CARDIFF PSYCH & NOISE FEST
Various venues, Womanby Street, Cardiff
Fri 25-Sun 27 May
If you’re looking for some alternative music over the May bank holiday weekend, look no further than Cardiff Psych and Noise fest. Taking place over The Moon, Clwb Ifor Bach, Tiny Rebel and VENUE TBC, the festival will bring a host of loud and eclectic acts to the city centre. A descendant of previous Womanby Street festivals Strange Daze and Red Sun, this union boasts a bigger lineup and a more diverse range of sounds. Where Strange Daze focused more on the psychedelic and Red Sun focused more on the heavy side of things, this festival mixes both to keep things fresh, letting you discover a whole new world of sounds in some of the best music venues in Cardiff.
On the Saturday get ready for the crushing noiserock of Part Chimp, or if you want to see some of the best alternative acts from Wales, check out the cinematic electropop of HMS Morris or surf instrumentalists Y Niwl. There’s also Bristol’s Kayla Painter, promising to deliver an immersive audio visual show to go along with her brand of dark ambient electronics, while Farm Hand descends from the hills of mid-Wales to bring us a hypnotic batch of synth compositions. There’s also the garage punk of Thee MVPs and the progressive stoner rock of Estuary Blacks, among many more acts – and that’s just the first day.
Newcastle’s ridiculously named Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs and their epic slabs of sludgy distortion close off Sunday night, along with alternative rockers Thought Forms and the Japanese psychedelia of Yama Warashi. The Girl Sweat Pleasure Temple Ritual Band and Ed Schrader’s Music Beat bring their own mix of experimental sounds to an already packed lineup, showcasing the best of heavy, strange and eccentric music that Wales and beyond has to offer. Starting off with a free welcome party at The Moon followed by a weekend of bands for only £20, this is a festival any alternative music fan can’t afford to miss.
Tickets: £20 weekend/£12 per day Sat 26 + Sun 27/free Fri 25. Info: [email protected]
MATT LEE