Some of my favourite moments/acts from another wonderful big chill festival.
David Byrne hasn't aged. Okay, he now has white hair and his eccentric stage wear is a white tutu instead of a giant suit, but hearing him belt out Crosseyed and Painless was as exciting as it must have been for the audience in the finale of Stop Making Sense. I'm really surprised to be saying this, but his act (the finale of a year-long tour) was one of those really transporting experiences that music can sometimes create. I'm still smiling to think about it 24 hours later. Perhaps it's because, though not a particular Talking Heads fan, I really love Remain in Light, and the first five tracks of that album were all played here, in really energetic live versions. I wouldn't have thought Help Me Somebody from My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts would make a good live track, but Byrne put the words to a new (to me) tune and sounded amazing.
My love of Remain in Light renewed, I went right onto YouTube and found this version of "Crosseyed and Painless" from 1980:
A Lamb reunion was worth coming to the festival for, and their performance didn't disappoint, with Gabriel and Gorecki particularly drawing the audience in. Later that night, Andy Barlow was DJing in a small tent, and still giving off that amazing unquenchable energy and positivity. He must sleep like a baby.
Chris Cunningham's audio-visual rave remixed his films "Flex", "Rubber Johnny" and the Windowlicker video, in perfect sync with some excellent rave music. The highly violent and sexual content of "Flex" was a shock to a lot of the audience: one of the first shots is a close-up of a foreskin being retracted, and you could hear the appalled groan. This was rapidly followed by a max-tempo storm of beats and acid bass, sync'ed to footage of nude people savagely beating each other (and model Linzie Dawn McKenzie's breasts moving up and down to represent the kick drum). I was reminded of Charlie Brooker's remark about porn resembling a skilfully animated butcher's window. The experience as a whole was exactly what we wanted from Cunningham: a cutting-edge, challenging barrage to the senses that crosses over into every kind of extreme. There was also some misguided cutting-up of the light sabre battle from "The Empire Strikes Back".
Hexstatic are a national treasure and their video mash-up combined the moon landings, Michael Jackson videos, David Byrne (who had been on stage just before them) and pumped-up versions of some of their tracks. It was a nice summary of what's happened in popular culture recently, and climaxed with a drum-n-bass version of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. I was really hoping for live versions of their excellent recent electro tracks such as Move On or Freak Me, but maybe they couldn't get the vocalists.
As with last year, the comedy songwriters were popular beyond the expectations of the organisers. Tim Minchin's set included a classic song about his love for boobs which had the audience howling. Mitch Benn was brought on to do an encore, and with genuinely no idea what to do, launched into his party piece recreating all the artist voices on the BBC's "Perfect Day" advert.
Two impressive acts that I caught a slice of: The Invisible's "Jacob And The Angel" was a convincingly performed five-beat funk, making use of a loopstation. The noisy rock of the live performance contrasted with the more clean and understated recorded version: both good in their respective contexts. Friendly Fires' "Photobooth" was incredibly infectious live.
Some of the festival highlights were the comedy: Russell Howard and Dylan Moran were both excellent, making serious points amongst hilarious wordplay. Moran seemed very unwell indeed and stood in silence for a while having forgotten part of his act, poor thing. Noel Fielding didn't have any material and just stumbled through, eventually doing some crimping, which was genuinely entertaining and went down well. I really wanted to enjoy Josie Long's set as she seems such a nice person, but it felt rambling and thrown-together.
To Rococo Rot had been highly recommended, so I was a bit disappointed that their performance was so minimal and static. I wanted the notes to evolve more, and step out of the bass. Exactly this demand was met by Whitetree, a project combining two-thirds of To Rococo Rot with a melodic classical pianist.
I'm aware of Bonobo as an electronic artist/DJ, so was surprised that in his live incarnation he has an 11-piece band playing elegant jazz around a core of electric piano, bass (played by Bonobo himself) and drums. It was a good gig, but maybe too conventional for me, and I would have welcomed an attempt at a live band version of Flutter.
There are many other delightful memories: ordering hot cider from a bus in the early hours of the morning; watching semi-nude open-air glitter-wrestling(!); being an extra in a big crowd of zombies for the film "I Spit On Your Rave" (which will suck: you heard it hear first!); watching Russ Meyer's "Faster, Pussycat: Kill, Kill" in the appropriately seedy environment of the 24-hour cinema; the general loveliness of people. Thanks chillers!
Aim Ammoncontact Animals on Wheels Cabbageboy Chocolate Weasel DJ Cam DJ Food & DK DJ Kentaro DJ Krush & Toshinori Kondo DJ Shadow DJ Vadim Daedelus Fila Brazillia Fingathing Fink Flanger Hexstatic Hint Homelife If These Trees Could Talk Jon Kennedy Joy Wants Eternity Kid Loco Kruder & Dorfmeister LokaLondon Funk Allstars Luke Vibert Mechanical Me Mono Neotropic Nostalgia 77 One Self Prefuse 73 RJD2 Rainstick Orchestra Red SnapperSixtoo Sofa Surfers TM Juke The Clifford Gilberto Rhythm Combination The Evpatoria Report The Irresistible Force The Quantic Soul Orchestra The Samuel Jackson Five Thievery Corporation Tosca Up, Bustle and Out Wax Tailor Zero dB dZihan & Kamien
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Take the 50 top artists in your musical profile, and create a cloud of the similar artists that are not in your top 50. The result is a collection of highly recommended artists for your personal profile. You can generate your own cloud (in BBCode) at http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/recommend.php
It's time for a new mix... Feel free to check it out!
Tracklist:
*2806:42:12 (Daedelus mix)
Getting Friendly Dj Vadim
* Third Stream Boom Bip (FOurtet remix)
* Telemetron Hexstatic
* I am the earth Freddy Fresh
Intro Los Amigos Invisibles
* You Can Get What You Want Andrea Pozza Trio (7samurai rmx)
* Juana Tijuana Dub Traffik Control
* Chic Matenlo
* Fiebre de Manuel Mambo Rebel Crew
* Para No Vivir Desesperado IMS(nsm... psm Remix)
* El Gran Baile Senor Coconut
* Perfidia Xavier Cugat
* Persian Cat Justin Hinds
* Please Mr postman The Marvelettes & The Steadies
* DUnkelbunt Dub Dunkelbunt feat.
Amsterdam Klezmer Band
* RIzzla DUb Unknown
* Uptown Rankin' Unknown
* Mash Up DUb Mungo's Hi Fi ft.
Murrayman
Hexstatic
Big and Ready
