Unsound 2024: Noise in every direction
A recap of Unsound Festival Krakow
This review is a collaboration by Aleksander Prus and Julie Kim
We timed the release of this article to coincide with Unsound New York in hopes that readers there will be encouraged to attend. Shows, except for the club night at Nowadays, are free or choose-what-you-pay (CWYP)
14 November: Opening night presented by Dripping. Shyboi b2b Bobby Beethoven (fka Total Freedom) / Atrice LIVE (big tip) / bela / 2k88 at Nowadays
15 November: Chuquimamani-Condori (aka E+E, Elysia Crampton) / Piotr Kurek presenting Smartwoods at at Lincoln Center (Free)
16 November: Kali Malone presents All Life Long for organs, choir and brass / Raphael Roginski Plays John Coltrane at Lincoln Center (CWYP)
17 November: Sunn O))) / Mabe Fratti at Lincoln Center (CWYP)
Julie: My first encounter with Unsound was last fall in New York. The theme of 2023 called to the Dada movement of the early 1900’s that rose as a response to the brutality of WWI and “rejected ideas of progress, logic and rationality in favour of nonsense, outrage and radicalism” (Unsound). The choose-what-you-pay show at Lincoln Center’s Geffen Hall was a double feature, with Moor Mother spewing poetry on hypnotized listeners, and The Caretaker soothing them back to rest with distorted lullabies.
Aleksander: I’ve known about Unsound for years, and things finally lined up this year so I could fulfill my dream of attending. My father was born in Krakow where the festival is based, and I’ve always felt at home in the city.
J: At first glance, Krakow resembles any quaint Eastern European city, marked by a quiet stoicness. People are reserved and proud. There is an unassuming resistance in the form of youth complaining about the stifling politics. However, since the Soviet era, it has been a hub of counterculture, experimentation, and acceptance of left of center sounds; adopting Jazz, Punk, and the Beatnik movement with open arms. The more time you spend with its art and artists, the more you notice this spirit (Rebellion in the System).
The theme of Unsound 2024 was Noise. “NOISE, the conventional thinking goes, is unwanted sound: pops and scratches on a vinyl record, the ringing of tinnitus, the din of traffic. But this immediately gives rise to questions: unwanted by whom? and why?”
A: Noise in this telling was artists pushing outwardly against the confines of genre or tradition, presenting a maelstrom of sounds and visuals that represent the Noise of the post-whatever experimental underground.
Unsound is an inner-city festival that has programming across many venues throughout the day. This review focuses mostly on club nights.
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Thursday - Bill Callahan
J: We love Bill Callahan. His music is matter-of-fact and listless, calm and poetic. Some people have the ability to say a simple phrase one hundred times and make each repetition meaningful. Bill is one of these bards.
His live show was solitary; on the stage of a cinema, in front of a massive screen containing a wispy cloud-speckled blue sky. Southwestern soundscapes, a man on his guitar with the occasional harmonica, the finicky harmonica holder clunking against his other instruments from time to time, or being tossed aside rather awkwardly. He hopped around on stage whenever he interluded, first backwards from the mic and then side to side. His words were calming and lovely.
The day before, we attended his interview with Philip Sherburne, and his music that we adore made sense—the way he talks in stilted phrases, as if his sentences must be ⅔ the length of a standard being’s, the way he sings in stout lyrics, parroting himself over and over.
Thursday Club Night - UPROAR
A: I regrettably only caught the last track of Rainy Miller’s live performance. When I walked in, he was dramatically playing a guitar with a violin bow. Awe-inspiring ambience and spoken word reverberated around the room. If I had the chance to catch him again I would, in a heartbeat.
Next up was Zuli, taking cues from his hometown, the Egyptian capital of Cairo. He levied mutant basslines, twinkling rhythms, and Egyptian vocalizations reverberated about. He played a set stylized around his recent boundary-blurring release ‘Lambda’ that felt like the proper warmup to the chaos ahead.
In an exclusive debut live performance for Unsound, Aya brought an intensity the night needed. In the words of Mackenzie Wark, she was “letting the music fuck her.” Eccentric, unhinged energy overflowed with ear-pummeling drill obscurities, sweaty rave nods, and hybridized global experiments. See footnote 3 for another view.
J: Her set was a humorous staccato of performances and quips, wrapping with the remark “I’ll play my weird metal shit for you because you love that kind of stuff.” She did indeed play that weird metal shit and the people did indeed love it.
