This February 15, the 104 will be celebrating the tenth anniversary of NAME, Northern France's illustrious electro festival, with an eclectic programme of DJs and an all-round funfair theme. Dress code: yellow and black – the festival's emblematic colours.
A leading light of the IDM scene in the noughties, Ellen Allien was one of an august group of artists who managed to drag experimental electro out from dark underground Berlin basements and onto dancefloors across Europe. Her first album 'Stadtkind', with its minimalist sonorities and syncopated beats, garnered praise upon its release in 2001, and before long her label BPitch Control had become one of the focal points of German dance music (counting Modeselektor and Apparat among its signees). Her subsequent releases have run the gamut from techno to indie-pop, via plaintive acoustic songwriting.
On supporting duties are Rocky, a four-piece from Lille who put on what is best described as live house music (all danceable four-four beats and soul-inflected vocals). Filling out the lineup are the Brit Jonny Woo, the techno-metal mashup of APM001, the DJ Péo Watson and the eccentric stylings of Toilet Disco.