Parklife 2013 Reviewed

Parklife in Heaton Park, Manchester was this past weekend and had a lineup that's pretty strong for dance music fans including names such as Four Tet, Simian Mobile Disco, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Madeon, Goldie, Boys Noize and Fake Blood. Here's some of the highlights of my experience of the two days.

Quote of the weekend
'If I had a brain, I'd be suicidal'
This was said by some girl who sounded cripplingly Manc and already drunk pushing her way through the queue on the first day, the scary thing: if someone like Socrates or Nietzsche said that people would think it profound.

Crazy P
First thing we saw on the main stage, pretty spectacular with some fun music and strange girations from the lead singer.

Delphic
Played straight after Crazy P, the first band I was really looking forward to and they exceeded my high expectations, alternating extremely smoothly between tracks from their two albums. The best bits were the slow buildup to the repeating intro of 'Doubt' and the drop on 'Clarion Call' which just sounded amazing.


Fabio
Good set from the drum and bass legend but what I enjoyed most were the pearls of wisdom from his MC Texas such as: 'Remember: some water, bit of sun cream and you're set for the day' and 'Go home if you ain't got the stamina'

The Temper Trap
Kind of sad to listen to, they were fine but people only really cared when they played 'Sweet Disposition.' The same can be said of The Maccabees lack of a reception for most songs except 'Pelican' and 'Precious Time' but on a larger scale later in the evening, however they were pretty sloppy which was conspicuous given how good Delphic sounded together earlier on, on the same stage.

Jag Skills
For someone who throws so much into a DJ set to keep your attention, it's astounding how much he struggled to keep mine. I know he's a mashup DJ but by cutting too many samples too short, some only to one line, he didn't sustain any momentum for me, nonetheless I seemed to be in the minority.

Melé
The first DJ I saw on David Rodigan's stage, very pleasant in the open air on such a good day, Zinc was good as well


Jurassic 5
So at 7pm on the main stage J5 killed it, they played their classic tracks like they'd not been apart at all. DJs Cut Chemist and Nu-Mark did this cool thing with a massive prop turntable in the middle of the stage (the picture below might explain it) getting about 6-7 minutes just to themselves, the reaction from the crowd for 'Quality Control' and 'Concrete Schoolyard' was incredible and their performance of 'What's Golden' rounded out the spectacle in superb fashion.


Everything Everything
The final band I was really anticipating seeing put in a good set on Sunday night consisting mainly of hits; the choice of 'Tin (The Manhole)' I found slightly confusing though. I was impressed with how well Jonathan Higgs' falsetto held out with how weak it sounded on opening track 'Cough Cough'

Keeping it real - My views on recent trends

Justin Timberlake
I'm quite ambivalent on the two new songs from JT that have been circulating. 'Suit and Tie' has many flaws that I can point to: Jay-Z rapping like he only cares about his paycheque instead of the song, the lethargic intro which keeps repeating the phrase 'shit tied' which just sounds ridiculous and the chorus comes across as really cheesy, but I guess that comes with the territory of a song called 'Suit and Tie.' Having said that I think I'm mainly disappointed that the catchiness of the first line of the first verse doesn't carry on.

The other song that has been doing the rounds is 'Mirrors' which is a much more laid back pop ballad and quite reminiscent of the soulful R&B songs that came out a decade ago. I see it as being a very pleasant listen, however considering the full version is 8 minutes long, JT doesn't make good use of the time he spends and could easily fit everything in 5 minutes or less. Had there been greater complexity to it I'd seriously be considering buying his new album.

Editors
So Editors, one of my favourite bands (so much so that the first header I made for this blog was taken from some of their album art) has a new song called 'A Ton of Love' released two Mondays ago. I have to say, it hasn't got me looking forward to their new album, their first without lead guitarist Chris Urbanowicz who left because of differences in 'future musical direction' which doesn't appear to bode well for the rest of their new material. A lot of people have commented that it sounds a lot like U2, which I thought the first time I listened to it as well, particularly with Tom Smith lifting his voice in the refrain in very similar manner to Bono. The other thing it sounds suspiciously close to is 'The Cutter' by Echo and the Bunnymen. While the intro I thought was a welcome return to the guitar work from their first two albums, it also kind of shows their lack of direction, alongside not really having compelling lyrics. One of the things I really liked about their earlier lyrics was the fact they didn't need to talk about love to sound interesting, whereas now their lead single from the album 'The Weight Of Your Love' is 'A Ton Of Love' and it appears there's nothing left for them to make songs about other than generic, rockish love songs. My final gripe (that ties in with how how I've just described the new song) is that its under four minutes long; there's only one song shorter on In This Light and two on An End Has A Start which again makes it look like they aren't exploring with their music like they used to.


