Field Day Victoria Park, London 6/8/11
4/5
By: Joe Daniels, Stan Morgan
You’d be forgiven for thinking that, with its far from overwhelming sound-system, £4-a-can bar tariff, and Ariel Pink playing in the middle of the afternoon, that Field Day isn’t a real player of a festival, just an enclosure in East London for the hipsters to mill around in. It’s a misnomer though, and a tired cliché at best. The music may tend towards the wobbling GarageBand bass of Dubstep rather than the spiky guitars that annually pack out fields in Somerset, but the atmosphere of Field Day rivals any big hitter. This is because – despite tired, lazy journalism’s attitude – the people at Field Day aren’t there to congratulate themselves on being so much more ironic and bespectacled than the public at large, they are there because of their love of Electronica, Dubstep, and Indie. It all amounts to a pleasant, nonjudgmental vibe that’s antithetical to the accusations of pretentiousness that permeate the music press. But the festival goers don’t let anyone get them down, as they bathe in the sun and soak up the sounds of Electrelane, John Cale, and Warpaint, or pogo around at precisely 140bpm in a tent to Mount Kimbie, Jamie XX, and the countless other Dubsteppers about. This year’s festival marks another stage in Field Day’s mission to be taken seriously, and if ticket sales, the line-up, and the reviews are to be believed, it’s a mission accomplished. So, as we wait another year for the next chance to dust off our winkle pickers, wipe clean our wayfarers, and grow a weeklong half-beard in the name of East London Indie japes, here are some of the highlights of this year’s event. [Joe Daniels]
In the midst of a long summer touring schedule that’s sent him to the far corners of the Earth, it’s no surprise when James Blake starts off his set with a sincere “It’s good to be home.” His homecoming show served to please every one of the huge crowd gathered to see him, whether fans of Blake’s beat-driven early work, or the emotionally rich material found on his (inevitably) Mercury-nominated album. After starting with staggeringly complex rhythms of ‘Unluck’ his set fell victim to the dreaded ‘technical problems’, putting it back 10 minutes before play could resume and the crowd’s patience could be rewarded with tender renditions of ‘Lindisfarne I & II’ and ‘I Never Learnt To Share’ before recent addition to his live shows ‘CMYK’ produced the set (if not festival) highlight, stretching and twisting the original into a master class in how electronic music can and should be played live.
It’s a bad idea to go into a Connan Mockasin set with any form of expectations about what you’ll experience once you’re in. Fans of his softly-spoken psychedelic masterpieces will have been more than satisfied by what they found at Field Day, tracks from his latest album Forever Dolphin Love mixed in with some old favourites, but those going to experience one of the most eccentric artists at the festival won’t have been let down either. Joining the main man on the stage was a figure who seemed to be Alex Hewett from Egyptian Hip Hop (unconfirmed), who spent large periods of time sitting on the stage doing not very much, and a drummer who had never rehearsed with the band. A recipe for disaster you’d think, but by the time the set was closed with ‘Forever Dolphin Love’ all of the madness made complete sense.
Jamie Woon is fast establishing himself as the credible face of pop, not shying away from his RnB reference points (he lists R Kelly and Prince amongst his main influences), while having the benefit of being able to list the likes of Burial in his list of collaborators. As a result his appeal is wide-ranging, filling the tent with beardy types and Nike Shox wearers alike, and all of whom greeted the arrival of breakout single ‘Night Air’ with an equal parts cheer/holler. The Destiny’s Child-esque ‘Lady Luck’ went to show that despite being lauded over by the leftfield press in his early stages, his sights are firmly set on the mainstream in the future. He just needs to sort out his on-stage dancing first.
