This article needs additional citations for verification .(January 2021) |
Infest | |
---|---|
Genre | Industrial music, Electronic body music, Synth-pop, Futurepop, Rhythmic noise, Gothic rock, Death rock, Dark wave and related genres |
Dates | Annually in August, usually Summer Bank Holiday weekend |
Location(s) | Bradford, West Yorkshire, England |
Years active | 1998 to today |
Founders | 1998 "Black Lobster Promotions", 1999 "Slag Industries", from 2000 until today "Terminal Productions" |
Website | http://infestuk.com/ |
Infest (originally stylised as InFest) is an annual three-day music festival held at the University of Bradford Union in the United Kingdom, featuring alternative electronic music acts, from genres including industrial, EBM, futurepop, synth-pop and power noise. The event usually takes place on the August bank holiday weekend.
InFest was born in early 1998 through the efforts of three students of the University of Bradford – Gareth 'Gadge' Harvey, Chris 'Crusty' Molyneux, and Max 'Maxi Slag' – and the Students' Union Entertainments Manager, Floyd Peltier. The concept of the festival was originally envisioned as a one-day event for local goth bands in West Yorkshire, but the crew were able to also onboard much bigger acts, such as gothic/death rock band Alien Sex Fiend. The student organisers were already fans of the Whitby Gothic Weekend and took the idea for Infest to the Whitby festival-goers and traders to gauge how popular the show might be. The response was positive and the first Infest festival was confirmed as 14 and 15 August 1998.
The following year (1999), the festival paid more attention towards the electronic side of the goth and industrial scene by booking Apoptygma Berzerk for their first UK show.
By 2000, the University of Bradford's Students' Union felt that they could not carry the costs of the festival any longer. However, an independent goth/industrial promoter and DJ named Mark 'Gus' Guy (former drummer with the indie band Kerosene), who had been advising Molyneux during the show's early years, stepped in to fill the void. As a result of the heavy involvement with Guy and his Terminal Productions company, Infest took the form it is recognised as today: the festival's theme has moved from goth/industrial crossover to alternative electronic, with a greater emphasis on power noise, futurepop, synth-pop and electronic body music. However, occasionally more Dark wave-style goth bands do still appear on the line-up.
The stylisation of the name had changed in 2003 to be "Infest", and from this time has grown significant international recognition. The show continues to provide a market for traders, which helps to bring the music and the lifestyle of the show's fans together. There is also a full festival program where nightclubs, DJs, bands and businesses can make their voices heard. Infest has been supported by a number of electronic record labels, notably Ant-Zen, Hands Productions, and now-defunct online music stores Music Non Stop and Storming the Base (the latter part of the record label Artoffact Records). Support outside the scene has also come from music software publisher Ableton, and drink manufacturers Jägermeister and Barr.
In July 2013, the festival organisers announced that "it is highly unlikely that there will be an Infest in 2014"; [1] but following "an avalanche of messages of support" the organisers have decided to "throw caution to the wind and go ahead with Infest in 2014 (The reason for announcing that infest 2014 was highly unlikely was due to AltFest being proposed to occur a couple of weeks before Infest in 2014. In the end Altfest was canceled due to lack of ticket sales and financial insecurity for the viability of a new big festival that had no history on the alternative music scene)." [2]
Today, Guy has a small team of people at his side, including Molyneux (the remaining member of the founding team), graphic designer Richard King, Ticket Office Manager Lee Thornton and a crew of volunteers and live production professionals.
The festival celebrated their 20th anniversary in 2018, adding an extra day that year for the occasion.
An extra day (Thursday) was added to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the event.
Due to Covid-19 the show was moved online and called Stay-In-Fest.
Three online stages were hosted by Lee Chaos, Duracell Bunny, Kark & Peewee ([Karkasaurus), and Matt Biomechanimal.
A small crowd of around 80 people were invited to a social distanced show held live in Bradford. This was again streamed out as Stay-In-Fest 2021.
Friday had a small warmup party featuring Biomechanimal (DJ set), Karkasaurus and Chaos Emergency Doof Broadcast.
Suicide Commando, The Cassandra Complex, ADAM X, REIN (planned), Wynardtage vs Hydroxie, Caustic, Moaan Exis, MAEDON, Monya, KLACK, Attrition, Glass Apple Bonzai, Beautiful Machines, Grabyourface, Reichsfeind, Knight$, Vaein, Berlyn Trilogy
Test Dept, Xotox, Choke Chain, Je T'Aime, Goteki, Capital X, Ventenner (planned), Intsec, Red Meat, Parade Ground, Porno Karaoke, Normoria, La Rissa, Nightmare Frequency, Zynic, Beborn Beton, Zardonic, Geneviéve Pasqier
VNV Nation, also known as Victory Not Vengeance, are a British-Irish electronic music group formed in London and led by Ronan Harris in the roles of singer, songwriter and producer, with live members being keyboardists Mike Wimer and David Gerlach and percussionist Chris Roberts.
Maschinenfest was an annual three-day underground music festival in Germany, featuring industrial, power electronics, noise and other alternative electronic performers. It included both independent and signed bands as well as many vendors for music and related merchandise. Featured record labels and noteworthy companies included Ant-Zen, Hands Productions, Pflichtkauf, Spectre Records and Ad Noiseam.
