Sperm Festival returns

Prague's most eclectic - and most inappropriately named - music and art festival returns for its fifth installment, as Sperm Festival takes over MeetFactory for a three-day mash-up of Bohemian hi jinx.

This year's festival, which is subtitled "Crossing the Shadow," packs several weeks of concerts and art exhibitions into one weekend and is the most diverse Sperm Festival to date. Featuring an international selection of bands, DJs and artists, the festival sets the bar high, and purposely so, according to festival spokeswoman Eva Malá.

"This year's theme, 'Crossing the Shadow,' refers to the overlapping of music and other fields of art (a/v performances, remixes) or the music industry by the artists themselves, but also reflects on the so-far modest attempts of the Czech music community to cross its shadow and become fully integrated in the European and world music scene," she said.

Headlining this year's festival is Architecture in Helsinki, a five-piece pop-art rock band from Australia. The band's eclectic instrumentation includes glockenspiel, clarinet and trombone, among other rarely heard instruments, and their approach to infectious electro-pop is so calculated that it borders on tongue-in-cheek. Formed in Melbourne in 2000, the band have recorded four albums, the latest of which, Moment Bends, was released earlier this month. Songs on the album range from the sauntering reggae of "Desert Island" to the manic '80s disco pop of "Contact High." This band is nothing if not fun, and will be a welcome energetic addition to this year's festival.

Sperm Festival will also feature several other first-rate international acts, including British DJ and producer James Holden, dubstep artist Martyn and German electro artist Brandt Brauer Frick. Holden is best known for his remixes of an eclectic line of pop singles including Madonna and Britney Spears, and his 2006 album The Idiots Are Winning, which was widely hailed as an astonishing debut for the then 27-year-old DJ.

Brandt Brauer Frick have made a name for themselves for their unique combination of classical music and techno. Relying on a completely acoustic approach with real instruments rather than computer programs, the three-piece group has created a sound that is groovy yet calculated, danceable yet precise.

An exhibition of audiovisual art curated by Jan Šramek and featuring Czech artists Veronika Vlková, Filip Cenek, David Landa, Kateřina Zochová, Magdalena Hrubá, Markéta Lisá, Vojtěch Vaněk and Martin Búřil will be ongoing throughout the weekend, providing audiences respite from what will surely be a packed dance floor.

With a reliably impressive lineup of bands and exhibitions, MeetFactory is quickly becoming the most exciting venue in the city. The fifth installment of Sperm Festival confirms MeetFactory's commitment to featuring the best of contemporary Czech indie culture, while bringing the most interesting international performers to the city. Anyone interested in what is happening in contemporary music and art can receive a concentrated dose of both at Sperm Festival.

To watch videos of some of the top acts at the festival, check out our video preview at blogs.praguepost.com/music

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com