AMFest Barcelona 2017 Preview

The AMFest Barcelona is back!...
AMFest Barcelona 2017 Preview

AMFest Barcelona 2017 Preview

The AMFest Barcelona is back!

From October 26th to October 28th, one of the best small festivals in Spain will take place, in its sixth edition: The AMFest.

QRO covered this well-crafted gathering last year, when specialists in instrumental music such as Three Trapped Tigers, Yndi Halda, God Is An Astronaut or Lost in Kiev were mixed with quality and very different combos like The Album Leaf, Arms and Sleepers, My Sleeping Karma or Leprous. But that was not it; because the real treat of the festival was to watch up-and-coming talents such as post-rockers Mardemarmo and Ànteros, garage punkers like Galicia’s Bala or the imaginative, garrulous and fun-loving Za!

2017 will keep on exploring this path. Four bands will make up the base of this year’s AMFest: firstly Dubliners And So I Watch You From Afar. Their post-rock finds them in the middle of psychodelia, metal and math-rock. The quartet will be premiering songs of their really brand new album The Endless Shimmering, released the weekend before publishing this writing. So there’s the first treat the audience has to look for in the AMFest 2017.

Then, we have Britons My Vitriol. Shoegazers by nature, after different line-up changes they are working on new tracks to follow-up 2016’s The Secret Sessions. Their agile and dynamic music will surely be received with open arms by the Spanish crowds, since this will be the very first time they play on Spanish soil.

Sleepmakeswaves are masters of long, epic tracks, exploring crescendos from different angles. Made of Breath Only is their latest offering, a work that keeps pushing their instrumental limits by adding tinges of electronica that add up and broaden the dense atmospheres of the Aussies.

Swedish trio Truckfighters come to Barcelona with the seal of approval of Josh Homme. Their classic stoner rock with some metal elements make them ideal for small venues. Their seventh Album, V, is a twist in their sweaty take on energetic rock and roll.

Another of the Swedish combos in the AMFest, pg.lost will probably be the biggest discovery of the festival. Their epic post-rock has some similarities to that of Frenchmen Lost in Kiev, but their sound is cleaner, more precise and with a clear influence of the melancholy of The Cure or Mogwai. They could well be the next biggest post-rock band.

And what about Spanish bands? Well, the variety of the line-up is impressive. Firstly, post-metalers Degraey, firm in the path opened by the Neurosis of A Sun That Never Sets but with a cleaner, softer, more accessible side; then we find quartet Mourn. They have the fluidity of the Sonic Youth of Goo, with the hysterical side of Kim Gordon, but also the intricate patterns of the early Siouxsie and the Banshees and even Throwing Muses. Not to miss.

Then, the most radically different duo of the festival: The Suicide of Western Culture. Don’t be fooled by the bombastic name. These lads know how to use tense and dramatic electronic panoramas to display science-fiction images in a way rarely seen in Europe; The Last 3 Lines will be definitely be one of the highlights of the Spanish contingent, with dense psychedelic songs like “Undisclosed Paths”, off their record Portals.

And last but not least, Blak, the only post-rock Spanish band in the festival, will display a different side to that exposed by Sleepmakeswaves, in the sense of being more filmic and expansive. Their recent collaboration in the movie Vostok with the eponymous track certifies there’s a great future for this young band.

Thus, these are the bands to follow at the 2017 AMFest in Barcelona, Spain; One of the most valuable contributions to the cultural autumn in the Mediterranean metropolis.

 

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