I was there the second day and here's how it went:
I started out going to see the Monday Michiru concert, which turned
out to be only her spinning CDs... Well, the music was pretty ok but
there was an extreme lack of anything the resembles DJ skills so I
actually left, despite being a Michiru fan! It might work on a
club tour but *never* on a outdoors festival where you have the
"competition" from some of the worlds best DJs. Sad.
There was a huge crowd expecting a lot from Jamiroquai and it all
started out quite nice with good response from the audience. However,
the band seemed a bit uninterested and the music wasn't as tight and
moving as Jamiroquai is capable of. JK was also on an extremely silly
mood and he was constantly talking about getting some marjuana. I
don't really understand that. In my mind only the wee kids rave about
how drunk they are... All in all, the Jamiroquai gig was a bit
of a disappointment.
We quickly moved on to see the Chemical Brothers. Great sounds, and
definitely more on the experimental side. I wasn't really expecting
that. It was a really nice set.
The absolute highlight for me was the Roni Size, DJ Krust & MC
Dynamite gig. They played in a (too) small tent which was simply
packed with people. The response was huge, to say the least. They span
really simple and basic instrumental beats, and I guess that was a
good example of the recent discussion about simplified music here on
the list. MC Dynamite was sometimes joined by Cleveland Watkiss
who I personally like a lot more. Basically, all these guys was
really into the gig and the crowd danced like mad for the whole two
hour set. When we left left the tent was a cloud of fume above the
area from the heat! Brilliant gig.
There was a lot of interesting DJs playing that day. Most played
really, really hard techno (I suspect from Andrew Weatherall?, and Bob
Jones? and Mad Mats). I like this kind of techno with a touch of a
"club" sound but the techno stages didn't attract that many people I'm
afraid.
Laurent Garnier also did a nice set with loads of weird electronic
sounds. David Bowie was never my hero, but the concert was nice and I
feel he's always interesting somehow. The version of 'fashion' he
played was a real killer.
Sorry to say but we had to leave before Monkey Mafia and Anokha
feat. Talvin Singh took the stages.
Cheers,
Erik.Boralv@CMD.UU.SE Webmaster: http://www.cmd.uu.se/AcidJazz/
Center for Human-Computer Studies Admin : acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Uppsala University, SWEDEN