EarPIPE

The Sonar Report 2008: EarPipe Limps into Sunday

Sunday, September 7th, 2008 | Event Reviews, Events | No Comments

As we head into the dark and gloomy winter months we should really conclude what actually happened on the last two days of EarPipe’s Sonar weekend. In previous parts we told you about our escapades at La Terrazza with the Soma boys, our thirst for mojitos, the booty shakin breaks of Diplo and the mind warping sounds of Contakt. In our third and final instalment, we’ll be covering our haggered limp across the finish line from Saturday to Monday.

To kick Saturday off earPipe caught the Dirty presents showcase at the Sonar Dome. Until that day we had never heard of Dirty and their collection of French DJs and producers. Some digging about and it turns out these guys run a not for profit website hailing from Paris called d-i-r-t-y.com, where they release edits and compilations as well as run a bi monthly party. Their sound is a real mixed bag of stuff. Pilooski on his own was dropping all kinds of down tempo beats from soul classics edited in the Dirty way right through to upbeat disco and electro. He then followed his own set with Pentile on his joint live project called Discodeine. Together they combined the brash, rawness of electro with the funk of disco, but it’s not in your face jump around electro like their fellow country men Justice make; it’s more calculated, restrained and twisted.

To finish the Dirty showcase, Pilooski took to the stage once again as part of the Dirty Sound System where the whole team just ripped the SonarDome to pieces. Playing a French blend of their trademark electro sound they had the marquee bopping about like lunatics. Definitely people to catch again in the future.

Back over in the Sonar Village, The Field, a one man production extravaganza was creating his epic soundscapes for sun lavished crowds. His productions are in one word beautiful, it is the way that they twist and turn in a pleasurable but not overpowering wall of sound. It is kind of minimal, but not through the ethos of removing elements more so minimal in the way his music progresses. The soaring sounds fit snugly for the late afternoon slot just as those mojitos were beginning to hit home once again.

EarPipe’s final stop off for the day was purely for comedy value. Inside at the SonarComplex DJ Scotch Egg had been mounting his Osaka Invasion all afternoon. If you haven’t heard of Scotch Egg, he is basically a mental Japanese fella who bangs out hardcore gabba music with an 8 bit computer game take on things, though a combination of gameboys, megaphones, distortion and a bit of crowd participation by throwing scotch eggs at them. Is Mr Egg avant garde? Probably not. It is however completely nuts music and really can’t be taken seriously by anyone on this planet. Its shear insanity and the fact that it could give you a brain haemorrhage, nose bleed, as well as make your ears bleed and induce an epileptic fit kind of makes it so entertaining and a little intriguing. If you don’t believe me watch these videos. Scotch Egg 1. Scotch Egg 2.

For the final visit to Sonar by Night, EarPipe manages to catch the last half of Soulwax on their Weekend Never Dies tour. We always enjoy the energy they create as they relentlessly plough through their songs, rarely stopping for breath. It’s a whirlwind show and their drummer must be one of the hardest working out there. Interesting takes on Daft Punk’s Robot Rock as well as their classics NY Lips and E-Talking. These guys have played Sonar for the last few years and they have always put on a great show.

Next up for EarPipe was Dubfire out in the SonarLab. The Deep Disher was flying solo in his new “back to my roots” techno persona. We did enjoy his set of techno beats, but we did feel a bit sterile afterwards. There were some great tunes in there, but on the whole the set just didn’t seem very imaginative. It was an onslaught of typical techno tunes which were fun but not really that memorable. If Dubfire wants to shake of the shackles of Deep Dish then he’s going to have to try harder. However it was great when he dropped his recent remix of Radioslave’s Grindhouse Tool.

