Just when you thought the festival season was over, those good people at One Inch Badge put their heads together and came up with something pretty special. Mutations pops up and offers us all one last hurrah before December’s icy fingers wrap around us and make everything smell of cinnamon, taste of stripped candy and look like an explosion in a tinfoil factory.
Like a musical phoenix, Mutations came out of the embers of last year’s Drill:Brighton and runs from 28th – 29th November. As is the case with Brighton’s biggest festival, The Great Escape, Mutations is a multi-venue festival. This is perfect for those of you who don’t do open air stages, fields and camping. All you have to do is pub-hop and stay in a hotel at the end of the night.
The inaugural line-up is as strong as you’d expect. One Inch Badge aren’t just selecting good bands to create a forward thinking line-up, they are making a statement of intent for the future. The bill shouts from the top of the Brighton Dome “Check this lot out!” Noise rockers METZ, post punk oiks OUGHT and indie upstarts Kagoule are playing alongside more established names, such as opaque house producer John Talabot (DJ set), electronic acrobats Tourist, staunch doom legends OM. To add to the diversity, you get a chance to hear psychedelic folk mistress Jane Weaver and Josh T. Pearson, whose recent set at Liverpool Music Week was a stand out performance of the entire festival. What’s more, One Inch Badge have managed to schedule it so there are no real clashes for the headliners: given the proximity of the venues to each other, when one set finishes your next gig is only a brisk walk away. The only real problem seems to be all those choices of the early Sunday billing – Alma at the Prince Albert, Wild Cat Strike at the Hope and Ruin, or Kagoule at the Green Door Store?
Mutations looks set to be a fitting end to what has already been a good vintage for festivals. Let’s hope that this is the start of a long and illustrious partnership that sees One Inch Badge continue to bring the best of new and established acts together for one last blowout before the melancholy of December is upon us.
More line up information can be found HERE.
Buy Mutations Festival tickets HERE.
