PLAY

Keep Bristol Weird

This thriving DIY scene is pushing the city’s dense musical history in exciting new directions, and creating new sounds from established forms.

Keep Bristol Weird is Boiler Room’s new documentary in partnership with the British Council.

The 21-minute film spotlights an independent community in the West Country enclave, responsible for some of the most exciting music coming out of the UK right now. The multi-voiced story is told by a series of local names key to this Bristol scene: Idle Hands supremo Chris Farrell, the Young Echo crew, Bad Tracking, Mix Nights, Giant Swan, Batu, Hodge, Danielle, E B U, Ossia, Franco Franco & Kinlaw.

With their sounds, this group of artists, DJs and performers is fighting against algorithms, influencer culture and the mainstream-ification of electronic music. As music culture shifts ever-more online, Bristol’s underground scene try to keeps things IRL, grassroots and experimental; their boundless artistic energy a reaction to club closures in the city.

This thriving DIY scene is pushing the city’s dense musical history in exciting new directions, and creating new sounds from established forms. The documentary traces the roots of this sonic outpouring back to Bristol’s Caribbean community and soundsystem culture, through to Bristolian Dubstep, Grime and Drum & Bass, and beyond to punk, noise and metal. This music community is defined by its eclecticism.

In the documentary, Bristol comes across as a supportive place for creatives, where collaboration is prioritised over individualism. The city bristles with sprawling collectives and more independent labels than one can count, including Livity Sound, Timedance, Idle Hands, and Ossia’s multitude of operations.