Truck Festival Hill Farm, Steventon, Oxfordshire - 23/7/11 - Part 3
4/5
By: Liane Escorza
If you like sweet vulnerable country, you’ll like Caitlin Rose. She comes from Nashville and she’s got this delicate clear voice that howls when lyrics get too painful. The good thing about her and the band is that there is no pretence - something that you can get with other bands of a similar genre, but in the case of Caitlin, it pretty much looks like all that marketing baggage has been thrown out the window. And it feels great and free.
Tunng are also wonderful masters of transition within songs. Their approach through their harmonies creates a velvety atmosphere similar to Fleet Foxes, yet they cut it off by incorporating soft psychedelic and poppy nuances in-between. They are playful, unpredictable within the limits of ‘common sense’ and a pleasure to watch for their refreshing spring-like quality.
Such floral landscapes seem to be the aura Alessi’s Ark surrounds herself around with. She looks fragile, petite and doll-like, yet her voice powerful raises and lowers, trembles and softens according to her tales of wasted days, love, friendships… pieces of ripped diaries we can all relate to. It is pretty much impossible not to get drawn to her innocent allure on this hot simmering summer day.
Groggy and content, I make my way to see Islet, this overzealously elusive band from Cardiff I have heard so much about. Their avoidance to be on the spot light, let alone have a website or MySpace account and whatnot does not only describe them as ‘indescribable’, but their music is, in fact, as such. As reluctant as they are to give any information about themselves, when it comes to live performances they give it all. They are beasts on guitar, bass, two drums, the latter being the centres of it all while the rest of the instruments and vocals create a pulsing cocoon around them. They rotate, launch over the drums like hungry wolves, jump and bang guitars like their strings are on fire. They are overwhelmingly intense.
And from this Krautrock influenced ensemble we move on to The Go! Team, this Brighton band who play bombastic and merry music with handclaps, an energetically eclectic affair of bouncy 60s pop, breakdance cheers and a splash of fuzzy funk. They are the life of the Truck #14 party, and they know it.
John Grant comes along to present his debut solo LP Queen of Denmark. I am curious to see this artist who not long ago had decided to give up on music and on life to later on fully recover and create such a compelling piece of work. He does not disappoint. His music is introspective, beautiful and sincere… truly sincere. Short of banging on about his past dark periods, he has taken his new challenges in a positive light, with dry humour and overly emotionally fluent vocals such as ‘I wanted to change the world but I couldn’t even change my underwear…’. This willingness to share and move on seeps through so naturally that we are all left with a smile and a strong belief in happy endings.
Artists in this article: John Grant, Alessi's Ark, Tunng, The Go! Team, Islet
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