Day 2 and my day starts like the opening scene of Apocalypse Now, lying in bed sweltering in the afternoon heat whilst the whirring fan moves warm air around the room, there is the distinct lack of napalm but definitely a presence of a hangover and a really dry mouth. I’m struggling to move for anything… until I realize that C2C are playing the Sonar Village… Who can refuse DMC scratch routines outside in the sun? not me! I lug myself to the bakery pick up my all in one breakfast, lunch and probably dinner filled croissant and head straight to Sonar. With my croissant in one hand, beer in the other, all under the glorious Barcelona sunshine whilst C2C run through some of their World beating set pieces. What better way to take in turntablism at its very finest.
For the hour they were on they did a whole host of individual and team routines, scratching and juggling with the finesse, showmanship and that injection of fun that made them 4 times DMC world champions. Its skits like their interesting rendition of Pulp Fiction’s Misirlou (link) that makes C2C technically brilliant in a turntablist way but also fun to watch and heavens forbid even good to have a dance too.
For Saturday rain was predicted in Barcelona, and in true festival style the heavens opened up for a down pour. Well I say down pour…. Its Barcelona, the slightest specks of rain fell for all of 2 minutes then the clouds parted and it was more of the same sunshine… God I love Barcelona, and only wish we had this climate for such festivals like Glasto and Wild in the Country. So after the initial scares of a downpour I check out some French flavored hip hop stylings in the form of Hocus Pocus. Not really having great command of the French language, I fail miserably at making sense of what’s being sung, rapped or said, but they do sound good and like a lot of French hip hop they retain that element of funk that is so often lost in the aggression from the tower blocks of UK hip hop. But this is what makes Sonar so great, just seeing things you wouldn’t normally see or hear, hearing different influences for different countries of what effectively is the same music.
Probably one of the highlights of Sonar by day over the weekend is the Red Bull Music Lounge. Now over the two days this room was bumping and jumping all day without fail. Its success lays down to the intimate space the Red Bull Lounge occupies with the living room décor as well as the podiums and mezzanine areas, which gives it that illusion of a packed house party vibe with people literally climbing the walls. So get a few people in there, play some beats and you have what is known as a “party in a can”. However this doesn’t mean the DJs weren’t any good. Red Bull had hand picked a selection of DJs that definitely added to the atmosphere, playing the right music, from deep house, to broken beat right through to some tribal and stripped back styles. Although above all this, the entrance to this area was probably the most memorable. I don’t usually get that excited about entering clubs, but the entrance to the Music Lounge was like something out of a film. Being on the top floor and me being lazy, meant the lift was my mode of transport inside the complex. The lift to reach the music lounge was via a incredibly small metal lift, which provided many a good opportunity to be pushed up to some hot Spanish girl’s cleavage. But in my fickleness my attention turns to the doors as you reach the top. The doors slide back, on to what can only be described as an extravagant and rocking house party with a hundred or so people hanging off the rafters. Think that scene in Human Traffic when they hit the after party in the mansion out in the sticks.
Moving back outside to the Village, the Lovemonk Soundsystem had transformed the mostly sit down chilled out affair for the first part of the afternoon into a full swinging party, their disco and house sounds had brought the whole of the Sonar Village to their feet setting up the crowd nicely for Junior Boys. After a few technical difficulties the Junior Boys take to the stage with their electronic pop and soul sound. I was expecting something a bit more housey then it finally clicks that this aren’t the guys from Junior Boys Own but just Junior Boys from Canada. I guess that’s my queue to leave.