A: I was excited to catch DJ E's performance, having been a big fan of their past music as Elysia Crampton. On their last album, 2023's 'DJ E', they drew on the traditional drum and ceremonial music of their family, fusing vivid synths with Andean flutes and cacophonous rhythms. They presented an interesting canvas of sounds which I would have appreciated in a different headspace, but I was called to dance and Heavee had just started in the other room.
Upon entering, it was clear the party had really started and the motionless Unsounders had faded as the clock struck 2am. We found a vast space at the front left flanked by some soon-to-be friends dancing like maniacs, silhouettes of their hair bouncing to the intoxicating blends of footwork, r&b, and party popping bass. He was locked in for the entire set and vastly blew out my expectations.
After a quick snack (1) I got caught outside talking with the friends I met at Heavee. This led to what was probably my biggest regret of the festival, as I only caught the last 10 minutes of Assyouti. From the moment I walked in, the frenetic insanity propelled my body through space and in every direction.
There wasn’t a body in the room not being thoroughly washed by Assyouti’s insane selections of drum n bass, dubstep, and noisy spastic breakbeats. The undecipherable dexterity and controlled chaos of the blends triggered flashbacks of Djrum at Sustain Release and worked the crowd into a screaming frenzy.
Assyouti released some PREMIXED tracks in July—a quick listen will give an idea of what he delivered.
Overall, the first club night suffered from some audio issues. The sound was far too quiet and lacked the necessary sub weight it needed to be felt viscerally.
J: I was so upset about the lack of sub that I was on the brink of tears. I thought Unsound hadn’t invested in an adequate system, and began to have serious qualms about my regard for this esteemed festival. Kode9, in particular, saddened me further with his choice to turn the lows all the way down for seemingly every track (or so Bint Mbareh told me). Productions like this are unengaging, and disservice artists like CCL, Zamilska, and Heavee who lean heavily into sub frequencies. Thankfully, I was in for a nice surprise the next night—a certain redemption.
Friday Club Night - PEAK
A: With Thursday’s audio issues fixed and the crowd loosened up from day one, Unsound began to feel like a playground. It’s rare in the U.S. to attend festivals or parties where I don’t know most of the artists. I think this is largely due to the difficulty and costs involved for artists obtaining Visas but also the cautious approach in nightlife where safe booking is valued over experimentation. The last two nights of the festival gifted me with novelty, bringing many new artists to my radar.
Florence Sinclair stepped up with laid back UK flair of frequent collaborator Dean Blunt, crooning and rapping over his dreamy blur of grime, ambient, and chamber pop.
J: His crisp outline against the hazy green lights was cinematic. The sheer scarf on his head had a presence of its own, lazily hanging at the same angle of his leaning torso. His hands pantomimed to his lyrics in perfect time.
A: Next, we turned to Crystallmess, an uncompromising DJ, writer, producer, and artist premiering her live A/V show, a collaboration with Xquisite Releases co-founder Oxhy.
The first half of the performance featured the two b2b in classic Crystallmess style (unleashed mix), jumping between jungle, hip hop, ambient, and more. In the final 15 minutes Crystalmess stepped out from behind the booth for a debut performance that found her freaking the dance over crazy blends, like one featuring Astrid Sonne.
The final minutes found the beats softening out and Crystallmess singing and rapping through a heavy autotune filter over an oscillating swelling instrumental.
J: She made a soulful turn, paying homage to her roots and pouring her heart out to kids who share analogous histories.
A: I was very excited to catch Nidia and Valentinni Magdelini after their recent album Estradas featured in last month’s roundup, but struggled to enjoy the live performance due to the packed out room. It was impossible to dance. This problem affected the first three or four hours of each night but eventually subsided as the crowd thinned.
We found ourselves at a crossroads, so we stumbled into Rick Farin and Actual Objects’ audiovisual performance. Unlike some other A/V sets designed for contemplation, this set was clearly built to overwhelm as the pulsating screens flashed with grotesque inhuman faces and shapes over shifts from techno to bass to trance and beyond.
J: The next unexpected highlight reshaped the crowd around a platform in the middle of the room. A drum kit fitted with tabs and wires waited patiently as people flocked around and the lights dimmed.
We positioned ourselves well for the solo percussion performance from Daniel Szwed, facing him from behind his hi-hat. He was a man possessed whose features and long hair disappeared into waterlike motion as he attacked his drums for half an hour over low droning soundscapes. I drowned in the river too. He broke at least three drumsticks and eventually sent every backup rolling off the trembling platform. He wasn’t given the volume or respect that ferocity of this sort deserves, with idle chitchatting near the bar warranting sharp shushes from annoyed fans.
