Dark Arts 2022 Preview

The day-long Dark Arts festival is set to return to Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen on 29th October 2022, which will undoubtedly be another stellar showcase from the Super Friendz team*. Here’s a flavour of what to expect from the initially announced billing…

Leading the line-up is the wonderfully charismatic Walt Disco, an outfit who have previously played Dark Arts but have been invited back to Leeds to make their glittery, enchanting mark once more. When sharing news of the gig, the band also disclosed that it’s their first festival headline slot, so that peppers the show with that extra sprinkling of excitement.

As regular readers will know, plugging music from emerging artists from Scotland is very much in the DNA of Record Weekly, so the fact that Walt Disco hail from Glasgow is a huge bonus. I just hope they play my favourite, ‘Weightless’, the opener from their debut album.

Contemporary post-punk trio, deep tan, are another band I’ve been following for some time now. I’ve caught a few of their gigs over the past year or so, and they’ve been doing the festival rounds this summer, so it’ll be a joy to see them bring their uniquely captivating sounds to Belgrave. And by a similar token, Fräulein are another act I look forward to getting another shot at witnessing live, as they supported The Mysterines at the Brudenell a few months ago and they really won the crowd. It blew my mind that they’re just a two-piece.

The deliciously bass-driven English Teacher have been on tour with Yard Act in September, but they’ve fortunately been wrangled for Dark Arts, too. Of their groove-worthy tracks, I’m particularly eager to hear ‘R&B’ and ‘Good Grief’. The disarmingly enthralling combination of punk and jazz served up by Opus Kink will be sure to get feet tapping as well.

Pure American rock ’n’ roll is what Fat Dog nail, while if you’re into your electronic shoegaze that’s not a far cry from The Horrors’ original blueprint, DAMEFRISØR put a healthy tick in that box. Personally though, I’m buzzing for the blues-rock and slight hip-hop influence of Car Boot Sale. There’s something a bit Bakar-esque about them and that’s just a deal-sealer.

And with humour and splint more recently added to the bill, there’s even more reason to get yourself down this spooky season.

Tempted to come down and behold these ace bands for yourself? Grab tickets from Dice pronto.