The Bent Festival is an annual art and music festival celebrating DIY electronics, hardware hacking, and circuit bending. Each year we invite artists from across the country and around the globe to perform music with their home-made or circuit bent instruments, teach workshops to adults and children alike, create beautiful art installations and to generally come together, face to face, and showcase the state of the art in DIY electronics and circuit bending culture.
Circuit Bender since 1996, Bent Fest mainstay and producer of the circuit bending documentary and Bent Fest DVDs. Dr. Rek began producing music in 1994. In 1996 he began radio DJing, which he continued throughout college until 2002. From 2002 to 2006 Dr. Rek began to focus on the sounds, circuits, and videos for his own electronic explorations. During 2002 – 2006 Dr. Rek could be found projecting video at, performing at, DJing at, and/or helping organizing the events of Icomplex and other experimental electronic music and art underground events in LA nearly every weekend. In 2006 he moved to Japan and started three new projects (Denki Poo, Poopie Kewpie & yaOya) and two events (yurUnity & ATHED).
After building a xOxbOx (TB-303 bassline synth clone) in 2006, the Acid sound has been the name of his game. Using the xOxbOx, a sampler and a variety of circuit bent devices, Dr. Rek's solo Acid set is an irresistible jack fest (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacking) of the highest order. Wear proper dancing shoes, you won't regret it.
This wild experimental artist from Chicago uses electric kazoos, tape loops, and more to craft far-out, wonderfully confounding songs. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 15, 2021
A brave experimental record from the Cecilia Lopez & Ingrid Laubrock running darting sax lines through dense electronics & processing. Bandcamp New & Notable Sep 10, 2023
Described as a series of “self-exorcisms,” “Ego De Espinhos” is a brain-melting foray into experimental electronics. Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 4, 2019
Persuasion’s “Quartermass” EP is a collection of dark, dubby techno, with an emphasis on deep rhythms and ghostly tones. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 8, 2018