So yesterday I gave you the new tune in preview of the release of the XX’s highly exciting second album.
Today I do a similar thing for Bloc Party’s long anticipated 4th album called Four.
As I mentioned in my review, I heard a couple of snippets at Heineken Open’er in Poland earlier this month and I loved what I heard.
So I give you the first released single in wait for 20th of August when we get to hear the whole thing.
Here is Octopus
MasMusic I wish I could make a soundtrack to my life and breathe in the notes every day
So as I mentioned I was privileged to hear snippets from the upcoming second album of the XX.
They have now released their official first single Angels.
This is not my favourite from the previews they gave us at Heineken Open’er Festival of the new work to come, but still a wonderful track.
Calm, simple yet enchanting this single is bound to continue to create a hype and fascination about this unique band.
So here it is. Hold your breath for the full album release Coexist on the 10th of September.
[yotube=www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nW5AF0m9Zw]
MasMusic I wish I could make a soundtrack to my life and breathe in the notes every day
So I am back with your daily tunes. And as promised I come bearing gifts.
As you (should) know I was off to Poland for the Heineken Open’er Festival. You can read about my full experience on a day by day, blow by blow review right here:
Of course during my music trip I found some new inspiring tunes and artists.
So here is the first of this, Major Lazer. The music project by two DJs: Diplo and Switch. They mix all type of funky beats and genres together. Unfortunately I did not manage to get to see them in the highly packed schedule but I just can’t get enough of this song.
It’s called Get Free.
I’ll be dealing with my inbox now – enjoy
MasMusic I wish I could make a soundtrack to my life and breathe in the notes every day
So Day 4 all started with me trying out a Polish punk band Cool Kids of Death. Talk about embracing the culture. Rap in polish is a lil difficult to attach yourself too. However they were still fun for a good old jump around in a teenager dominated marsh pit. Unfortunately towards the end of the performance the heavens Opene’ered up and the rain started. What was a few drops quickly turned into a storm with thunder and lighting. Luckily after about 45 minutes of heavy rain it all stopped and the performances manage to continue with a short delay.
Mumford & Sons were up next. And although the opening song was a weak one (I think possibly a new one) they followed it up with their entire top hits one after another and the folk (let’s not say country – I hate country) frolicking was pleasant to say the least. What with the newly formed mud lakes we could all have been jamming in a pig farm.
But I cut that performance short as I had already seen them last year at Primavera and was keen to watch the whole of Bat for Lashes.
And what a good choice that was. Bat for Lashes was the most enchanting performance of the festival. As Natasha Khan came out clothed from head to toe in a heavy patterned long dress and matching headband she looked like a pagan princess. Her stage moves were also very impressive (although completely different to those of Alison) and enchanting. The tent this time transported us to entranced moonlight feel. Her voice is nothing short of perfection – she hit every single of her notes, while rocking back and forward with her arms out like an Egyptian queen. Occasionally shaking some Latino looking shaker. It all felt so natural and intimate that she was giving you a little part of herself without it being much of an effort.
Highlights for me were of course Precilla and Daniel as I am not as familiar with her new album (which of course I will now proceed to get to as the performance was incredible).
And then the grand ending on the main stage: The XX. And it’s really strange what this nothing short of bizarre band could do the crowd. I adore the XX. They were my musical food and fuel and obsession for a good 5 months after their debut album came out. And I can still listen to their album, loving every single song on the album (which is rare) and never getting tired of it. So impatiently I waited right up close to the stage, surrounded with hard-core (and annoyingly pushy) fans. And as the trio took on the minimal misty stage (they are abusive users of smoke machines) the musical drug started and on it we stayed.
The XX are that weird middle ground. Drawn out sound with a definite beats, but too fast to be slow and too slow to be fast. You are just not quite sure what to do with yourself at their concert. And somehow we were all ok with that. The voices Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim are as clear and piercing in real life as it is on the CD. I am still amazed how hard-core and distant the punkie looking singers/guitarist look and how vulnerable and delicate their voices sound. Don’t judge a voice by its cover. And just like The XX the most breath taking moments are the ones when they sing together and let their voices intermingle.
I was again very pleased to hear some new singles off their much awaited second album. And I am delighted to report they also sound fantastic. So only great things ahead. They have a little more bass/slight electro/mixed feel but fantastic and still as originally sounding as the first album. You can see that Jamie Smith (also doing solo mixing work under the name Jamie XX) is adding a great deal of value to Romy and Oliver.
The crowd was obviously giving the band much love as Oliver repeated several time that he was blown away by the Polish crowd, so happy to be here and sorry it took them so long to come. However no matter how much we howled no encore. I guess it’s just too cliché for them.
As the main show finished we walked back to the tent one last time to catch the Africa meets Electro brilliant mix of SBTRKT. It was a really fun act to end the concert on. We gave our tired legs one more jam session.
And as we finally retreated to the Heineken Lounge and drank our final drafts of the festival and laughed at some memories that had been cemented in the mud and in our hearts we felt a bit surreal about all that had happened and how it was now over. The festival had drawn us into this new world and was necessarily ready to leave it.
But we weren’t the only ones with a bit of nostalgia. Walking back a crowd was forming around what a must of been very drunk guy (either on music or beer but you can figure out which is more likely) who decided to pitch his tent in the middle of the mud puddle in the camping area and angrily kicked around in the muddy water. Whatever floats your boat man.
On to day 3. Here you start thinking that beer is your normal diet and can hardly get water down (jokes aside).
What a packed day. We warmed up with a quick run to catch Toro Y Moi at the Tent Stage (slightly disappointed) and then ran back to Bloc Party.
