Cult of Luna, Caspian, Meshuggah – ArcTanGent’s superb if soggy Saturday line-up was nigh on exhausting. Gaz Cloud donned the wellies and squelched his way through a muddy but magnificent 11 bands in 12 hours.

“If you see me at ArcTanGent this weekend – remind me that I hate camping and festivals and to never do it again. Thanks” That was my Facebook status update on August 14, 2019. Three days later and my mind was changed completely. . . About one of those things. . .

If getting the Albini seal of approval doesn’t tell you a festival is worth the punt, nothing does.

It’s somewhat difficult to sum up three days packed with music, of course, everyone has different highlights and what’s probably more important, new and interesting bands to explore. The only downside being that it is impossible to see everything!

“Everything is being cut – front line services, institutions. So you have to find ways to force debate; it’s much easier not to, but someone needs to start the conversation. If you actually sit down and think about the destruction, it’s fairly inhuman, it’s fairly indecent. And it takes a lot, well, it takes a Tory really, to argue for them. ” Hannah Morgan talks politics and genres with 65Daysofstatic at Arctanget

Waking Aida have a new album on the cards – Full Heal – which has been produced by Jamie from Maybeshewill and is coming out on Robot Needs Home Recordings on 25th September. We took some time out at this year’s ArcTangent Festival to talk to both bands. By Hannah Morgan

I think it’s fair to say that we love the ArcTanGent line-up with wild abandon, every single year. But given completely free reign over the booking process (as unlikely as that is to ever happen!) which bands would be absolutely must-haves?

“THERES JUST SOOOOO MUCH OF IT. Its hard to specifically point out who will be the most exciting to see as there’s literally a metric fuck tonne of good stuff on hand to check out. Cleft, The Fierce and the Dead, Body Hound, AMTP, Vodun, Vasa, OHHMS, Vennart, Dillinger, Deerhoof, aaaaargh TOO MUCH. I reckon there’s going to be a lot of running between stages this year. Knowing more people who are attending this year and getting to hang out with them all more. Last year was a bit of a getting to know you thing, this year we’ll be jumping straight in to the good times.” – Nick, Trojan Horse

As ever, ArcTanGent are spoiling us with silent discos curated by an astounding array of awesome bands, this year featuring You Slut!, Rolo Tomassi & Brontide, Maybeshewill, Talons, Artscare DJs and Delta Sleep & Axes. But what would the bands we spoke to play if they got their hands on the controls?

Polymath – Do you have a back up plan if everything breaks whilst you’re playing? Vasa – Don’t say that. The fear will be there all festival.

We ask band members for their tips on how to make your ArcTanGent experience an awesome one. “DO: Make new friends. The amount of sound people I met there last year, from bands, fans, and various other weirdos last year. Its nice to share the good times with new people!” – Polymath “Don’t: forget to be respectful and thankful to the people who are helping run the event, they’re working so you can have the time of your life.” – Trojan Horse

Dear ATG genie, I would like the following wishes to be granted and your next convenience: – Battles to headline (with their original line up) – Showers for everyone (we’re playing Wyrd out festival on Sunday in London after the festival this year and we are going to stink the place up!) – Steve Vai to join us on stage to rip a guitar solo, but promptly gets bottled off stage before he even gets a chance to switch his soloing fan on. Yours, Cleft

“They let us reprobates play this year…..seems like a valid enough reason to us.” As part of today’s ongoing ArcTanGent takeover, we asked some of our favourite bands to name the five things they love most about this wonderful festival.

For the first installment of today’s ArcTanGent takeover, John from Maybeshewill had a chat with Goc and James from the ATG Crew about the realities of running a festival, the ideals behind ArcTanGent, and plans for the future (ATG USA, anyone?!)

As you’re probably aware by now, we’re huge fans of this wonderful festival and its passionate, dedicated organisers, so we thought we’d let them loose on our site for a day! Over the course of the day we’ll be publishing interviews with some of our favourite bands on the line-up, as well as their tips for making your ATG experience a great one. In the meantime, sit back, crank the volume and let our ATG Playlist invade your ears. And So I Watch You From The Bar – an ArcTanGent mix for 2015 by Echoesanddust on Mixcloud

So all in all this is a really solid debut ep and hopefully you will give it sometime and don’t fall into the same trap that I almost did. Look over any sort of press comments and just put the damn thing on play and let yourself be the Judge and Jury. This is one ep you won’t regret listenin’ to. By Gary Jackson

2014 was the year Arctangent grew up to be a proper festival. Last year was great but it’s easy to be a great festival in the blazing sunshine. The real test of a festival is whether it can stay great when the rain comes down and come down it did, especially the Friday night providing a suitably apocalyptic backdrop for the dark riffage of Russian Circles, yet Arctangent coped with it without missing a 13/4 beat. By Dan Salter

Ahead of their appearance at the festival, we spoke to a number of the bands playing for the first time about what they’re looking forward to. Today Magda talks to Karhide.

Ahead of their appearance at the festival, we spoke to a number of the bands playing for the first time about what they’re looking forward to. Today Magda talks to Lost In The Riots.

Ahead of their appearance at the festival, we spoke to a number of the bands playing for the first time about what they’re looking forward to. Today Magda talks to Wicket.

Ahead of their appearance at the festival, we spoke to a number of the bands playing for the first time about what they’re looking forward to. Today Magda talks to Flies Are Spies From Hell.