It's really started to get cold outside which means going out attire has shifted a bit. All about that layering, so you can tie your jacket round your waist on the dance-floor and it's still a look. I also find it's great for dramatic effect so that when a banger is coming through you can take the jumper off to show how serious you are, lol. Anyway, I went to two very different nights this weekend but both of them stood out to me as worth talking about. The key theme here is great and unexpected combinations of sounds, which I guess is the key to good music at the end of the day.
On Friday I went to Dalston Superstore for 'Hungama', a queer South-Asian focused party where they combine Bollywood and Indian pop with hip-hop and electro. It sounded cool, but I really didn't know what to expect. It was a Diwali special leading up to next week, and the DJs - Ms Lanji, Max Allen, Dj Anch, Lil India and Shimmy Hendrix) - were all sick. I'll get into my favourite music moments in a bit but I just want to talk a bit about the vibe first. As I've just come to accept at most nights at popular venues, you always get a few people pulling weird faces at the music as if confused that they disapprove even though they've specifically paid for this night (they're usually white). While there were a few there, they were definitely in the minority and easy to ignore. On the whole, the atmosphere was jubilant and welcoming, diverse and inclusive, and there was a constant, reassuring sense of fun through the whole night. You just wanted to be there, you wanted to be part of it.
Musically, it was enchanting. The electro remixing of Bollywood music was so well executed I was losing my voice by the end of the night from saying 'oi oiiiii' every few minutes. Build-ups were sufficent, drops were satisfying. I can't pretend I'm in any way knowledgeable about Indian music, but seeing everyone around me and my friends recognise each song was exciting in itself. One track was combined with Major Lazer's 'Lean On' which I have found here, and another with 'Sorry' by Justin Bieber, and the inclusion of the entirety of 'Dola Re Dola' had everyone downstairs losing it. On that note, there was enough contrast between the rooms that it stopped you getting bored of the same mood for too long. While this fusion of sounds dominated the basement, there was more alternation on the ground floor as well as Western music with Indian influence. Bicep's 'Rain', one of my favourite songs by the duo, samples the 1976 Bollywood movie - "Laila Majnu" and was a great example of this. Purely for sick track choice I want to mention Jamie XX's 'On Hold' Remix; I wouldn't have expected it at this event, but it worked great in the mix of music upstairs!
All in all a 10/10 night - I believe Hungama is on every month or so if you get the opportunity, go! It's definitely an event I want to add to my regular schedule.
Moving on to Saturday night now, XOYO was the host of 'Pleasurehood', featuring DJs Pional and Joe Goddard. Here we come again to interesting combinations, because I didn't expect the two to compliment each other so well. Pional was on first and the set as a whole utilised heavy house and techno beats and ambient electronic treble to shift the mood of the crowd. I found some of it quite emotionally evocative, and 'Time of The G's' was a prime example of this. There's something about the pedal note alternating between two chords and the eerie vocals that's melancholic, almost vulnerable. 'Tempest' was also great and the constant build up was buff to dance to.
Bicep's 'Orca' and Four Tet's 'Afraid' remix (throwback to lost village!) both featured, both complimenting the set well and building the hype. Pional moved away from this pure techy sound plenty too, and a couple of songs really stood out to me. 'Pembe (Jimmy Rouge Edit)' by Orange Tree Edits was pure bliss, I loved every second of the African vocals and the brilliant instrumentation. '1960 What?' by Gregory Porter - what a tune! Don't even know how to describe it to be quite honest, but Pional's mixing and this track were stunning together. There were a few songs here and there I didn't love, but I never got bored and overall I rated it highly.
Joe came on at about 2am and although the crossover was slick, you knew he had arrived. There's a certain nuance to his style, and the diversity of music he covered was consistently entertaining. 'Deputy of Love' brought the disco IN; after the intensity of the techno throughout Pional, this was so refreshing, and it didn't stop there! The anthem that is 'You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)' had the entire club belting, dancing together, having a MOMENT. We saw RnB with Ciara's 'Oh' which is an absolute timeless bop and no one can tell me otherwise. There was, of course, plenty of wavey vibes, which I was expecting from Goddard. 'Magic Fly' by Space provided the bouncy synths to create that spacey feeling, like gravity was slowly disappearing. 'Killer' by Jupiter Heroes really reminds me of a chase level in a retro video game, if that makes any sense, like there's some sort of impending danger. It was out there, but really slapped in the club.
