Festival Review: ATP Curated by Animal Collective - Sunday

The final May ATP festival day began with a viewing of Oddsac (in a word, weird) and the obligatory participation in the ATP quiz which included a rather brilliant interpretation of what a Meat Puppet actually looks like. Soon enough though, our attentions turned to music, starting with the Entrance Band (featuring Paz Lechantin formerly of Zwan!), whose raw set of posturing psych-rock was a relative breath of fresh air at this festival. That was followed by Prince Rama (below-right), two white, glitter-clad American girls' interpretation of indian music, replete with exotic interpretive dancer (something of a recurring theme for the day). It was a highly entertaining set, but if there was one problem with Prince Rama this weekend (aside from the name) it was Gang Gang Dance. We'll come to that later.

The rest of the afternoon and early evening was unfortunately a rather scattershot affair. Tickley Feather were slight and uninteresting, whilst Tony Conrad's set - featuring a girl seemingly speaking in tongues, and violins treated in such a way that someone really should set up an RSPCV - was, to my ears, unbearable. Returning to Crazy Horse, Drawlings - a.k.a Abby Portner, sister of Dave "Avey Tare" Portner of Animal Collective - put on what first seemed a promising set of atmospheric drones, beats and vocals, but failed to find any real kind of rhythm. We left before we ever found out whether the girl laying prone on the stage ever made it fully to her feet.

Following those disappointments, I approached Centre Stage for Atlas Sound (pictured top) with some trepidation; I love Bradford Cox (in the musical sense) very much, but three years ago on this very stage he had given a dismally boring performance. Such memories were thankfully eradicated by an achingly gorgeous set, made all the more heart-warming by it being his birthday and a cake being brought on stage by a motley crew, Ariel Pink among them. Defying all expectations, Walkabout was performed sans Panda Bear, but in truth he wasn't missed. A truly touching and captivating display.

Having raved to my friend all weekend long about the brilliance of Gang Gang Dance (pictured left), I was relieved when the band delivered on all my hyperbole, producing what we unanimously agreed to be the performance of the weekend. What was particularly amazing about the performance was how the long-established House Jam became little more than a bit player to fresh cuts such as Glass Jar and Mindkilla, which were rapturously received. Whilst Liz Bougatsos went for a trek through the crowd, standard-bearer in tow, the rest of the band continued with a seamless set, and whilst the dancer in Prince Rama's set felt so integral to the overall enjoyment, here they were merely periphery figures to the genre-defying brilliance of the band. The motto behind GGD's new album Eye Contact seems to be "Positive Energy"; GGD delivered that in spades, and the crowd reciprocated it.

Lacking the energy to see Animal Collective a second time (a wise move, as it turns out that they produced a near-replica performance of the previous night), we closed out our ATP watching the second half of Teenage Fantasy's set from afar over in Reds. The electronic dance duo continued the good vibes from GGD's set, Cheaters in particular proving itself to be the brilliant tune that it is. A highly satisfying end to what had been an eclectic and often ear-shreddingly loud ATP. It's just a shame that next time around, I'll be forced to pack more winter jumpers, but then when is it ever truly warm in Minehead?

Review: Friday

Review: Saturday

Festival Review: ATP Curated by Animal Collective - Saturday

After fuelling up on "The Best Full English Breakfast in Minehead" (fair claim, actually) down near the seafront, and trying our luck at the Bingo (never again will I be able to look at the numbers 8 and 2 together in either arrangement without thinking of Barry White, a duck, and some form of bestial activity) we set off for the Centre Stage for The Brothers Unconnected. The two remaining thirds of Sun City Girls played a no-holds-barred set whose topics encompassed murdering children, racial stereotypes and gallows humour (literally), although their in-between ramblings were arguably more entertaining than the songs themselves. Also offering up first-class entertainment over in Crazy Horse was comedian Matt Baetz. Cue plenty of back-and-forth banter between him and a couple of 10-year old kids on the front row (what responsible parents they must have), jokes about video game nostalgia and on-line dating, and the weekend's most astute observation ("I've heard about Butlins. This is not where the hipsters hang out").

We then set up stall at Centre Stage for pretty much the entire day for what was a back-to-back line-up of brilliant acts. First off the Meat Puppets (pictured right), now veterans of ATP, were in splendid form reeling off their classic third album Up On The Sun. Curt Kirkwood claimed that he couldn't even remember 1985, the year of the album's original release, but he had no problem recalling the twiddly solos of the source material. A rip-roaring reprise of the title track closed a vibrant and often aggressive take on a stoner-country-punk classic. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti  (pictured below-left) followed. The first few songs were blighted by muddy sound, but a string of songs from last year's excellent Before Today brought the set to life, allowing the band to close out on a victory lap of older classics. Throughout the set Ariel, ever the oddball, skulked about the stage Quasimodo-style.

