- About five minutes into Friday's show, my girlfriend nudged me and suggested I look at the guy next to us. A typical Barcelona crusty—a special look that sits somewhere between land pirate and Mad Max-esque anarcho-punk—he was posting a video of the concert on Instagram, and had excitedly added the the word "HELL" (in bright red, all-caps text) onto the clip. It wasn't meant as a critique, and it captured the vibe perfectly.
With its many clubs and busy festival schedule, quality electronic music acts regularly perform in Barcelona. Yet perhaps the most consistently interesting lineups can be found at DNIT, a monthly event series at Caixaforum, a former factory that's been refurbished and repurposed as an arts and event space by La Caixa, one of Spain's biggest banks. It's anyone's guess why La Caixa has allocated funds to bring experimental artists like Tim Hecker, Grouper, Shackleton, Holly Herndon and Pan Daijing to town, but DNIT nevertheless fills a crucial space in the city's electronic landscape, which is dominated by house and, especially, techno.
On Friday, though, the rhythms were anything but straight. ZONAL, AKA UK veterans The Bug and JK Flesh, sees the duo reanimating the speaker-rattling magic of their Techno Animal project from the '90s and early '00s. Landing somewhere between dub, hip-hop and doom metal, their sound filled the room with punishing volume and intense bassweight. Equally exhilarating and ominous, their set channeled the seething angst and heavy dread that colors so much of today's discourse. Granted, The Bug and JK Flesh have been tapping this particular vein for decades, but that didn't lessen the show's impact. Perhaps it was the addition of Moor Mother that kept things fresh. The Philadelphia artist and poet rapped and snarled her way through the gut-rumbling tunes, her raw confidence and politically charged defiance bringing to mind Zack De La Rocha of Rage Against The Machine.
Some DNIT events can be plagued by audience chatter—the combination of quiet, experimental acts and curious people lured in by cheap tickets doesn't always mix well. But this wasn't an issue for ZONAL. With eight huge subs and two giant amps onstage, plus the room's usual PA, the show was simply too fucking loud for anyone to talk. Even with earplugs, it felt like a sonic assault. Yet it wasn't unpleasant. There's something cathartic in feeling like your internal organs are being liquified by sheets of distortion and bass, and the diverse crowd, which featured an amazing combination of grizzled dub fiends, electronic weirdos, metal lifers, techno fans and the aforementioned crusties, seemed to agree. After more than an hour of having our brains scrambled, we tentatively made our way into the Barcelona night, feeling thoroughly refreshed.
Photo credit /
Alba Rupérez