Sonar 2006#1
Two thirds of Testcard spent most of last week holidaying it up, with good company, in the delightful surrounds of Barcelona for the 13th year of the Sonar festival. Its a great festival in a great city which always manages to offer up unexpected surprises. In 2004, these surpises included a fantastic pair of performances by Rec_Overflow and Apparat, both of whom were unknown to me at the time but have become increasingly familiar ever since. This year's line-up was, on paper, rather bizarre in that it emphasised the inclusion of Japanese noise performers and HipHop in what has traditionally been an electronic(a) hoedown. However, the fact electronica purists - a raggedly conservative bunch at the best of times - were decidedly aggrieved by the inclusion of acts like Chic and Rahzel meant attending their performances was a must, and reaped appropriate dividends. Witnessing spontaneous circles of dancers emerge to the strains of Sister Sledge's hymn to disco narcissism 'Greatest Dancer' was worth the trip alone, its unlikely similar events ocurred during Jeff Mills' onslaught. Other early highlights included The Knife's amazingly gothic pop - one of the best starts to a gig I've seen for a while, although it must be said that such a dramatic entrance was difficult for them to follow. Broadsheet favourites Tunng's jangly crunch folkage passed the time pleasantly enough in Sonar Dome, and its good to see a band enjoying themselves as much as the audience, a theme followed in the same venue on Saturday by local heroes the Pinker Tones. Friday's daytime highlight was discovering a party on the floor below the record fair, part of the set up for the RedBullMusic Academy. The scheduled DJ was Pilooski but the tunes seemed to be emanating from a chap who looked curiously like Laurent Garnier to me.
Regardless, the early Hac tunes hit the spot, even the escalators were gyrating. Off Sonar highlights included the Bear Entertainment / DC party at Fonfone with the excellently monickered 10ft Badger accompanying Steve Kotey from Chicken Lips. Skwonky discopops and hi nrg provided the week's first flipflop dancing action and set the tone for many late nights to follow, most of which were spent quaffing cava and cerveza at the conveniently nearby beach parties. Off Sonar lowlights included arguing with uncompromising exit doors at the M_Nus party and not quite getting the hang of traversing flowerbeds as they are being watered. We live and scarcely ever learn... Dubstep, as opposed to dub, was curiously absent from proceedings. On Saturday afternoon, having emerged from the raster-noton listening bunker, we were greeted by a dj in Sonar Village trying to raise the static hordes with an hour or so of current classics but to little avail. The Werk / XL party at Sidecar on Sunday night was more succesful, crammed with Brits to witness current blogster favourites Various Production shaking the foundations. The next Massive Attack crossover success? Either way, if dubstep continues its current trajectory expect to see more when we hopefully all end up at an equally intriguing fourteenth run of one of the best festivals around.