From there, the plan was to catch the Frogs over on Reds, but such was the brilliance of Beach House's set, the plan never reached fruition. I last saw Beach House - at this very location - three years ago, but the degree to which this band has grown in sound and confidence over that time cannot be overstated. The more dynamic sound of last year's Teen Dream hinted at a band breaking into the big leagues, and in front of an impressive crowd, majestic performances of 10 Mile Stereo and Silver Soul ensured they absolutely nailed it.

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 are little more than a footnote in 90's U.S indie rock and the small crowd they were left with after the desertion of legions of satisfied Beach House fans suggests that's not likely to change anytime soon. That's a real shame, because their unashamedly erratic songs, replete with a three-pronged guitar attack (always favourable with me) are a storm live, even after years of inactivity, and the band surely deserve a place in the upper echelons besides Pavement, Built to Spill et al.

That left it up to Animal Collective (pictured top and below) to reel in the punters once more. With Josh "Deakin" Dibb back in the fold, the curators played a 90-minute set which leaned heavily on new material, but whenever they did roll into an oldie, the effect was akin to throwing a half-chewed bone to a pack of rabid animals; Brothersport in particular elicited a delirious response. The new material by-and-large sounded hugely impressive, leaning slightly back towards a more conventional approach with Panda Bear back behind a drum-kit, and both Avey and Deakin on guitars; a notable highlight was the massive rave-up halfway through the set. This is now the fourth time I've seen AC, and the balance between new and old material, as well as that between songs and jams has been completely different each time. Despite the exponential rise in their commercial status, it appears that AC's ability to confound and amaze remains reassuringly undiminished.

Review: Friday
Review: Sunday

Festival Review: ATP Curated by Animal Collective - Friday

Minehead was once more beseiged by 20- and 30-somethings with uncouth beards and tight-fitting jeans for what is reportedly the last May ATP for the forseeable future. Curators Animal Collective eschewed the use of the traditional "head-lining" Pavillion stage, wisely opting to allocate all acts to the heightened atmosphere and superior sonics of the Centre and Reds stages, with a smattering of acts also on Crazy Horse.

The first night's lineup was fairly sparse but interesting all the same. Sleepy Doug Shaw A.K.A Highlife opened proceedings on Centre stage with an intriguing if somewhat hit-and-miss solo set of looped acoustic guitars and sparing use of electronc sounds and other instruments. Black Dice followed with what proved to be one of the sets of the weekend. Standing through one hour of the Brooklynite's dirty, shape-shifting barrage of electronic noise as it shakes you from head to toe is something of an endurance test, but there's a masochistic nature to what they do which makes the ear-bleeding pain oh-so compelling.

Unfortunately Grouper's set over on Crazy Horse proved to be an endurance test of a less favourable variety. Despite the concurrent release of her two quite excellent AIA records, Liz Harris chose to perform a tape-collage entitled Rolling Gate. Some 20 minutes in, and it was quite evident that this was going nowhere; we left to catch the end of Lee Scratch Perry's set and returned 15 minutes later, only to find that the progress made could've been measured in the musical equivalent of Angstroms. Bitterly disappointing.

Speaking of Lee Scratch Perry, the dub-reggae legend arrived fashionably late, but looking resplendent in gold-trimmed hat and various other bling. His set was undeniably good fun, and the holler of "Lee Scratch Perry! Say Lee Scratch Perry!" remained embedded in the memory for the rest of the weekend.

Review: Saturday

Review: Sunday

Review: Deerhoof - Deerhoof vs Evil

Despite their instantly recognisible and inimitable sound, Deerhoof have always found a way to evolve with each release. But on 2008's Offend Maggie it felt for the first time like they were stagnating; perhaps it was to ease new guitarist Ed Rodriguez into the fold, but after the expansive textures of 2007's Friend Opportunity, Offend Maggie seemed like a retreat to the more straight-faced guitar-orientated rock of their 2005 magnum opus The Runners Four. Not that Offend Maggie was anything less than an excellent record, it just felt like an unexpected about-face after Friend Opportunity had presented so many possibilities.

Now that Rodriguez seems fully integrated into the band (as exhibited by their tremendously fun live shows), tenth record Deerhoof vs Evil sees the band's creative cogs in full motion once more. Following on from the three most accessible records of the band's career, Deerhoof vs Evil is as schizoid as anything they've done in recent memory; even a song as irrepressible as Super Duper Rescue Heads! can't help but descend into chaos in its final twenty seconds. The galavanting instrumental Let's Dance The Jet, with its scorched organ and gnashing guitar riff, is about as straightforward as it gets on this album, and even that's a bizzare cover version from some Greek film soundtrack.

