Bestival 2009 - Part 3

For Breaking More Waves Saturday is the day where pop and synths take over. From the folktronica of James Yuill, to the pure pop of Lily Allen, to the refined computerised beauty of Kraftwerk. If you only connect with ugly male skinny jeans indie guitar bands, then you wouldn’t want to be hanging round with Breaking More Waves today as a number of our favourite acts take to the stage.

But at first it seems like one of those ugly indie boys has put a spanner in the works. Thirty seconds into the James Yuill set in the Red Bull Transmission tent, as swishing electronics build and the bass kicks in, all we hear is the sound of silence. It’s not just a laptop malfunction, but a proper power cut. Yuill appears totally unfazed and pulls out his acoustic guitar, sits on the front of the stage and softly serenades the silent crowd unplugged. The irony in this is that there are booming sound systems all around the place and yet here is a man beguiling an audience with no amplification whatsoever. Utterly endearing and gently wonderful. Two songs later, an audience transfixed, the power is back on and the digital beats and fuzzy warped electronica slaps back in, to add sonic power to Yuills warm balladeering. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again he’s the thinking mans Calvin Harris with Aphex Twin, New Order and Radiohead implanted in his brain. No Pins Allowed gets several people air drum machine playing and an extended Over The Hills is universally gorgeous. We’re sure we see a lad with a curly mop of hair, skinny jeans and electronic guitar skulking out of the tent.

After a disappointing non appearance by Blue Roses at the Jim Beam Bar, Little Boots is Go! bringing Thunderbird chic to the main stage. Dressed as Lady Penelope in a platinum wig and sporting a pink boa and cocktail dress Victoria Hesketh arrives on stage driving a tiny car, with the rest of her band togged up as Brains, Parker and the International Rescue crew. Little Boots set is becoming rapidly polished and professional, the electro pop of Remedy, New In Town and a cover of the Freddie Mercury song Love Kills all going down well, but sometimes it is a little too shiny and lacks a raw and undiluted quality. The best moment is when Victoria displays her more awkward geeky side, tottering undextrously over the stage in an attempt to stand on the low level speakers where she almost slips. This ungainly nerdiness is more charming than the girl who swings her arms aloft with shouts of “Let me see your hands.”

The pop revolution continues in an overblown hysterical way with Mika . Not to be out done by Little Boots, Mika sports an astronauts costume, and adds dancing Stormtroopers and a meteor shower, or rather someone wearing a shower curtain with meteors stuck on it. With silver balloons unleashed into the crowd Mika knows how to entertain the masses for sure. From the Elton John vs. Billy Joel orgy of next single Blame It On The Girls to old songs such as Grace Kelly, Mika struts and preens his way around the stage, his voice sounding like Leo Sayer in a whorehouse. His music is as camp as canvas and as nauseating as a bucket of sick, but we salute the man for at least knowing when irritation turns to absolute annoyance and exiting the stage before we have to abandon the no guns on site rule.

Today the crown of pop is presented to Lily Allen. “I’m Barbarella or Lily Alien,” she announces with a charming giggle. Dressed in a revealing backless white dress / leotard affair with a split down the front and silver tassels stuck around the bottom. Allen commands the stage in a way we have never seen her do so before. Puffing at her “theatrical cigarette,” for the jazzy He Wasn’t There and dancing wildly for a cover of Britney Spears Womaniser, Allen appears self assured, confident and a complete pop star. The last time we saw Lily she meandered around the stage looking like a vacant lost girl. Today she knows exactly who the star is and she shines brightly. Getting everyone to put their fingers in the air for F**k You she explains that the song was originally about the BNP, but then it was changed to be about George W Bush. “Who’s still a c**t, but not as powerful.” We never thought we would say it, but Lily Allen is starting to turn into a half decent live act.

With the nu rave scene now being almost old grave, Klaxons find themselves in a difficult position. It’s been three years since their Mercury winning debut hit the streets. Since then there have been tales of shelved recording sessions and the ‘difficult’ second album has become a massive understatement. So when the band launch into Atlantis To Interzone as their opening song there are mixed emotions. One, it’s good to have Klaxons back. Two they are starting with a song that we first heard in its demo form about four years ago. Are they really in so much turmoil that they haven’t moved on at all ? Luckily as the set develops this crisis call lessens. They play a bomb of new songs that are edgy, angry and apocalyptic, mixing dance and rock synergies. Some are as heavy as Manuel Uribe and then some. The crowd go utterly mental and as Jamie Reynolds announces “From where I’m standing - front to back mayhem - thank you !” you begin to realise that as the band sing themselves, it’s not over yet.

