This was the 3rd year of the 1234 Shoreditch Festival and this was my first attendance. The other previous two years did not have substantial line up's to pull me to them. But this years line up was attracting me from the moment the bill was announced. I arrived at 1234 for 'Zombie Zombie' in the dance tent which was pretty empty, I'm guessing that the word dance that hung over the tent was scaring the masses of indie kids who were at the festival. This was a shame as they put on a damn fine show. Zombie Zombie are an awesome duo, one part is Etienne Jaumet who is surrounded by electronics of which he is a total master and commander of. The other half is CosmicNeman who was on drum duty for the live show. Cracking performance by these talented French dudes and I'm well looking forward to new releases form them in the near future.
Next up was Peter Hook and his band 'The Light' who were performing Joy Division's 'Unknown Pleasures' in its entirety for it's 30th Anniversary. I was quite excited about this as this is one of my favorite albums of all time, yet to be honest it was a real let down. Its just didn't seem right, in fact it seemed like some random tribute band in sound and image, as opposed to an honest interpretation by one of the original line up. Peter Hook did the vocals and the thing that I was banking on being great was his 'Unknown Pleasures' bass playing. But alas he had a second bass player who performed bass duties while he sang which meant the audience lost that classic Hooky bass playing. Wavves were the band I was looking forward to the most and although they were decent but did not ignite the festival as I hoped. I think this was more to do with their stage presence than the tunage. As they were at either ends of the stage and they are not the largest of people as you can see below. Their set was cool and included my fave song of theirs 'So Bored' which rocked.
On the mains stage after Wavves in the shape of a super covers band were the Silver Machines this consisted of Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) Andrew Innes (Primal Scream) Barrie Cadogan (Primal Scream) Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) and Zak Starkey (Oasis/Who). They came onto stage to 'How does it feel to feel' by The Creation. Their set went on to include songs from MC5, The Troggs and The Flaming Groovies. Despite this being a set consisting of covers I found the Silver Machines to have been the highlight of the day it was the power and enthusiasm that oozed from the band that made them a delight to watch and best performing band of the day.
Lovebox festival is a great conception by the Groove Armada boys who curate and sometimes play at their London festival. I only went to the last day of Lovebox this year and it was a truly enjoyable experience. The Sunday was headlined by the one and only legend that is Grace Jones. She is a cultural icon, filmstar, model and the ultimate diva singer. Grace Jones has a huge gay following which was cemented during the 70's disco era, her attendance at the decadent studio 54 and her adoration from artists in NYC. Consequently, Sunday at Lovebox had a strong gay attendance. Infact there was more than just the Grace Jones pull for the homosexuals, as the three best London gay clubs had their prominence at Lovebox on the Sunday. These clubs were 'Wet yourself', 'Trailer Trash' and the biggest one of all in size and popularity, 'Horsemeat Disco'.
Grace Jones in true fashion came onto the stage 25 minutes to her cover of 'Nightclubbing'. Playing to a massive crowd she pulled out the hits for a revering and enthralled crowd. Grace Jones has a powerful and dominant stage presence and she capitalized on this through her many amazing costume changes. Highlights to her performance had to be 'My Jamaican guy', 'La Vie En Rose' and the outstanding closer 'Slave to the Rhythm'. During this final track Grace Jones utilized a hula hoop and hula'd her way through 'Slave to the Rhythm'. Now in print it sounds a tad bland but the expression through her grace and rhythm was really stunning and impressive. Quality show from the unique and divine Grace Jones.
Deadman is the musical output of Jason Mills a Belfast based multi-talented musician. Deadman has been producing high caliber tunes for just under 10 years, during this time he caught the attention of the late great John Peel who praised and played Deadman on his radio one show. Deadman's music is delightfully varied. It could be described as electronic-acoustic with a psychedelic soul. Deadman is a diamond in the rough of the Northern Ireland alternative music scene. Deadman has yet to branch out into the live field so at the moment it's just recorded goodness. Deadman in addition to being a producer has impecible taste in music. He has been helping to ignite the Belfast club scene with invigorating dj sets at the now defunct 'Diston' nights and the current 'Acroplane' recordings outings, as well as at festivals around Ireland.
The latest release from Deadman is the 'Cerebral Frontier' release which is available for free download. This release sees Deadman embracing new musical territory, specifically cinematic music. As on 'Cerebral Frontier' a few of the tracks are from the soundtrack to a Irish post-apocalyptic film ‘Ditching’ which Deadman was commissioned to score. The new release has Deadman working with longtime collaborator Simon Mateer and hooking up with for the first time David Baxter. (These guys are all part of a Northern Irish collective of producers, the most high profile from this collective being Boxcutter who has gone onto have significant releases on Planet MU.) David Baxter is a musician in his own right aka Filaria. His work with Deadman is sublime and this partnership is one that will hopefully bloom into further substantial releases from the North of Ireland.