That should give some indication of the range of ideas going on in Deerhoof vs Evil. The ear-popping opener Qui Dorm, Només Somia is awash with dubby blips and guitars and sung entirely in Spanish, whilst the fluid flamenco guitars on Noone Asked Me To Dance provide the perfect backdrop for Satomi Matsuzaki's feather-weight vocals. The Merry Barracks lurches from side to side with a five-note motif that cascades from speaker to speaker over the kind of snorting blues riff Jack White would be proud of. Then there's the disorientating tropical swirl of Must Fight Current in which Satomi threatens "I'm going to sue you" whilst guitarist John Dieterich mutters eerily in the background. And that's all within the album's first seven songs.

One glance at the lyric sheet will, as ever, cause considerable bemusement; Satomi opens Secret Mobilization by informing us "this is not based on a true story", as if the tales on this album could have any semblance of reality. The "evil" implied by the album's title might be gauged by the goings-on in I Did Crimes For You; over a procession of handclaps and ominous keyboards, Satomi monotonically tells us "this is a stick-up / smash the windows" in what sounds like the most perverse hold-up since the opening scene of The Dark Knight.

Things peter off in the album's latter third - Hey I Can is Deerhoof-by-numbers and the tuneless C'moon never gets off the ground - leaving vs Evil just shy of  top-drawer Deerhoof. But the album is confirmation if necessary that ten albums in, Deerhoof's ability to confound and surprise remains undiminished.

82/100

Review: The Octopus Project - Hexadecagon

Anybody who has witnessed The Octopus Project live can vouch that they are about the most fun you can have with an instrumental band; theremins, instrument-swapping and big balloons are the order of the day when the Texas four-piece come to town. Their music too is never lacking in colour and vibrancy; with their amalgamation of post-rock with noisy electronics, the band occupy a similar musical territory to Toronto's Holy F*ck, successfully avoiding the po-faced pitfalls of many of their contemparies; their sugar-coated sound is as likely to appeal to fans of Deerhoof as Explosions In The Sky.

But on their fourth album Hexadecagon, the band have taken a turn for the serious. Comprising just eight songs, many stepping over the 6-minute mark, the album sees the band attempt more focused, patient song-writing, cranking the songs up gradually in true post-rock fashion. Don't expect to find any two-minute blasts of hyperactivity in the vein of Truck here. Not surprisingly, Hexadecagon takes a lot more listens to fully engage with, and annoyingly some of the material refuses to ignite at all. After the high-tempo and yet somehow tentative piano-led opener Fuguefat, Korakrit simply kills the initial momentum, never lifting itself beyond anything other than pleasant background music.

It's this lack of immediacy compared to their previous work that makes it all too easy to dismiss Hexadecagon on the first few listens - I know I nearly did - but sticking with it yields its rewards. Toneloop's ghostly wordless vocals and reverberating guitars are a reminder of The Octopus Project's ability to create haunting atmospherics. Both Glass Jungle and  Hallucinists, the most inherently Octopus Project-sounding songs here, are rich with the usual twinkly effects and electronic pyrotechnics that suggest the band are still hitting the E-numbers pretty hard. Album centrepiece Circling peters out over its final four minutes, but not before delivering six minutes of jackhammer beats and rippling piano chords, and whilst the closing Catalog builds in logical fashion, its last few minutes of crash-bang-wallop still satisfy.

Hexadecagon sees the Octopus Project mature their sound, and for the most part it's a success. Its not without its growing pains, but a few different shades of grey amongst their broad pallette of colours hasn't caused them the harm you might expect.

75/100

Festival Review: Wish You Were Here, Cambridge, Sat 25th September

The inaugural Wish You Were Here festival took place in Cambridge on Saturday. Featuring some 30 musical acts across a number of local music venues, Wish You Were is the first festival of its kind in Cambridge (at least to my recollection), and hopefully promises to be an annual event for the city. Here's a summary of the acts I caught.

Proceedings kicked off with something of a whimper at the Portland Arms with opening act Cavalier pulling out at the last minute, so I trudged across the road to catch the one guy who maybe deep down wished he wasn't there, Mark Ellis. Two years ago his band Hamfatter appeared on BBC's Dragon's Den, and when they successfully sealed a £75,000 deal with Peter Jones, it looked as though Hamfatter were on their way to stardom. But after some ridiculously harsh backlash from the press, the dream quickly disintegrated. If Ellis carries any bitterness at now having to play to a quarter-full room in a Cambridge pub, however, his warm demeanour concealed it well, as he delivered a set of pleasant, if forgettable bitter-sweet acoustic pop.

