Four years of waiting, of hoping, of expectation.. Then Tanz 2020 was finally announced. That elation turned in to shock, pain, and despair when Covid struck. After all that, and only the Gods know how much work it must have taken, Tanz 2022 finally brought us all home..
Tanz has always been the U.K's ultimate pilgrimage for Goths and this time around was almost spiritual in the relief, joy, and nirvana many of us found raving away in the dark. This beloved dark temple of bass, sound, and rhythm once again welcomed dancers and music lovers until they could dance no more and the worship of Gothic music once again ceased. These are the celebrations remembered throughout time, and Tanz 2022 will forever go down in history as a defining moment for the event and for our community as a whole.
Putting together all of the photos and interviews between my day job has meant this review has come out a lot later than I would have liked, and my memory is not as fresh one week on but I will try and do all the acts (That I caught) justice!
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Friday
MATT HART
MATT HART has refined his sound in to a really impressive power house of dark harsh electronics and gut grabbing guitar riffs. Matt and Jerome did a fantastic show at Elektro Vox music festival the weekend before but having been busy with running things, I didn't catch half as much as I would have liked; So to see them both tearing a new one in to a very impressive sized crowd as the opening act was a really nice beginning to the glorious house of Tanz.
The two had a great mix of seriousness, genuine joy, crowd acknowledgement, and the sound felt like a seriously upgraded MATT HART 2.0. If you get a chance to see M.H live, do so!
9/10
Stoppenberg
Admittedly, not an artist that I had heard much of, if any before Tanz but oh wow, I'm so glad I got to see this show! For only the second band of the opening day, after I got my initial pit photos, my partner and I RAVED, pretty much non-stop to this incredible set.
'Fearless' really jumped out at me being a big fan of the '40k: Dawn of War' games, this track has samples from that game shouted out by the Librarian unit and if there's one thing that sends shivers down my spine, it's well timed and beloved game samples set to Industrial rave music. Absolutely top class mix from start to finish. My only regret was by the end, I was already exhausted for the day!
10/10
ESA: Electronic Substance Abuse
I'm certainly not afraid to admit that I STRONGLY believe ESA should have been the headline act for Friday.
Fitting one of the most talented artists on the planet, not just in electronic music but in expression, film creation, and much more, in to a 45 minute set was one of the very few things about this event that didn't feel right at all.
Jamie Blacker has a big catalogue of insanely good music, well suited to the Tanz crowds. With his latest album being more experimental however, trying to fit a lot of his new material in amongst the 'bangers' made a set that wasn't as glorious as it should have been and I deeply respect Jamie for what he managed to fit in and the show he put on in that time.
We were treated to an early viewing of the music video for 'One missed call' which sent chills through me the whole time. The 1930's style jive of 'Come And Find Me' went down insanely well with the crowd, especially with the backing images of black and white colour tv dancers to which Jamie said "I want you to all dance like these fuckers!"
Another fantastic moment being the sheer depth, aggression, and focus of the track 'Disruption only' and the soul rending string instruments set amongst the industrial rave beats. This man is a true artist and certainly deserved much more time to play with his audience.
10/10
Promenade Cinema
Emma and Dorian of Promenade Cinema have created some truly epic and beautiful ballads that I love listening to on occasion as do many others when they are in a more relaxed mood. At Tanz after such intense bands however, the placement seemed a little off for the vibe. None the less they put on an admirable performance which sadly did not sound quite as good live as I had hoped. There was also a bit of a sound issue in being able to hear lyrics clearly but they were genuinely enjoyable overall.
6.5/10
Empirion
A nice close to the first set of bands. Empirion were very much enjoyable with their energy progression ebbing and flowing, allowing the audience a good amount of tracks to dance to followed by a calmer set of tracks to take a breather on, and repeat; or at least, so it felt! I will admit that I don't remember much beyond that in detail but I remember enjoying the whole set.
9/10
LEXX
Although I certainly can't go in to reviewing each DJ from the weekend. There were a few that stood out. Matt Hart and Emmerick Gortz on Saturday were particularly enjoyable. I do however need to give a very special mention to Lexx (Until recently known as GOHMA)
Lexx is someone I've seen play live a few times on stage as a bassist, and enjoyed her live stream over the last couple of years, so I was certainly excited to listen to whatever set she had come up with.
Opening up Friday evening's DJ's, Lexx absolutely devastated that dance floor in the best possible way with dark, filthy, intense, and shadow trance-inducing industrial techno.
So imagine my joy when she dropped the entire set on Soundcloud! Lexx is definitely one to keep your eye on in future.
Saturday
Sadly I was not able to watch Vanguard or Antibody due to filming interviews, I have heard wonderful things about Antibody's first ever live show however and urge you all to go check out his music!
Craven
How to describe Craven? A horror synthpop madman perhaps? With a merchandise perfume titled and reportedly smelling like 'Rotting Flesh' then maybe that's the case!
This was one of the most entertaining acts of the weekend. Jumping around the stage with his crazy attire, stroking a doll baby one minute, to rocking out on a guitar and cutting off his (fake) tongue the next, this was a wonderful start to Saturday!
9/10
SIRUS
The wonderful and ever amazing SIRUS, all the way from Australia. I have never seen a room that packed out for a band at 16:00 and this band bring all the feel good vibes and dance floor favourites. There was a huge amount of energy pouring off of Josh, Keeva, and Ryan.
Each track had clear vocals, and they played some true classics like 'Neon Dominion' to my delight because I LOVE Keeva's section in that song. The way Josh was able to distort his voice with that control strapped to his left hip was beyond impressive to a music amateur like myself.
