THE POWER electronics of Puce Mary, the moniker of Danish sound artist Frederikke Hoffmeier, is a fitting start to the boundary-pushing Re-Textured festival.

At one point, she takes to the front of the stage with mic in hand to recite over the top of the bank of noise she’s generated and her uncompromising blend of manipulated feedback and ritualistic beats feels at home inside the Brutalist architecture of 180 The Strand, where the festival enjoys its opening night.

It’s followed by deconstructed techno and jungle by Lee Gamble, who begins his set with a video of cars and the sound of screeching engines and the dub-heavy techno of Demdike Stare, who perform in front of some of the most bizarre videos of the festival.

The free extravaganza of electronic music, bringing innovative visuals and light installations inside some of the capital’s most iconic Brutalist and modern buildings, is the brainchild of promoters brothers Danny and Keiran Clancy — aka DJs Krankbrother.

They’re best-known for their highly regarded East London street parties and they’ve pulled in some big names for Re-Textured, among them Sheffield’s industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire, Russian DJ sensation Nina Kraviz and legendary ambient dub duo The Orb.
 
Another Brutalist edifice, Queen Elizabeth Hall, is also a festival venue and it hosts Concrete Lates, an ongoing late-night electronic music series, and there’s some spectacular of vocal electronic music from two trailblazing female artists Aisha Devi and Fatima Al Qadari.

Swiss-born Devi, of Tibetan-Nepalese heritage, turns the hall’s foyer space into a seance with her spiritually charged mantra-led live set that sees her stepping into the audience to sing her chants up-close and personal.

Kuwait’s Al Qadari rounds off proceedings with a full run of her latest conceptual release Shaneera, which sees her transformed into the gender-defying “evil queen,” complete with wig and heavy make-up, along with tracks from Asiatisch, a great concept album on an imagined China based on Western stereotypes.

Over in Docklands, the former brewery the Silver Building — another example of Brutalism and the site until recently of squatting and illegal raves— hosts two Re-Textured nights with
Australian multi-instrumentalist Carla Del Forno and producer Gesloten Cirkel, along with festival closers, techno dub-step artist Shackleton and Italian minimalist composer Caterina Barbieri.

The festival is not all just brutal music in Brutalist heritage buildings, though. Contemporary spaces like E1 Studios host all-nighters, including a back-to-back set from James Ruskin and Ben Sims and another showcasing Karen Gwyer and Objekt.

And the trendy Village Underground and Walthamstow Assembly Hall are the venues for a mesmerising visual set from Alva Noto and some dubby techno brilliance from Manchester’s Andy Stott.

There’s no shortage of gigs and club nights in London but its sprawling nature often restricts the city to one-off events. Taking a leaf out of Berlin or Amsterdam’s book, where city-wide festivals are commonplace, Re-Textured clearly seeks to challenge that approach and hopefully it’ll make a return next year.

If the flawless production and organisation throughout is anything to go by, it surely will.