SATURDAY 4 SEPTEMBER
Viral Radio Festival, Bimhuis, 21.30, €14

FRIDAY 10 SEPTEMBER
Paradiso, 20.30, €15

This month in Amsterdam, two festivals showcase all that makes music in 2010 new, different and interesting. The two-night Viral Radio Festival is a beacon for cutting-edge electronic music, while Paradiso’s The Night of the Unexpected is an all-round celebration of the weird, the wonderful and, yes, the unexpected. The thread connecting both events is Knalpot, an exciting Amsterdam noise duo that have spent the past couple of years taking their enthrallingly noisy and percussive live shows to audiences around the world.

When asked why music should be ‘unexpected’, Knalpot drummer Gerri Jäger explains: ‘For us, it’s important to keep being surprised by music and other art forms. It’s important to know the history of music and enjoy immersing yourself in the details of your favourite records, but you don’t want stagnation.’

In the digital age, there’s no excuse for standing still. Not only can you trawl old vinyl bins for inspiration, there are thousands of blogs throwing up everything from the latest leaks to rips of Egyptian recordings from the 1930s. ‘At the moment we tend to listen to a lot of experimental pop, all kinds of electronica, jazz, modern classical and also non-Western music,’ says Jäger. ‘There’s still a lot of music to be discovered in archives around the world. Probably too much for a lifetime.’

Perhaps an event like The Night of the Unexpected has lost some of its surprise element for this very reason. After all, these days you can hear samples and watch videos of most performers before you’re even there. But the very nature of the acts involved – noise rock, gamelan, jazz, contemporary classical, ambient and electronic – means that predictability is still out of the question. In Knalpot’s case, the band walks a thin line between the trance of the beat and the juxtaposition of off-kilter rhythms and noise. ‘Our music has some simple, minimalist elements, which has the side effect of making it sound accessible,’ says guitarist and button pusher Raphael Vanoli. ‘But our music is a combination of the intelligence of composition and the spontaneity of improvisation. Ideally, we’re aiming to challenge the ears of the listeners, project inspiring energy and represent a tasty piece of art.’ Here’s to great expectations.

Viral Radio Festival also at Trouw on Friday 3 September.