London Calling autumn edition

Paradiso's indie music festival

It's months since the spring outing earlier in the year and the London Calling Festival is always raring to go again in November.

For those Dutch kids in the know, trawling indie music blogs for the latest new act, London Calling is often their first chance to see them.

You may be familiar with some of the acts on the live set menu but the list is largely populated by bands starting out and breaking through. One thing is certain, if you're at Amsterdam's Paradiso for London Calling, you're guaranteed to catch a whole bunch of next big things!

Autumn 2011 highlights

With more than twenty up-and-coming trailblazers to enjoy, deciding exactly who to take a musical bite out of is never easy. Here are our highlights from the autumn 2011 London Calling line-up to give you an idea of what will be on offer.

• Hard-Fi (pictured, left): This British band broke through back in 2005 with album Stars Of CCTV and a series of irresistible pop-rock hits including ‘Hard To Beat’, ‘Living For The Weekend’ and ‘Cash Machine’. They were making waves in the early 'noughties' together with bands like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party and have recently released new album Killer Sounds - proving that they certainly haven’t lost their touch for penning catchy pop gems.

• Washed Out: The stage name of one-man chillwave band Ernest Greene, a young American whose music sounds like it's recorded on an overly-played tape. Often labelled bedroom pop with hazy synth elements, you might expect a soporific performance but this certainly isn’t the case - an enduring beat underlies his songs which means there’s rarely a still pair of feet in the house.

• Wise Blood (pictured, right): is the brainchild of twenty-something Chris Laufman, a master of crafting samples, loops and beats. The ultimate collage of styles, genres and techniques, he creates infectiously danceable tunes in which slow hip-hop beats are fused with echoing vocals and synths. Wise Blood is joined live on stage by a full band and if the buzz in America about this mysterious figure is anything to go by, he’s certainly one to watch out for.

• Exitmusic: This experimental indie-electronica duo are all about worryingly beautiful compositions comprising dreamy electronica, eerie vocals and grungy guitars. New Yorkers Aleksa Palladino and Devon Church are signed to renowned label Secret Canadian and recently released their first single ‘The Sea’. And naming themselves after a Radiohead song was probably no accident…

• Dum Dum Girls (pictured, left): Dee Dee, Jules, Bambi and Sandy make up the Dum Dum Girls: a ragged garage-rock foursome about to release their second album Only In Dreams on the Subpop label. Their icy-cool imago is matched by their music - in your face but pleasingly personable.

• The Rapture: The Rapture’s unstoppable New York dance-punk makes a welcome return to London Calling this November! New album In The Grace Of Your Love has been a long time coming but with legendary producer Philip Dzar (Phoenix and the Beastie Boys) at the helm, it’s more than worth the wait – a logical yet refreshing follow-up to Pieces Of The People We Love.

More information

Tickets are 20 euros per night or buy a passe-partout for the whole weekend for 35 euros (be warned: the passe-partouts tend to sell out quickly). For more information visit the official website at London Calling.