Green Man festival returns to Crickhowell, Wales this weekend (August 15-18) growing into its third decade of existence after celebrating its 20th edition last year. The festival in the atmospheric Brecon Beacons has made a name for itself as a cultured and diverse celebration of contemporary music, comedy and more.
With this year’s lineup crowded with talent and options, BPM guides you through its dozen imperatives across the weekend.
Listen to a playlist of favourites from the dozen acts.
Friday
Jon Hopkins
The English electronic producer will headline the Friday night of Green Man, two weeks before the release of his new album RITUAL, priveleging the audience with what should be a spectacular preview. He’s more of a composer than a producer these days, and that grandiose approach to music making will be in its element among the scenic surroundings of the Mountain Stage. I’m sure there will be opportunity for him to drop in some of his bangers as well and get the festival ready for dancing into what will undoubtedly be a big Friday night.
Hurray For The Riff Raff
Puerto-Rican/American songwriter Alynda Segarra has grown into their position as a true troubadour, telling tales of unseen America across her discography to date. Their latest album as Hurray For The Riff Raff, The Past Is Still Alive, is a rattling and robust set of tracks about memory and how it stays with us, told in their own characteristic style that’s become a firm favourite around BPM. Seeing them and their band trundling into Wales to deliver snapshots from their rich tapestry of their life and songbook will be a joy to behold.
Julia Holter
With her first new album in six years, Something In The Room She Moves, Julia Holter has found the perfect middle ground between her orchestral experiments, classic pop proclivities and esoterically amusing lyricism. The melodies and her melismatic singing lure you into a psychedelic world of wonder that is so alluring that you don’t at first realise how complex the arrangements are. Seeing them played live should offer new insight into just how they parts construct the mesmerising whole.
BEAK>
Beth Gibbons might have been the Portishead member grasping more of the spotlight so far this year, but their other mastermind Geoff Barrow and his band BEAK> have been consistently putting out consistently great records for well over a decade now. Their latest, >>>>, is likely their best yet, channelling the duallng paranoia and frustration of recent years into their extra terrestrial kraut stylings. The Welsh wilderness is the absolute ideal place to undergo the aural equivalent of an alien abduction.
Jess Williamson
LA-based songwriter Jess Williamson was putting out reliably loveable records for many years, but she reached a whole new platform with the 2022. It started with the collaborative album with Katie Crutchfield (aka Waxahatchee) as Plains, I Walked With You A Ways, and was built upon with last year’s gorgeous and cutting solo record Time Ain’t Accidental. She’s only been to the UK to promote these albums once, and was playing solo when she did – so let’s hope we get a full band on this occasion to enjoy the full beauty of the arrangements.
Saturday
Big Thief
Adrianne Lenker and Big Thief never rest. The beloved songwriter just released her latest brilliant solo record this year but she’s now reverted back to band life to headline festivals and write more new music this summer. Following the recent exit of bassist Max Oleartchik, the band recently said they are entering “a new [era] for Big Thief”. Their recent shows have seen them with five on stage (Justin Felton and Jon Nellen joining the core trio of Lenker, Buck Meek and James Krivchenia) and playing a good deal of brand new material. It’s a risk in a headline slot, but Big Thief have always striven to make their live shows feel like just a band jamming with friends, which will be no different at Green Man.
Wednesday
North Carolina band Wednesday delivered one of 2023’s punchiest and most replayable records in Rat Saw God – one that placed comfortably in BPM’s top 10 albums of the year. Since then, genius guitarist MJ Lenderman has been busy collaborating with Waxahatchee on her latest record and preparing his own upcoming solo record, but he’s returning to band duty for a quick romp through the UK over the next couple of weeks. Their appearance on the Saturday at Green Man could mark one of the rowdiest and most rocking sets of the weekend – if one of the unavoidable rain showers were to fall at this time, get ready for drops to go whipping off headbangers’ heads.
Nadine Shah
Over the last dozen or so years, North East songwriter Nadine Shah has made a steady but subtle rise to the status of national treasure among those in the know – which remains far too small a group. This year saw the release of Filthy Underneath, her first in four years, which takes a seething and x-ray view of the insalubrious factors of modern UK life. Her band are also at their best, providing dark and driving arrangements to underscore these stories from the underside. With her performance at Green Man, any not previously aware will soon be treasuring her too.
Sunday
Ezra Collective
The 2023 Mercury Prize winners will be arriving on the main stage at Green Man on Sunday evening – injecting a much-needed blast of energy into the audience that will surely be showing signs of fatigue by this point. Their honking, blasting and downright danceable brand of post-jazz – combined with the general wholesomeness of their whole vibe – will uplift body and soul and set the audience off into the final night of fun. We’ll be heeding the advice of their forthcoming album: Dance, No One’s Watching.
Black Country, New Road
London troup Black Country, New Road are still in the midst of a metamorphosis following the departure of their talismanic vocalist Isaac Wood and each new live performance is an opportunity to see what they’ve been up to in the lab. In 2023 they released the Live At Bush Hall album to preserve their progress, but they have yet to release a studio album in their current incarnation. That leaves it something of a mystery what to expect in their performance at Green Man – but the talent they have among the group leaves no doubt that it will be something to behold.
Model/Actriz
Queer punks Model/Actriz released one of the most electrifying debut albums of recent memory with 2023’s Dogsbody and they’re still charged up and raring through their sledgehammer songs onstage a year later. They whip up frenetic fury among their adoring and free fans in the audience, and feed off it in their performances. The result is a feedback loop of mayhem, asking you to lose yourself in tales of questionable promiscuity and social unacceptability – it’s a vital dose of vicarious radical self-acceptance.
Dog Unit
Is there anything more pure than four friends making instrumental rock music together as an escape from the stresses of modern life? How about the fact that they don matching boiler suits to amplify their unity when they play live? Or that they released an ‘eco-friendly’ edition of their debut album At Home that replaces the vinyl with four drinks coasters and a download code as a sustainable alternative? It’s hard not to love them. With their slot on Sunday afternoon on the Rising stage, the quartet’s loping instrumental rock will provide the perfect antidote to the weekend’s hangovers and earn themselves scores of new fans in the process.
