“Nu metal bass riffs, switch-pitched fuzz vocals and big, splashy drums layer over unsettling narratives and extreme loops to bring a bit of the pit to the dancefloor” 🙀 KRAAKfest 2022 alumni Donna Candy return to the KRAAKstage, a debut record under their belt. With Blooming, an international co-release with bison (UK), Isola Records (FR) and Swallowing Helmets (BE), Nadja, Js and Daniel be making the Marseille/Brussels bridge a reality through powerfully sludgy bangers that mainline straight into the brain. Whether moshing or head thrashing is in the cards, there will be no escape from this pit; embrace the euphoria, let it embrace you.

Eight years after their first LP, Finnish stoner rock rulers Olimpia Splendid are back with a second album 2, co-released by Fonal and your truly ✨In this latest outing, interweaving guitars reach for a surf & total turf aesthetic alongside entrancing, mildly funky bass licks over which raspy utterances cast their undisclosed spell. In the words of filmmaker and primo OS stan Ben Russell, “This is Olimpia Splendid and this sound is solstice air, sharp wire on moss-dampened drumbeat, wood fire throwing shadows on all the warehouse walls. It is a whisper from the back of the throat, a chorus in the fog, a growl feeding back in triplicate.” Surrender thyself to the barbed noise chorus of these dryads, and never look down.

No longer astrally projecting from the Argentinian homebase::: we’re stoked to have KRUTee Qoa unexpectedly tacked on to this luminous bill. Nina Corti’s symbiot through which readings of flora, fauna and fable are relayed through swirling layers of earthly textures and alien melodies. A deep player of resonances in time, Qoa’s sound explorations are vibrant microclimates that tie into the elemental ineffable, all equally joyous and entrancing. A rare apparition in Belgium not to be missed!!

Robbe de Peestel & Tobin Verdonck do the closing ceremonies with their assortment of found sounds that range from the gloomy to the doomy to the moody. Though the bedroom vibes stay strong, the melancholia never gets in the way of the legit ragers that’ll get ya swaying and jiving till the clock ticks goodnight.