KNOTS

Friday night at Hotel Forum features three spaces: The Ballroom, the Corner Stage and 89 – a beloved Lynchian basement zone where the original Forum fittings remain frozen in place. (Check the program for 89 on the Unsound website or app.)

In The Ballroom, we’re eased in by ambient dub vibrations from New York-based trio Purelink, who put their own contemporary spin on Y2K clicks’n’cuts sonics. Then it’s time for a new commissioned collaboration that bridges UK club music with its Polish counterpart. After interpreting the UK sound on his album SHAME, Polish producer 2K88 joins forces with three British artists who are leading the way in 2025: Lauren Duffus, Bianca Scout and Rainy Miller. From there, bagpipe player Brìghde Chaimbeul appears with a brief Unsound intervention, opening a unique portal before the night shifts gears again. Another bridge is formed by the collaboration between Chicago’s RP Boo and Polish percussionist Gary Gwadera. Officially credited as the inventor of footwork, RP Boo needs little introduction, and last year Gwadera augmented the genre by dreaming up an authentically Polish hybrid, merging footwork and Oberek. The collaboration, commissioned by Unsound, will have its European premiere here, after debuting at Unsound Osaka. Following that, Djrum, long regarded as one of the scene’s most inventive DJs, hovers over four turntables, ignoring BPMs and genres and blending everything to dancefloor perfection. Barcelona’s John Talabot, head of Hivern Discs and a DJ whose sets can turn into psychedelic stylistic rabbit holes, goes b2b with U.S. DJ Kiernan Laveaux, whose versatility and virtuosity are matched only by the energy she brings to the floor. We’re always happy to invite members of the Príncipe label, and this year we have DJ Lycox closing The Ballroom down.

Making a return to our club night after her euphoric passage in 2022, Krakow’s own Paszka, who just landed on LOM with the excellent estoy chillando, opens Corner Stage. Then something completely new: Nexus, a blistering post-everything fusion of dancehall, trap, industrial music and extreme noise from Franco-Guadeloupean artist Mooki6 and Senegalese-Hispanic DJ and producer B4MBA, both members of Barcelona’s Jokkoo collective. Straight from São Paulo, Brazilian artist and head of the Acta label Yvu explores the furthest fringes of funk and global experimental transmissions. And are you ready for Bclip? The Colombian producer is responsible for one of the most explosive Boiler Rooms of the year; not afraid to jump on the mic, he’s inspired by Colombian soundsystem music and infuses a broad range of sounds – from reggaetón and salsa to black metal – with his signature groove. LA-born NYC-based DJ Introspekt, meanwhile, has been reinforcing the trans-Atlantic conversation between garage and dubstep, electro and classic techno on her excellent Tempa-released debut album Moving the Center. Also in the lineup is the very first back-to-back set from Polish experimental DJ Hermeneia and unpredictable Barcelona-based Dutch DJ mad miran, widely respected for her energetic, genre-bending sets.