Full Greenman REVIEW: Saturday!!...Pt.1

Hello and welcome to Greenman review: SATURDAY

So after Friday's feast of musical loveliness, how could Saturday possibly top it? Basically, put Bon Iver, Grizzly Bear and Andrew Bird on the same bill and you're going to do pretty well. Saturday's line up also contained many little surprises and new faces (to me at least) that made it just as beautiful as anything you could ever experience.

Peter Broderick

so, what did I know of Peter Broderick before GM. Not a lot. It is to his credit, that I am now obsessed with opening every channel of my being to any recording that Peter is a part of. His 2009 full length, 'Home' is a calming influence on me whenever I play it. The album may be a simple set up of nylon-stringed guitar and some vocal effects, but produced with a balletic quality that separates it from the usual singer-songwriter, acoustic bollocks that is churned out so readily.

Back to the performance. Broderick takes to the stage with the audience's attention (okay, mine at least) drawn to his angular Scandinavian features and his shoes. I liked his shoes, and was pleased when he wore them again at bestival, whilst performing with Efterklang. The stage set up consisted of a 'Owen Pallet style' combination of loop pedals, keyboard, violin and both acoustic and electric guitars. Broderick's talent for combining sincere lyrics and pretty melodies won over the crowd and his stories that linked songs together left me feeling jealous of such a bohemian existence, oh well. Well played Peter. Saw him in with the civilians on the sunday, nice guy! Although there were no "I've just made a fool out of myself in front of Jarvis Cocker - esque" psychiatric breakdowns. Lame.

Beach House

Don't think I don't like Beach House, because I sure do, but I was not in the MOOD, so Johnny, Ben and I went to the film tent to watch, a film

The Film Tent

Okay so in the film tent I saw two short features, one was a welsh production, a short monologue of a women and her estranged husband is gone....has a couple of kids....yawn.

The real star of the afternoon was 'Trolley Man'. For more info click here. Ernest Smith is a pensioner who collects abandoned shopping trolleys and returns them to there 'owners', the supermarkets. The film follows him around Enfield as he locates trolleys and comments on how "the nearest (insert supermarket) must be, oh... about three-quarters of a mile from here". It then portrays his bafflement as some supermarkets don't want to be pestered about collecting potentially useless items that they have subsequently replaced. The film dabbles, in a light-hearted manner, with themes including: the spaces that abandoned trolleys occupy in urban landscapes, the administrative holes that Ernest annoyingly (from the POV of the council etc.) highlights and most entertainingly, the portrayal of the character of Ernest. Click on the link to view the film (its only 13-14 minutes long).

Forthcoming Posts

Coming Soon:

• Greenman Review: parts 2 and 3
• Warehouse Project 09: Thrasher
• Subloaded 5th Birthday Bash: 31/10
• Grizzly Bear: Ar 6/11
• Broadcast: Cube 6/12
• MAYBE: Battles, Flying Lotus: London 5/12
• A RESPONSE to the Epigram's list "most loved albums 00-10"

Basically my 'beef' with Bristol's student music press and basically how terrible it is (with the exception being Luke Morgan Britton, of course) has turned this "blog" into a more of a personal exploration into "journalism". It will be poor, but perhaps a few will enjoy what I have to say about the gigs etc. that I attend. COMMENT if I am bad, COMMENT if i'm good. COMMENT if you are non-plussed.

ps. Is anyone else getting seriously pissed off with Charlie Brooker's constant tweeting about Modern Warfare 2? JEEZ

Full Greenman REVIEW: Friday

Okay, so I may not be the most prolific blogger (as has previously been alluded to), come to think of it, I've never been prolific at anything, ever, but I intend to right this wrong. Now.

Let me start with a MORE comprehensive tale of what went on this summer: mainly Greenman and Bestival music festivals.

Greenman

What a fantastic weekend. With my buddies, camping in a gorgeous valley in the Brecon Beacons, beautiful music and such a friendly and comfortable atmosphere.