Dismantled is an electronic music artist from the United States.
The M'era Luna is a gothic festival that encompasses a number of different styles such as metal, future pop, aggrotech, synthpop, gothic rock, dark wave, and EBM. It is held annually on the second weekend of every August, in Hildesheim, Germany at Flugplatz Hildesheim-Drispenstedt, a former British Army airbase.
Icon of Coil is a Norwegian electronic music band. The band was established as a solo project in 1997 by Andy LaPlegua who was joined by former Sector 9 bandmate Sebastian Komor to perform live. With the release of Shallow Nation, the band's first single, Komor joined full-time. In 2000, Christian Lund joined the live lineup. Later that year, the band's first full-length album, Serenity is the Devil, was released, which climbed to number one on the Deutsche Alternative Charts. Shortly thereafter, Lund became a full-time band member.
WTII Records is an independent record label created in 2001 by former Wax Trax! Records employee Bart Pfanenstiel, and David Schock.
Rotersand is a German electronic music act, formed in September 2002 by musician/producer Gun and singer Rascal with dance music producer/DJ Krischan J.E. Wesenberg joining them shortly after. Rotersand's music can generally be described as futurepop; the band themselves refer to it as "industrial pop."
C.O.M.A. was a yearly weekend underground music festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, from 2004 to 2007 featuring industrial, power electronics, noise and other alternative electronic musicians and DJs. There were both independent and signed bands who were booked to play, as well as many vendors for music and related paraphernalia. Featured record labels and noteworthy companies include: Ant-Zen, Geska Records, .Angle.Rec., Cyclic Law, Force of Nature Records and Bugs Crawling out of People. In 2008, C.O.M.A. was essentially replaced by the Kinetik Festival, which ran until 2013. In 2014, Kinetik was replaced by Aftermath, held in Toronto and featuring many of the same bands that were originally intended to play at the seventh edition of Kinetik.
Nation was a live music/club venue, located at 1015 Half Street SE, in the Navy Yard/Near Southeast neighborhood, of Washington, D.C.
Revolution By Night were an electronic music band based in London, England. Often referred to simply as 'RBN', the only continuous members of the band were founding members Steve Weeks (vocal/keyboards/programming) and Bryon Adamson (keyboards/programming), with Phil Eaton (keyboards) joining in 2006.
Orkus Presents the best of 2000 is a German 2-CD compilation album released in 2000, through EFA records Germany and is the follow-up to Orkus Presents the best of 1999. The album is a mixture of Heavy Metal, Electronic and Rock music.
WestCom was a German recording company that operated the label Off Beat, Visage Records and others.
Straftanz was a German electronic dance music project, established in the summer of 2006. Straftanz consisted of a loose group of artists who called themselves the Straftanz ZK. Additional artists involved were Carsten Jacek (SITD), Mille Petrozza, and Myk Jung who were involved in the recording of the first album Forward Ever. Straftanz also collaborated with the futurepop project Rotersand by way of sharing ideas and equipment. In interviews, Straftanz described its musical style as "Industrial-Streetfighting-Dance". In fact, the sound of Straftanz is best described as a mixture of EBM, futurepop, trance, rave, metal, and rhythm noise elements that are tied together with a present dance groove.
The Amphi Festival is a music festival that has been taking place since 2005 featuring a wide-ranging program for a heterogeneous audience, albeit primarily fans of alternative, electronic music, and dark music. The number of visitors to the event in 2009 was 13,000 per festival day.
The discography of VNV Nation, a British/Irish electronic music project, consists of ten studio albums, two compilation album, three extended plays, and twelve singles.
Futurepop is an electronic music genre that has been characterized as a blend of synth-pop, EBM and dance beats, based on trance and techno.
Norwegian group Apoptygma Berzerk have released eight studio albums, three live albums, five compilation albums, three DVDs, 13 EPs, and 20 singles.
Modulate is the studio project of Manchester-based DJ Geoff Lee. They are an Electronic dance music group from Manchester, England. Their sound blends elements of various styles including Electro, Rave, Industrial music, Trance music and Hard dance. The band is signed to Metropolis Records and Infacted Recordings (Europe/RoW). Modulate live shows also features Steve Wilkins
Blume are an Italian electronic music band formed in Milan in 2008. The group consists of Enrico Filisetti (vocals), Ivan Savino, and Daniele De Fabritiis (guitars). Their sound blends EBM-futurepop with synthpop and darkwave.
The Gothsicles is an American industrial and electronic body music (EBM) band formerly based out of Chicago, Illinois before moving to Boston, Massachusetts in 2018. The group was formed in Wisconsin in 2002 by Brian "darkNES" Graupner, who handles vocals and synthesizers, and is the sole consistent member. The band has a rotating lineup of live musicians, including Matt Fanale of Caustic, Matt Slegel of Angelspit, and David Dodson of Abstinence. The band released its first LP, NESferatu, in 2006. Following albums included Sega Lugosi's Dead (2009), Industrialites & Magic (2011), Squid Icarus (2014), and I Feel Sicle, which was released on November 4, 2016. According to COMA Music Magazine, "The Gothsicles are one of the forerunners in Industrial Music for the Nerdy Masses."