Radio Kurtodrome 28
If you're a music fan and you're living in Belgium, chances are pretty high that we'll see you on a festival this weekend. All you have to do is choose between Dour, Rock Herk or Cactus. Dour was thorougly reviewed in editions 26 and 27, this time it's time to highlight who's playing at Cactus and Rock Herk. We'll start with the latter, if only because that's where we ourselves will be heading.

Rock Herk has always been a free festival. In the good old days Herk gave you the heavier sort of music on the very last Saturday of June. Then Rock Werchter, the biggest festival in Belgium, moved to that last weekend leaving Herk no other options than to move to another weekend or to die a gloryless death. Dour had no trouble with Rock Herk moving to 'their' weekend and Rock Herk was reinvented as Dour Light. A selection of bands who were playing at Dour didn't mind travelling two hours up north to a free festival. And to be fair, Dour did get some profit out of it too. Sometimes bands sign for the festival in Herk first and then hear about that similar festival in the South of Belgium. This year's example: Enon.

FREQ NASTY - Amped
Rock Herk has two stages: a mainstage and a stage that starts as skatestage and ends as dance zone. (You see, tired from all that skating around, skaters have to go to bed quite early in the evening.) Even the mainstage follows that pattern and ends in beats. The beats of Skint's Freq Nasty to be precise. Who he? According to his label's site, the "artist known as FreQ Nasty AKA Darin McFadyen has over the last few years become known as the man behind a unique sound, championed by producers and DJ's alike- The person most likely to pull dance music out of the occasional creative cul-de-sac it finds itself in once every few seasons." Still pretty vague, we thought, so we gave you one of his songs. Based on the three examples we heard, we think all of his songs last seven minutes. To find out if that's true: Freq Nasty, mainstage, 00.25-02.00. (More dance on the mainstage: The Youngsters from 23.20 onwards. In the dance zone DJs I don't know: Crossfire & Goodfella, Ladylite & Mc Maryjane and Haste & Mc Doc. Allegedly.)

ENON - Believo (D)
It's good that Enon will appear at Herk, not only because they did really well last year on Pukkelpop (especially considering they weren't fully awake yet), but also because this really forces us to put another Enon track on the show (see Radio Kurtodrome 3). Catch us and Enon at the mainstage (20.30-21.20).

BLACK HEART PROCESSION - A Truth Quietly Told (D)
The Black Heart Procession's song "Did You Wonder?" got quite some coverage on the Kurtodrome, appearing both on Radio Kurtodrome and as a Video of the Week. This band was one of the first to confirm their appearance on the festival and already we knew where we would be on July 12. This song is less uptempo than "Did You Wonder?" and is the opening track of the eponymous EP, which Southern Records released in the year 2000. (mainstage, 20.50-21.50)

FIRESIDE - Thing on a spring
Kristofer Astr�m already made an appearance on Radio Kurtodrome and while he's most famous for his solo work, at the time he released "All Lovers' Hell" most critics introduced the work as "the solo album by Fireside's singer". "Thing on a spring" can be found on Elite and heard on the mainstage (17.40-18.30). Fireside are usually classified as 'emocore'.

AEREOGRAMME - Zionist Training (D)
This MP3 comes courtesy of Matador Records, the American label on which Aereogramme's second album, Sleep And Release, appeared. Europeans find the band's stuff on the noteworthy Chemikal Underground label (run by The Delgadoes). In the words of member Campbell McNeil: "We release our records on two of the coolest labels on the planet. Europe think we fucking rock. Stephen Malkmus thinks we fucking rock. John Peel thinks we fucking rock. Ergo, we fucking rock!" Do they really? We'll see them prove it in Herk (mainstage, 19.05-19.55).

SOON - Second in a row (D)
Enjoy a free MP3 from this Belgian hardcore band Soon. Our initial reaction wasn't too good ("Oh no, another hardcore band.") and we found the comparisons to Fugazi and Sonic Youth hard to believe, but then we listened on. We'll give our definite opinion after we'll have checked them out on the skatestage (19.40-20.20). You'll find "Second In A Row" on the album Please Accelerate. Rather soundless on the Net, but present on Rock Herk's skatestage: the legendary Victims of Society (17.20-18.00).

From the East to the West as the Cactus Festival is located in Bruges, best known for bridges, lace and a city where three people took this festival to court because they thought the music was too noisy. Which does explain why most Belgians think Bruges is a boring town. From July 11 to July 13 no less than 15 bands will try and make not too much noise. One band per day is highlighted here.

WOVEN HAND - Blue Pail Fever (D)
Many thanks to Amazon Germany for keeping this MP3 online as we still like Woven Hand's debut album best. I guess by now most of you know that this is David Eugene Edwards's solo project and that the man they used to call Dave (we think one injoke per 28 episodes is allowed) is 16 Horsepower's singer. Friday's lineup: Admiral Freebee, Woven Hand and Suzanne Vega (who'll be celebrating her birthday that day).

TWINEMEN - Little by Little
Cactus has weird lineups, just picture what you could hear on Saturday: Jaga Jazzist, Boz Scaggs, Postmen, Twinemen, Stereo MC's and Joe Jackson. Ecclectic, to say the least. More on Twinemen in edition 25 when we played "Spinner" (don't worry, the link has been fixed!).

JAGA JAZZIST - Kitty Wu (D)
An even weirder lineup on Sunday: Wagner P� & Brazuca Matraca, Totonho E Os Cabra, Toots & The Maytals, Bembeya Jazz and Macaco make sense (all can be classified as world music) but then you find Bonnie Raitt as headliner. Normally we would've selected Sidestepper, but he cancelled (and will be replaced by Wagner P� & Brazuca Matraca), so instead we'll grab the chance to play some Jaga Jazzist from their new album The Styx. Hope you don't mind. The next Radio Kurtodrome will be a normal edition again. Hope you don't mind.

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