Sonar 2007
A slice of Testcard and a sizeable chunk of The Hive Collective decamped to Barcelona for the fourteenth annual Sonar festival of progressive music and multimedia arts recently. For me, half the attraction of Sonar as a festival is the location; Barcelona is a city where days start slowly and nights can last a very long time indeed. Spread across two locations, three days and two nights, this steady approach to music consumption mirrors the slow release satisfaction of tapas. So you order a bunch of stuff, some old faves and some weird action you aren't really sure of, share with friends and see what happens...
Thursday's was probably the weakest lineup of the festival, and points towards a more cautious approach to ticket purchasing in future. Blixa Bargeld's portentous Buddha Machine fiddlings and Piana's overly sweet cutetronics led to scurrying towards Sonarmatica's gallery of new media art - a fantastic meditation on high tech sleight of hand that made the day's trip to MACBA worthwhile. The DC Recordings / Bear Entertainment free party at Club Mix was a groovily soundtracked hoot rounding the day off nicely. Friday started with a brisk hangover breaking dip into the conveniently located sea before making it up to see Nettle, DJ Rupture's project that uses live musicians to more explicitly make the connections between beat mash, dubstep, crunkage and the North African vibes beloved of the likes of Shackleton et al. It was an unexpected treat. Another followed. Black Affair, Steve Mason's new outfit arrived with little fanfare but their low key electropop was a definite personal highlight of the festival, this mix indicative of influences probably explains why. Unfortunately my ability to get into Sunn O))) and Clarke was a victim of either my poor timekeeping or a lack of competition on the bill for the majority's attention, something which was a recurrent theme of the daytime Sonar gigs. Haswell and Hecker's alien attack on the senses distracted for a while but the lure of a few beers on the beach grew stronger. Again relaxed timekeeping meant we missed the Raster Signal, but The Beastie Boys extended set of greatest hits and more, and another fantastic Cornelius a/v performance made up for some of the misgivings about the daytime programming. Skream was tearing it up at Sonar Lab as we left, the dubstep virus really taking hold of Sonar this year. Last year we caught Various Production off Sonar at Sidecar and they were promoted to Sonar Complex this time round, adding three live vocalists and rinsing the soundsystem for all it was worth, another live highlight despite a somewhat disappointing album late last year. Honourable mention goes to the Israeli deejay Kalbata spinning breaks in the RedBullLounge and overcoming the heavy branding of the space to get the crowd a jigging. Back in the Dome the minimal stylings of Modern Love were going down well with the crowd and I caught the end of a stirling set by Claro Intellecto. If I could have had a peseta for every time a highhat appearance was cheered I'd be a wealthy man, is this European enthusiasm or is most minimal really so bereft of highlights? On to check out Wolf Eyes where an extra from Texas Chainsaw Massacre was playing a log, intensely, and earplugs were necessary. Saturday night meant restaurant and alfresco beers. Sunday dissolved into Monday via beach party and an unexpected dalliance with a lunatic as the sun went down on Sonar for another year. Bang for buck-wise Sonar is slipping, but as thoughts turn to alternatives - and many European cities want a piece of the action - it may prove a tough act to follow.

Flickr pics here.