Sonar’s grand finale came down to the legendary Ricardo Villalobos. Over the past year the guy has been brilliant, so what better a setting than the outside SonarPub with the sun rising in the early morning sky and a few thousand revellers ready to go completely mad. Ricardo’s set was nothing short of breathtaking. Probably being on the right side of inebriated, his mixing was tight and tune selection playful. Effortlessly cherry picking South American influenced percussive house and techno through to the down right heavy balls to the wall stuff. The cheekiness and range which he can play is something that many DJs envy. Evidence of this was when he dropped Sis’ Trompeta, which is basically this year’s Heater. But despite it being a corny track, its silly sample was perfectly apt to end a weekend of debauchery and serious electronic music, and like last year at Exit when Heater dropped, it erupted in various gypsy-esque dances. Keeping command of his crowd to the very end he rounds of preceedings with house classic Lil’ Louis’ French Kiss. Perfect.

And so ends another year at Sonar. Three days and two nights of great music, great atmosphere and plenty of mojitos. However it doesn’t stop there. On the Sunday Secretsundaze happened to be keeping the party spirit alive by doing their Sunday shenanigans at La Terrazza. It was an ideal club which completely encompasses what Secretsundaze is all about and what it should be ideally in the UK, open air with plenty of sunshine, a great crowd and the highest order of house you can imagine. For their Barcelona party Johnny D, 2000 and One and Mountain People all played exceptional sets, keeping my frail legs moving to the very end. I could give you details, but they’re a bit thin on the ground. But I do know we had a great time and it was a brilliant way to finish off the weekend and seal my fate for a fragile journey home. So until next year, Adios Barcelona!

Tags: 2000 and One, Barcelona, Dirty Sound System, Discodeine, DJ Scotch Egg, Dubfire, Johnny D, Mountain People, Pentile, Pilooski, Ricardo Villalobos, Secretsundaze, Sonar, Sonar 2008, Soulwax, The Field

EarPipe’s Field Day Recommendations

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008 | Event Preview | 2 Comments

The weekend is nearly here! And that means that our Saturday day time is going to be filled with the joys of Field Day. We’ll be splating rats and sack racing at the village fete and will no doubt be getting slightly inebriated in a field, well Victoria Park to be precise. But amongst all that there is actually some acts and djs to catch. So here’s who EarPipe will be checking out this Saturday.

James Holden

The Border Community head honcho and quirker electronic music extraordinaire is set to play the Bugged Out stage. James isn’t your straight forward techno and electronic dance music DJ. His extensive repertoire of music crosses all boundaries and genres so you’re never really too sure where he’s going to take you. If you’ve heard his At The Controls compilation or album The Idiots Are Winning then you will know what I’m on about. Do not miss this man!

Richie Hawtin

As ever Richie is still a firm favourite of ours at EarPipe. His Contakt set at Sonar was pretty good fun, but this Saturday it will be unadulterated, pure Hawtin. No cube gimmicks, no collaborative dj set antics. Just straight up Hawtin and techno. Well there is the addition of Ali Demirel and his meta-control visual display. Not sure what that means, but if it was the stuff that was on the screens at Sonar then I’m all for that.

The Field

Again another favourite from Sonar, we’ll be happy to catch this man again on the main stage. His warped electronic soundscapes will be a great accompaniment to the sunshine we’re keeping fingers crossed for.

Benga

Fancy taking it a bit urban? Benga is sure to entertain. This man can do no wrong on the dubstep scene at the moment. Everything he releases is touching to gold and his DJ skills are supposed to be a bit alright like. You may know him for that track Night, you know the one that goes bo bo bo bo boooooooooooooo.

Foals

This five piece indie dance amalgamation from Oxford is set to play the main stage. They were there last year as support but this year they come back to headline. Their high paced tracks with hints of punk and urm maybe a bit of funk will no doubt get the Shoreditch fashionistas revelling around.

Modeselektor

The duo from Berlin will be found on the Bugged Out stage. If you heard their Boogybytes CD from last year you will know these guys will cause a stir. House, techno, electronic dance music, the lot. They even have Thom Yorke as a fan.

