Line-up Two Best Kept Secret 2024

Alice Phoebe Lou came a long way from busking the streets of Berlin to captivating over a million listeners worldwide. The Cape Town-born musician pens atmospheric, deftly arranged songs, which feel like perfect companions for those tipsy, lovelorn strolls through the night. Bending styles like folk, synth-pop, indie rock and shoegaze to her whims, her songs glimmer like diamonds in the dark.

Rising Cameroonian-American star Libianca has a voice that transcends language, which is why she effortlessly switches between the many languages she speaks to reach the emotional core. Her single 'People' became a viral sensation for its raw honesty, making the heaviest confession of the song its main hook. No doubt that Libianca's distinct blend of Afropop, R&B, and gospel will shine bright at BKS.

From MF Doom to Colin Stetson all the way to Turnstile: artists from all walks of life orbit Planet BadBadNotGood. By themselves, these inventive Canadians command a groove that's equally devout to the lineages of hip-hop and jazz music. Never mind BBNG's peerless gift for spotlighting the talents of their many collaborators. And we haven't even mentioned those consistently dazzling, soul-replenishing live shows.

Omar Apollo's artistry is both modern and timeless. This Mexican-American megastar possesses a voice that captures an immense range of human emotion: heartbreak, desire, betrayal and melancholy. An old, larger than life soul trapped in a likewise large and spry 6'5 frame, Omar Apollo embodies fluidity and charisma, framing experimental R&B, neofunk and cutting-edge pop in his own distinct vocabulary.

Annie Clark is a musical chameleon and one of the few bona fide guitar heroes left: the kind of artist you can immediately recognize from her silhouette. St. Vincent's rich discography teems with provocative imagery, bold, playful experimentation and the ability to distort pop music into its own funhouse-mirror image. A towering, virtuoso stage performer who always courts the fantastical and the unexpected.

KI/KI stands at the vanguard of Amsterdam's club scene with her euphoric and sensual blend of trance, acid, soundscapes and techno. As a DJ/producer, label owner event curator, Kiki Wesselo is a true original who slashes through club conventions like a hot knife through butter. Her mission remains constant: we’re in this together, and sleep is overrated.

The latest niche in quote unquote rock music is great and all that, but sometimes, your brain just screams for pop anthems that charge the pearliest of gates with utmost conviction. Enter The Amazons, a group that mastered this exact thing within the guitar-based idiom: their slam dunk tunes generate enough power to run a large city, with hooks that beg you to scream out from the very top of your lungs.

Aussie duo Royel Otis write delightfully catchy synth pop anthems that radiate with offbeat charm; the kind of tunes that ricochet in your brain while you muster up the courage to talk to your crush du jour at a party. Word is that Royel Maddell and Otis Pavlovic bonded over Alessi Brothers's iconic summer ballad "Seabird", which frankly, makes a ton of sense.

Arisen from Rotterdam's fringe guitar scene is Tramhaus, currently one of the most hard-hitting and dangerous bands roaming the planet. The quintet's setlist is jam-packed with anthems of discontent, showing us that the old punk ethos refuses to be nailed into the coffin. Those who lived to tell their incursion at the Casbah in 2022 got the scars to prove it.

His legendary show at Best Kept Secret in 2018 cemented Vince Staples as one of rap’s most visionary voices. If there’s one constant in the career of this Long Beach great, is that he always keeps his ear to the ground. Never concerned with fanfare or the status quo, Staples focusses solely on his chosen craft to convey his experiences, his unlimited creativity and his street savvy outlook on the world.

Since reforming, shoegaze greats Slowdive have already crossed off two legendary shows at Best Kept Secret. Three's a charm for a beloved band who have bridged generations with such grace, humility and innovation. Witnessing Slowdive open all their vast registers is akin to the most beautiful and impressive of natural forces, the true potency of live music unravelling before us.

Grammy-nominated Amsterdam-based collective Altın Gün are one of today’s most revered live acts. Picture a Turkish folkloric tale on a funkadelic space odyssey, where Anatolian rhythms meet disco balls, and electrifying saz riffs tango with retro synthesizers. A musical kaleidoscope where East meets West in a groovy, mind-bending journey.

You know that feeling when you see an elite athlete make something that requires peak-human conditioning, coordination and flexibility look laughably easy? The Indien are the alternative pop equivalent of that. Rianne Walther and her band write expertly crafted songs that navigate arresting emotions with a sophistication and magnetism that's all too rare.

Jockstrap are the floodgates of pop music opening up: addicting hooks, drill-inspired breaks, wonky strings and dancehall-inspired bass assaults. They reality-bend familiar sounds into their own distinct pocket universe: one where the bizarre becomes ultra catchy and vice versa. Jockstrap shows are a ballroom blitz of eureka-moments that tend to leave an unforgettable impression.

The songs of The Haunted Youth – as the name plainly states – are not about dreaming about beautiful things, but the hurricane of feelings that bubble up when you choose to exist as an outsider. Joachim Liebens absorbs charged themes such as rebellion, depression, powerlessness and trauma with a warm soothing pillow of dreamy reverb and intoxicating, sun-kissed melodies.

Punk rock sensation Amyl & The Sniffers are not looking for trouble, they are looking for love. Trouble is, their version of love just so happens to be loud, boisterous and highly chaotic. A lot of the initiated believe that Amy Taylor and her cohorts are worth that particular kind of trouble, and frankly, so do we at Best Kept Secret.

Outside of David Bowie, how many artists have been as consistently brilliant in their constant reinvention? That list is very short: Polly Jean Harvey. Risque punk rock, avant-blues, inner city pop, free-form poetry, pastoral folk; she slips into any skin or style and crafts engrossing, era-defining records. Yet after more than three decades of not looking back, PJ Harvey remains as mysterious and magnetic as ever.

From the club all the way to the cosmos, the reach of Sam Shepherd – aka Floating Points – seems to expand to infinity. The renowned DJ, producer and composer explores the full spectrum of what music has to offer, traversing the realms of techno, jazz, classical and ambient like an omnipotent force. Each undertaking by Floating Points invokes new ideas, new discoveries and new promises.