Arriving a bit later than expected to the Sonar by Night complex, I had already missed some great acts. Devo who were recommended by many people including the Beastie Boys had already been and gone. The M_nus label showcase with JPLS and Tractile was done and dusted as were Damien Schwartz vs Tadeo and Matthew Dear's Big Hands (and might I add tight leather trousers). Bit annoyed by Sonar for sticking all those acts on together in one go, they could have spread them out a bit, but I guess they do say you snooze you lose. That said I still had time to check out a bit of Dixon and his deep stylings out in the pub. I must say this guy has been on fire recently, transcending the deep house, down tempo and slightly minimal pigeon holes, with probably what is becoming the sound of this year. He warms the Sonar Pub up nicely, getting bottoms moving with his edit of Herbert's Moving Like a Train, a track that he's been pushing a lot on his CDs recently. By the time I leave the SonarPub Dixon has stepped up the tempo to some jacking house and the crowd go with the flow as I scoot off to see Mr Mills.
On my way back over to the SonarClub I swing by the Park to catch the end of the original beatbox grand master, the beatbox innovator and all the other hype he spurts out about himself, althought he does fail to mention he is the nubmer one Jabba The Hutt impersonator with a cap in all his hype. Yes it is of course Rahzel who’s doing his usual thing with DJ in toe JS-1. I don’t think his routine has changed too much over the years, but it’s still entertaining and it does create a good atmosphere all the same, not to mention the guy is very talented. However I try not to enjoy it too much after seeing him hand out his CD after a gig in Notts in exchange for cash. I can’t imagine Rahzel being that hard up? tut tut Rahzel, if only your mother really knew.
Anyways after spitefully seeing Rahzel, I caught Cursor Minor on my way to Jeff Mills. What I thought was a eco warrior who had taken over the stage, was in fact Cursor Minor and his outfit. He had some good beats and some interesting sounds which had me and a lot of other people moving, although I didn’t stay too long to see if Cursor Minor was going to dig a swampy style protest tunnel as the extra terrestrial looking Jeff Mills was on next door.
I've always been a bit skeptical of Jeff Mills, I always
hear excellent reports about the man, yet the few times I’ve seen him he's only been ok. I've been told I’ve missed the golden age of Mills, which is a shame, because from the stories I’ve heard it sounded like this man used to rip it up like no other can. Looking past my pessimism, he did play an excellent set, dropping big tracks from now and yester-year such as Ame - Rej and his trademark The Bells, as well as working those 303 beats. Actually when i think back he does have a pretty unique sound and because he's slowed down a bit on the bpm it’s made it a bit more accessible for me I guess. I only wish he would take a little more care of his mixing rather than trying to control too much at the same time. But then I guess that would take away from the Mills experience.
From one techno legend to the next, the Dutch residing Dave Clarke takes to the decks in his usual blazing car crash style. This man just doesn’t hang around. From the get go, he's dropping 100mph tracks whilst scratching, cutting and juggling like only Dave Clarke can. There is one thing a Dave Clarke set is never short of and that’s energy. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s definitely worth seeing for a little bit just to see him switch things up so quickly and also to have a little chuckle at some of the ridiculously hard tracks that he drops.
To give my tired legs a break, I go outside next door to see its 1992 again. Altern8 are dropping every single hardcore classic track from back in't day. All the big hitters like Sweet Harmony and Let Me Be Your Fantasy were dropped whilst i precariously made shapes to a time where I was more worried about my packed lunch than raving in a field. My friend who was just slightly older loved it. He had heard all the tracks on Fantazia tape packs but was just too young to experience the 1990’s rave thing. So leaving those guys to it I headed off to see Miss Kitten close the SonarPub arena. She's doing a pretty good job, playing a mix techno, house and quite possibly borderline prog trance as she wails over the top quite affectively. She even went uber minimal with Bodzin and Romboy's
The Old Alchemist which rumbled out over the massive rig as the sun slowly rose over the bruised and battered crowd. Again it’s no Hawtin 2005 closing, but she’s not far off. Come 7am I’m cutting my losses and making a dash for the buss where there is already a sizable crowd scrambling to get a seat. The bus heads past the infamous Sonar carry on Anti-Sonar where hundreds of people clambering through the hole in the fence, looks a bit mental in there, think I’ll save that experience for another year.
