Rapture: A translation of one of the band names featured in today’s announcement, or the mental state you’ll be in when you hear them play live? The answer is “yes.”
Mount Kimbie (Aug. 2, Rossmann Czujesz Klimat? Forest Stage)
Kai Campos and Dominic Maker are typically described as a duo that makes electronic music—a label that is simultaneously true and untrue. Even if the electronic music scene and its aesthetic trappings were Mount Kimbie’s point of departure, the act is unshackled by stylistic limitations and has been borrowing wholesale from the indie rock, prog rock, rap and jazz toolkits. That’s not to accuse them of being wishy-washy: their inimitable and original sound is guided by a clearly defined vision. In April the British duo dropped the fantastic LP The Sunset Violent; it’s going to be quite an adventure to hear these tracks performed live.
Yaya Bey (Aug. 4, T Tent Stage)
Hailing from Brooklyn, this rising r’n’b star’s album Remember Your North Star scored a Best New Music seal of approval from Pitchfork. Now, Yay Bey returns with another helping of intimate tales on Ten Fold. By Bey’s own admission, this LP is self-centered, but leaves room for her trademark humor and social commentary.
Siema Ziemia (Aug. 3, T Tent Stage)
Siema Ziemia [Later, Earth] is probably what this band’s members say as they pick up their instruments and blast off, leaving their home planet behind. Andrzej Konieczny (drums, synths) and Kacper Krupa (tenor sax, synths) play trance–inducing dance music with jazzy swagger, reaching audiences outside their narrow niche after teaming up with Łona on the album Taxi. Come hear what they sound like in their natural habitat.
Lochy i Smoki (Aug. 4, Perlage Main Stage)
Emo rock/post-hardcore from Szczecin featuring geeky lyrics. The LP Mogłem zostać w domu i grać w gry [I Could Have Stayed Home and Played Games] and the EP Powiedz, że wystarczam [Tell Me I’m Enough] launched them to the top of their genre in Poland. Listen carefully to the lyrics, and you’ll get the sense that half of them are about you.
Zachwyt (Aug. 2, T Tent Stage)
Hailing from Oświęcim, Zachwyt plays garage rock washed over by warm waves of shoegaze. It’s melodic, melancholy, and loud, with plenty of distortion, just the way it should be. Don’t miss this concert, and keep your eyes peeled for their upcoming album on the label Wytwórnia Tematy.
Seweryn (Aug. 3, BLIK Open Stage)
Hailing from Poland’s Tri-City area, this artist has been on a quest since 2021 to find the equation for the speed of the human heartbeat (“Wzór na prędkość bicia serca”) and the blueprints for a song that would blend warmth with melancholy and fuse a lo-fi aesthetic with earworm melodies. He’s got two big releases to his name—Petrykora and Kieszeń pełna niczego—and a bright future ahead of him.
Piksele (Aug. 3, BLIK Open Stage)
Piksele make music for grownups: post-pandemic trip-jazz about isolation and loneliness. Poet Wojciech Brzoska, producer Arbuz Arbuziński, and trumpeter Marcin Markiewicz debuted in 2020 with the album Martwe [Dead], but Brzoska’s lyrics/poems, which range from hermetic to surprisingly plainspoken, are nothing if not alive.
Pola Chobot & Adam Baran (Aug. 4, BLIK Open Stage)
We hope the only major weather event that strikes this year’s OFF Festival is the titular storm on this excellent duo’s debut album, Burza. Pola and Adam’s extraordinary music echoes both the ancient twang of the blues and contemporary explorations of the electronic realm. Their songs are at once lyrical and psychedelic. Don’t even try to resist.