Anyway, this was all great, but unsurprisingly the highlight of the night without a doubt was 'Gabriel'. It is of course Joe's most famous song, but I think with good reason. It's almost operatic to me, as you shift from one section of the song to the next. I loved it, everyone in the club loved it, and seeing it live changed my perception of it substantially. It was just unbeatable, and as soon as it ended I just wanted to hear it again. I think we played it twice on the way home to be honest. Other than this, however, I didn't hear much of his own music which was a bit of a shame. I did have to leave a bit early so I'm sure there was more, but one major song in over an hour is too little in my opinion either way. I was really hoping to hear 'Lose Your Love' and in my ideal world the set ended with the chill vibes of 'Electric Lines', so I'm just gonna assume that's what happened...
I've got to take a second to commend the lighting - sometimes the lights can just feel like filler to the music to keep your visual senses distracted. But Pleasurehood used it as part of the performance magnificently. There were dancers all around the room using strobes, sometimes of their own accord, sometimes in unison. The colour changes and use of darkness weren't overdone and timed well, and generally I just think the visual-audio relationship really complimented my experience of the night altogether.
So, I had a great weekend overall, and am now really enjoying the comfort of my bed on a Sunday. If you haven't already, do check out both Pional and Joe Goddard, they're quite different but I love their music and would definitely want to see both of them again! Hope you enjoyed reading, safe x
The sun has set on the Saturday of Lost Village 2018 and yet
the air is bright with excitement. This is the big set everyone has been
waiting for. You can hear it in whispers all around, the dashing paces through
the mud, the occasional ‘WE’RE COMING KIERAN’ in the distance. We’re part of
the crowd making our way as fast as we can to the Burial Ground stage to catch
Four Tet’s opening and we’re making it just in time.
Kieran Hebden has made his stage name Four Tet synonymous
with brilliant indie electronic music since the 90s with his first full-length
album ‘Dialogue’ in 1999. His music is eclectic, unique and has the fantastic
quality that you never know what’s coming next. This quality was reflected in
the mood as we made our way to the stage. It was unclear whether the set would
be a live or DJ one, and even then no one knew what path he was going to take
us down. The unknown was electric, the buzz uncontrollable.
As we settle into the crowd, intermittent and sporadic clear
tones are superseded by the reverbed vocals of Rihanna’s ‘Kiss It Better’. It
immediately creates the atmosphere for the next two hours with a song everyone
will recognise, brought so easily into Four Tet’s unmistakeable style. This is
going be a theme for the set overall, and it lets the crowd sing along
together, bringing everyone a sense of union as we experience this musical
genius together. The song fades into the unfamiliar; an unknown track, but it
is screaming Burial collaboration. The echoing drum beat and ethereal chords
are mesmerising; there is a poignant darkness to the track, and I can’t help
but be entranced by it. It’s taken him under ten minutes, and with two polar
opposite track choices Four Tet has already let me know how great this set is
going to be.
Moving on from here he chooses DJ Romain’s ‘Opposite’ for a
more upbeat rhythm. The bass is pumping, everyone is dancing, the vibes are top
qual. I really feel like this one reflected the feel of Lost Village overall;
old-school brass samples and techno beats mixed up with polyrhythmic sections
bouncing off the trees around you- it works perfectly. In fact, the rhythms
blend seamlessly into the next Pearl Jam track in way that makes you think ‘of
course this is next, what else would be?’
The next track I want to talk about was the highlight for
me. As soon as Four Tet drops the famous opening drum beat to Destiny’s Child’s
‘Lose My Breath’ the crowd roars, and I mean really roars. It’s a fantastic
choice, and his remix combines the fierce R&B attitude of the original with
this scrambling electronic countermelody that makes you feel like you’re
dancing in the outer space 90’s. Absolutely peng. This vibe is carried through
the next few songs, making it really hard to stop dancing, with remixes from
Roska and Nina Kraviz and Avus’ Tear.
It’s about time for a contrast, and reeling the turntable
back for extra effect, Kieran makes a sudden flip to the Champion Remix of his
song ‘Kool FM’. The dubby waves over heavy claps and crashes is dirty, gritty, hitting
hard with that UK flavour. It marks a turning point in the set, as we think
back to the dreamlike opening tones. His fast-paced edit of Nelly Furtado’s
‘Afraid’ kicks in soon, and the vocals fill the air like busy chattering
bouncing around the arena. The drum beat here echoes the Burial collab from
earlier on to me, and the constant kick holds the rhythm tight while every
angle of the auditory senses are touched upon. (There's a link to this track separated here.)