A: Catching this performance meant that I missed Lord Spikeheart who, by all accounts, was a rolling mosh of flesh and sounds between metal, grindcore, hardcore techno, and more. At a festival, you simply can’t see it all.
J: Better to have too many good things to miss than to have to pick between the lesser of two disappointments…
Saturday Club Night - IMPULSE
A: We started the day with a visit to Nowa Huta, the suburb my dad grew up in. If you ever find yourself in Krakow, I highly recommend a stop in this historic Soviet district and the Muzeum Krakowa, which features a communist era bunker and history of the area.
Next was the historic Wieliczka Salt Mines, a mind-blowing underground network spanning 10^2km wide and 9 levels deep. The three-hour, 3.5km tour covers just 2% of the vast system and displays massive rooms supported by elaborate constructions of timber, vast cavernous spaces with luminescent brine ponds, and a grand cathedral, while teaching you about Poland's history. See Julie’s footnote for more on the mines.
A: If it’s not clear by now, Unsound Krakow should be on everyone’s list. Not only is the music incredible, Krakow or Poland more generally, is a wonderful place full of delicious food, kind people, scrumptious doughnuts, and beauty at a great price.
After a long day of exploration we rested up and arrived a bit later to the festival’s final night. We caught the last track or two of Bianca Scout, eventually losing attention and journeying over to an A/V performance by some artists unknown to us.
J: Irish artist Eomac was djing over a video project by Saint Abdullah and Rebecca Salvadori. It was A/V at its best. Home videos spanning the growth of child siblings into young adulthood graced the screen with interludes of reflection, captioned with thought provoking and reassuring lines on what it means to grow up, to be of a family that has migrated. Messages like these remind you that humanity is one (growing up across the world I experienced this too, like you).
“Just as if I had all the time in the world”
“Everything unnecessary is committed, All you need to know is what you’re told”
“A million stimulations laid upon your eyes, Impossible to comprehend all at once”
“So your sense of being out of sync suddenly becomes in sync”
The screen was accompanied by strobes and other fx, while the music evolved from sparse Middle Eastern melodies to bouncier ukg adjacent sounds and grime before finally arriving at grumbling dragging grinding dubstep, experimental jazz, and bass. It was a frenzy. I headbanged so my neck was sore for days. It was liberating to be in a foreign place and yet understood, deeply.
A: About halfway through this performance I ventured off alone to catch Bassvictim. I came in with few expectations and by the end I felt euphoria like I hadn’t felt in years, like I was back in college with no worries in the world as I thrashed around in ecstasy.
Bassvictim is what Charli XCX and Eartheater wish they could be, floating between ethereal moments and jump-up headbanging mosh-oriented trap. They possess the big room bombast of DJs that excite rolling lads and frat boys of the world. In Unsound’s words, “an effervescent concoction of bass-heavy dancefloor sounds and neon-hued EDM—and a supple selection of forward-facing, genre-agnostic pop initially a reaction born from their dissatisfaction with the scene at large.”
The duo gave a view into a queer, goth-leaning Polish indie sleaze wave I didn’t know existed. The crowd seethed, beaming and sweaty as they bounced and moshed around to the EDM-adjacent hyperpop in a massive left turn compared to the rest of the particularly hardcore night.
Throughout the performance, Bassvictim hit the room with numerous backspins to restart a song requesting this time, more energy. Already aware of the hilarity incoming, the room would explode in joy.
Following this carnal pleasure was no easy task but AKA HEX, a new collaboration between Aïsha Devi and Slikback, managed to do just that. According to the press copy, "they synthesize their artistry welding kinetic, bass-heavy rhythms to zig-zagging, sci-fi tinged soundscapes and mutant vocals. It's Devi's most dancefloor-focused material in years, and Slikback's most alien to date, bridging the chasm between avant-pop, experimental club and hallucinogenic ambience.”
In my own words, it’s Slikback’s signature sub-heavy pummeling as Devi pierces through the upper register with her angelic vocals. It’s Arca-esque heart-stopping breaks fused with the strobes that annihilate the senses.
As promised, towards the end of the performance they brought out some fellow Unsound performers as guests. Starting with Bela and closing out with Lord Spikeheart, who came screaming and growling into oblivion while the sub bass mauled the room, melting faces and psyche away through the pulsation of pressure.
