Nearly 60 acts have been confirmed for this year’s Melt! Festival, and another 60 are to be announced. Taking place 19-21 July in West Germany, the festival is backdrop to giant, rusting machinery – you would think it was a better location for a heavy metal, not trendy electronic and indie bands.
Mercury Prize Winners Alt-J and previous runner ups Django Django and James Blake are among the big British acts heading to Ferropolis – Alt J of course won the Mercury Prize last year. Dubstep DJ/ one-man-gospel-choir James Blake is back this year with a new album is confirmed too, along with a host of other UK Bass acts including Disclosure, Mount Kimbie and Joy Orbison. They will be complementing a group of little known German DJs at Melt! (exclamation mark obligatory).
Headlining Melt! 2013 is The Knife. It has been seven years since The Knife released their era-defining debut Silent Shout, and they are back with a new album Shaking the Habitual this spring (They certainly haven’t made a habit of releasing albums frequently). Nevertheless, expect incredible things. Other acts include Apparat with Moderat, the retro-style of Everything Everything, and Azealia Banks. She seems just a little bit out of place here, but I doubt that will faze her. Don’t miss.
By Christoper Boyd