Beacons Festival '13

Imagine a festival with a stellar line-up of bands and DJs, a festival that's also passionate about cinema, art and good food...a festival where not one idiotic cry of “ALAN!” “STEVE?!” is heard all weekend. That festival is Beacons and Beacons is perfect. 

We spend Thursday night dancing to The Cribs and Sweet Female Attitude in The Social tent and watching the harrowing film The Arbor in the cosy Into The Woods tent. The Into The Woods tent was part of The Space Between – the art space at Beacons and was definitely one of my favourite attractions at Beacons. You have to take your shoes off to get in and can lay back and relax on huge beanbags. Perfect for winding down or killing time before bands in the morning! The Space Between also offered Q&As with director Shane Meadows, screen printing, lectures about the brain, flag making, aura reading, giant scrabble and a Beacons Boutique that offered up delicious cake and face painting.

Friday's festivities begin with Big Deal, a denim clad dreamy duo who treat the crowd to laid back, summery shoegazy pop songs that ease everybody into the next 3 days of partying. To counteract the lovely Big Deal we head on over to the excellent You Need to Hear This stage to witness an excellently gloomy set by Esben and the Witch. Rachel Davies leaves everyone captivated with her haunting vocals and impeccable bass playing. They play an intense set that ends with a 10 minute wall of sound that could rival My Bloody Valentine's. We head on over to The Social for a fancy dress dance off  where the prize for the most amazing, mind blowing disco dancing is free Beacons tickets for life!
Friday is also fancy dress day at Beacons and with the theme being “Frontiers of the Future” there are some amazing outfits including a robotic looking lady with three heads and a man covered in silver paint. The atmosphere is excellent and the dance off provides a lot of sassy dancing to Got to be Real by Cheryl Lynn and a lot of laughs.

We're faced with a Bonobo and Fucked Up clash on the Friday night but after sidestepping to half of Bonobo's brilliant set we head on over to Fucked Up as we're more in the mood to mosh about. Frontman Damien Abraham has crushed a tinnie into his head. And he's styling it out and rocking it as if he's attending a wedding and the can is his jaunty little hat. Damien creates an amazing atmosphere and spends the whole set on the barrier hugging the crowd and shouting in their faces. We leave the tent chanting “dying on the inside! dying on the inside” and spend the rest of the festival wishing we could see them headline the You Need to Hear This stage every night.

Saturday brings such delights as Melody's Echo Chamber. Melody's Echo Chamber play a perfectly psychedelic set with amazing visuals. Singer Melody Proche is incredibly sincere and thanks the crowd about 20 times in-between crooning over dreamy pop that's been crafted with a little help from Tame Impala's Kevin Parker to create something beautiful. We end Saturday evening with Gold Panda. The Loud and Quiet stage is packed out and the crowd erupts into madness as soon as “You” begins playing. Dancing our feet off to Gold Panda's amazing set, complete with funky dancing from the man himself, is a brilliant way to end the night.

Sunday afternoon brings Sky Larkin! We expect catchy indie pop from the Leeds natives and catchy indie pop is delivered with old songs still sounding fresh and new songs sounding very promising. Beacons does a brilliant job at showcasing Yorkshire's excellent music scene as the next band we witness are Hookworms. Hookworms play their epic songs, that almost all clock in at over 6 minutes, very, very loudly. Singer MJ's vocals are barely heard above all the scuzzy guitars but he yelps and jumps all over the stage. Hookworms are loud, enthusiastic and put on a damn good show. We're also very excited, giddy even, because Danny Brown is the next act to grace us with his presence and he's the one we've been waiting for all weekend. 

Danny Brown is one of the most exciting and interesting names in hip hop and, accompanied by DJ and producer SKYWLKR, they put on a rowdy show that does not disappoint. When Danny decides to join the crowd for “Monopoly” he gets mobbed by sweaty bodies shouting along to every single word. Danny Brown was the absolute highlight of Beacons. We end Sunday night with Savages and do not regret it at all. Having never heard them before their raucous live show was a surprise and a highlight of the festival. Frontwoman/intimidating force of nature Jehnny Beth prowls around the stage looking like Bowie in his Thin White Duke phase. The intense vocals teamed with the lightning fast drumming creates a mind blowing sound. Savages are scary and sexy and everything I could want from a post-punk band. 

The festival overall had an amazing atmosphere, everyone was friendly, every band that I made an effort to see and every band that I stumbled upon was brilliant in their own way and when it was all over on the Monday morning we definitely all wanted to stay another night in that field in Skipton rather than return home to hot water and a comfy bed. Beacons 2013 did not disappoint and I cant wait to see what it brings next year.

Words by Eden Young and Photos by Sandy Rushton

Gold Panda - Half Of Where You Live

Three years after 2010’s Lucky Shiner, and in particular its lo-fi centrepiece ‘Quitter’s Raga’, made him a Pitchfork fave, the British-born and German-based producer returns with his second album. As befits a musician whose greatest asset has always been his slightly uncomfortable sense of wanderlust, Half of Where You Live is a record about homes; or more specifically about the thought processes of someone who finds themselves on the edge of something, never quite able to put down roots.
In retrospect February’s excellent Trust EP serves as a primer for the Half of Where You Live’s stylistic diversity, see-sawing as it does between minimal, spacious techno sounds and glitchy space-bass. In recent interviews he admitted that originally he started making tracks for the record on Ableton but disappointed in the clinical nature of the resulting material he eventually returned to his old samplers – ‘S950’ is named after one such – to craft a record which explores and exploits the quirks and imperfections of his bank of samples.