I knew relatively little about this festival up until a few years ago; from which point I desperately wanted to go. But only by be-friending some natives did Greenman become a definite on my summer calender. No doubt the line-up this year was stellar on Friday and Saturday, with Sunday appearing to be the weakest of the three days. My worries were quickly squashed by a certain Aussie three-piece though (more on that later).

Greenman Band Reviews

Friday: Broken Records

This Scottish band seemed to fit the identi-kit nature of mid-afternoon, main-stagers, in terms of band composition anyway: couple of guitars, bass and drums (Obv.) accompanied by the omnipresent String and/or Brass section. By this time I was sick to the back teeth of twee folk-pop (something compounded by We Aeronauts amongst others). So when the thick Scottish drawl from frontman Jamie Sutherland cascaded into a cacophony of ringing guitars and yelps (much rawer than on their record "Until The Earth Begins To Part") I was pleasantly surprised. Good performance, Good band. Overall their sound live can rival that of say Arcade Fire (the archetype of these bands), but they need to encompass this on record to truly achieve anything of note.

Errors

Oh to be lumbered with such a moniker....at 7 pm, "The British Battles" took to the stage on the Far Out stage. Living up to being billed as a blighty's version of Tyondai Braxton and co. shouldn't have gone as well as it did there that night though. Errors are a band who despite the inevitable comparisons, manage to produce math-rock in the upper-echelons of artistic merit. Granted they don't have an 'Atlas', but they certainly have ripped up the 1:20 000 OS Map of Post-Rock and its surrounding area and through both unrestrained expression and attention to detail, have produced a unique sound (Little Geography analogy there).

British Sea Power

One of the STAND OUT performances of the weekend for me (and Rhian of course). BSP came to Greenman on the back of the release of Man of Aran (see my first post) essentially a soundtrack, but best described as a piece of grandeur: BSP do Post-Rock...everything the 'Great Skua' (from their last rock release 'Do You Like Rock Music?') was and more. POURING ON THE EPIC. But this is a festival, so obviously, with the exception of the aforementioned 'Skua' the set was a wonderful 45 minutes of BSP bliss. Tracks such as 'Lights Out For Darker Skies', 'No Lucifer' and 'Remember Me' were performed with an endless abundance of energy. Truly Memorable for BSP fans. FUN times for those not familiar with the material

Four Tet

One of Greenman's most unique features is that mostly there is very little overlapping of headliners. This means my fears of having to choose between Animal Collective and Four Tet were averted . PHEW. Kieran Hebden did not disappoint. Up until Four Tet began, there was a lot of speculation as to what kind of set this would be: DJ set (including "the hottest 12" this year, of course, Kieran's collaboration with Burial) or Pure IDM? The answer was a bewildering combination of both. This may worry you. A cop-out? Not a chance. The combination of extended melodies and construction of each track's textures and sophisticated blending from one track to another left the audience aurally challenged, whilst enough of the beat remained to allow for a sporadic form of 'dance'. Hebden curated a merging of the new Burial productions (Moth and Wolf Cub) and the Old 'Rounds'- era electronica into something that resembled a soundscape more akin to his last full length, 'Ringer'. Breathtaking.

Animal Collective

Having seen AC play the Trinity Centre in Bristol, at Easter, I was not alone in expecting a set-for-the-ages from these guys. To be fair, we never gave them much chance. The expectation was so large, the setting so 'perfect' that AC were always going to fall short. Mind you many still cited this performance as one of their favourite ever sets. AC were knackered. They appeared weary and loose and their trippy-merriweather-heavy excursion into PSY-folk did not truly fulfill the crowd's expectations. 'Fireworks' shouldn't feel like they have been playing it for 15 minutes, even if they have, it should be effortless, but the experimentation sapped energy from the main-stage crowd, as opposed to releasing it upon them. Finale 'Brothersport' was by far the best track, and was received the best.

Verdict: AC's set was a trippy-masterpiece. It was just a bit shy, and hid in the trees around Sugar Loaf Mountain.

Saturday tomorrow (maybe)