But it gets better. After Underworld warm the crowd up with a DJ set, it’s time for one of the most seminal bands in the world - Kraftwerk. Starting behind a curtained screen, four shadow silhouettes of motionless men standing at laptops / keyboards are projected from dull red light. The curtains part and there they are. Motionless, expressionless, staring straight ahead. One of the most visionary bands of all time. The electronic minimalist rhythms begin to pulse across the arena and Bestivals main stage becomes one mammoth industrial dance floor. Kraftwerk deconstruct every rule of live performance, ripping up the rock rule book and instead create their own elegant space. The band never look at each other, never talk to the crowd, never even move, communicating only through the music, playing one classic track after another. From Tour De France, The Model to Autobahn Kraftwerk find romance in the most unlikely subjects and soundscapes. And as the main set comes to an end the curtains close only to open again to find the band gone, replaced at their workstations by robots for We Are The Robots. Kraftwerk was one of the most anticipated performances at Bestival 2009 and it easily lived up to expectations. The coolest band in the world ? Hell yes. Absolutely inspiring.

There is of course no way that synth pop revivalists La Roux can come close to Kraftwerk, but by playing the slowed dubstep version of In For The Kill and finishing with a mass singalong to Bulletproof in the Big Top, La Roux certainly keep the night on a high. The sound may be a little on the quiet side and Ellie Jackson has yet to come out of her shell as a really engaging front woman, but with her eighties shoulder pads, and ultra quiff she certainly looks the part.

As the night goes on the outer space theme of today’s fancy dress takes on a new meaning for many punters, who really don’t know what planet they are on. The Breaking More Waves approved Casio Kids are determined that those space cadets don’t crash land just yet either, bringing their percussion heavy Hot Chip styled rhythmic dance pop to the Red Bull tent. With one of their singers looking like a camp version of Beck sporting a bow tie, much instrument swapping, songs about villages in Tanzania and wild horses, sumptuous sky high falsetto vocals and a perfect structure to their set the atmosphere feels like a very big house party. As Finn Bikjenn kicks in towards the end bodies are grooving in every direction, the place shimmering in joy and as the band finally leave the stage and the sounds of Paul Simons You Can Call Me Al start to play, Saturday night / Sunday morning has never felt so good.

Casio Kids - Finn Bikkjen!

Our favourite Norwegian group of the year Casio Kids release a new single Finn Bikkjen! On the 3rd August. A warped bouncy plinky plonky groove reminiscent of Hot Chip with dreamy falsetto vocals, the song is so summery in its sound that unless we knew that Casio Kids were actually from Bergen we would have guessed they were from the Caribbean. We have no idea what they are singing about as the band stick to their native tongue, but even if (to use a stereotype) Finn Bikkjen! was about snow and glaciers it toasts us with a delicious rubbery analogue disco warmth. It’s another superlative release from the Moshi Moshi Records crew.

Casio Kids are all over the world this summer and are hitting a number of UK Festivals including Standon Calling, Jersey Live and Bestival. Here’s a video of the band playing the song in an acoustic style in a balloon. It’s pretty different to the crazy danciness of the single, but it has its own cute charm that musically and physically takes off.

The Great Escape @ Brighton - Day 2

Day two of The Great Escape in Brighton brings more musical highlights than you can shake a treble clef at. The day starts slowly however with a so called ‘Gaymers Grassroots’ gig for The Maccabees at the Pavillion Theatre, a return to a smaller venue than they are now becoming accustomed to. In the same way that other alcoholic drinks producers have marketed their product to live music audiences, Gaymers are campaigning hard this year. Their contracts include a series of grassroots gigs of which this is one, where bands return to their hometowns to play small venue shows and acting as main suppliers of cider to a number of large festivals including Glastonbury and Bestival.

“Good afternoon cider drinkers” announces Orlando to the free alcoholic apple juice drinking crowd, as The Maccabees launch into a relatively straight set, starting with No Kind Words, some new songs, some old ones and ending with a brass enhanced Love You Better. Being an early afternoon gig the crowd are in parts restrained and part buzzing, Orlando identifying which parts of the crowd are being sensible drinkers and which are not. “You lot will be trouble in a few hours,” laughs Felix to the non-sensible. Its a workmanlike set, the group retaining their boyish awkward charm of old, but maybe it’s the time of day, or end of tour fatigue, but The Maccabees do feel a little ‘safe’.

Before The Maccabees, The Lyrebirds warm up the audience, bringing their blend of slightly gloomy but ambitious indie rock to the building as the room fills up. A guitar band with a slightly deeper sounding demeanour, they produce songs that have slight stadium aspirations but not enough originality or spark to be anything but a passing diversion whilst the crowd sup free cider.

