Hyde Park?s a funny old place, what with it seeming to have two festivals sharing the same field. And as we walked in, there was a Radio 1 style pop-event going on. Ke$ha was on stage. She is profoundly irritating. Do we really need to justify this with serious journalistic observation? Well, according to her wikipedia page she cites Banksy as an influence. What kind of name-dropping wank-sack musician cites a graffiti artist as an influence*?
Needless to say, her performance successfully manages to reflect the pretentiousness of this notion. She puts on a show, and makes more of an effort than a thousand Snow Patrols but after watching her, even Nelson Mandela would have to murder a stranger just to let off some steam.
Retro electro**-pop duo Chromeo are a charming act on record, and on stage some of that charisma does come across but the intricate production that distinguishes their sound is lost in the field today. Their albums take the ?eighties if the eighties had actually been any good? vibe that Les Rythmes Digitales pioneered and add a sprinkling of synth-funk on top of it. Bands can sink or swim in open air, and even tracks like Fancy Footwork and Bonafide Lovin?, the Canadian duo fail to do themselves justice.
The other festival?here was one catering towards the more discerning dance fan. Poor old Battles. Although loved by chin-strokers and journalists and promoting a second album which has already got itself a comfortable spot waiting for the ?best of 2011? lists, today was a genuine opportunity to steal some new fans. Sadly technology took umbrage at their art-rock doing electronica shenanigans and speakers blew during the opening song.
This was followed by the frantic fiddling of an army of exasperated engineers. Drummer John Stanier filled the silence with drum solos until they managed to start playing again, but clearly not everything was fixed properly as recent single Ice Cream sounded messy and muddled rather than the highlight it should have been. Two more poor-sounding songs and they walked off with long faces and apologies to the audience.
If he had wanted it, the world was once Aphex Twin?s for the taking. To his artistic credit he is the living embodiment of the ?making songs for himself and if anyone else like it, that's a bonus? mantra that litter interviews with lesser musicians. Aside from playing Windowlicker, he's still indulging his love of acid breaks and tempo changes that challenge your dancing feet.
Chemical Brothers don't share Aphex?s love of esoterica, they want you to dance, and they still know exactly what you want to dance to. They are one of the best singles acts of the last twenty years so a festival headline slot is their natural environment.
They also have that wonderful advantage over rock bands in that they can mess around with their songs and as long as the new version simply has the essence of the original, your body will react all the same. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be for a rock band to stick chorus A into song B while playing the a guitar solo from song C? It would be like the world's most annoying mash-up. A great electronic act can take advantage of this liberation. There's a reason why the Daft Punk live albums are an essential part of their catalogue.
With last year?s Further, Tom and Ed made their finest album since 1996?s Dig Your Own Hole because they stopped trying to tick all the genre boxes and just got on with what they were best at?and that’s it- they seem to know exactly what they're doing at the moment. Making albums like that, doing film soundtracks and still headlining festivals after 20 years it must feel good to be a Chemical Brother at the moment.
*= aside from old-school hip-hop artists that is,
**= erectro, anyone? OK maybe not.
Follow hecklerspray on Twitter or join our Facebook group or BUY ONE OF OUR STUPID T-SHIRTS!
Sam Ryder says
A little harsh on Aphex Twin there I think… His back catalogue is almost exclusively ‘acid-breaks and tempo changes’. If you were expecting House music, you probably shouldn’t have been there.
Si Sharp says
er… I enjoyed Aphex Twin’s set, and it was exactly what I expected since I am familiar with his back catalogue to an almost undignified degree. I’m not quite sure how you inferred otherwise.
I would say his sound is acid breaks in a much purer form now, than at any point previously though. If you disagree, fair enough.
joe says
I thought Ke$ha was Ok. But then again, I also enjoyed Friday’s headliners, the Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Momsen (Sun Pepsi tent). Pulp on Sunday did well too. I was expecting it wouldn’t be too crowded like BEP and Chem Brothers as I got my tix on the day itself, but the venue seemed ‘crowdier’ than the sold-out BEP. I enjoyed every minute of Pulp’s set. Didn’t want them to leave, but damn council rules. And what’s with the young girls trying to push their way to the front to grab Jarvis’s Cock(er) during I Spy. If not for the burly bouncer those kids would have succeeded in touching his bits. Ah, 15 years later and we are still losing the ladies to Jarvis Cocker. I hate you Jarvis.