Sounds of the underground

SOTU tips from other festival programmers (3)

Henk Koolen almost wrote a short essay, he is very excited about SOTU, Henk is the main man behind the State-X New Forms Festival. (13 & 14 December, The Hague)

“Dear and lovely people at SOTU-festival, may you experience what this festival is all about: wandering around through a program with the odd chance to see and hear something great, with the certainty to see and hear something you hardly ever do elsewhere and with an open mind to experience strange new paths. Just in case you are a bit chicken these are the votes of the State-X New Forms jury and its chairman Henk Koolen to give you some guidance through a program that is so full it’s a shame the event is only four days. Well, all aboard, fasten seatbelts, here we go.

I’m only allowed three names so I have to start with some cheating. My first tip is the great underground sound of The Hague. Check the broad range of this city dominated by public servants and ministries that cast such long shadows that only the truly fertile elements can survive: from the great electronic Antilounge-stuff of Filosofische Stilte, Loyu and Gartmalen to the noise of Fine China Superbone and Life Savings, even though even I had never heard of the latter.

My second tip is one of the discoveries of the X-Vector. A few years ago we at State-X New Forms thought it would be fun to do an Idols-like talentcontest in search of the artist least likely to make it in showbiz. The two winners were Boom Boom Du Terre (who since then appeared at for instance Lowlands, bummer!) and the other one being the intriguing project of Rotterdam-based musician Zeno van der Broek, called Machinist. Great soundcsapes taking you on a trip.

Finally, do not miss the chance to go dancing at this festival and if you want to go really wild, better head for the Cairo Liberation Front. I think you might recognise another Dutch festivalorganiser behind the decks, having traded in his enormous collection of schlagermusik for Egyptian wedding sounds. Practice at home how to kiss a guy with a moustache and put on smooth fitting sneakers as Arabic weddings tend to go on even longer than their revolutions."