Simian Mobile Disco

We all know who these boys are. They want to be our friends with those French Justice lot. They did and now we love them all. Their live show is something to be seen with the old skool synths and their taste for electronic music is impeccable. And if their forthcoming Fabric CD is anything to go by then be sure to strap on your air punching arm.

Mystery Jets

The Mystery Jets have a nostalgic kind of eighties feel about them. Their sound is slightly retro with the synths and drums. They combine it with that UK indie sound and the results are colourful. Erol Alkan has produced these guys and with once a father son lineup they’re sure to be interesting.

Crookers

Riding on the crest of fidget house, this Italian duo have been invading speakers with their blend of ghetto tech sounds with hip hop vocals on switch style fidgety beats. Plain fun bounce around beats to where those bright coloured plastic sunglasses with the struts across where the lens should be.

Tags: Benga, Crookers, Field Day, Foals, James Holden, Modselektor, Mystery Jets, Richie Hawtin, Simian Mobile Disco, The Field, Victoria Park

EarPipe Talks to Tom Baker about Field Day 2008 and Eat Your Own Ears

Thursday, July 31st, 2008 | Event Preview | 1 Comment

Field Day will be arriving on London’s door step for the second time on the 9th August. Taking place in Victoria Park, Field Day promises the alternative festival experience with music from the leftfield combined with that village fete mentality. Headlining the day out will be the Foals, Mercury nominated Fionn Regan, Mystery Jets, Magistrates, Richie Hawtin (Minus, Berlin) with a very exclusive visuals show by Ali Demirel, King Creosote (as a duo), Wild Beasts, Simian Mobile Disco, The Notwist and many more. All for under 30 bucks!

We got to talk to Field Day’s father and organiser Tom Baker from Eat Your Own Ears about this year’s festival.

hi tom, firstly for our readers that don’t know, tell us about you, what you do at eat your own ears and how field day came about?
Me and my girlfriend Natalie (who is currently putting together the Village Mentality Village Green area at Field Day this year) put together a free event a few years back outside the Griffin pub in Old Street for 1000 people a day over a summer weekend called Return Of The Rural; a village fete with live acoustic acts James Yorkston and Beth Orton alongside acts like Clinic and Four Tet. Marcus who ran the Griffin and was involved very much in making the event happen, so after the success of this we all thought we should do something bigger and on a grander scale.

A year later Marcus confirmed the use of Victoria Park and I drew up a list of people i thought should be involved – Adventures In The Beetroot Field, Bugged Out, Bloggers Delight and Homefires so we have a strong net work to promote the event through. I then started drawing up all the bands i wanted to play and started talking to agents. Field Day was announced…

Eat Your Own Ears was started by me 6 years ago at 93 Feet East on Brick Lane, London to work with independent record labels such as Domino, Kitty Yo, Rephlex, Rough Trade to showcase new acts alongside established artists. Eat Your Own Ears now works with various labels as well as a selection of artists promoting in various venues mainly in London.

I was one of the first promoters to work with the likes of Danger Mouse (aka Gnarls Barkley) Four Tet, Bloc Party, Peaches, The Kaiser Chiefs, Maxino Park and many others well before any press or media hype, Mercury award winning artists Franz Ferdinand and Antony and The Johnsons, and promotes 2007 Mercury award nominated artists Bat For Lashes, Jamie T and Fionn Regan.

I’m continuing to work as director of Eat You Own Ears with an EYOE series at Indigo in April and various gigs in venues across London from the Scala to KOKO to Shepherds Bush Empire to Bardens Boudoir…

What can we expect this year from Field Day?
After many discussions following our first Field Day last year we felt we had to do it again and make it better. We have been planning ever since, in fact it feels very much like a new festival.

We are all having lots of production meetings, sending out advances and info to the bands and of course making sure posters and flyers are everywhere and mailouts are going out, so lots of hard work and lots of fete things like bunting, ribbons and aprons arriving and stacking up the office

What’s new for Field Day this year?

New to Field Day this year is a dedicated village green area.
Inspired by summer sports days and country fetes.