After a long night of energetic release, we finally came to Gummi's closing set. Everyone in our group wanted to go home, but having done some research, I knew we might be in for something special from the Warsaw DJ and organizer. I made my case to give her a chance.
She very much lived up to this hype and laid down what was, to me, the best DJ set of the weekend. We stayed ‘til the lights came on and the sun was rising as she weaved together grimy ambient and varieties of r&b / rap with jungle, DnB, dubstep, and all flavors of bass weight in between. Chunky’s ‘GNG’ on a proper system was a highlight for me; the sub hits shook me to the bone.
J: The set captivated and revived me in every sense of the word. It was me (my dead dancing legs) and Gummi against the world. I couldn't leave to use the toilet, I couldn’t turn my attention away. Each blend indistinguishable, nothing disturbing, everything exciting. She mixed with precision and grace, with a deep understanding that the remaining hundred people on the dance floor were hanging on to every last beat.
There are few DJ’s I’ve seen that have made me feel like I’m at a masterclass; I can count these on one hand. Gummi has joined the pedestal. My breath was taken away and given back to me constantly. For a program to give the closing set to someone with (it’s shitty to even have to mention this facet of the world) 1k followers, shows that for Unsound there is a different vetting process. It is not about aesthetic, clout, or status. It is about raw talent and capability. It is about finesse. Gummi is, and has, all of this.
A: I went away from the weekend feeling incredibly moved and inspired, and in years to come I hope to return with many friends in tow.
The semi-irony in this enjoyment is some grumblings from people I met and online readings that the festival has actually devolved from its earlier iterations with Club offerings taking place in interesting venues with some soul, not Hype Park, a venue more suited to EDM and uni students. Despite the less than ideal setting of the club program it didn’t much matter when the music and audiovisual art presented was so visceral and mind-blowing.
J: Weeks later, I am wrapping this article in our temporary Milan apartment, sitting very upright, sweater sleeves rolled up to my elbows, listening to cars and motorcycles rumble by on Via Savona. The chills in my body from recollecting those three nights make my mind alert and my heart soft.
Unsound was thoughtful and difficult to put into words. It made me feel a lot. As an observer, if there ever was the ability to distinguish someone doing art because they want to vs someone who needs to, it was holistically the latter. People born to do this, music of the highest caliber. Artists turning into animals before our eyes, not even human anymore, channeling it from the very core. It was amazing to witness and to participate in.
I will remain astonished for some time.
If you have the curiosity to attend, I cannot recommend it enough.
Appendix
For further reading on the excellent edition of Unsound Krakow we recommend Philip Sherburne’s piece
And Seb Wheeler’s review
Footnote 1
A: I’ll pause here to shout out the food and beverage at the club nights. In NYC I usually avoid buying drinks because it’s so cost prohibitive. I’ll often bring a protein bar in my pocket rather than purchase food, which is even costlier. At Unsound there were ample bars and rarely a line to be waited on. Beers and mixed drinks were $4-8. Food trucks offered wurst, burgers, and fries at comfortable prices.
On the flipside, there were no water stations, which I would be more disappointed in if not for the fact that it seems to be a cultural norm. Polish restaurants don’t even serve tap water free. Water was available at reasonable costs, but this would be an easy area of improvement for future years.
Footnote 2
J: I have claustrophobia. I committed to going to the mines out of excitement, and out of respect for a unique experience and UNESCO heritage site, but the reality of being 135m (440 ft) underground for hours hit me as we were driving closer. I began to bawl, begging to be left in the car, hands shaking. With some gentle coaxing, which included a pitstop for a scoop of chocolate ice cream, I made my way to the entrance.
The tour goes down one level, then gradually, two more. The first level descended 40m, on countless spirals of narrow wooden stairs. I gripped Alek’s hand as we made our way down one flight, then the next, stopping occasionally for the traffic jams ahead. I didn’t know when it would end. Each pause added to my apprehension. I didn’t dare look up or down, and took each flight as it came, with a big breath and a nervous smile at bystanders glancing over sympathetically. One of them turned out to be a co-founder of Lost Festival in Parma, which we are eager to visit in the future.
Once we arrived at the landing, everything vanished. I kept from thinking about the end, or the beginning, and again took each room as it came. The air was clean and cold. It was gorgeous. I dreamt of having a wedding in the cathedral. I licked the salty walls. The tour was informational, engaging, and as ecstatic as I was to leave, I was very thankful to have done it.
Footnote 3
A: I couldn’t pick a favorite video of Aya so here’s another
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This was special! Come back next year guysss! 🤍