I was lucky enough to catch them after their set for an interview.
9/10
The Gothsicles
It's just not Resistanz now without Brian and every moment was bliss. This man throws himself around the stage like a hyper-fast superhero that I am never able to get a clear photo of! We were treated to the track 'Continue' which follows on from the first and last band to play Resistanz tracks.
We had otters, we had stag beetles, we had squidface, and most importantly we were treated to moon knight with a surprise reveal which you can hear about in our interview below.
We also had a stage invasion of other artists to join in and jump around for 'Konami Code' which was a beautiful moment.
10/10
Empathy Test
I didn't manage to get any decent photos somehow, and I will admit I certainly was not in the right headspace to watch a slow ballad band again at the time. A friend of mine seemed to be off on cloud 9 the whole way through their set and I did enjoy their performance for sure, having listened to their music before, but for Resistanz festival, it was just too slow and out of place which is by no means any fault of the band.
6.5/10
Rotersand
This was a great band to end on, there was a plethora of emotion and connection with the spirit of the event coming both from the band and from the audience. There was a lot of love in that room for this Industrial hall of fame band. There was rave and there was chillout, there was dance, and there was fulfilment.
The best moment? Someone let out an inflatable Dalek during the song before 'Exterminate, Annihilate, Destroy' which was all fun at first until you saw the staff rushing around trying to grab it because it had caused several ceiling lights to drop and a piece of a central pillar threatened to fall on the audience, held back only by a hasty wrapping of duct tape by staff who angrily carried the Dalek off with them. Still.. Can't say Rotersand didn't bring the house down! (See the end of the below clip for some of the damage)
10/10
Sunday
Wychdoktor
Another band I wasn't familiar with but one that really blew me away. This dark and eerie industrial rose and fell in waves of intensity and speed, making for a real treat for the darker side of your soul. I remember agreeing with my partner that it all sounded like the ideal soundtrack to a new Underworld movie or something similar. Another great way to start off a day.
9/10
J:DEAD
This was only the second live show for J:DEAD and a replacement for Massive Ego. This was one I was excited for because personally, I have been following him since his first single 'Haunted' with Elektro Vox and I have loved everything he has released so far.
Each word, each scream, each note was belted out clearly and made for a very unique and satisfying show.
Jay engages with his audience and that bit of down time to participate along with him makes for a nice little feel good boost.
Every moment was great, a little bit too slow to start off with with the first song but it soon picked up with the energy and fury Jay is making himself known for!
10/10
Cyferdyne
You could tell Cyferdyne were having a great time back on stage, so much so it got a little bit strange at times. This felt a little like being at a familiar gathering, like watching some of your friends in a band down the pub with banter flying back and forth.
The band were calm and collected one moment, and laughing their heads off the next but it was all thoroughly enjoyable even though they certainly stood out amongst the sea of Goths watching! What's more the band was a real delight to chat to backstage, very friendly, and I really enjoyed getting to interview them.
8.5/10
iVardensphere
Here is a man I admire beyond words. Scott Fox's equipment was lost in transit and he had only one drum machine in his backpack still on him. So this was never going to be the iVardensphere singularity set that was planned but somehow Scott pulled out a jaw dropping set with just that one little machine. I have never known anyone to be so calm, poised, and flexible in their approach to what others would consider to be a disaster. There were no excuses from Scott, just a show to the best of his ability with the tools available and we all LOVED IT.
10/10
Because that's beyond impressive!
We interviewed Scott AND Karkasaurus together who I REALLY wanted to see but by 1am Sunday, there was no way I could stay awake until their set started at 2:30 am!
Memmaker
Memmaker were a last minute replacement for Minuit Machine which made me so very happy as this band are one of my all time favourites! They annihilated the audience with non stop rave industrial nirvana. Scott Fox even sneaked on stage to feed them crisps (included in the interview below)
Every moment was blister crafting dance fun and these guys really threw their all in to that performance.
10/10
Horskh
Sadly I only caught the first two tracks before having to rush off for interviews but from what I heard and saw, Horskh were on top form and slayed the crowd with a very serious and metal heavy sound. For what I saw, I very much enjoyed it!
9/10
Straftanz
Oh wow, where do I even begin.. This was less of a band set and more of a well rehearsed and planned out celebration of the better parts of lockdown. The introduction was one of sheer beauty and celebration of all things Tanz and the industrial crowd..
After this Biomechanimal and Sirus exploded on to the stage to perform 'Enter The Animal'. We were hit by track after track of Straftanz goodness. The stage was decked out like Jorg and Miss X's living room just like their isolation rave streams with the cross as the background and a table full of drinks that were shared out with the crowd. Soon, even Brian of The Gothsicles was on the stage throwing himself around too.
This was not only a celebration of industrial but a comedy show poking fun at it all. One new track called out bands such as Nachmahr and Suicide Commando, as well as Matt doing a dramatic reading of 'Pong', and all pretending they were going to play Nova (Shine A Light On Me) by VNV nation.
All in all a very wonderful and beautiful experience that became a real comedy show and performance of theatre rather than just a band singing songs.
There were bubble guns, an Antifa flag, a book being eaten, and much more.
I don't have the words to do this all justice but it was a one off masterpiece and I wish everyone was able to see it.
Conclusion
From the very chilled out and friendly staff, to the amazingly welcoming energy of everyone who attended, to the bands giving everything they had, and of course, to Leighton putting on this dream festival for us all.. This Resistanz was everything we hoped for and more. It was a truly safe place to relax and unwind with friends new and old and I'm sure no one will ever forget it.
Let's see what the future holds for Resistanz..
11/10
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