MELT FESTIVAL

Today we can confirm three top-class headliners: Oasis, Bloc Party and Aphex Twin + Hecker.  Oasis will be playing their only German show after the end of their tour. We’re especially thrilled because the Brits have been on our favourite festival’s wish list for a very long time. Our friends from Bloc Party will be returning to Ferropolis after four years. Fronted by charismatic Kele Okereke, they are an absolute live extravaganza and will be picking up right where they left off. And then there’s Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin. After 2006 this exceptional artist will be honouring us with his presence for the second time. And again it will be an exclusive show in Germany. What’s new is his collaboration with sound artist Florian Hecker from the Mego label.

What else? A quick overview of further highlights: With Digitalism (live) and Simian Mobile Disco (live) we are happy to welcome two spearheads of electronic music presenting new material exclusively at Melt! +++ In 2005, they were the surprise act of the festival: With their delicate mix they made ravers, technoheads and indie nerds dance alike: The Faint back at Melt! +++ At last, the Klaxons at Melt! And with their only festival performance of 2009. +++ Happy Bpitchday! Ellen Allien and her posse celebrate their 10th anniversary at Melt! Paying their respects: Ellen Allien, Paul Kalkbrenner, Kiki, Sascha Funke, Zander VT. Their ten-hour set will start on the Big Wheel Floor and draw to its close on the Sleepless Floor. +++ Mad Decent-Mastermind Diplo will host his own stage at Melt! Line-ups will be announced very soon.

OASIS:
“It’s not us who make the show. It’s the fans.” Hard to believe that these are the words of Liam Gallagher - not a man generally known for his modesty. On the contrary - when asked in the tour documentary “Lord Don't Slow Me Down” how it feels to play in front of 20,000 people, he replied: “It feels right!” So what’s it going to be? The truth is somewhere in between. Others may confuse the stage with a gym – the brothers Gallagher prefer to stand there like pillars of britpop itself, impervious to all hype. With the unshakeable conviction that they are exactly the “Rock’n’Roll Stars” they were already singing about on their debut album, they hurl their enormous tunes off the stage with wonderfully British arrogance. And the fans make the best of it: their show. They sing along, they fall into the arms of sweat-soaked Brits they’ve never met before, and they dream of standing under the microphone just once with glasses as cool and sideburns as massive as Liam. “Rock’n’Roll Star! ”, “Live Forever”, “Champagne Supernova”, “Falling Down” – what could possibly withstand these songs? And if you want to feel it yourself, the only place to do it this summer is at Melt!

BLOC PARTY:
Bloc Party are not taking the easy way out. With their not-so-quiet debut “Silent Alarm” they flew the guitar community with a “Helicopter” directly onto the dancefloors and – thanks to the hype hysteria – they ended up with the kind of pressure to succeed on their shoulders that would have made many a band break down and cry. But how did Bloc Party deal with it? They took the “difficult second album” literal and took their fans to “A Weekend In The City” – which the clubs only partied partially to. Okereke shows himself at lyrical heights, is political, angry, broken and the dancy single “The Prayer” made you shake your legs, but what it really was in the end was an acid swan song on hedonism and arrogance. On “Intimacy“, it was all about moving on once again: almost Prodigy-like noise on „Ares“, electronic hyperactive with „Mercury“, and wonderful heartbreaking songs such as “Biko”. Why did it work again? Because Bloc Party are the life of the party live.

APHEX TWIN + HECKER:
At least once in your life you have to have experienced a nightmare starring Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin. Ideally, you’ll simply be dreaming the 5.52 minutes of his “Come To Daddy” video – in which case you’re certain to wake up screaming and drenched in sweat. Both musically and visually Mr Aphex Twin is a genius and an explorer of boundaries - remember his minimalist appearance at Melt!, when wheelchair-using basketball players danced to his abstract beats while the audience wondered how on Earth you were supposed to move to this music. In a German exclusive, this year's Melt! will see Aphex Twin double billed with sound artist Florian Hecker of the Mego label, whose “PV Trecks” album messed up your head so wonderfully in 2004. Throughout his career, Hecker has always sought to collaborate with other musicians or with exciting protagonists of modern art such as the great Peter Saville, who gave us the artwork for Joy Division’s “Unknown Pleasures” and other Factory relea! ses. Heaven knows what he and Aphex Twin will be getting up to at Melt!. We certainly don’t.

ALL CONFIRMED ACTS SO FAR:
Aphex Twin + Hecker* | A Critical Mass (feat. Henrik Schwarz, Âme, Dixon Live) | Matias Aguayo | Baddies | Kasper Bjørke | Bloc Party | Bodi Bill | Bonaparte | Boy8Bit | Caribou* | Digitalism (live)* | Diplo* | Jochen Distelmeyer* | DJ Phono | The Dodos | Ellen Allien | The Faint | Filthy Dukes | Foals | Sascha Funke |Jazzanova Live! | Paul Kalkbrenner | Markus Kavka | Kiki | Klaxons* | Mediengruppe Telekommander | Mikroboy | Hudson Mohawke | MSTRKRFT | Mujava | The New Wine | Oasis* | Pilooski | Simian Mobile Disco (live)* | Luke Slater (live) | Super 700 | Tobias Thomas | Trentemøller (DJ-Set)* | The Whitest Boy Alive | WhoMadeWho | James Yuill | Zander VT 

*only festival appearance in Germany

TICKETS:
2-day-ticket (Fri 17th + Sat 18th July 2009): 70 EUR plus fees // box office: 85 EUR
3-day-ticket (Fri 17th, Sat 18th + Sun 19th July 2009): 90 EUR plus fees // box office: 110 EUR

Daytickets will be availaible for 45 EUR plus fees from May onwards // box office: 55 EUR.
Sleepless Floor, camping and parking are free of charge at anytime.

DOORS OPEN:
3pm every day

FIRST ACTS ON STAGE:
5pm every day

Melt! Festival will be taking place for the 12th time in 2009. Melt!, that means more than 80 live acts and DJs, 6 floors, 20,000 visitors and a breathtaking ambience among the hulking metal frames of open-pit mining machines.
A fact sheet and our key visual for 2009 are attached. More information on the festival, promotional images and artwork are also available from our redesigned website at www.meltfestival.de/press. We will be announcing further big-name acts shortly. Thank you for your support! We look forward to working with you, and hope you are as excited about Melt! 2009 as we are.