B-Sides Festival, 14 – 16 June 2018, Kriens

Another great festival in a fabulous location, the B-Sides Festival near Lucerne serves up both a grand mountain-and-lake scenery and an eclectic programme of adventurous music from Switzerland, the rest of Europe, Africa, and beyond.

Of the Swiss contingent, the likes of Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp XXL, Sissy Fox, Reverend Beat-Man or J & L Defer will already be familiar to readers of this newsletter.

Here are a few more recommendations:

Evelinn Trouble: Trouble never stays in the same place for long. Having started off as a backing vocalist for Sophie Hunger, her own albums have moved from alluringly greasy synth pop to explosive guitar rock and, with her latest EP, “Hope Music”, on to a shimmering, pulsating kind of post-Kraut-Krautrock.

Ikan Hyu: Ikan Hyu – “shark” in Indonesian, apparently – are a duo, Anisa Djodoatmodjo and Hannah Bissegger, from Zurich. Tellingly, the two women have previously played in bands like Bonaparte and Allen Finch. They serve up a beguiling and often pleasingly dirty broth of electronica, rap, soul, laced with a hefty dose of rock.

Long Tall Jefferson: LTJ aka Simon Borer is the driving force behind Zurich’s Red Brick Chapel collective. He is also a subtly charismatic singer/songwriter with a very superior finger-picking guitar technique and a knack for a memorable chorus.

Muthoni Drummer Queen: The Nairobi-born singer and rapper Muthoni Drummer Queen, with the help of Swiss producers Jean “Hook” Geissbuhler and Greg “GR!” Escoffey, has created a hot musical stew, comprising elements of reggae, hip-hop, and, of course, the sounds of East Africa.

Pamela Méndez: A powerful singer/songwriter the quality of whose songs is brought into sharp focus by a band that comprises synth-wizard Lucius Schuler and Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile’s percussionist Nicolas Stocker.

B-Sides Festival – Full line-up
Evelinn Trouble
Ikan Hyu
Long Tall Jefferson
Muthoni Drummer Queen
Pamela Méndez