So last weekend I coughed up the very reasonable 50 quid for a day out on the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Kilmainham, Dublin, to see a selection of well to do electronic acts rock a few stages and tents at the inaugural Forbidden Fruits festival. Caribou? Yis please sir… Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip? Oh that’d be nice… Aphex Twin!? Whoa, where’s the catch? … and sure a bit of Battles while you’re at it!
Yes the line up seemed too good to be true for the measly sum of 50 bucks, especially considering the average three figure sum for a large scale festival in Ireland these days, even a ticket for both days was not much over the 100 mark.
In short:
Dan le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip made me wonder why I havn’t listened to them more than I have…
Caribou brought the Sun in more ways than one, in a very, very good set that left me wanting much much more.
Battles… well there always has to be a weak link. It seems to me like they have really lost the plot after losing the singer… it got a bit boring.. but the drummer was fairly incredible.
Aphex Twin – Mind blowing
Jamie XX – Special mention for this, because I tried to get into it and I have clearly been pushing his GSH remix album the last few months because it is a great work, but frankly if you want to grab my attention turn the fucking volume up a bit. I was able to have a reasonably quiet conversation with my friends only 10 feet from the stage. I left quite soon after the start because it was just not enjoyable with all that chatter going on in a packed tent. I will see him again some other time… sadly I left him to see a mediocre set from Battles. (You win some, you lose some!)
In Long:
Every festival should start and end with your own bed and a hot shower. Perhaps I am getting old but what made this day perfect was the knowledge that you are only half an hour away from your own bed and a good meal, not some cold, half collapsed tent and a pack of rich tea biscuits. By 4pm I was in my 3rd pub of the afternoon and by 5.30 I had arrived at the main stage in just enough time to greet Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip on stage – all very relaxing!
They ripped it up from the get go. I had not realised how Dan Le Sac’s beats were so geared towards electronic music rather than being heavy on the sampling, as is perhaps traditional in Hip Hop. However Scroobius Pip made it clear early on that they were not your average Hip Hop/Rap group, and between the hits and songs about politics and religion they did their best to catch their breath while goading, a very receptive audience with their knowledge of Irish music and current affairs, “Chancellor of the Exchequer Louis Walsh… right?” (The term “digging a hole” came to mind, but it was clear they were taking the piss and we got the joke.)
Caribou brought the Sun. Just as they took to the stage the clouds parted and everyone’s spirits rose just that bit to kick the day into a higher gear. “You think it’s a coincidence?” quipped Snaith with the sun in his eyes after the first song. Everyone was really up for this set and that transferred to the stage with a high tempo performance of all the obvious hits and the band clearly getting into it. The sun did hide behind a cloud for the rest of the set, however as if by magic, as Snaith played out the all too familiar chords of Sun, the clouds parted once more and everyone lost the plot. From there it took off for a good 10 minute jam to finish it up. For my first time seeing them I was very impressed and it gave Swim, which had been getting old in recent weeks, a whole new lease of life for me.
I skipped off to Jamie XX at a different stage at this point. As I said earlier the huge disappointment here was that the volume at this stage was pretty much awful. The tent was packed full and clearly everyone had come to see him play on the back of his recent releases which have been turning heads all over the place. The music sounded great, and I wouldn’t for one moment give the impression that he had a bad gig as others who stayed said he put on a good show, but the noise of the crowd was nearly louder than the music itself and that is simply not good enough at a festival. If i wanted that i’d go down the pub with my mates… It was clear they were afraid to bleed into the main-stage sound and so were keeping it quieter, fair enough but I made the decision to leave.
Battles awaited me back on the main stage, and perhaps I should have gone further afield at this point as the set that was to come would not exactly have me run out and buy their new record as soon as I had the cash. They stuck to the new material, all written since the departure of their “front man” (debatable term), and it really failed to impress me. Looking around, most people were watching them, or simply watching the drummer. They were certainly not the best to dance or clap to, and the things they were doing were interesting but failed to really engage the audience. After the highs of Caribou it was a bit of a shame but we all got into it as best as we could and a lot of people really enjoyed the set. At least it was a chance for me to catch my breath before Aphex Twin…
I’d need it.
Aphex Twin… well what is there to say really. When I got home to read my twitter it seemed every music conscious follower I had was curious about what he was playing… perhaps his new release is the most quietly anticipated release of the decade.. there is not much to speculate about as you get what you hear with Richard D James, nothing more and nothing less. Now I am not a connoisseur of his music by any stretch of the imagination, I do have a lot of his material and have enjoyed some songs more than others, but what he showed on Sunday night was that somewhere along the way electronic music forgot to be patient and truly experimental.
It was a solid 1hour 30min mix of pure untamed electronic experimentation. Breakbeat, house, techno, IDM, jungle… anything and everything. Perhaps it is a reminder of the vast array of music he has produced in the past and the many genres he touches upon in his compositions, but behind all of this there was a sudden reminder of where all of this popular electronic music thing really started. We weren’t looking at a celebrity plonked front and centre for us all to worship in their musical glory. James was surrounded by screens, quietly going about his business right at the back of the stage in a patterned woolly jumper… it was purely about the music. For some it was lacking focus, unsure of what to look at or what to do, for others it was a refreshing blast of how it was always meant to be.
I am nuts about live visualisations to music. No really… nuts. So I was thrilled to see that two cameras at the left and right of the stage were filming the crowd and providing a live feed for a VJ to manipulate live, in time with the music, and like the music it was truly mind bending. I am curious if it was in fact Chris Cunningham working in the background considering his work with Richard D James in the past and that this was very much a rare gig this summer for the artist. I’ll look into it. But to put it simply… it featured random text, black and white line patterns, vibrant colours, a rotating teddy bear, group photos and lasers which I am fairly certain had his face at the end of them… or I was just seeing things (A huge possibility). Of course the weird image of his face were all over most things and plastered on the recorded faces of people in the crowd… it all added to the madness really. (I will have better pictures of these visuals later)
The music was a master-class in how to build a crowd. I can’t remember exactly how it went, as I was well and truly nose deep in the moment and loving every second, dancing my little heart out. I was certain I heard a bit of Xtal in there and he cracked out a bit of house/techno in the middle that blew the crowd away… but for the most part it was a carefully crafted soup of beats and breaks. Near the end he stopped for a short moment (one of only 2 or 3 in the whole set) and broke into a slowly building mix of jungle beats that touched on 165/170bpm at its height (at least it felt like it did…). By this point the crowd was well and truly under his spell, and he eased into a dubby beat that took everyone by surprise and had everyone cheering his beat-wizardry, applauding his craft with electronic sound and rhythm… a rare occurrence these days when most electronic producers keep the experimentation in the studio and bring finished work to the stage.
Once he had called an end to the madness and quietly walked off stage without even a wave I found it hard to leave in the hope that he would return but alas it was soon clear he had done his bit and what more could we ask for really? He had well and truly reminded the audience that day that he has a few more tricks up his sleeve and the new album (when it happens…. IF it happens) will most definitely be something to check out.
All in all Forbidden Fruits (on the Sunday at least) was a great day out, for next to nothing. Will definitely be checking out the line-up next year if it becomes an annual thing.
The best bit… other than the music of course… the VERY best bit… was falling asleep on my own bed once it was all done. No mouldy tents for me, thank you very much!
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.