We descend into a heavier electronic sound with SP-X’s
‘SP-14’, and for the next few tracks I really felt the set become a whole body
experience. The laser lights shooting out from the stage fly through the crowd
in red, blue, green, flooding your sight and then plunging you into darkness
just as quickly. The ground shaking from the bass lets you feel the music under
your skin, it’s everything that is great about electronic music. This is
particularly poignant with the dramatic and emphatic burst into Jungle with
Skool of Hard Knocks – ‘Everybody’. Everybody (lol), myself included, let out a
‘whoaaaa’ of surprise that just turned into a cheer before it even stopped.
This entire section is absolutely mad, and flashing white white strobes on the
stage reflect the epileptic intensity of the beat. The ‘Incredible’ throwback
with General Levy’s rap is pure hype, during which I feel like I lost control
of my body, and no one around me seemed to care. Everyone was smashing into
each other, it wasn’t aggressive, it just felt like what we were supposed to
do.
The next moment probably wasn’t everyone’s favourite, but I
can’t lie, I lived for it. Four Tet brings in his remix of Ariana Grande’s ‘No
Tears Left to Dry’, and somehow we move from the Junglist Massive to pure pop
fantasy. (If anyone has a link please let me know!) Her vocals resound through the air so angelically that it symbolises
purity to me, but its kept grounded with angular electro melody underneath that
holds its place in the set securely. It’s a rogue choice, and very mainstream,
but I think its juxtaposition with what’s just come is what makes it effective.
In fact, it’s rounded off with Taraval’s Aardvark, which blasts dissonance
through the crowd, encapsulating it as a moment of innocence.
Moving on, Kid Crème’s ‘Hypnotising’ is simply euphoric. It
again brought back that Lost Village disco atmosphere, as the vocal sample
reminds us that we are ‘together’ in this moment. We’re lifted up into the sky,
and then brought right back to earth to get low to the dirty bass of DJ Bigga’s
‘Mind, Body & Soul’. It’s one of those tunes that makes you pull ‘that
face’, and I really thought the combination of these two tracks was fantastic.
They both made you want to dance, which makes sense at a music festival of
course, but go about it very different ways. ‘Hypnotising’ focuses on the piano
chords more to me, and then the bassline is without a doubt the focus for
‘Mind, Body & Soul’, a focus which is blended in as we move on to the
garage vibes of Allstars’ ‘Walk on By VIP’ and then ‘Heartbroken’ – T2 ft.
Jodie. As we approach the end of the set, we see the only inclusion
from the producer’s most recent album, ‘New Energy’. ‘Lush’ brings its warm,
flowing tones across the arena for five minutes of pure atmospheric ambience.
It’s transcendent, elegant, soothing. After the rollercoaster we’ve been
through with this set, it gave us a moment to relax before the finale.
We have
a moment of complete silence for the first time, and the crowd cheers, only for
the opening pedal note of his remix of Bicep’s ‘Opal’ to come in. Honestly, all
of my hair stood on end; I love this remix, it’s such a journey and seeing it
live in that crowd took it to the next level. As the instrumentation builds up,
so does the excitement around me, and as the beat drops, lights flood through
the field from the stage again, and everyone dances together. There really was
something special about this one, it felt calming and exhilarating at the same
time, and as confetti burst into the crowd, everyone lost it. I felt quite
overwhelmed by emotion, cringe I know, but it was a moment that really stood
out to me. The set is rounded out with
Neneh Cherry’s ‘Kong’; I personally felt the penultimate track would have
worked great as a finale, but this choice with its steady hi-hat and stunning
vocals was still a beautiful moment to end on, leaving you feeling elated by
the last two hours of music.
As is obvious from the above, I find it difficult to say
anything remotely negative about Four Tet’s Lost Village set. It was without a
doubt the highlight of my weekend and what is going to stand out in my memories
of this summer. It wasn’t necessarily representative of my favourite things
about Four Tet’s music, but that didn’t matter; it perfectly evoked the
atmosphere you want for a music festival headliner, it covered all the bases,
and when it comes down to it, it was f***ing sick. End of story. To be able to
range in track choice from R&B, Jazz, Jungle, Pop, Garage, consistently
shifting sound and constantly making it work, that truly requires a genius, so
hats off, Kieran, you did good.
You can find the whole set on Four Tet's Soundcloud. Enjoy!
