Claude & Marcus on Hub Radio

Big Chill Main Stage

 This year’s Big Chill signalled a significant shift away from past years, with the departure of Pete Lawrence from the intimate circle of planners leading to many changes. Firstly, the attendance was greatly increased, with both day tickets on sale for the Sunday, and the Sunrise Celebration festival taking up what was previously the North camp site, the Eastnor surroundings were noticeably busier. Secondly, the ‘leave no trace’ campaign which was such a success previously, was accepted by all to have failed this year, with the newly out-sourced litter pickers pulling a no show, an unfortunate event that lead to the festival site looking more like one of its bigger, more mainstream cousins.

 
But these concessions can be considered to be a small side note on what was otherwise another year of exceptional music and an atmosphere which other events could only wish for. Regardless of Roots Manuva’s predictably unfortunate appearance, stumbling and drunk, all swagger and backing MCs, the decision to let high profile London promoters bill each night was a successful one. On Friday, it was Soundcrash’s turn, known for their infamous electronica nights taking in the Warp and Ninja Tune labels, and DJ Vadim and Krush initiated this trend. Luke Vibert pounded early 90’s acid relentlessly for an hour, seldom looking up from his laptop, giving Daedelus no choice but to continue the bombardment, whose mash-up sound ranged from Daft Punk, Portishead, and Nirvana, all blended into his own unforgettable Californian sound.

 
Saturday’s blue skies made the perfect backdrop for Fujiya and Miyagi’s kraut rock guitar noodlings, complete with breathtaking stop motion based visuals. The Hot 8 Brass Band start off very lively with the majority of the crowd enjoying an afternoon dance before the sound becomes rigid and hard. The climax of the weekend is reached with Trentemoller, the live band set up reminiscent of Nine Inch Nail’s live shows, albeit with a much harder techno sound. Sunday’s firework and bonfire spectacle happens simultaneously with Benga’s DJ slot, the London dubstep prodigy running through many a song from this year’s ‘Diary Of An Afro Warrior’, yet the day really belongs to Flying Lotus, his Hyperdub-inspired performance taking in Kode9, Glasgow’s Rustie, and Michigan’s Samiyam, before reverting to an all-out bass assault of drill n bass. Leonard Cohen’s sunset performance is everything expected of him and more, the highlight being ‘First we take Manhattan’, the opening track to 1988’s ‘I’m Your Man’. Finally, Lee Scratch Perry provides a suitable come-down sound in the Media Mix tent, the dub rig and his psychedelic ramblings a welcome addition to the stage previously assigned for cinema.

SIA - ‘Girl you Lost’

Sia, a singer probably most best known for her collaboration and long time partnership with Zero 7, releases this latest single off the back of a sold-out tour and her album ‘Some People Have Real Problems’ which was received in January to wide critical acclaim.

Although her discography goes back to as early as 1998, it was 2004’s ‘Breath Me’ 12” which saw her most notable rise in popularity, the melancholy xylophone beat reworked into exceptional remixes by Ulrich Schnauss and Four Tet amongst others. Her vocal works on the classic Where It Falls were mostly down tempo, and she was still touring with Zero 7 as late as last year after having again featured on their latest album The Garden. As anyone who has seen Zero 7 through the years will testify, she remains a highlight of their live show; whilst the rest of the line-up has experienced a chop-change approach, her bare-footed and frilly dressed performances are always sincere and refreshing. Here, it’s tempting to regard ‘Girl you Lost…’ as radio rhetoric, but that would just be a shortcoming to the zeal with which she has approached the medium. Regardless of any moral approach the title may incur it as always sounds light hearted, cheerful and bursting with energy.

Hot Chip- ‘One Pure Thought’

Hot Chip remain the most willing of pop’s electro crossover acts, combining dance floor hits with the odd ballad which was thrown in like an afterthought into their latest album. And this is definitely the latter, at least for those first thirty seconds, before the reverb-drowned guitars mercifully stop and the beat begins. Live, you can imagine the front members shaking their maracas, gleaning enthusiastically into the mic, as they have been doing proficiently since their rise to fame covering probably more festivals and cities than not. Suffice to say the drum machine textures remain as an ode to their own sound rather than a lack of any new direction. But it’s the lyrics that really let them down here, for the start the title - ‘One Pure Thought’ strikes up the image of virginal - like religious imagery, which is certainly something I don’t expect from an act whose past singles include the song ‘Boy From School’ - but in hindsight maybe it is quite appropriate. By the end of the song the phrase ‘I won’t be on my way’ circles repetitiously - striking up the thought of the song as a school disco banger rather than anything from the micro-house sets which so worked me up on their previous tours both abroad and closer to home including 2006’s visit to Bristol’s Anson Rooms.

