FaT OuT 26

FaT OuT has spent nearly two decades making a home for the experimental, the challenging, the intense and the unapologetically queer. This year it packs all of that into one long, dark night of underground music and performance, split between two legendary venues.

The Salford promoter started out in Manchester before finding its spiritual home at Islington Mill, with everyone from Swans to Melt Banana passing through along the way. The approach hasn’t changed much since its inception: collaborative, resolutely underground, and priced so people can actually come, with low-income tickets on offer.

Part one is at The White Hotel, where a brilliantly melodramatic doomsday clock now hangs above the bar, counting down to January’s closure. Every gig now comes with a strange side order of pre-emptive grief, but it also makes every one feel more special. The place is also FaT OuT through-and-through.

Divide & Dissolve lead the bill. Takiaya Reed’s project gets filed under doom metal, but crushing guitars sit alongside long stretches of drone and avant-classical ambience, with Reed’s saxophone moving between the two. Reed, who is Black and Cherokee, frames the music as a stand against colonialism and white supremacy.

It’s also the last ever tour for Victim Unit, whose collision of harsh noise, grindcore and hardcore punk has never sat comfortably in any one scene – which is probably why it fits perfectly here. Algernon Cornelius and Daisy Dickinson complete the bill, with Glasgow institution Optimo soundtracking.

At 10.30pm everything moves to The Derby Brewery Arms for a change of space and pace. Optimo (Espacio) take things more electronic through to 3am, alongside the likes of Abena and Dancing With Stanley. The wildcard is Shanika Sunrise, a transfemme Indian rapper and producer who’s opened for Chappell Roan, and whose shows come with breakdance.

Business as usual for FaT OuT.