Day 1 – Saturday

Arrived Saturday morning, stopped off in Ferndale for some lunch and a visit to Mother Fletcher’s for some vintage shopping. Wandered down to the festival late in the afternoon caught up with people, checked out Martyn dropping a nice set skipping all over the place, some of Kyle Hall, Rick Wilhite and Kirk Degiorgio.

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We were fortunate to score invites to David Mancuso’s 39th anniversary Loft Party last weekend. There’s been plenty said on the matter and it’s all true. We had a fantastic evening, the sound from the Klipschorn speakers were loud but not deafening with a wonderful warmth and detail.

The crowd was mixed with people who had attended for over 30 years, families with children making a intimate convivial spirit. That it was held in a community hall, it was byob, snacks and a hot buffet served echoed the house/loft party vibe. I loved that attendance was limited it was busy but never over crowded. Everyone was so smiley and pleasant and there was some great interpretive dance action on the floor. Made my evening.

The hall was decorated with a giant disco ball, balloons which dropped from the ceiling to much anticipation and much amusement. People went a bit bonkers when they came down it was so juvenile yet so fun.

I had one of many a moment hearing Luke Solomon – Demons.  It was really refreshing to hear a song played in all its glory. I preferred when he was playing disco, Mancuso also played some deep house and a smattering of clubby numbers like a remix of Depeche Mode’s Dream On, some funking rock like the Rolling Stones – Miss You. He played a few notable Loft Classics I left aching from dancing like a fool and grinning from ear to ear for hour afterwards… “Music is Love”

Been a long time since any talk about music. I’m still buying a fair share of vinyl though not getting as much quality time behind the decks as i’d like. Also my iPod is playing up again so its kind of apt. The aforementioned played at the last Bleep another party that has moved to Corsica studios in Elephant & Castle a venue I’m frankly tiring of.

NWAQ played lots of great techno of the clubby style Delsin are releasing a bit of, Redshape, Quince style action, deep techno and house action.

Legowelt played a really fun live set. Vocoder bit electro, electroclashy (am i still alllowed to use that?) acid and jacking chicago style beats. Really didn’t recognise all that much. Not that it matters… we really enjoyed it.

Surgeon was a bit of a surprise. It’s been a long ass time since we’ve heard “techno” out. Some old and future classics thrown into a really tight mix. Orlando Voorn as Complex on Fragile how often do you get the luxury of hearing this up loud? Common Factor too? Beats were definitely tough without moving into banging drone territory.

We didn’t see much of the second room. The layout felt a tad awkward entering into the bar area. It’s not always just about the music some decent lighting would have made a vast difference too. The crowd was a bit odd and there wasn’t much atmosphere just a load of people who were very into their music… not quite a party though.

Los Hermanos was absolutely amazing (even with the occasional salsa breakdown). I wasn’t quite sure what I felt about techno performed by a band. Its a tribute to the musicians and fantastic song writing that it came together so magically. And what a treat to hear Timeline, Transition, Inspiration and Hi-tech Jazz live.

DJ S2 was up before and like many of the UR djs cranked out plenty of detroit classics plus the odd ravey track which were good fun. Ben Sims banged it in his usual loopy style after, technically a great dj but it really lacked variety. To his credit he played Common Factor’s Rise first time i recall hearing this out and what a treat up loud!

Moment of the night would had to have been a dealer outside Farringdon tube station with a postcard sized card with “Pills 4 sale” on it. So brash and dodgy, yet so classy! Fabric ended up a much less painful experience than anticipated and any other grievances we may have encountered would have been worth putting up with for this.

Enjoyed a less hedonistic Sonar experience this year. It allowed us to spend time at Sonar Day wandering about seeing the exhibitions, multimedia displays and the record fair in the CCCB building. All rather civilised, and often a welcome respite from the sun and hoardes of people. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the still life images littered around and used on promotional and informational materials though.

Insen – Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto at L’Auditori. Occasional moments of noodly wankiness when Sakamoto was banging and plucking the strings on his grand piano. Otherwise it was quite an intense, emotive and at times noisey and soundscapey (often reminiscent of Pan Sonic’s works).

Herbert performing Scales live We had a nightmare trying to get there friday night but so glad to get to Sonar Night in time for this. Seemed like there were no cabs anywhere in Barcelona over the Sonar weekend. The mad professor at work again and on reflection a really amazing performance. Loved the pajamas. It’s not Herbert in the photo below btw he was the main vocalist and this geezer has way too much hair!

Goldfrapp Sam really enjoyed it and Ms Goldfrapp is mini. Kylie mini. The keyboardist’s silver electro-girl jumpsuit was too cool. A little wierd for me cos I only recognise their stuff as it’s used in a lot of tv ads here. More ‘fun’ and appropriate than Massive Attack in 2004 (they were great but as commented previously felt out of place.

Pigna People so much fun! Mod italo in full effect! Definite best of the Sonar Night performances for me.

Also caught some other cool chit like Audion, Modeselektor, Afra, Dave Clarke and Miss Kitten. We missed Chic who played way too early on friday night. Disappointed with Disco D, he was trying out a live impromptu MPC set having been influenced by his homies in Sao Paulo. All we just wanted some nasty ghettotech action!

The scale of SonarNight is huuuge and its even larger than last time with an extra outdoor stage. It’s almost impossible to find anyone should you get lost and such a surprise running into the odd familiar face. Sound was excellent again which still surprises me given the size of the space makes me wonder why so many smaller venues can’t get it right?

The beach parties on Sunday at Playa del Marbella were a surprise. Walking along the path there is a sea (pun intended) of people the length of the beach. There were half a dozen sound systems and thousands of people on the beach until 01:30 when music stopped. A few trashbags and drunken fools about but no real trouble and not a police officer in sight. I can’t imagine anything like this (and free no less) being allowed to take place anywhere else in the world. Deep Burnt was the last track we heard and what wonderful place to hear it!!

We met some wonderful people courtesy of Yugo-Moscow relations including Sergi one of the inventors of the reacTable (so shameful we missed the demo on Saturday afternoon!). He’s also got some cool software for download on the web which is worth a look at!