How do you think the village mentality area will go down with the punters and how do we get involved?

Be great, like a village fete Village Mentality will host side- stalls and activities throughout the daytime, ranging from sack-racing to splat-the-rat to the ‘eat as many carrots as you can’ contest and the Tug O’ War.

Last year there were some troubles with queues, toilets, sound and food. what happened and is everything all sorted for this year?
This year we have brought in specialist events agency Ear To The Ground to ensure this years exciting line up is matched with full event management. Ear To The Ground has a wealth of experience in running a variety of events in England and was recently responsible for launching this year’s Liverpool European Capital of Culture.

Using Ear To The Ground’s experience of providing for large events, we’re going to make sure that the number of toilets is more than adequate to service the site this year and this provision will be significantly above the recommended level. These will include both normal portaloos and also urinals which can reduce queues substantially.

One of the biggest challenges that any promoter faces working in an urban park is getting the sound levels from the stages right. Every local authority has rules about the amount of noise you can make to ensure that people living nearby aren’t unnecessarily disturbed. We’ve been working with the local authority since November last year and have employed a specialist noise consultancy, Vanguardia, to redesign the site and calculate what levels we need to put on a great show.
Vanguardia have worked across live music from Wembley Stadium gigs to the Download festival and are very well regarded within the business.
We are confident that with the conditions we have negotiated for our entertainment license and the day to day management from Vanguardia, we will achieve a significant volume increase throughout the site to complement the exciting line up we have secured this year.

In terms of eating and drinking we have over 100 metres of bars this year provided by Peppermint, who are behind the bars at some of the UK’s most innovative and exciting festivals including Bestival, The Glade and The Secret Garden Party to name a few. There is also a wide variety of food on offer including gourmet burgers, delicous handmade pies and Cakes; vegan & veggie wholefood, Mexican food peddled from a Volkswagen Beetle and the infamous Tiny Tea Tent.

Who or what are you most excited about this year?
We recommend you see as much as you can but some highlightswould have to be Foals who played mid bill last butare now headlining the Converse / Eat Your Own Ears main stage. Their mix of stridentpost- rock / jazz / pop and electronics and poly-rhythms are intense yet catchyand should get everyone dancing… Ifyou’re a fan of Battles then you should definitely check out Foals.
Weare very lucky to have dance music pioneerRichie Hawtin playing a
special2 hour set with unique visuals by Ali Demirel on the Bugged Out stage. You can also shake a leg next door in the Bloggers Delight tent to local heroes Trailer Trash, Wet Yourself, Durrr and many others.

Overon the Homefires stage you should catch Mercury nominated Fionn Regan who plays his first London show for a long while;similar to Dylan’s early albums, but with the flow of Nick Drake… FionnRegan’s live sets are beautiful and beguiling.

Baltimore’s Dan Deacon brings his own weird takeon electro noise rock to the Adventuresin the Beetroot Field and NME Stage as he takes in influences from Devo to Talking Heads to the Residentsmixes them up and delivers a sound that could be somewhere close to LCD Soundsystem on crack…

Are there any official Field Day after parties we should be getting ourselves to?
The Official Field Day after party at The End 11pm – 7am Featuring bands and dj’s playing records including Crookers, Brodinski, Foals, Mystery Jets, Filthy Dukes and more.

£15adv www.ticketweb.co.uk £12 NUS/£16 on the door.

What makes Field Day different from your regular GlobalCreamW4s?
Its a central London event, and a good day out for a very reasonable ticket price for the 5 stages and amount of acts you can get to see and some great mix of music from folk to dance to indie to electronica, and by some bands that don’t play often or at all the other festivals.