I first came upon Factory Floor when I saw the Horrors playing the Electric Ballroom in 2009. They were the support act and I was suitably impressed with their sound and show that I picked up their 12" on sale at the gig. Since then they have evolved and become a mightier force. Their most recent release, the 'Untitled' 10" four track EP is sonically stronger and and a powerhouse. Imagine Joy Division, Suicide, Throbbing Gristlesque post-punk sounds beefed up for an electronically charged generation for the noise that Factory Floor make. In fact I think the calibre of the people who are surrounding themselves around this band is evidence of their talent and the potential Factory Floor can unleash.
Stephen Morris the drummer from Joy Division is on board to produce the bands next release. At a recent Rough Trade in store live show by Factory Floor he was djing and he was one of the guest remixers of the a fore mentioned 'Untitled' EP. Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle and Angus Andrew were also on board as remixers. They have been sharing stages with the awesome Liars and soon to do so with Chris Cunningham. The recent show at Rough Trade was a storming set and was one of the loudest things I have been to in ages which is a good thing in my book.
I finally made the pilgrimage to Detroit in 2010. Muslims must go to Mecca once in thier life, techno purists must go to Detroit at least once in their life. My stint in Detroit was principally for the annual Detroit electronic music festival (DEMF). This year was the 10th anniversary of the festival and was being curated by non other than Detroit music ambassador and musical genius Carl Craig. I knew I was in for a treat with Carl Craig cherry picking the acts for he did get the cream of the crop in for the anniversary bill.
My time and Detroit began on Friday night with an evening of music and film curated once again by Carl Craig. This was held in an awesome music venue which was like an old cinema and the best part of it was it was free. On the evening was a documentary film about Detroit techno and the state of Detroit in present day. Also shown was 'Metropolis' edited and scored by Jeff Mills, I have posted a video with footage of the classic Mills edit. Regrettably I cut my time short at this night of music and film missing a live performance from Mad Mike. My next stop was the famous St Andrews music hall to a night that I had booked tickets for well in advance.
The line up at St Andrews was Speedy J in the main room for 5 hours and a 10th anniversary of party of Spectral records with Matthew Dear and Co in the basement. Matthew Hawtin the brother of the main man Richie Hawtin was meant to have been spinning in the back room but it was closed. In fact the venue was empty most of the night. I was also disappointed in the music, Speedy J was pumping out inspid and numb techno. The Spectral party took its time boiling up and the music was not as cutting edge as I have grown to expect form that label. I was not impressed and went home cheesed off that I chose this night over seeing Mad Mike play live.
My first sights of DEMF are memories that will stick with me forever. It really is the most amazing place for a festival I have been to. DEMF is an unadulterated orgy of techno smack bang in downtown Detroit's urban jungle. I started my DEMF experience with Scion the dub techno duo, they were impressive and were a beautiful start to the festival. The main stage as you can see from the pictures reminds me of the giants causeway from my home country of N. Ireland. The stage was at the bottom of a collection of huge steps with adequate space for a crowd at the stage.
On this first day I discovered my favourite stage ‘Made in Detroit’. Despite it not hosting the most amazing music it was the atmosphere and set up that was the attraction here. The stage set up was in a concrete underpass of Hart Plaza it looked like a skate park and gave it that true underground and dark vibe. This stage was performed on by home grown Detroitian talent. On this initial afternoon the ‘Made in Detroit’ stage was brought to life by the crew of extremely talented b-boys and I have included a video clip of the breakers getting down to some quality Detroit techno tunage.
Going through out the day I caught some of Woody Mac Bride and John Aquaviva who were decent in giving the fresh and energetic crowd some bouncy and up for it music. I was then let down by two guys I know have the potential to be awesome. The first being Marco Corola who was playing really bland and boring tech house. The other was Josh wink on the main stage who was warming up for the Plastikman live set. Josh wink I have heard many times perfectly build a set and really have the crowd eating out of his hands. But his DEMF set was lack lustere, when he was playing solid tracks the audience were reacting well to these. Yet he constantly went on to kill the vibe with a change that brought the atmosphere down . I was confused at Mr Wink and was expecting him to have been a highlight of the festival.
But what really made up for Wink was the Plastikman live show. This was the best thing that happened over the weekend as you can see from the pictures and the video link I took. Richie Hawtin was enclosed in a cage which was constantly evolving with images on the front. This moved from no sight of Hawtin to glimmers of the man at work. Musically it was amazing and the live sounds he created of his timeless tracks were top notch indeed. After blowing the minds of the crowd he came out with his drum machine minus the cage and played ‘Spastik’ as the encore which had the crowd going bananas.