Since Big Dada’s incarnation ten years ago the label have consistently presented some of the most fresh and new sounding hip hop around. In this time they have overseen artists rise from relative obscurity to world wide notoriety, the most recent example being Spank Rock. Some of the tracks are straightforward enough here, ‘Movement’ by Roots Manuva being an appropriate enough to start such a well-rounded retrospective off, the London-based figure of Rodney Smith being one of the label’s biggest success stories since 1999’s ‘Brand New Second Hand’ hit the airwaves. The inclusion of tracks from Wiley, New Flesh and Ty, although somewhat original, suggest the label have been sensible enough never to stray too far from your traditional hip hop affair; Ty’s brand of fun and casual jabberings being much more digestible and enjoyable in the live atmosphere I was lucky enough to experience at this year’s Big Chill. It is not until Clouddead’s ‘Dogs Dead Two’ that the listener gets a proper taste of the weirdness that Big Dada have been able to call its own, with the collective’s album ‘Ten’ surely being one of the label’s most accomplished achievements, a timeless slice of innovation that has since projected each individual member to success in their own rights elsewhere. TTC’s ‘Dans Le Club’ reinforces the thought that however radical the project Big Dada take on, the production and delivery always remains top notch, this year’s ‘3615TTC’ proving that the label can still pull a punch - a whole ten years after Juice Aleem signalled the start of a new adventure for Ninja Tune’s more rhythmically obliged peeps.

“Give me the loudest thing you’ve got” the sound tech calls from the sanctuary of his desk. Such are the small dimensions of the Luminaire, the roadie has to make little effort to be heard over the clanging of the bar staff whom are preparing for the evening. It appears the Border Community folk are still somewhere en route between here in North London and their native Norfolk, so for now, it is left up to Chris Leary, aka Ochre, to do the sound check alone. He happily obliges, and with a few flicks of his midi controller, he proceeds to send all manner of warm glitches and synths gushing through the system. The promoter for tonight’s Club AC30 bill readily hovers around the bar, with an alert business-like demeanour that can be spotted from a mile off amongst such casual surroundings. Soon, the punters will start steadily leaking into to the upstairs den, and as we will later note whilst standing on the Kilburn High Street enjoying a smoke in the still mild autumn air, the crowd for tonight are made up from a very certain niche whom are here for some of minimal techno’s most modern and innovate sounds.

Etch a Sketch start things off with a well thought out audiovisual show which hints that they would not be out of place on stages bigger than this. Gradually lulling the crowd (whom for now remain mostly sat down) into a lethargic breeze with their accessible tone of chilled out beats and bleeps, they slowly but surely build their way up to a crescendo of heavier sounding stuff, with gorgeous cityscapes and rain-soaked video footage to match. Is is a tribute to the bill tonight that James Holden’s role will take no more prominence than an ‘in between’ DJ, the label boss tonight choosing to remain reclusive in the confides of the DJ booth off to the right. Still revelling from his successful debut LP, last year’s brilliant “The Idiots are Winning”, one has only to briefly look at his current circuit of megatron-like clubs on the continent and beyond to wonder why he was only stuck on the end of the bill at the last minute, unannounced.

Before long Ochre is on stage. Having travelled all the way down from Newcastle for the gig, I asked him whether he might be having a chat with Holden later about the possibility of a future release being on Border Community. His last LP, “Lemondie”, was on the Edinburgh-based Benbecula, but he is someone very much on the rise, and if the PHD currently in progress at Newcastle University supplies as much inspiration as prior studies have, he would easily have out grown the label. So is this why he is the only outsider brought into the fray this evening? Or is it just a coincidence? “No, it’s a complete coincidence” he humorously answers. Tonight, unfortunately, he is only given half an hour, but even this is long enough to dispel the apprehension even Chris himself was talking about whilst on the subject of laptop sets and the like. “It’s not that much fun watching somebody with a laptop, no matter what they‘re doing, or how complicated their set up, and no matter how much work they’re putting into their set up. ” His performance is taken largely from latest album ‘Lemodie’, and the day-dream like assortment of well produced melodies it contains; percussion here mostly takes the form of a template - this allowing for the improvisation of twisted synth on top; the music evoking feelings of natural sentimentality, an impression so honest and warm that you can feel the bar being captivated all around you.

The headliner tonight is Nathan Fake. At the age of only 23 he released what for many was the album of 2006 with “Drowning In a Sea of Love”, a collection of well executed and contrasting sounds, chugging techno one second, and thoughtful ambient swirls the next. His live set at the Big Chill that summer hinted towards a man that considered established ambient techno acts such as Biosphere to be among his contemporaries, the hour-long set being mostly filled with the more laid back aspect of his releases thus far. So this evening saw me very much expecting the above, and I was already somewhat surprised (but relieved) to see the crowd all stood up and alert when we re-entered the main bar, after all, laptop sets are hardly known for their spell binding and lively aesthetics. But tonight I am left surprised, for Fake proceeds to supply the Luminaire with 70 minutes of mostly upbeat and high tempo music, which has most of the dance floor lively and on their toes. Only pausing briefly here and there to indulge in the ambient experimentation which he can call his own, it is only after this showing that I can imagine him existing back to back on the decks with Holden as they have done on many occasions. His small wreath of interfaces, samplers and mixers supply just enough spontaneity to keep the melodic aspects of his work alive and kicking. As with his records, the real main achievement of Fake is the use of contrasts in his sounds, steadily treading the line between techno and ambient during the duration of his set, he very much lets loose within the last 15 minutes. With an apparent sense of both achievement and fatigue, he suddenly leaves the bar a sweaty mess, only to hand over to his counterpart Holden who had been keeping an eye on things the whole time from around the side.