When you listen to Black Mountain, it becomes clear that the band doesn’t hesitate to hide their source of inspiration. From Frank Zappa to Captain Beefheart to Yes to an organ finish like The Doors („Faulty Times“), what sounds like hero exploitation is in fact a collage of prog rock references with an intrinsic and autonomous artist statement. Black Mountain don’t steel but quote deliberately. At this year’s Melt! Festival, they were able to draw in the audience. In less than three weeks, Black Mountain will tour Germany again to spread their prog rock attitude among the people. To get in the mood, here’s the band’s new single “Hair Song” plus video.

Tour Dates

20.09.2010 Köln, Gebäude 9

21.09.2010 Hamburg, Grünspan

27.09.2010 Berlin, Festsaal Kreuzberg

28.09.2010 München, 59:1
For further info and tour dates of our Melt! Booking acts, click here.

In 2010, Matthew Herbert’s got a lot going for him. With three albums and two live projects, the eloquent Englishman is quite busy this year.

After his concept album One One, which, according to taz, “reveals an artist that rediscovered pure music,” Herbert kicks off with his first live project. In two Clubs, Berlin’s Berghain and Darmstadt’s 603qm, Herbert presents One Club – a mixture of sounds and electro tunes that were all recorded at Offenbach’s Robert Johnson in one night. The result is a sort of “20 years best of Matthew Herbert’s club sound.” Thereby he combines Djing with live performance, visuals with projections. Herbert probably has one or the other visual surprise in petto for sure. According to Herbert, “the potential of dance music” will be celebrated. Let’s go then.

Album number two and the corresponding live project is dedicated to classical music. For this, Herbert rearranged Mahler’s Sinfonie No. 10. The result, Mahler Symphony X, will be staged at Berlin’s Admiralspalast in the scope of Yellow Lounge.

Tour Dates

One Club

3th September 2010 Berlin, Berghain (nur Abendkasse)

4th September 2010 Darmstadt, 603qm

Mahler Symphony X

7th September 2010 Berlin, Admiralspalast

Melt! is already over as you might have noticed. Many fantastic acts came and went, yet some are still missing on our overall festival bill – M.I.A. for instance. She couldn’t be persuaded to come to Ferropolis to this point. Until she does, we highly want to recommend to you her upcoming Germany tour. For three dates, the lovely M.I.A. comes across the Channel to present her new album live which she recorded with the help of Diplo, Alan Moulder, and Rusko. M.I.A. is back in perfected pop disguise – uncompromising, no doubt! Who knows maybe some day in the future also at Melt!

M.I.A. tour dates:
16th November 2010 Cologne, E-Werk
17th November 2010 Berlin, C-Halle
28th November 2010 Munich, Muffathalle

Tickets available here.

Tickets sold like hot cakes, we’re afraid. That’s why we have to announce today: the Die Antwoord gig at our Introducing party at Magnet Club on 20^th August is sold out. However, there will still be tickets available for Telepathe and Bon Homme at the doors at 1pm for only EUR 5. And you won’t have to miss out on a great after show party: you can dance to lovely indie tunes with the Karrera DJs, Hot Cheese Crew, Marius Funk as well as our special guests The Robot Scientists. Perfect conditions for a night out, wouldn’t you say?

Unfortunately, we have bad news regarding Robyn’s September tour dates: due to important promotional commitments in the United States, Robyn has to cancel her gigs in Frankfurt and Munich. Her Hamburg gig was rescheduled to 10th October. We are working on alternate tour dates for 2010, however, we were only successful in terms of Hamburg. Tickets for Robyn’s Frankfurt show remain valid, however, can be returned if you so choose. Tickets for her Munich show have to be returned however. We will keep you posted on Robyn’s upcoming tour schedule, of course. Robyn’s very sad about cancelling her shows and hopes to make up for it next year the latest. Every cloud as a silver lining: we are still happy to have Robyn with us exclusively at Berlin Festival.

After having posted various clips of the 13th Melt! edition on 3min.de and meltfestival.de, it’s MTV’s turn now. At midnight, MTV will air a 1-hour Melt! special with live clips and interviews with Philipp Poisel, Broken Bells, Dendemann, Massive Attack, Moderat, and Johnossi. Tocotronic and The xx will also have a go. If you miss it or if you simply can’t get enough, a re-run will be aired two days later on 5th August – around midnight also.

