of the dark and macabre, extreme music has the ability to be a powerful mode of expression for these feelings of absolute bliss, overwhelming love, and awe-inspiring sublimity. Extreme emotions no less and those which black metal quartet Agriculture evokes with its ecstatic subversion of the subgenre’s tropes. On Agriculture’s self-titled record and first full-length LP, it’s abundantly clear that the band’s use of heavy music to showcase the most resplendent emotions and moments of the human experience has a far deeper meaning. Woven between the flurries of soaring tremolo picking, crescendoing guitar harmonies, celebratory screamed vocals, thoughtful improvisation, and meditative atmospheric passages is the record’s mission statement to experience the wonders and joys of both the esoteric and physical world. These facets are showcased within Agriculture's first single and album opener, "Look Pt. 1," which premieres today as a lyric video. What was initially a meeting and subsequent series of jam sessions between Kern Haug and Daniel Meyer, two musicians in the Los Angeles underground noise scene, would eventually manifest as a shared vision to portray the sublimity of the human experience through the vehicle of heavy music. Following the additions of veteran guitarist Richard Chowenhill and bassist/vocalist Leah Levinson to the band’s lineup, this idea would crystalize into the “ecstatic black metal” backbone of Agriculture’s music, first heard on the band’s 2022 debut EP, The Circle Chant. The concepts and thematic questions previously planted by the band have blossomed into powerful, fully-realized artistic and philosophical statements on Agriculture. To put it in the band’s words, “...where 'The Circle Chant' is like a finger pointing at the moon, the self-titled LP is like a whole body screaming at it with reverence.” Through the extreme splendor of ecstatic black metal and the improvisational, experimental, and cathartic elements it embodies, Agriculture illustrates these otherwise incomprehensible questions with a poignant beauty that makes its music as much of an artistic statement as it is a transcendental experience. Brudenell Presents... This is a 14+ event (Under 18s to be accompanied by an adult)

The drummer-fronted quartet has been causing a ruckus on the UK Psych and Garage scene. Having supported the likes of Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Meatbodies, Flatworms and Melts, the band are on an upwards trajectory to the forefront of the Psych-Garage melting pot.

Kara-Lis Coverdale composes and performs musical works across acoustic and electronic mediums to create works that transcend reality. Driven by a devotion to sonic afterlife, memory, and material curiosity, Coverdale’s work Occupies new planes built upon a borderless understanding of electronic music rooted in the interlocking pathways of musical systems and languages. Steadfastly committed to developing and expanding her vivid understanding of Music as an immersive, tunable, and listening world rich in emotion and sensitivity, she is heralded as “one of the most exciting composers in North America” Presented by The Beauty Witch. This is an 18+ event

Born out of Manchester's growing garage/punk scene, Wax Head have made a strong name for themselves via their relentless gigging, sweaty live shows and garage-psych riffage. The drummer-fronted punk quartet launched onto the touring circuit after Covid supporting US psych & garage outfits: Frankie & The Witch Fingers, Flatworms and Meatbodies. They've tapped into a vein of fuzzy Californian garage-rock and with an alternative DIY music ethos, they make up one of a number of exciting young artists changing the face of the city's live circuit.

After a year and half were finally getting our full soundsystem out along with a few friends

Compelled by collectivity, spirituality, and care, Lyra Pramuk conjures a rare form of devotional music. The Berlin-based, American multidisciplinary artist-vocalist, composer, producer, DJ, performance artist, and astrologer-merges the limitless potential of the human voice with the magic of technology. Classically trained and raised in Berlin’s club scene, Lyra’s genre-fluid sound, rooted in improvisation, experimental techniques and left-field electronics, has earned acclaim from diverse outlets including Pitchfork, Mixmag, and Vogue. Presented by The Beauty Witch. This is an 18+ event

Titanic is a collaborative project by Venezuelan guitarist I la Católica (Héctor Tosta) and Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti. The music is a mixture of chamber-jazz, art-pop, and in some songs a little of what's called ‘post-minimalism’ portraying some sort of mischievous elegance reflecting the complex and very specific color palette of Tosta’s harmonic and compositional choices. The project is marked by some improvisational energy, cinematic depth, expansive jazz-inspired arrangements, and a compelling interplay between beauty and tension. Titanic crafts immersive, unclassifiable music that feels joyous and unrestrained. Presented by Grey Lantern. This is an 18+ event

LINTD & The White Hotel {present} The black impossible, following on from LINTD's stunning new release for The White Hotel's sister label HEAD II: DOGTOOTH. And Other Such Tales of The Macabre, available now from Bandcamp & Boomkat. The black impossible is a musical, body movement, and body music performance accompanied by a live A/V. The Black Impossible is a live exploration of tangible, yet unimaginably volatile moments of pro-black utopia in 3 albums worth of music. Over 3 years of studied, studious experimentation, LINTD, in partnership with the white hotel and Head ii have created a musical world to explore the divine, yet unsustainable black utopias that manifest on the sonic extremes of our current anti-black reality. LINTD will be joined by Porter Brook (producer), Fyn Dobson (drums) and Tibyan Sanoh's live AV featuring Imani Jendai. Opening the night will be Manchester Rising superstar Kahreign, and soundtracking the night are 2 of the finest in boundary pushing club music Chandé and Azula Bandit. The night is guaranteed to push you to the summery extreme. To move, to be moved, to sweat. ~ commissioned by Manchester Independents Presented by The White Hotel. This is an 18+ event

GEE TEE is from Australia and has been around for eight or so years now, and this is a compilation described by the label as eighteen tracks from both the distant future and the nearly forgotten past. I would describe it as lofi punk/pop that was very popular from around 2006 to 2018. Bands like the OKMONIKS, NOBUNNY, SNEAKY PINKS, HUNX AND HIS PUNX, and othersI can hear some of the same influence as the current Australian bands that are so popular right now. Rocking lo-fi.

Join us for Mind Over Matter, a high-energy Drum & Bass day party in support of Mind, the mental health charity. From 2PM to 11:30PM, were taking over the decks with a stacked lineup of local talent, raising both money and awareness for mental health. Kicking things off with open decks from 23:30PM, this is your chance to jump on and shell it out, followed by a full day of rolling beats, heavy basslines, and good vibes from some of the scenes most exciting local DJs. Come down to see the wondedul artists; Alfs,Cookie, Cookie Tee, G.KANNE, Jessy, Kyber, Lucidik, Rerj, Rhodesy, Satsuma, TSA & Yonic. Expect a day filled with positive energy, community spirit, and pure DnB fireall for a great cause. All profits go to Mind. Come skank for something that matters.

Introducing: The Druids of Dub - the Greater Manchester-based collective and record label realigning the framework at one-hundred-and-forty beats per minute. From the original deep roots of dub to the present-day darkness of dubstep and everything in between, the Druids transcend supposition through subsonic vibration via universal connection. Leave everything you thought you knew at the door and let The Druids of Dub welcome you to their untempered realm. 18.7.25 The Bag Factory FREE ENTRY

Gotobeat presents A very special label showcase gig in partnership with Cold Meat Industry Featuring Brighter Death Now, Desiderii Marginis & Raison D'Etre Presented by Gotobeat. This is an 18+ event