PSY
As much as I loved the fun of 'Gangnam Style,' as it was a breath of fresh air after a summer dominated by 'Call Me Maybe' because of a noticeable lack of competition I'm struggling to reserve the same patience for PSY's new song 'Gentleman' which proves his success could only ever be a one-off. As a novelty song, it didn't matter that there's under five English words in it, because people enjoyed the childish humour of the video, the dancing and the lively beat, but the nature of novelty is it doesn't last. The awkwardity of the majority of the lyrics being in Korean is only matched by how awkward the English lyrics feel, almost wrestled in to make something recognizable for us Westerners. Not to mention him singing 'Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you wet' as if he's a rap artist from about 10 years ago. The video has PSY arsing about and dancing, presumably to entertain non-Korean viewers, and again, it worked the first time, the second it just seems like its begging for your attention to be held any way possible.

Daft Punk
So 'Get Lucky' has been top of the UK charts a number of weeks and will get a lot of spins by the end of the summer with its warm, lively, disco feel thanks to the contribution of Nile Rodgers. Its not too recognizable as a Daft Punk song as well with their ubiquitous, repetitive vocal style taking a backseat to Pharrell's singing, only appearing two minutes in, which to be honest I don't mind. The track to me feels very similar to quite a few other songs, mainly 'Don't Stop the Music' by Rihanna 'Say Say Say' by Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney and it didn't surprise me that I found mashups with both of these with a quick google search.

Reviewing a few albums

An Awesome Wave - Alt-J
So I got this for Christmas and have to say for all the hype I'd heard it get, it didn't live it up to it. There's a few things I'll say to elaborate.
- In spite of a lot of people praising the originality of this LP; to me it sounds like a band that at some point in 2011 got together and said 'I know, we like Bombay Bicycle Club, Everything Everything and we like bass fairly heavy. Let's see what we can do with that.' They don't sound original, they sound like the fruit of the last few years' trends in indie music.
- The lyrics are that pretentious, it means you can't take a lot of this music seriously. First time I listened to 'Tesselate' I heard the words 'Triangles are my favourite shape, three points where two lines meet' and thought that's just silly.
- It's an album that would be much better as an instrumental album, the interesting variation of the instrumentation is let down by the vocals, they're sang in a dull, uninterested, nasal manner and as I've already said, the lyrics don't help as well.
- The interludes really kill any momentum created, they could probably be developed into songs but don't go anywhere. The Intro is probably the best sounding thing on the album, its problem is it's not a full song and the vibe it creates is killed by the next track being a capella. Moreover it doesn't serve the album well to begin with two tracks that are so different whichdon't even last four minutes together.
Overall, it's still a reasonable album, it's generally pleasant to listen to but I think is let down in so far as Alt-J have just tried too hard and hence compromised what they did well.



Portishead - Portishead
So Portishead's second album: not nearly as good as Dummy. The first thing I think it misses is the intimacy that I took for granted with their first album. It felt like you were sat in the same room as Beth Gibbons as you listened to Dummy, but with Portishead it feels like you're watching her in B/W on a cinema screen. In tracks like 'Cowboys' and 'Seven Months' she sounds like she could be a classic female movie villain like the witch from The Wizard of Oz. Nonetheless there are some really great sounding moments where the music and vocals work together to really portray doubt, uncertainty, dependence and fear. Compared with Dummy which kept a fairly consistent air about it, the intensity seems to be noticeably more polarised, with the quieter moments being in my view the better part of the album. The closer, 'Western Eyes' is probably my favorite song on the album. It's a somber but very well put together number with evocative strings and piano alongside Gibbons' tender vocals; then concluded with a interesting sample of a soul song from of their own making.