Which acts/DJs are you particularly enjoying this year?
I am really into Santogolds album, Bon Iver’s album I am addicted to Radioheads album even after so many months of constant listening – Errors are great live as well

And finally, what would be your one tip for Field Day this year?
Get their early to see Noah and the whale and also catch Richie Hawtin, Fionn Regan, Dan Deacon, Foals and as much as i can really…

Field Day takes place at London’s Victoria Park in Hackney. For more information and tickets go to http://www.fielddayfestivals.com/

Tags: Field Day, Foals, James Holden, Richie Hawtin, Simian Mobile Disco, The Field

Bjork has cancelled but there is so much more to see according to EarPipe’s Wild in the Country guide!

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 | Event Preview | No Comments

So Bjork is officially off the bill due to stage and production issues or that illness which forced her to cancel her other date in Sheffield. Nobody knows and we’ll probably never get to know. Either way she’s cancelled and caused a right who-ha. But as they say in performance circles, “the show must go on”. The line-up still remains as is. The Battles, who were initially swaying on their appearance, will now definitely be appearing and Soulwax who are curators of their own tent will also be present. So unless you’re a diehard Bjork fan, here is EarPIPE’s pick of the bunch to catch this Saturday, leaving only the weather to worry about. Dig out your best sun dance.

Richie Hawtin

OK so our top pick isn’t really the off centre alternative choice. But you just can’t deny how good the Canadian turned Berlin scenester is. Think of this more as the solid without fail choice. More often than not Richie will deliver, trust us we have seen him countless times and never get bored. Expect driving techno beats which build up to infinity, some technical ingenuity and his trademark hair flick and clap dance.

Bookashade

With a new album out this year, the boys have been on the road showcasing a new live. Already receiving rave reviews from all corners of the world, this show is sure to excite the electronic dance heads as well as those who prefer their bands live live rather than laptop live.

Carl Craig

This man has the golden touch. Anything that he produces or remixes turns out seminal. A stalwart on the scene from the early Detroit days Carl Craig has been there, done it and decided to hang around a bit longer to show the kids what its really all about. EarPipe caught him at the start of the year and blew us away with his Detroit blend of techno combined with such musicality that only one word comes to mind. EPIC.

Dixon

Another person we caught at the start of the year was Dixon. The Innervisions resident has been at the forefront of the deep electronic house sound that has seen a recent flourish. His deep house stylings are warm, sensual and seductive, be sure to catch.

DJ Yoda

Here at earPipe we love a bit of novelty comedy to lighten the mood. DJ Yoda is the undisputed heavyweight of lightening the mood. Serious does not even come into the equation. Simply marvel and smile as he ridiculously scratches and cuts up anything and everything into an old skool b-boy rhythm. Entertaining of the highest order.

Killa Kella

Whilst we’re on the subject of entertaining hip hop we can’t forget about beatboxer Killa Kella. The former beat box champion transcends all genres from Britney to drum n bass all through the manipulation of his voice. Truly an amazing sight.

The Field
Stockholm’s Axel Willner as The Field creates some of the most epic and mesmerising soundscapes you will ever hear. Signed to Kompakt he sound is often categorised as minimal techno but it is so much more than that. Intertwining harmonies, drawn out loops and sheer epic soundscapes create a complex and intense musical environment. We caught the man at Sonar and effortlessly floated away in the sunshine on a river of mojitos.

Audion

This Saturday Matthew Dear has left his leather trousers and big hands at home for he will be in his Audion guise. What this means is he’ll be thrashing out his blend of epic twisted techno from mouth to mouth and beyond.

Danny Tenaglia

Last but not least the Brooklyn 20 hour legend that is Danny Tenaglia. Renowned for his relentless 20 hour DJ sets, this man knows how to party. The purveyor of dark twisted tribal beats, Danny will take you on a long and deep journey, then at the end he’ll kick you out in the middle of no where. Expect tribal beats with a dash of diva vocals. But do beware of the stilton clangers that he has been known to drop every so often.

Tags: Audion, Bookashade, Carl Craig, Danny Tenaglia, Dixon, DJ Yoda, Killa Kella, Renaissance, Richie Hawtin, The Field, Wild in the Country