Next on the to-see list was Sweden's Sad Day For Puppets (pictured left) at the Haymakers. Save for Anna Eklund's ethereal vocals, the "nu-gaze" tag suggested in the programme was stretching the imagination a bit, but the band delivered an uplifting set of indie-rock that both them and the crowd seemed to enjoy. However, the most raptuorous reception of the day was saved for The Wilderness of Manitoba (pictured top) back at the Portland.  Coming all the way from Ontario, Canada, their beguiling blend of Fleet Foxes-esque four-part vocal harmonies, lush instrumentation (including banjo, cello and singing bowls) and innovative use of atmospherics (generated entirely by their instruments - no laptops here) made for the unquestionable highlight of the day.

I caught only a few songs from The Brute Chorus, but was impressed by a confident display, of frontman James Steel, and their pummeling reimagining of 50's style rock-and-roll. I then returned  to the Boathouse for what turned out to be an ark-less Alessi's Ark, as Alessi Laurent-Marke performed a 45-minute solo set. However, her beautiful voice and shy-but-sweet banter meant that she was more than able to hold her own, even with a few gaffs (which nobody would have been any the wiser of had she not said anything).

If any band's moniker was indicative of their sound then Pulled Apart By Horses (pictured right, tearing up the crowd) was that band. Their explosive post-hardcore, the perfect anthithesis of Alessi's set, tore up the crowd of the Portland Arms, whose confines provided the perfect setting for the ensuing mayhem. After their phenomenal performance, the big-haired guitarist (by now half-naked) triumphantly surfed the crowd, booting me in the face in the process. I regard it as a trophy from one of the most memorable performances I've seen in the Portland for some time. After such highs, the hearts-on-sleeve rock of Lonely The Brave at the Haymakerswas never going to quite compare, but that wasn't for want of trying on their part.

On the basis of both the attendance and the performances, Wish You Were Here was a huge success, and an enormous amount of credit has to go to the organisers, as well as all those who played. Hopefully this will be the first of many such festivals in Cambridge.

Did you attend? What did you think? Who were the highlights for you? Please leave your comments below

Festival Overview: Field Day 2010

These New Puritans on the Adventures In The Beetroot Field stage

With a multitude of acts over five stages and just £33, Field Day promised to offer great value for a one-day festival. Truth is though, you can have too much of a good thing - with so many different stages and acts packed into so little time, performances were too short and clashes were all too common-place (take note, future festival organisers!). So whilst I was hoping to tell you about No Age, Atlas Sound and Esben & The Witch, this little lot will have to do:

Memory Tapes: Playing as just a guitar-drums duo plus a laptop, Dayve Hawk took a more live approach to his Seek Magic material, which gave him ample opportunity to showcase his way with a Cure-esque guitar lick. Unfortunately the toning down of the electronic side of his music meant that some of the craft of his songs were lost, making for a somewhat hit-and-miss set, though it did improve as time went on.

These New Puritans: The most visually interesting set of the day, featuring two oboes, a set of chains for secondary percussion, and a singer in chainmail, These New Puritans focused on their dazzling second album Hidden, but an all-too-short set meant there was sadly no Attack Music or Fire-Power. Arguably though, the highlights of the set came from their energetic performances of earlier material, suggesting a band still getting to grips with their new-found ambitions.

The Fall: The latest incarnation of Mark E Smith's post-punk institution made their way out onto the stage one by one, culminating in the appearance of the great cantankerous one himself. The years have not been kind to Smith - he looks old enough to be the father of any one of the other members - but he still knows how to rant incoherently over whatever racket the band throw at him. And whilst you wouldn't be able to pick out any of the other members in an identity parade, musically, they're a tight, muscular outfit. No wonder the reviews for Your Future, Our Clutter have been so positive.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: Playing in the background as we took time out for nosh, the 9-piece Chicago output certainly gave a rousing show, with instruments big enough to take your eye out even from distance.

Caribou: Dan Snaith brought along three other guys who played in a close-knit circle in the centre of the main stage, and provided unquestionably the highlight of the day. Sticking purely to material from his new album Swim, Snaith & co. concocted a dazzling display of trance-inducing music, culminating in a mesmeric performance of album highlight Sun. Outstanding, and a lesson to Dayve Hawk of Memory Tapes on how to bring bedroom music to a live setting.

Silver Apples: There was a very warm reception to Simeon Cox III and his home-made synthesiser, the remaining living half of seminal electronic group Silver Apples. And whilst his quirky synth loops and lyrics about oscillators seemed rather quaint, they also seemed strangely contemporary.

Finally, a special mention to the brass band that seemed to play non-stop for the entire day, playing everything from Ricky Martin to Journey.

Not just smoke and mirrors, Caribou blew everyone away. One fan expresses
their pleasure with a wellington boot containing foliage and an umbrella. Naturally.