Controlling Crowds - Archive
I've taken to this album very much as it is a superb combination of two of my favourite genres: Trip-Hop and Progressive Rock. Originally a trip-hop act, Controlling Crowds incorporates some heavier guitar riffs with catchy and isn't afraid to take its time to build up well and create great anthemic moments such as at the end of 'Bullets'. While there is a good tempo and beat kept throughout as is natural with trip-hop and electronica, it doesn't impede the creation of dramatic yet catchy alternative rock. There's also a great mix of vocals as well, with male and female singing and rapping featuring noticeably but without one dominating. 'Controlling Crowds' is the title track and opens the album making plenty of impact while displaying a very patient temperament.



Eye In The Sky - The Alan Parsons Project
A classic 80s progressive rock album, nonetheless there's certainly quite a lot of fun moments with catchy pop rock songs like 'You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned' and 'Step By Step'. Influenced by Orwell's 1984, the LP deals with the themes of surveillance within the context of government and religion. 'Silence and I' is an fantastic ballad with heavy orchestration making a great finishing instrumental.

My Top 12 Christmas Songs

12. The Power of Love - Frankie Goes To Hollywood


11. Christmas Lights - Coldplay


10. In Dolci Jubilo - Mike Oldfield


9. Little St. Nick - Beach Boys


8. When The Thames Froze - Smith & Burrows


7. O Holy Night - Andy Williams


6.A Winter's Tale - David Essex


5. White Christmas - Bing Crosby


4. Step Into Christmas - Elton John


3. A Spaceman Came Travelling - Chris De Burgh


2. Saviour's Day - Cliff Richard


1. Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
And remember, it's not Christmas until you've heard this song, scratch what anyone says about John Lewis or Coca-Cola ads. I heard this on Wednesday, and now it's Christmas!!


Have a wonderful Christmas and an even better new year

Some of My Favourite Instrumentals

Crime of the Century - Supertramp
The catchy piano repeating gives a lot of room for the strings and the saxophone to work, also the sound of the water gong is a really nice unique touch


Open Your Eyes - Snow Patrol
This is an instrumental that really has the feeling that it's got a lot of motion to it, the video probably helps that aswell


Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
Both solos are excellent, not sure which I prefer but both count


Parisienne Walkways - Gary Moore
I prefer this instrumental version of this classic rock track. He's just showing off to be honest


I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead - Mogwai


November Rain - Guns N' Roses
The epic moment when Slash gets upon the grand piano with the string section behind him


After Glow - Foals
Hard to not wind up air-drumming in this song, the clarity and impact of the drums beginning the instrumental after the hazy feel of the guitars throughout the first half is terrific


Disappear Like the Morning - Hammock
A superb relaxing instrumental track...nice irony that the band's called Hammock then

Vfest vs. Leeds/Reading

Leeds is this weekend, V was last weekend, not too many great acts on either lineup, this are the few acts I'd possibly care about seeing if I was bothered enough to be at either.

V:
Newton Faulkner
Still not bothered to listen to his 3rd album, his first two were fun though


Friendly Fires
Umm, yeah, clutching at straws already. Good band, and had some nice tunes last summer


Keane
Didn't see any coverage, they'd have been wise to play more early stuff


Stone Roses
Playing literally every festival this year


Leeds:
The Cure
I'm told they were excellent at Isle of Wight a few years back playing a three hour set. Probably the most solid of the headliners this summer


Metronomy
Not too much competition on Sunday night, up against At The Drive-In and Kasabian


Passion Pit
The only band I'd actually pay to see at the festival, why they're three behind Foster the People I'm not sure


Odd Future
Who wants to play spot the hipster?


Florence + The Machine
Could easily steal the show, Kasabian won't be depending upon stuff from Velociraptor! to try to top it I'd imagine


Leeds nicks it 5-4, but neither festival is worth the money and spending a few nights in a tent

The Most Absurd Youtube Comment Ever

This was the top comment (with 78 thumbs up) on Lana Del Rey's "Video Games"

One day when we are all older, riding with our kids in the backseat going god knows where, this song will pop out in our system and after the song ends our kids will tell us to put it again because they really like it. Then as our parents told us about the Beatles, Elvis, and all the other greats and how they were there to witness the music, we will tell them about the music of Lana Del Rey and how we were there to witness it.

Ummm, oh dear