For everybody who cannot get enough, as announced we will have an afterparty in CLUB3 with Polygorgon, Behringer Escape Plan and Curling until 05.00! Come dance, act weird and fistpump with us until the small hours.
POLYGORGON (23:00-00:30) Polygorgon is a Haarlem based producer and DJ who started under the alias Murq in the Bass, House and Techno scenes in Amsterdam. After gravitating towards a wider range of genres a name change was in order. Polygorgon likes to blend elements from dark wave, industrial, italo disco and techno in his sets and productions.
BEHRINGER ESCAPE PLAN (00:30-01:15) Behringer Escape Plan is a two-piece electronic band that has carved out a unique niche in the world of electronic music as proven during their set at the recent Summer edition. For fans of heavy and experimental electronic music, Behringer Escape Plan is a band that is not to be missed. With a sound that is both fluid and heavy, you can expect wonky grooves, bold bass sounds, and fast melodies.
CURLING (01:15-05:00) While Utrecht-based artist Curling often takes to the stage as a singer in various metal, punk, and noise rock bands (Throwing Bricks, Radar Men From The Moon), he takes a completely different approach in his DJ-sets. The experimental mix of bass, electro, industrial and a dash of EBM recalls the well-known club scene in the first Matrix-film: dark, with an apocalyptic tinge, but mostly highly danceable.
In this 20th year of Kayo Dot’s existence, the group has reconvened its original lineup of maudlin of the Well expats–Toby Driver, Greg Massi, Sam Gutterman, and Terran Olson–to perform their celebrated and timeless 2003 debut milestone of an album, ‘Choirs of the Eye’, in full at Complexity Fest 2023 next weekend.
“It’s been a flood of memories and emotions during the process of revisiting this music after 20 years with the group of guys that helped create it. After the Choirs of the Eye album cycle was finished, the lineup changed and we rarely revisited that music not only because the new instrumentations didn’t suit it, but also because Kayo Dot has made a point over the band’s career to keep exploring and discovering, deliberately not looking back.
Despite that ethic, the few times in my career when I did look back always ended up being deeply fulfilling. As time goes on, I’m occasionally hit with recollections that make me realize I may be forgetting moments of my life, both trivial and important, and that scares me. Sometimes overwhelmed with the feeling that my memory is just full and can’t hold anything else, those echoes make me wonder who I was, if that person still exists, and if the Me that exists now will soon vanish as well. A musical composition is a diary page, a trail marker that opens a window into a moment of time through the context that it provides, and relearning how to play this music and all its interlocking parts reminded me not only of the priceless moments with my friends in rehearsal, in the studio, on our first tour, but also of the years leading up to and the years leading away from this powerful turning point in my life.
Choirs of the Eye is still held up by many as my magnum opus, despite all my best efforts to supersede it. I respect that; there is undoubtedly some special unknown magic in this music. Performing it is a sacred act. Twenty years on, Complexity Fest will provide Choirs of the Eye’s largest venue of its lifetime thus far, another milestone that will contextualize all of its past and all of its future. I’m excited to see what will happen.”
Briljant Brouwhuis is not your regular brewer, not aiming to make the next IPA but experimenting on the edge of styles, much like Complexity Fest.
We were stoked when asked to make a beer for them! This beer too balances on the edge of a English brown ale, and has added ‘notes of complexity’ in ginger spiciness, and a hint of pepper and whisky smokiness.
This slowstepper is to be amazed by, but also your steady companion through the entire event.
Available from the 25th of February on at Patronaat Haarlem and Lokaal – Dutch Beer Bar.
KLAKMATRAK and ZETRA join the Complexity Fest line-up full of great acts to discover, including TRIBULATION, KAYO DOT, AUTHOR & PUNISHER, STAKE, BIRDS IN ROW and more. Moreover, we made sure you can party with us till the small hours at the afterparty in CLUB3. More about that will follow soon!
We are now only 24 days away from finally turning the key to Complexity Fest 2023. The first full-scale edition in three years! Words fail to express the excitement and happiness currently driving everyone working hard on creating what will truly be the best Complexity experience so far.
KLAKMATRAK is a project by the Belgian techno producer and STAKE-frontman Brent Vanneste. Together with his best friend Dreeten Van Maris on vocals, they combine gabber, french-core, speed-core, industrial noise, hardcore, punk, disco and more into their own abstract sound; once called as yoga for brains. Combined with their very-energetic almost destructive live show, we qualified them as the perfect closing act for this years festival, following previous acts such as Otoboke Beaver, The Armed and Otto von Schirach.
We are happy to have the enigmatic synth-metal pair ZETRA on this years line-up. The duo looks like black metal meets Blade Runner, clad in cloaks, corpse paint and chains. Between them, a guitar, a keyboard and an old Atari sequencer, they sound like Type O Negative gone synth-pop, a goth Pet Shop Boys with deliciously heavy, dark riffs.
Join us at Complexity Fest 2023 on February 25 and get your tickets now!
We’re more than happy to add Tribulation, STAKE, YOUFF and OATS to the line-up. Four new parts of the auditive spectrum we like to cover at our beloved Fest upcoming February. Last two acts and afterparty will be announced soon. Get your tickets and meet us in the front!
The Swedish vampire lords in Tribulation are known for their dramatic and epic mix of death metal, black metal and gothic sensibilities ever since their magnificent third record ‘The Children of the Night’. Music that makes you headbang, dancing in the moonlight and looking for milk white necks to sink your teeth in. On their latest full-length ‘Where The Gloom Becomes Sound’ they do exactly what is implied, resulting in a psychedelic and their most gothic record to date. An album that sounds like Celtic Frost one minute and Joy Division the next from a unique band that has been around for almost ten years. A collective that doesn’t seem to play to impress anyone, doesn’t chase trends and instead are playing exactly what they want. Take for example their latest single ‘Hamartia’: an angry gothic tragedy including some sick ’80s-vintage epic solos. We cannot wait till their next album. Let’s hope we can have a little sneak peek during the show at Complexity Fest!
