Preview: Simple Things 2016

Our favourite venue-hopping music festival returns on October 22, and there’s a week-long series of events in the days leading up to it. Here are a few of our highlights:

Back for its fifth outing this month, Simple Things is now well established as a highlight of Bristol’s musical calendar. An ambitious – and wildly successful – festival that sprawls across the city centre, it draws on a broad spectrum of underground sounds from post-rock to techno, indie and hip-hop. 

As in previous years the main event is Saturday’s sixteen-hour binge of underground music at Colston Hall, Lakota, The Station and Island, and Bristol O2 Academy. In what’s undoubtedly a coup for the festival, there will also be a separately ticketed performance on Sunday from John Carpenter, the film director and composer behind Halloween, The Thing and Escape From New York. As influential in music circles as he is in the cinema world, Carpenter is touring Europe on the back of two recent albums of synth music, Lost Themes and Lost Themes II.

This year sees the debut of Simple Things Ext – a week long extended programme of events in the run-up to the big day itself. It includes three audio-visual shows in At-Bristol’s planetarium dome featuring Detroit electro duo Dopplereffekt, ambient electronica producer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, and a performance of Terry Riley’s In C by The British Paraorchestra, the first UK orchestra comprised entirely of disabled musicians. Meanwhile, PROGRAMME – a new arts space on The Pithay – is launched with the debut of a new work by Tarik Barri, an audio-visual artist who has worked with Thom Yorke and Nicolas Jaar. 

Simple Things Ext is not just about the musical performances though. A series of panel discussions will be taking place at Watershed exploring various issues around contemporary music making. If you fancy learning how to produce music yourself, there are two opportunities to get to grips with Ableton Push, with an advanced skill training session on the Friday and an all-day drop in on the day of the festival itself.

Speaking of which, the lineup for the main event is every bit as impressive as we’ve come to expect. If LA indie stars Warpaint, industrial rap trio Death Grips or former Beta Band frontman Steve Mason don’t tempt you in, then maybe techno brutalist Powell or Congolese soukous giant Kanda Bongo Man will do the trick. 

Other highlights include resurgent UK grime and hip-hop superstar Kano, Squarepusher’s live electronica band Shobaleader One (pictured) and something called Charlotte Church’s Late Night Pop Dungeon, a new show from the sometime voice of an angel that reportedly went down a storm from ATP to Glastonbury this summer. On a personal note, we’d strongly recommend Flamingods, a group from London and Bahrain whose mind-blowing global psychedelia was our favourite thing at this year’s Farmfestival.  

As always underground club DJs are also well represented with Hessle Audio mainman Ben UFO and Chicago footwork pioneer DJ Spinn among the juiciest bookings. There’s also a return visit for Helena Hauff, whose set in the police cells was a stand-out highlight of Simple Things 2015. Other DJ highlights include Russian house and techno selector Nina Kraviz, drum & bass futurist dBridge and Rinse FM mainstay Marcus Nasty. 

While you’re there, be sure to catch some of the Bristol artists playing, whether club stalwarts like Christophe and Pardon My French or live bands like meaty, fast rising post-punkers Idles. In particular we’d recommend the industrial-flavoured techno of October, and the dreamy but strangely unnerving electronica of Kayla Painter.

Get there early, stay out late and hop between venues until your feet beg for mercy. This is one event Bristol’s music fans will need a very good excuse to get out of.

Simple Things 2016 is on October 22. For more information and tickets visit simplethingsfestival.co.uk

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