It’s day 3 of Infest, the atmosphere has been feeling like home since day 1, we are nearing the end of this experience and I honestly feel sad about it all ending.
Starting off the last day were Berlyn Trilogy, a UK based modern synth pop band with a dark edge. Their sound is smooth, relaxed and flows easy. A nice way to start off the final day of the event. Their set was a very melodic with gentle synth beats and left you feeling almost tranquil.
A definite highlight of their songs for me was that the bass guitar wasn’t just an addition to the music, but played a main role in each song on stage. The set itself felt like a gradient from light to dark as the mood of each song got darker the further we went through the list. One of my notes from the night was that they reminded me of Method Cell but from Eastern Germany.
The self-proclaimed cinematic electronic rock band Beautiful Machines played next. Unfortunately, the sound for this act wasn’t set up right at the start of their set as one vocal setup was louder than the other and was a bit jarring at first. The imbalance luckily got better throughout the set and I can confirm that cinematic is a very fitting adjective for the band. If someone had said to me that they helped compose the cinematic soundtrack for the original Iron movie, I would have believed them. Heavy on the synths and e-drums with the ever so well-known swoosh sounds.
What I really appreciated was the effort Beautiful Machines put into their stage outfits, which were very aesthetically pleasing, helped their performance to the next level and turned it into an event.
Around the halfway mark of their set, the pace of the songs started to pick up which charged up the masses for who would be on next.
Klack is the older brother of Caustic who is stuck in the 80s with heavy synth beats, computer voices, e-drum sounds and who still sells their music on cassette tapes.
People were either massive fans already and have been anticipating the act or they, like myself, have only just now fallen in love with Klack. Either way - everyone was thoroughly enjoying the set played by Matt & Eric.
Klack live is a base heavy, old school EBM duo from the US with a wonderfully polished sound and clearly know each other well as they anticipated each others next move.
To top it all off, they used video montage in the background which looked like a mix of the Bauhaus EP artwork meets black and white CAD design on a C64. It was fascinating to watch throughout the set, and I still want to know what program was used to create it!
The surprise act of the day for me were Moaan Exis, a French duo who’s music is a mix of sound machines, drums and vox and overall they went off like live grenades on stage. The foundation of their music seems to be fury, rage, sweat and pure aggression. Their sound is heavily drum and beat oriented which generated enough energy to set the whole crowd on fire. Front force Mathieu did not stop once on stage. He was either running from one side of the stage to the other, jumping on the speakers, jumping off the speakers, doing high kicks or he was headbanging to the beat in-between hammering out some amazing vocals.
Their passion on stage was so contagious, I felt the urge to join Mathieu and start doing sound-system parkour myself. Throughout the set the light technician used the most amount of strobe I have ever experienced during a set, which for once was not uncomfortable, but made the experience even better as it worked so well with Moaan Exis' sound. If you needed to find out if you are epileptic, this surely would have been the stress test for your neural system.
To be honest, none of my words can describe how incredible Moaan Exis really are live, so I highly recommend seeing them in person if you have the chance to. These two are filthy ferociousness on stage and they have left me wanting more ever since they finished their set that night.
After Moaan Exis I expected it to be really hard to get into the next act, which was Empathy Test, as they are the complete opposite as their sound is more synth pop for the soul. However I was proven wrong as their music just taps straight into your heart and extracts all those bittersweet emotions you don’t want to feel. The kind you think you have successfully hidden away, yet they seem to be able to lure them straight back out of the crevices in the back of your head.
Describing their sound the taglines "easy going, relatable and very catchy" come to mind as after a few minutes you can already sing or at least hum along to their songs. Considering they were a last-minute addition as Rein had to drop out short notice, these guys surely know how to draw a crowd. The mass of people all sang along and felt instantly connected to Empathy Test’s music. You could see the genuine excitement and joy on everyone’s faces.
Their music is just beautiful – intoxicating – comfortable.
The last act of the day for us was Maedon’s DJ set as I had to tap out halfway through that.
Maedon’s set was full of heavy, dirty, filthy beats that made me think of a rave in an old Berlin Bunker. The venue turned into a dance floor that was filled with body’s moving along the beat and heating up that cold concrete box while the bass of the songs managed to fill the gaps between all the bodies with vibrations. Meadon surely knows how to put an incredible set together that will just keep you going for hours.
And that was Infest 2022 for us. An absolutely incredible experience. What an inviting bunch of people who celebrate the scene and its music. I have never felt anywhere more welcome than at Infest and I can’t wait to see what Infest 2023 has in store.
Event website: Infest Festival
Photos: Luke Agger-Joynes
Ruby