Sonar Report Pt 1.

Well what a weekend… 3 days, 2 nights and a plethora of visual and audio entertainment makes me a tired bunny… but my, what a happy tired and slightly sun burnt panda eyed bunny I am…. And the cause for my worn out but happy state? It is of course Sonar!

Arriving late Thursday night meant missing the first day of festivities and therefore missing such musical delights as James Holden and a rare appearance of Ricardo Villalobos’ laptop supergroup Narod Niki. However being in Spain means the clubs don’t get going until late, so there were plenty of places to get the party started such as Get Physical’s label party at Razmatazz or Soma at La Terraza. That said I got stuck in a bar and got drunk until the early hours followed by some late night la ramblas delights!

After Thursday’s poor attempt at reaching anything interesting I pulled myself out of bed nice and early into the glorious Barcelona sunshine and headed straight for Sonar Day. Held in the architecturally magnificent CCCB centre which fused old and modern styles, and for this weekend only, a massive music/art event plopped in the middle of it. Donning my shades and my new favourite Addidas Sonar branded bag I headed for the Sonar Village to take back the sun, laidback hip hop and of course a beer. Now as is the usual case with Sonar by day I tend to go minus a programme and never really figure out when or who was on(I have enough trouble figuring out where and who I am). This year was more of the same. I saw some excellent hip hop djs scratch it out. Out back in the marquee I saw some great collaborations from a variety of instruments and electronic music. Taking a break from the daytime sun, I took a look inside. Checked out some of the installation art, and had a play with all the interactive video stuff in there. Some crazy things they can do, such as super imposing alien like features on to you (Shadow Monsters 1, Shadow Monsters 2). After that potential freakout hazard it was time to make a sharp exit to find some beach parties down on Mar Bella beach.

So after an afternoon of milling round Sonar by day and a timeout to recharge for the night’s festivities, we headed out to the Sonar by Night complex a massive exhibition centre in the middle of an industrial estate a few miles outside of Barcelona. To imagine the size is probably not possible, I could give you statistics on how many jumbo jets and football fields fit inside, but you just cant comprehend how big it is until you get there. The Sonar folks do a good job of kitting the place out. Big video screens and speaker stacks all around with surprisingly good acoustics, so you never miss a piece of the action wherever you are in the huge cauldron of people. The night’s events are spread across 4 arenas, SonarClub which is the daddy of all exhibition halls plays host to the big headliner acts. Then there’s the Sonar Pub and Sonar Lab two large outdoor concrete areas followed by the Sonar Park the smaller but just as monstrous and confusing indoor hall with an outdoor name.

Friday night and the most obvious port of call was to see the Beastie Boys. They burst onto the scene with a huge anticipating crowd that erupts into probably one of the most electric atmosphere’s I’d ever seen. I’ve never been the closest follower of the Beastie Boys and their material, but they put on an excellent live show; dropping in those familiar nuggets I recognise whilst pushing some of their new instrumental sounds with the odd punk and thrash out moments together with the legendary and World class Mixmaster Mike stringing the flow together allowing the Beasties to move between tracks seamlessly using famous old skool hip hop beats and the odd scratch skit here and there. Truly a marvel to watch! Their set peaked to an end with a Mixmaster Mike 3 MCs and 1 DJ scratch skit into the hugely popular Intergalactic allowing the crowd including myself to blurt out things like “style…profile….”, “I like my sugar with coffee and cream” and “let the beat… drooooooooop” whilst doing b-boy style poses and hand movements. Definitely a scene that would have a load of old skool b-boys turning in their graves, but entertaining all the same!

After being blown away by the Beasties it was time to check out some of the Ed Banger stable. With their increasing portfolio of talent, one of their brightest dj talents DJ Mehdi takes to the stage, dishing up everything from party hip hop laced with electro beats, some chopped up heavy house switch sounds, mixed in with some of that “nu-rave” stuff whilst throwing in a good measure of party just to be sure... Definitely clean unpretentious fun, with classic gems such as Inner Citys – Good Life to make you throw those old skool shapes.

Caught the start of Uffie with her Miami bass sound to body pop to, but of course she had to make way for the traditional Richie Hawtin Sonar set. This year Mr Hawtin only occupied a 2 hour slot at 3am as well as being located inside the SonarClub to devastate Barcelona; which is a shame because I was hoping for something as equally devastating to Sonar 2005 where he legendarily closed the Sonar Pub one bright Sunday morning. And I think because of this, his set was only enjoyable and not outstanding, with me expecting something more magical which I guess you can only achieve by being outside, with a few thousand other people and the sun rising whilst I cling to a bottle of warm vodka lemon fanta and have my guts resonated by some monster stack of speakers. However with a hint of disappointment and as much as I wanted to re-live a memory, I still boogied my ass off to his techno sounds, thoroughly enjoying every bass drop and robot echo effect thing he does so well. He also dropped Plastikman –Spastik which sounded incredible on the Sonar sound system and made me wish I had been in the thick of the crowd instead of lingering round the edges looking for a drink. Being a 2 hour set Richie had come and gone like one of those hookers you get off La Ramblas late at night. I felt used and empty but slightly satisfied, but this did allow for a little run around for my tiring legs to check out Digitalism pumping out their electronic sounds and everyone’s favorite rubber faced German Timo Mass. Followed by a circle back to pick up flagging mates and to see the end of SMD or Simian Mobile Disco for those not on the trendy Nu-Rave scene. SMD were pretty entertaining, however I had scene there set numerous times around the UK on their recent tour so I decided to call it a day and struggled for the buses to get back to my not so comfy hostel bed.

SONAR REVIEW Pt 2