The second day began with a surprise for me when I went and heard Starski & Clutch & Dj Godfather. I had investigated a bit of Ghetto Tech music and its not really for me but I really enjoyed the experience of the turntablism, funky tunes and the ecstatic reaction of the crowd to the bass filled tunes. The rest of the Sunday mid day was very house filled for me when I took in Dj Pierre, Larry Heard (Mr Fingers), Dj Sneak and some of Derrick Carter all of who were solid in their sets. As darkness set in I heard my favourite Dj set of the weekend. This was by Cassy the Panorama Bar resident who totally destroyed the Beatport stage with her dubby and melodic techno, I was very, very impressed. By the time the headliners came on I don’t think I have ever been at a club or festival where the calibre of the dance music artists was so exceptional and I was truly spoilt for choice on Sunday night. This was because Inner City (live), Derrick May, Richie Hawtin (replacing Villalobos who couldn’t get a visa), Robert Hood (live) were all on at the same time.
On the Sunday I took it easy after the huge Saturday night. I got down to DEMF for some of Dj Koze who was a real disappointment and he was playing average house music. My suffering didn't last that long as Michael Mayer was on after him. Michael Mayer as I have stated before on this blog is one of my favorite djs and he was another true highlight to this festival. Coming on with 'Sun' from the awesome Caribou 'Swim' album, he built his set up wonderfully through electro and minimal to having the DEMF crowd eating out of his hands. He went on to slay this crowd to lots of dirty Kompakt techno at the later part of his set and I was loving every moment of it.
The last band that I took in was Model 500 on the mainstage, this was Juan Atkin's band and they were a perfect finish to the festival. They took the stage dressed in Star Trek outfits and sent the DEMF crowd crazy. I have included a video I took during the classic track 'No UFO's' with the crazy kids crowd surfing to electro-techno. The fact that the audience were crowd surfing is testament to how alternative the US electronic fans are in comparison to the UK. I havent been to one in ages as the line ups are pure death. But festivals like Global Gathering and Creamfields are just full of drug fucked kids who wanna hear trance and go mental. There was no onslaught of drug dealers and monged kids at DEMF infact it was full of people who simply love the music which was born in Detroit. On the Sunday I wore my Einsturzende Neubaten t-shirt as you can see from my picture with Cassy below and the amount of people saying how they liked it was unreal I had 20+ people do so. This to me was evidence of how good a crowd was at an amazing festival.
It was Canada Day yesterday and London threw a bash in Trafalgar Square about all that is good in Canada to celebrate. This day included my favorite slice of Canadianness which is none other than Richard Hawtin, who took to the stage to play a 45 minute set. His set started off very dark and contained awesome rumbling techno which shook the foundations of the square. I suspected that a lot of the crowd were not techno enthusiasts and I was impressed that Richie was being so underground with the music. This didn't last that long as he progressed onto more party techno music which included tracks from Matthew Jonson, Marc Houle and his own classic Plastikman track 'Spastik'. I thoroughly enjoyed this free Hawtin set and his taking techno to the masses all in the name of Canada.
Wire in the 70's produced three outstanding and timeless albums, they have been on and off as a band ever since. Wire have been instrumental in influencing and amazing musicians and fans for years. This was a Mojo Honors list night and was announced quite suddenly, as a result there was a deficiency in the crowd capacity. The crowd was a definite mixture of the new and old fans displaying their significance to all generations of music fans.
Wire are a fundamentally important band as any music enthusiast would assert. I was really pleased at the opportunity of seeing them live as it's something they don't do in London very often. Their show started with new ones from their forthcoming 12th studio album. The audience reception was very rawkus and engaging with members of the crowd often bantering with the band. The set was mostly new stuff and material from the later part of their career. It was the tail end of the set that contained the tunes I really wanted to hear from their classic albums from the 70's. It was quite fitting that they chose this structure of songs, as the music progressed so did the volume and intensity of the sound. As the music got louder and faster the classics were truly being pumped out highlights included 'Pink flag', 'Two people in a room' and '12 x U'. Great seeing these legend rock out!
On the mains stage after Wavves in the shape of a super covers band were the Silver Machines this consisted of Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) Andrew Innes (Primal Scream) Barrie Cadogan (Primal Scream) Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) and Zak Starkey (Oasis/Who). They came onto stage to 'How does it feel to feel' by The Creation. Their set went on to include songs from MC5, The Troggs and The Flaming Groovies. Despite this being a set consisting of covers I found the Silver Machines to have been the highlight of the day it was the power and enthusiasm that oozed from the band that made them a delight to watch and best performing band of the day. 