The weather gods really had to make up for the past years. For our 13th edition, all Melt! lovers were, therefore, gifted with smashing sunshine on the Ferropolis peninsula. From over 20 nations, you came to the City of Iron to see gigs by The xx, Modeselektor & Moderat, Kings of Convenience, Massive Attack, Chris Cunningham, Booka Shade, Goldfrapp, Popf, WhoMadeWho and many others. Only Dirty Projectors had to cancel their gig due to illness unfortunately. Even though it might have been a bit too much weather extraordinaire, all party people weren’t disturbed by the heat-laden circumstances at all: despite the heat, Melt! Festival ran smoothly, peacefully and without any notable disturbances. Only five thefts were reported, personal injuries were non-existent. A big thank you to all 20,000 Melt! goers for making such a wonderful and peaceful festival possible.

Regarding your  travel arrangements, we were quite pleased as well: our mobility measures in the scope of our M!Eco initiative proved to be a success and were adopted by many. We know that Melt! Festival will never be completely eco-friendly. However, it was a step in the right direction. Indeed, our parking areas were less filled with cars than in previous years. Due to the project’s great success, we want to offer such opportunities once more in the following year – with two trains perhaps.

Furthermore, we were thrilled by the first Melt! marriage ever. On Friday morning, a couple was married in the so-called “30 K Station,” an official register office. Two years ago, both met at Melt!. This year, they spent their wedding night on the Ferropolis peninsula.

We can’t believe that this year’s Melt! is over already. Luckily the festival was audiovisually captured. Our film and photo crews were up and going day and night to document Melt! vibe under the huge diggers. Numerous galleries and festival impressions in written form have been uploaded to Intro Magazine’s website and to the video portal 3min.de. There’s more: Pop10 will revisit Melt! in a 2-hour documentary with interviews, reports and impressions. Many local TV stations (Berlin, Hannover, Magdeburt among others) will air the show, a live stream will be available also as well as an online version on Pop10’s homepage from 20th July, 6pm on.

It only remains to say: We are very much looking forward to you and a magical Melt! 2011 already, which will take place from 15th to 17th July (including a pre-party on 14th July).

Your

MELT!

“When this will be aired, half of the festival area is already complete – all stages are set up and fine tuning begins,” Dirk Völler comments in today’s Melt!TV episode, available on 3min.de and  meltfestival.de. However, that’s not everything our head of press has to say three days before the 13th edition of Melt! madness is about to commence: he will give you insight to everything you need to get hold of shortly before taking off to Melt!, such as the latest running order update on meltfestival.de as well as our free iphone app. Head of booking, Stefan Lehmkuhl, on the other hand, will introduce the official Melt! compilation. Finally, Dirk Völler cuts right to the chase by saying: “We hope that Melt! 2010 will be the best one ever!” There’s nothing to add to that.

Dear Melt! people. We are well excited and running on adrenaline. Why? Because it’s only a few more days till Melt! Festival opens its gates. Festival goers who are still not quite in the know on how to get to Melt!, where to pitch up tents and what to bring, can start to relax. Shortly, we will post an elaborate news with frequently asked questions.
Today, however, we have something very special for you: Melt! Mag. Our favourite music magazine, Intro, made a huge effort to launch this year’s official Melt! Festival programme. On more than 90 pages, all acts are dealt with in depth, Melt! crew and Intro’s staff reveal their personal top ten, and for our foreign visitors, many texts are also printed in English. Until Melt! Mag is available for free on paper, you have to wait just a little bit longer. However, a digital version is available under the following link. Enjoy!

We are Melt!, no doubt. Once a year, the most different festival types gather on the Ferropolis peninsula merge into one colourful crowd from glowstick loving Sleepless Floor fanatics to differentiated acoustic nerds celebrate as one huge festival community. Howerver, cultural and subcultural variety doesn’t stop there. From all over the globe, festival lovers travel to the spectacle under those impressive caterpillars: UK, the Netherlands, Belgium France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Denmark and many more. All are one, yet totally different. Since we do have the most beautiful festival goers ever, we started our photo initiative Melt!Faces.

Basically that means: we need your help! We want to take pictures of you individually or in pairs to give the Melt! crowd a multi-faceted face. For the duration of the festival, our photographers will be located at our Festivalguide merch stand from 5pm to 6:30pm. What we need you to do is to download the forms below and bring them to the festival. No worries, though. You will be able to decide spontaneously on location. We are most certainly ready and very excited to see you at Melt!

Downloads

Profile

Photo Release Contract