By Jase Walker
Today’s been a bit fraught with a couple of bands dropping out with short notice. Psychonaut weren’t able to make it and have since been replaced by The Ocean doing a fan voted set live (I think through the stream?) And Ihsahn has been trapped at Oslo airport due to strikes and has now been replaced by Cobra The Impaler.
So with the readjusted lineup, I’m back in on time for Bipolar Architecture who unfortunately had to drop out of ArcTanGent last weekend. They begin with a quieter guitar lick that eventually builds to a peak and they go for it and… Where’s the bass? That’s a bit of a disappointing start but they seem to fix that fairly quickly. Gravely unclean vocals, a smattering of black metal but generally quite groovy for the most part. Now the show’s flowing a bit better this is doing a lot to let their style really project, the weaving together of black metal blast beats and odd rhythm grooves is pretty great and doesn’t feel jarring at all. At times it feels very Gojira-esque and probably the main reason I’m enjoying their set so much. Compared to the start I can now feel the bass thundering through my legs and chest and overall Bipolar Architecture sound bloody fantastic now. Shaky start but really drove it home in the end.
EF up next in the main hall, another band that I’ve not come across before so I’m going in blind on this one. I’ve noticed they’ve got an electric cello player so I’m already intrigued about how they’re going to sound. They get properly started after a quiet vocal/guitar intro and they sound absolutely massive. Wailing reverby guitars reminiscent of Explosions In The Sky but just that little bit more forceful and thicker thanks to the droney cello adding some gorgeous texture to the sound. Even the vocals are used for melodic layering in addition to all the guitars, cello and keys. There’s an immense amount of depth to EF’s sound that is blowing me away through every single twist and turn. I really cannot overstate just how much of an impact this set is having on me so far. Their music is incredible and multifaceted and while complex, wonderfully pleasant and easy to listen to and get lost within. This is the sort of experience that bands that exist within the post rock niche excel at and EF belongs in the same level of reverence that is applied to the likes of Mogwai, Explosions In The Sky and ASIWYFA. Truly a phenomenal set, what a fantastic discovery for me.
Time for something a bit different now with Karin Park taking the stage in the smaller room. A solo artist surrounded by all manner of electronics and keys in contrast to the mix of louder full bands. I’ve been keen to catch Karin for some time so this weekend is a great time to do just that! Effortlessly she dances around brushing the various synths and managing to keep her vocal duties going along with it. I generally remark on how much guts it takes to be a solo performer, especially when you’re somewhat of an outlier at a festival, but Karin Park takes the cake with this with what looks like a pretty complex setup to go along with it.
Karin rolls with music that is closer to minimalist techno and EDM as opposed to the rest of this weekend being a mix of post rock and left field metal. Admittedly the crowd turnout is a bit less than some of the other acts but the ones that have come along are definitely enjoying the show as something a bit different. Karin’s voice is fantastic and reminds me strongly of Kate Bush but with music backing that sounds closer to Robyn or La Roux. This is what I love about music events that focus more on the oddball kind of music, you never know when you are going to find something a bit out there even for the event and they end up being bloody great. Karin brought something really different today and got the crowd on board and that’s a big achievement, great set.
A quick break and next up for me is Årabrot with their unusual take on metal/punk fused with gospel and blues, it’s a bit hard to place really! Still sporting their outfits from the Norwegian Gothic era, church is now in session and it’s time to repent. It still astounds me how Karin Park can play two separate keyboards either side of her and sing at the same time. They’re doing a great job of getting the crowd on side and clapping along and stuck into the show too. They’re definitely more oddball than most and they clearly revel in it, the identity they’ve built around it is the main thing I remember from seeing them a few years back. For a three piece band, they project noise that is massively saturated most likely in part thanks to Karin’s ability to do so many things at once. It’s a shame that it’s a shorter set as I would have loved to have seen more of them. Årabrot are such a wonderfully bizarre band that genuinely doesn’t sound like anything else I know and are a ton of fun to watch.
It’s time for the second set from The Ocean this weekend which is apparently fan voted(?), I would imagine via the stream which has been running for the entirety of the festival so hopefully it’ll be somewhat smooth! I love this band so much, when they really pull you out of their more subtle ambient segments with their full force it’s like whiplash with how hard it throws you into the sudden full weight of their sound.
The further we get into the set I suspect I may have been misinformed about this being fan voted as it seems to be a similar setlist to what I saw last year on their ‘Halocene’ tour. I mean it’s hard to write about a band you’ve already seen once in the same weekend and really differentiate things, especially when you don’t know all of the track names off the top of your head. Either way it’s been fantastic to see The Ocean twice in the same weekend. It’s a shame about Psychonaut not being able to make it and I wish them all the best in the difficulty they’re having right now. Ultimately being able to witness two very different eras of The Ocean in the same weekend is a rare treat that I do not take for granted at all. Finishing off the set with throwing the mic into the audience for them to have a sing and then take a running dive into the crowd and retrieve it to finish the show, absolutely incredible showmanship.
Overall Pelagic Fest was a fantastic weekend that felt weirdly short, probably most likely down to the fact that I enjoyed it so much! I will definitely be returning next year and we’ve already got the initial lineup drop for it!
- PHOTO CREDIT: Photos courtesy of JacQue Photography/Pelagic Records. Copyright remains with the original photgraphers.
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