Releasing their second studio album ‘Love, Death, And Decay’ last year, we’re more than happy to welcome another band back at Patronaat after a more than memorable headline show: the Belgian atmospheric sludgy, grungy powerhouse that is STAKE. The group is the reincarnation of the well-known Steak Number Eight; the young band that caused a furore with passionate live shows, both at festivals and their own headline shows, as well as supporting Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Deftones and more. In 2019 they took a new direction with album ‘Critical Method’, on which they show that they are no longer a fresh cut, but have grown into premium dry-aged beef.
One of our Southern neighbors’ best kept secrets peeking from out of the underground is the experimental noise group YOUFF. This is that band that people whisper about, after witnessing them putting clubs upside down with a whirlwind of dissonant, absurd hardcore infused droning mantras that remind you of a young Swans in the distance. Add instead of dead seriousness a dose of absurdism and vocal play on top, and we say just undergo this one. A new release is planned for this 2023 and we’re bloody excited!
In a somewhat tradition, our first spot is usually reserved for an upcoming, talented act from our local backyard. Here comes the young band OATS from Amsterdam: jazzy punk packed with an urgent message, a will to experiment and no fear of delving deeper into colourfull mathcore territories while you hear influences from a contemporary group like Black Midi in the distance. This February will bring to birth the next single ‘Magnolia’ as a warming up for their upcoming EP. Come early to get your muscles loose and mind sharp, plus give ‘em a warm welcome!
For more info about your visit at Complexity Fest in Patronaat, visit patronaat.nl
AUTHOR & PUNISHER, BIRDS IN ROW, IRON JINN and CROWN COMPASS join AIMING FOR ENRIKE, NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM, POUND, TUSKAR and KAYO DOT for this years festival. Complexity Fest takes place in familiar surroundings in Patronaat Haarlem on February 25, 2023. Get your tickets at patronaat.nl or complexityfest.com.
After they were forced to cancel due to the pandemic, we are more than happy to have manmachine AUTHOR & PUNISHER back. In the industrial music and metal sculptures of Tristan Shone man and machine melt together. The San Diego-based robotics engineer with a degree in sculpture literalized the idea of sonic sculpture, fusing the ethereal and the physical into a brand new vision, captured on several recordings of which the lauded album ‘Krüller’ is the most recent.
We decided to invite the French post-hardcore group BIRDS IN ROW back to Haarlem after their amazing headline show in November. We cannot wait to present them to you yet again. BIRDS IN ROW has been at the forefront of the hardcore genre for over a decade. Starting out as a band with a sound that can be compared in subtlety to two paving stones rubbing against each other, the band sets the bar incredibly high with their most recent album ‘Gris Klein’.
IRON JINN is born from the chemistry between guitarists Wout Kemkens (Shaking Godspeed) and Oeds Beydals (The Devil’s Blood, Death Alley). Inspired by the San Diego Takeover at Roadburn 2018, the band, completed by Bob Hogenelst (Birth of Joy) and Gerben Bielderman (Pauw, Bieldermann), produce dark and ominous, yet freaky songs, as proven by the first single ‘Soft Healers’. This song is taken from their “frantic double LP” debut, to be released by Stickman Records (Motorpsycho, King Buffalo and Elder) in april 2023. We are very curious to hear more!
Team Complexity used to be, and still are, huge fan of Dutch progressive metal outfit Textures and that’s actually the reason why we are more than happy to host CROWN COMPASS at this years festival. Crown Compass is the brainchild of former Textures and Illucinoma guitarist Joe Tal, whom linked up with none other than Daniël de Jongh (ex-Textures and CILICE), bassist Robin Zielhorst (ex-Cynic, Exivious and currently with Our Oceans) and drummer Yuma van Eekelen (ex-Pestilence, Exivious and currently with Our Oceans). After two years of teasing, the group finally released their debut album ‘The Drought’ in april. A 9-song juggernaut which is heavy and intricate, while catchy and groovy at the same time.
COMPLEXITY FEST returns to the halls of our beloved Patronaat venue for the first edition back in full glory post-pandemic. We are happy to report that Patronaat’s festival for adventurous and boundary pushing heavy music will take place on Saturday February 25, 2023.
The first names we can announce are AIMING FOR ENRIKE, NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM, POUND, TUSKAR and the mercurial melancholy collective KAYO DOT will play an exclusive 20th anniversary show of their 2003’s cult album ‘Choirs of the Eye’. Tickets are on sale now!
New names are already confirmed, so the next announcement won’t take long. Keep you’re eyes peeled and hope to see you all this winter!
Just wanted to take a moment to thank all the bands, Patronaat crew and of course you, the visitors, for making the special summer edition of Complexity a success last Saturday. Check out the photos by Niels Vinck and reminisce about all those great times and music.
Moreover, we are happy to announce to be back on Saturday 25th February 2023, where Patronaat’s third hall will make a comeback in style too. More info and first names to be announced soon.
For now, enjoy a great summer and we hope to see you all soon in Patronaat!
We are delighted to confirm MASTER BOOT RECORD, BEHRINGER ESCAPE PLAN and THROWING BRICKS to our summer Fest later this month!
Expect a 8-bit chiptune synth metal/classical cross-over from Italy, a unique interconnected wobbly drums and synth symbiosis from our local heroes and a slow shattering adventurous sludge machine rising to fame out of the Dutch swamps.
The timetable and more (practical) info will follow soon.. We’re looking very much forward to see you here in our two halls for this summer time + new foyer!
