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5 acts you don’t want to miss at Beyond The Pale 2023

Editor

We can’t wait for this year’s Beyond The Pale festival here at 909originals HQ – particularly given the weather of late – with artists as diverse as Grace Jones, Thundercat, Joy Orbison, Hot Chip and Irvine Welsh among those taking to the stage over the three days, from 16-18 June.

The full lineup and stage times have been announced, and with that in mind, here’s 909originals’ list of five acts you don’t want to miss at this year’s festival – although, having said that, it’s very difficult to go wrong elsewhere. 🙂

1 – Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul – Saturday, 17.30 to 18.30, Selective Memory Stage

While both Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul have released some fantastic solo tracks on Soulwax’s DEEWEE records – check out the former’s Paténipat and the latter’s Wèi? – it was on last year’s long player Topical Dancer that the two certainly found their mojo.

Topical Dancer was the 909originals team’s favourite album of last year, blending catchy synthpop and electro-house with some cutting social commentary – on the track Blenda, Adigéry sings cheerily about xenophobia (“Go back to your country where you belong…”) while It Hit Me delves into teenage harassment against a pounding disco beat. And then there’s tracks like HAHA, which is guaranteed to raise a smile from even the most taciturn listener.

“Humour is a great way of adding oxygen to some topics without sounding moralising,” Adigéry told The Guardian in 2022. “It’s [important] to not laugh everything away, but also to not take yourself too seriously.”


2 – Candi Staton – Saturday, 17.00 to 17.50, Main Stage

Remarkably, 2023 marks 70 years since Canzetta Maria Staton, better known as Candi Staton, formed her first vocal group, and the Alabama-born signer has been responsible for some myriad of soul and disco classics over the years, including Nights on Broadway, Stand By Your Man, Young Hearts Run Free and of course her seminal tie-up with The Source, You Got The Love.

Recent sets of hers have been all killer, no filler, and given that the 83-year-old is set to hang up her microphone at the end of her current tour, her Saturday afternoon performance at Beyond The Pale is set to be a special one.


3 – Lebanon Hanover – Sunday, 15.15 to 16.15, Selective Memory Stage

Evoking the sound of Bauhaus, Nico, Joy Division and The Cure’s early work, Lebanon Hanover‘s sombre vocals and unpretentious melodies are a refreshing respite from the overproduced pop-crap permeating the charts.

Hailing from Sunderland, but with a distinctly Teutonic ring to their sound, band members Larissa Iceglass and William Maybelline are perhaps best known for the 2013 single Gallowdance, but in truth, any of the tracks off that album (Tomb for Two), not to mention the three LPs they have released since, are darkly captivating.

Are they partly responsible for the revival of post punk and darkwave music in recent years, as one journalist recently put it? Head along to the Selective Memory stage on Sunday afternoon to find out. And make sure you wear black.


4 – Oneohtrix Point Never – Saturday, 23.45 to 00.45, Selective Memory Stage

Yes, we know he clashes with Leftfield, but Oneohtrix Point Never, aka Massachusetts-born artist Daniel Lopatin, has been one of the most adventurous producers in the field of experimental electronica since bursting onto the scene 15 years or so ago with debut album Betrayed in the Octagon.

He signed to Warp Records since 2013, on which he has released some of his finest work to date, including 2013’s R Plus Seven, 2018’s Age Of (which was accompanied by live ‘conceptscape’ Myriad) and the haunting soundtrack to the movie Uncut Gems. His 2020 album Magic Oneohtrix Point Never was arguably his most comprehensive to date, with a Dolby Atmos Blu-Ray edition featuring no less than sixteen accompanying music videos.

Plus, any artist that cites Philip K Dick, My Bloody Valentine and nihilist philosopher Emil Cioran as influences is worth checking out in our book. Musique concrète for the 21st century.


5 – Marie Davidson – Sunday, 21.30 to 23.00, The Big Romance Stage

Montréal native Marie Davidson has been described as occupying the space somewhere between Miss Kittin and the late Julee Cruise – a heady mix if ever there was one.

If you’re not unfamiliar with her work, the electroclash-tinged 2016 album, Adieux au Dancefloor is a good place to start, an album that both celebrates and expresses disillusionment with club culture – as is 2018’s Working Class Woman, named one of the albums of that year by Bleep.

“You wanna know how I get away with everything? I work all the f**king time”, she declared on the single Work It. Check her out at The Big Romance stage on Sunday evening to see what she means.


See you down the front! More information about Beyond The Pale can be found here. Words by Márcia Costa.

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