WFR Central
Date:23/03/2024
Tickets:£50 (+booking fee)Payment plans available
Booking link HERE
Headlined by 1990s rave legendsAltern 8, and taking place across two venues, Déda and Dubrek Studios in Derby on 23rd March 2024, WFR Central is bringing an unmissable selection of UK independent electronic artists to the Midlands.
Altern 8 the influential acid house/rave act that brought rave culture into the charts, reaching number three with ‘Activ 8 (Come with me)’ in 1991, will close out the night at Deda with a full live PA and then DJ set from founder Mark Archer.
The rest of the line-up curated by electronic music record label Werra Foxma and Derby-based music journalist, DJ and promoter James Thornhill, has been selected to present some of the most exciting electronic music being made in the UK.
There will be sets throughout the day by Castles In Space signee Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan and his ambient music for broken concrete utopias, plus label-mate Maria Uzor who was recently featured as the ‘Sunday Girl’ on Amy Lame’s BBC 6Music show, and has collaborated with the likes of A Certain Ratio, Acid Klaus and Mera Bhai. The ex Sink Ya Teeth members merging of avant-pop, electro, techno and dub will be a highlight.
If you’ve ever seen Adam Curtis’ genius documentary ‘Hypernormalisation’ you will be familiar with the music of Thomas Ragsdale as part of the soundtrack. Ragsdale is a composer, producer and musician with a varied catalogue of releases under his own name and monikers like Ffion. As Sulk Rooms, who he performs as during WFR Central, he brings drone-heavy electronics to filled doomed, melancholy spaces.
“The sound of big strange worlds” (Electronic Sound), Field Lines Cartographer who through releases through Castles in Space, Woodford Halse and Concrete Tapes can be seen as one of the most consistently enthralling artists in the ambient music space. Crafting aural maps of real and imagined places, live performances are a transportive experience.
He is joined by collaborator Polypores, whose releases are some of the most interesting in underground electronic music. Painting aural pictures with modular synths, Polypores’ music is playful, unpredictable, sometimes unnerving but always joyous.
Werra Foxma bosses, Castles In Space signees and Orb collaborators Dohnavur will bring their dynamic modular techno to the stage. Also From the label is Cholly, who crafts complex and jittery electronic pop packed with warped melodies and ‘fairy pop’ artist Pearling, who crafts hyperpop that oozes familiarity and confusion in equal measure. There’s a gothic sensibility and the floating ambience of dream pop in the mix but also drum and bass and outright pop, and none of it.
Returning to Derby after a sold-out show in the city in November 2022, York duo Kimber will bring their electronic-indie to the stage again. Welsh vocal experimenter Bethan Lloyd who creates folky, tribal tunes that collide with experimental electronics and the off-kilter electronic pop of Pale Stranger (fresh from playing at Glastonbury 2023) add to an already packed line-up.
With a special third stage showcasing some of the best talent from the local monthly EMOM (Electronic Music Open Mic), a special performance by Derby music technology company Digit Music plus DJs and other activities to announce this is an unmissable event for fans of electronic music.