From a technical standpoint Half of Where You Live is a beatsmith’s masterpiece; built upon a haze of diaphanous melodies and minimal beats. For an album that is almost entirely instrumental there’s a remarkable sense of being take on a journey. He’s spoken before about how touring Lucky Shiner allowed him access to the great cities of the world and it’s clear that his experiences travelling directly inform this record, flitting between the claustrophobic ‘Brazil’ and the homely ‘An English House’.

More importantly however Half of Where You Live also contains many of his strongest melodies to date, such as ‘Flinton’ which sees a curious Flying Lotus-esque sample chopped and twisted until it feels as if you’re being dragged down into watery depths or ‘The Most Liveable City’, which opens with a field recording of birds tweeting and could easily be read as Gold Panda’s ode to his childhood growing up in Peckham, where he grew up. Flickering along on skittering percussion and gentle celestial beats it bring to mind a more personal take on Burial’s enigmatic Untrue.

Perhaps Half of Where You Live doesn’t challenge the listener in the same way that the at times abrasive Lucky Shiner did but nonetheless it’s an immersive and engaging listen that sees Gold Panda expand his sonic palette whilst retaining the spark that made him special in the first place. For a glass half empty kind of a guy he’s got plenty to be proud of.

7.5

Max Sefton

Gold Panda - Trust EP

‘Trust’ sees the return of the innovative Chelmsford beat-maker, best known for merging electronics with Indian motifs on Pitchfork favourite ‘Quitters Raga’ and marks a break from his folktronica pretences in favour of the type of slippery rhythms popularised by Flying Lotus and Four Tet on either side of the Atlantic.
For a short EP it manages to cover a lot of styles, from the abrasive ‘Trust Intro’ into the glitchy deep-house cut of ‘Trust’ itself, through to the club orientated foot-shuffler ‘Burnt Out Car in a Forest’ where cowbell and click track combine to create an uneasy late-night ambience.

Though it’s torn straight from the Aphex Twin book of song titles ‘Casyam_59#02’, turns out to be the finest cut on the release. With quavering drawn-out synth notes and just a hint of static round the edges, it’s a spacious piece of brooding, chillout electronica and when the distant thumps drop around the three minute mark they give the EP it’s most sonically engaging moment.

Almost entirely vocal free and with top notch production, ‘Trust’ is an interesting, if slightly unfulfilling, experiment in taking in as many of the prevailing strains of dance music as possible from a musician who seems intent on letting the tunes do the talking.

6

Max Sefton

Field Day 2012 - Preview

On the second of July, Field Day returns to London's Victoria Park to bring out their usual eclectic line up. And the mixture of cult favourites with acclaimed modern acts is insanely good this year, with the likes of R. Stevie Moore, SBTRKT, Sleigh Bells, Liars, Franz Ferdinand, Austra, Metronomy and Peaking Lights playing, there's none short of constant entertainment.

But who do you choose to see when so many great artists are on offer?
Here's our tips of 5 acts you should definitely check out:

Grimes

Having produced one of the albums of the year, performed on Jools and even expanding to jewellery, launching a jewellery line with pussy rings, it's safe to say that Claire Boucher is having the best year. Having already put on a competition-only show for The Fly and about to play a sold out gig at XOYO this month, it's an understatement to say that she's been in demand lately. Whether she'll be performing solo or with her band, it's going to be something you definitely don't want to miss. 

Django Django

Although they've been around since the early days of 2009, Edinburgh based four-piece Django Django released their brilliant self-titled debut album back in late January. Although, don't expect live shows to sound the same as there are so many layers on the album that they can't even remember all of the instruments on it. Let's hope they at least play Default which still ceases to leave my head whenever I hear it. 

The Men

The Men's most recent album 'Open Your Heart' was an impressive tumult through a variety of genres. Everything from Classic Rock, to Punk to Country was taken on board and riffed out sonically to create a mind-blowing album from start to finish. With an already acclaimed energetic live show, The Men are sure to pack a punch at Field Day, likely drowning out all the other stages with the abrasive likes of 'Animal' and 'Ex-Dreams'.

Gold Panda

Since 2010's Lucky Shiner, Gold Panda has been keeping a relatively low profile, communicating through his Twitter, falsely proclaiming that he's been 'musically disappointing since 2008'. With this festival appearance and the emergence of new jam '4' recently, which he says he made in 10 mins whilst waiting to DJ, could this mean a new album is on the way? Perhaps this means Derwin will be playing some new material at Field Day.

Here We Go Magic

   Off the back of their recent album 'A Different Ship', the Nigel Godrich backed Here We Go Magic will take their live show to Victoria Park. Expect exquisite artistry from the off, this music is truly soundscapes to get lost in. Let's just hope their heartfelt paeans come across well above the other noisier stages (we do not want a Sleigh Bells / HWGM clash).

Buy tickets here: Seetickets
Ticketweb 
WeGotTickets 


 For more info go to:  http://www.fielddayfestivals.com/

 

Aurora Mitchell