With the summer festival season almost drawing to a close, the faint of heart dreading the gloomier seasons of the year had better plan some happy distractions in advance. At Nowe idzie od morza, we’re all in for concert trips, DIY events and unorthodox line-ups – which brings us to our first autumn festival recommendation, the Paris Popfest.

Text: Aleksandra Szkudłapska

The indiepop event, held on 20-21 September in a former train station-turned-music venue, is currently in its third year. The line-up will cater to lovers of sophisticated pop, delicate vocals, jangly guitars, but also analogue synths and idiosyncratic electronica. The two ‘biggest’ bands on the bill are veterans Bis and BMX Bandits – so, on the one hand, prepare for a happy mix of synth pop, riot grrrl and DIY punk, and on the other, for heart-wrenching love songs from the one band Kurt Cobain would have joined had he lived in Scotland. Side note: with a no-deal Brexit looming in the background, it might well be that seeing UK acts will in fact be easier outside the UK in the future.

The more electronic part of the line-up is also quite diverse, with German dance pop pioneer Andreas Dorau and Catalan duo Hidrogenesse both coming to promote their latest albums. While our favourite moment in Dorau’s career is still the 1981 “Fred von Jupiter”, mixing nonsense lyrics, krauty German New Wave and pop vocals, the choice of labels he now uses to describe his music ranges from “junk shop glam” to “yacht rock”, so we could be in for an eclectic treat here. Hidrogenesse, on the other hand, the musical counterpart to the visual artist duo Gilbert&George, offer a promise of a Surrealist spectacle, heavy on the absurd, the Dadaist, the clothes and the make-up. Another highlight could be the up-and-coming French band EggS, whose garage-tinged indie is punctuated by nice synth passages and lyrics in the vein of “I fell in love with a girl she didn’t even know I exist then I formed my own band”. Seriously, who needs more excuses to plan a weekend in Paris?

PROGRAM

Friday, 20th September:
Bis (UK),
Andreas Dorau (DE),
The Royal Landscaping Society (ES) + Jan Dark’s Piano Karaoké

Saturday, 21st September:
BMX Bandits (UK),
Hidrogenesse (ES),
The Last Detail (FR),
EggS (FR) + DJ Denis Quélard (Pop In bar)

More:  http://www.parispopfest.com / Tickets: http://bit.ly/2EnYumbW