It’s all about the voice with Zola Jesus - in person her lungs are so powerful that they could probably have rocked the back of the crowd even without a microphone. It’s because of this that the highlight tracks of her breakout album Stridulum II (‘Night’, ‘Sea Talk’ etc.) get overshadowed by the more dramatic numbers on stage at Field Day. ‘I Can’t Stand’ sees the petite Nika Roza Danilova writhing and squirming on top of the stage monitors as she belts out the kind of noise usually reserved for middle aged chain-smoking men, while new track ‘Vessel’ ends the set on a euphoric high as her backing trio of keyboard players do their Kraftwerk thing. You feel that with a bit more time and a bit more polish Ms. Jesus will be climbing up the festival running orders.
Not the most triumphant of returns, playing in broad daylight to a modest crowd through an even more modest PA, Electrelane rely on the sheer charm and crackle of their spiky synth-fused intelligentsia-rock to remind us why we were so sad when they called it quits. It’s a play that pays off though, with the histrionics both rolled-out and reined-in as guitarist Mia thrashes her axe around like anything during a danceably epic rendition of ‘To The East’, but reticence takes over as she sheepishly shies away from the microphone between songs. It’s a performance that mirrors the ethos of their music – to be exciting yet intriguing, a shtick not lost on the Field Day audience. Leaving the stage after just 40 minutes it all feels an oddly short-lived though entirely rollicking affair, and one that cements Electrelane’s position as one of indie music’s most elusive hit-makers. [Joe Daniels]
Currently basking in swathes of critical acclaim for their latest full-length Skying, The Horrors find no trouble in packing the tent out to the rafters. Such is their kudos in a festival like Field Day, the diva-esque theatrics are unleashed as they dispense with the journos and fellow-chancers watching from the wings, and then turn up 25 minutes late to greet the crowd with a sneer. None of it really matters though, as their performance proves once again they among the most formidable of Britain’s emergent bands. Playing a set paying equal tribute to Skying and 2009’s likewise lauded Primary Colours, they send the crowd sky-high with fuzzed-up guitars, swirly synths, and the dissonant bark of Faris Badwan’s voice. A frontman not unfamiliar with vocal difficulty, he has become an increasingly capable singer, theatrically stomping around, tearing through the psychedelic soundscapes created behind with his penetrating baritone with even handed aplomb and gusto. It’s not lost on the audience either who go ballistic as he piercingly shrieks like a cat in its death throes during the arpeggiated freak-outs of ‘Sea Within A Sea’. Set closer ‘Moving Further Away’ remains the highlight though, drifting in and out of hypnotic lucidity for 5 minutes before knee-jerking into a cacophony of unrestrained shoegazing raucousness. Channelling the abrasiveness of The Jesus And Mary Chain with the blissfulness of My Bloody Valentine, it sends the crowd into a frenzied oblivion, and they saunter off stage, without even a cursory glance, secure in the knowledge that their work here is done. [Joe Daniels]
An unlikely choice of headliner, Wild Beasts rise to the occasion and give the strongest performance of the festival. Playing to a field of thousands, there’s a celebratory vibe to proceedings, with the band hot off the heels of album-of-the-year-contender, Smother. It’s an album that translates perfectly live, with all of its salacious innuendo punctuated by abrupt, looping synths. ‘Deeper’, ‘Albatross’, and ‘Loop the Loop’ prove that obnoxiousness fused with risqué is a winning formula, and the duo of frontmen, Tom Fleming and Hayden Thorpe, ooze a fraternal, almost Simon and Garfunkel-esque chemistry. Their voices are some of the most wonderfully intertwining in modern music, drifting in and out of falsetto, undercutting and complimenting each other. Best of all are the renditions of earlier hits, ‘Hooting and Howling’ and ‘All The Kings Men’, which both illicit massive sing-alongs from the captivated audience. They close with ‘End Come Too Soon’, a pun not lost on the audience owing to Field Day’s knack for truncated set times, and one last chance to soak up some smut before the festival is out. They modestly amble off the stage to rapturous applause, a sensation they are sure to experience again and again. [Joe Daniels]
Artists in this article: James Blake, Connan Mockasin, Jamie Woon, Zola Jesus, Electrelane, The Horrors, Wild Beasts
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