Original Photography by Ricardo Vamp.
Brighton’s
Great Escape festival has really come
into its own over the last few years. Now touted as the biggest conference and
festival in Europe, it takes the spirit of the
Camden Crawl – mixed with the business focused conference program
like
Amsterdam Dance Event – the event has gradually become a hot spot for new and established acts to play to
crowds, professionals and labels alike. And of course, there’s plenty of young
hopefuls, searching for their lucrative break and chanceful meetings, armed
with flyers, CDs and big beaming smiles.
Of course, the focus on
The Great Escape is one that tradionally revolves around the notion of indie music and tradionally hasnt fcosued on much to do with electronic music. Sure, there are a plethora of bands,
all of whom circulate the southern city, ranging from the punk-rawk of
Creep to the disco vibes of the now
rolling juggernaut that is
Friendly
Fires (who once gave it their all on the mean streets of Brighton), the
post-hardcore synth-rock of
T3ETH and
rising post rock band
Gallops and
hotly tipped
Cloud Control – but the
overall, and often stigmatised focus, remains on the stereotyped image of ‘Indie’
music.
However,
Data Transmission can officially report that amongst
the industry gumpf, the spirit of ‘Independent
Music’ still reigns, featuring bands of all kinds - sponsored, signed and un-signed and rising
bands alike, playing in small hovel bars to the grand spaces of
The Corn Exchange or the brickwork club
haunt
Coalition.
At times, with the line
up choices, it would seem that organisers embarked on a booking frenzy,
picking bands and acts that would sell plenty of tickets and attract young
punters and musician hopefuls alike. On the plus-side however, this booking
frenzy heralded a crossover in terms of range of acts available, with a heavier focus on
electronics led bands and acts which will hopefully continue to rise in later years.
Speaking of selling
tickets, the main attraction on the opening night of the festival housed
Beardyman and the legendary
DJ Shadow.
Set in the grand theatre of the
Brighton Dome, DJ Shadow brought his
Shadowsphere concept to life – for those
unaware, Shadow plays inside an orb, with images projected onto it with a rectangle
screen placed behind for depth of images. Honing in on a giant world map grid
at the start of the set, he targeted Brighton – keeping in tune with his
relentless and sometimes obsessive touring and worldwide appeal.
Throughout the set, the screen
and orb went from a wall of 808 synths to planetary smashing and images of
Susan Boyle’s eyes falling out, VJ
controlled to the backdrop of Shadow on the decks, spanning harsh breakbeat
laden versions of ‘
Private Press’ and
‘
Entroducing’ classics, dubstep
laden, sine wave heavy bangers and even choppy breakcore edits of classic
jungle rhythms, Shadow impressed a tightly squeezed house with a stunning visual
and aural experience. The legendary turntablist showed doubters that he still has the magic
touch, keeping the crowd rocking without coming across as totally standardised
cheese.
Before him, and warming
up the crowd with a seemingly classic hip hop-focused set was
Beardyman, proving his live show had
come into full fruition with a live setup featuring interlinked kaos pads,
pedal controlled vocal looping systems and much more, graciously rewarding a
crowd close to his heart from memories of his days in Brighton, banging out his
own versions of everything from
Fix Up
Look Sharp to
Valley of The Shadows
and
A Tribe Called Quest numbers.
Elsewhere, Data
Transmission caught a most impressive set at Brighton’s famous
Pavilion Theatre for noisy, dancey and
rave tinged kids
Gang Gang Dance,
who recently released new album
Eye Contact on
Warp records. Shouty, hypnotic vocals paired with equally trance
inducing guitar riffs and sturdy, marching drum beat break-downs, Gang Gang
Dance made an entire crowd shake their limbs in an almost unified fashion with
supreme sex appeal and danceable, party aesthetics.
Holy Ghost played a well received set, that although was greeted by
great applause and packs of fans, fell short to a sub standard sound system,
that even at time failed to pick up their infectious, high end melodies and
sounds in tunes such as latest single ‘
Wait & See’ and others – although their
most popular tracks such as '
Hold On' rocked
Digital’s aging splendour with grace and presence.
Ninja Tune also held an off program
night at
The Hope, but due to the nature
of the small scale setup, a less than desirable crowd and an incident earlier
in the evening involving broken sound desks, the venue fell short of giving the
institutional label the massive jump up it always deserves. Still, after a few sets from
Emika and
DELS,
Slugabed took to
the stage – the sub got thicker, the beats got heavier and the crowd started to
shake, warming up nicely for finishing act
Dark
Sky. DELS on the other hand had apparently played a stomping show earlier
in the evening at
Concorde 2 before urban pop hero
Example also took to the
Next Big Thing stage.
Friday, sadly our final
day, saw the festival pick up in terms of pace and numbers. Where the first day
had been manageable in terms of crowd control, queue shortening and enough
people and bands to offer a real intimate and important experience, Friday
proved harder to navigate around as people from miles around descended upon
Brighton.
Friendly Fires were the main attraction at
The Dome, playing classics from their
breakthrough album and also their new edgier, experimental album ‘
Pala’, to an even more wedged-in crowd,
showing that they had enough heart to warm up an audience that had watched them
turn their humble beginnings into album shifting, genre bending global success.
Coalition housed more
4-4 acts, with Australia’s jacking, heads-down house merchants
Bag Raiders whipping up the crowd with
a blend of deep house and techy electro that went from minimal to tear out and
back to bleepy and sporadic choppy beats, before
Stopmakingme continued with a set that spanned house,
electro and disco – while other venues in the city were shutting down at around
2am, the two main clubs down on the edges of the beach were rocking – even if
one was blaring out youngster fuelled indie disco in hyper-charged fashion.
Elsewhere hotly tipped
acts such as
Katy B played at
The Corn Exchange, opening her lungs to
an impressive range and clarity, although the high end vocals and power of her
delivery drowned out any source of sub bass production – she also performed
live with a band, and although you may love or hate her music, her talent and
execution is very special indeed. Before her, indie post-dubsteppers
SBTRKT waded in with an introverted but poppy
and danceable live show, wielding popular tracks that mixed strained but tense
emotional vocals with driving and throat gripping sub bass.
The Great Escape has earned
itself a glowing reputation in one of Britains brightest cities, built upon a
diverse line up and the cream of music (and the industries crop) with a creative
- ambition and drive that seems to rise each year – including mixing up the
action with more electronic influenced acts and sounds. But unfortunately, as
is all to frequent with city based, multi-venue festivals, the heaving crowds
and misinformed venue choices seemed to be the Achilles heel of the city, leading to larger than life queues that often stopped people in their tracks. Lacking in the stadiums and gigantic halls of venues such as
Koko and
The Roundhouse in London, people found themselves inside a catch 22 situation
in that their favouriteS were so close but yet so far – as to be expected
with musicians who have hype and press following them around like bad smells.
Aside from this, a buzz
seemed to envelope the city, proving that the East Sussex hub had creative
freedom, drive and determination. We look forward to seeing how the diversity,
musical programming - and widening genres - of the festival grow, so it can
really earn its title of ‘Europe’s
leading conference for new music’.