After an early afternoon barbeque and DJ set at Audio, a battle with the seafront elements leads the windswept Breaking More Waves crew to the Moshi Moshi showcase at Po Na Na. If ever there was a strong argument for the relevance of record labels, this is it. Moshi Moshi have continued to release eclectic, quirky left of centre pop records, sometimes acting as a springboard for artists to enter the public consciousness. Whatever they put out you know its likely to have some merit. Without Moshi Moshi the world of independent music would be a less colourful place. The line up at Po Na Na demonstrates this perfectly with four superb acts.

“You look a bit like Noel Fielding,” jokes James Yuill to a member of the crowd. Unfortunately they are not quick enough to answer back with “And you look like a scientist or a geography teacher.” Or rather Yuill is the geeky looking, head bobbing laptop minstrel with an acoustic guitar slung over his back. Like a thinking mans Calvin Harris caught in the headlights, James is surrounded by his kit, the set up looking like an Apple Mac updated version of something last seen in the eighties when spikey haired keyboard wizard Howard Jones brought his one man show to the masses. Yuill combines bragging beats with sweet melodies, particularly on Over The Hills which is extended and disenfranchised from the original with a big old techno wig out. The combination of synthetic and organic led Breaking More Waves to choose James Yuill’s album as one of its albums of the year in 2008, and his cool meeting of Aphex Twin electronica and warm melodic folk wins hands down again today.

Up next is Slow Club . They are utterly fantastic. They remind old cynical heads why we go to gigs in the first place. Starting from the back of the venue, they sing unplugged and walk through the rammed crowd to the stage. With them they bring country styled acoustic pop, charm, great songs, humour and tales of dropping beer from balconies of Paris houses that look like seventies styled coke dens. Every song they play makes hearts swoon and leap clouds. Most perfect is When I Go (video below) which questions the spark in a relationship “If I get to thirty and I don’t have a wife, I’ll ask you nicely but won’t ask twice,” they coo before questioning at the end “Will you hold my hand when I go?” It’s simple, beautiful and perfectly harmonised. Rebecca stands and bashes the small drum kit with real energy whilst still somehow managing to sing perfectly. Even when a song falls apart at the start their radiant charm makes it seem like something special. So wonderful are they tonight that Breaking More Waves almost has a tear at the end as they finish back in the middle of the crowd playing unplugged again. Consider ourselves smitten with Slow Club. Maybe even love.

Casio Kids (pictured) from Norway swing from the beams of the ceiling, have a singer that looks like a younger version of Beck, a bass player who sports a ruffled shirt and maroon flares, another singer that looks like a surf dude and sings falsetto and sound like an indie electro claypso version of Royksopp dancing drunkenly on the tables with Hot Chip. The vibes are happy, happy happy and the grooves are delicious. Twenty four hours later Casio Kids country will win the Eurovision song contest. We need to watch out for these Norwegians you know.

It’s left to The Mae Shi to mess things up at Po Na Na. The Mae Shi are like nothing you have seen before and nothing you will ever see again. A brutal, screaming, barking chaotic melee of different sounds that punch, pummel and party the air so hard it’s a wonder that they don’t leave holes in it. When they’re not trying to detonate the room with their noise art they’re throwing a parachute over everyone to cover heads or climbing over speaker stacks to the higher levels of the venue. There is a raw intense energy to what they do that connects with the crowd and depending on your perspective it's either scary, entertaining, funny, savage or just plain stupid. Or maybe a combination of any of these. A ferocious band that will one day probably spontaneously combust as they play. In the words of a certain Mr Rascal "Bonkers."

After such mayhem in a small space the vast 1200 capacity Corn Exchange is Breaking More Waves last stop for the evening. At this event last year Mumford & Sons were third on the bill in a venue a third of the capacity. Shortly after we arrive we hear that security is now operating a one in one out policy, such is the increased popularity of the bluegrass influenced group. The band look a little over whelmed by it all, but still manage to get the crowd to shout the word “Down” after they say “Hoe.” And a hoe down it is. This is a whole new experience for Mumford & Sons. There are people moshing near the front and young girls are screaming at the band. The group still deliver a note perfect soulfully harmonized set however, even if the huge space loses some of the subtleties of Marcus Mumfords beautiful croon on songs such as The Cave and Little Lion Man.

It leaves Metronomy to finish the evening. With a new line up Metronomy seem to have deserted the band they once were and attempted to become a more organic live act with two new members, including a female drummer. Unfortunately the updated model sounds like they would have been better sticking with the old banger. This new vehicle seems to have little mileage. The music fails to connect in any way feeling staid and lifeless. It's the only low of the day. Time for bed again Brighton.