AND IS BLOC PARTY BACK. I caught this iconic band about 3 years ago just before they took their break (read Kele selfishly tried to go solo and had a bit of a flop). That day in Greece, after popping 3 pain killers as my wisdom’s decided to create mountains in my mouth, and braving the concert alone they won a place in my heart. And it’s good that that place was warmed up again after a long silence.
They are back and better than ever. And the foursome has not changed. There’s of course Kele –
– who by far has the most powerful voice of the festival and just like Bon Iver – has a range of a demon. High, low and everywhere in between but all with the strength and confidence of a move trailer voice over. He has such a big mouth big lips and his vocal chords just resonate with might as he beautiful blurts out the sounds. And an incredible iconic and unique tone of voice.
There is Matt Tong the drummer. Who hit his drums so hard in the sun that he took off his shirt after a serious sweat session. He created just as much sweat on all of us as we jumped to his beats. Hands down the best drummer of the concert. INCREDIBLE skills. And then the two guitarist. Who were obviously born to create music. Who skills are beyond question. But who look as bored as if they were playing at an old age home. No emotion, no movements And you know what that’s fine. Kele and Matt have enough energy for 10 people.
They played songs from all their albums. I was also happy to hear a couple of new singles off their much awaited new album – and the good news is that even after one performance they sound freaking awesome. So can’t wait for that to come out (or the torrent to be leaked). They still didn’t play Kreuzberg (my fav) but I will just need to keep going to watch them till they do.
And then what may have been THE performance of the festival Franz Ferdinand. This was a SHOW. Franz Ferdinand, which my friend Sarah rightfully said looks like a child molester with a bad haircut, has (surprisingly) the confidence of a King. And even with his unattractive face being sprawled in the back drop behind him you can’t do anything else than respect him cause he pulls it off. The band just rocked. The energy was as high as the Heineken Star at the top of the stage and we all jammed away. FF’s songs are just made for a festival. The songs are powerful, original yet easy to listen and sing to and can’t help but get you on your feet. This music was made for jumping. And jump we did.
The lighting was also excellent – with beams resembling power lasers lighting up the sky and blaring from the stage. But the highlight of the performance was in no doubt the 4 minutes 4 way drumming mania. All four members of the stage attacked the drum kit for a full fledge mania. This was just an amazing build up and the entire stage went wild.
And as they finished with burn this city, burn this city we were left with a high that would last.
In fact the right high for us to then run back to the other side of the world to catch some M83.
You may remember I saw M83 earlier this year in Lausanne. So you can read more there. But unlike Justice (and most bands) who came down a notch when they performed at a festival, M83 came up about 1000 notches. One of the reasons was probably that the entire crowd was going CRAZY and sending them so much love. The response from the crowd was incredible and they could not do anything but raise their energy to match.
And as they played Midnight city and the tent material nearly shook from the screams and jumps of the overflowing tent there is no doubt that is a performance they will remember. As they lifted their arms to create a heart shape with their hands the entire crowd copied it and it was clear that a French-Polish strong love bond was made. Check it out below to see it for yourself.
BIG THANK YOU TO FELLOW CONCERT ROCKER TOMMY FOR THE PHOTOS AND VIDEOS.
Gin – ku – ye.
Or however you may say it. This is the one word artist repeatedly try to pronounce to thank Poland and Open’ er for the wonderful experience. And I can’t help but repeat the same.
Just back from the four days Heineken Sponsored Opener, life does not feel the same. Where is the mud? Where is the noise? Where are the long distances to run? The sausage and long bread (zapiekanka)? The smell of the ToiTois and sweat? The masses of people everywhere? And most importantly where is my beer?
A four day festival really draws you into a different world. All needs and desires get reduced to basic necessity: eat, drink (beer), toilet (hold your breath), and sleep (scarce). The rest of your energy needs to be focused on one thing: THE MUSIC – and getting as close to possible to it. Especially if the line-up looks like this.
For only 90 euros, this year Opener not only had one of the top line ups but was also the best value for your buck. Hands down. As the programme only started around 6ish every evening (lasting till 2ish in the morning) you had time to enjoy the Polish beaches during the day (which were much better than expected) as well as embrace the Polish culture.
Overall I was very impressed with the festival. It had about 85 000 concert goers and two main stages with three or four smaller ones. In my opinion, this is the perfect size of a festival. Anything with more than 2-3 main stages you waste so much time running around and choosing between acts its more frustrating than fun. And the bigger the line-up looks the less likely you are to see any of it properly. Even now we ran plenty and didn’t get to see everything we wanted and praised the one hour brakes we did get.
Everything was very well organized – especially the transport to and back from site (we stayed in a small town nearby) – with busses coming literally every 10 seconds at all times of the day and night. The food and drink stalls were numerous with queues being tolerable. The food stalls were mostly Polish ‘specialities’ although there were also Greek, Indian, Thai stalls etc. The toilets were – well toilets at a festival. I think there are no miraculous cures here yet. Scientists are still prioritizing the HIV cure before we get onto this repulsive entity. Apparently the camping wasn’t too well organized though – with queues for showers lasting up to 3 hours and being far apart (good decision not to camp after all).
The polish festival crowd is exactly what you would want as a music fanatic. Highly enthusiastic, friendly and responsive crowd yet not aggressive. And luckily so – as I was surprised with just how little international people there were. I hardly heard any other languages than Polish and got a couple of looks when I spoke English. Although on the weekend I heard some good old Brits here and there. I guess Poland is still seen as unfamiliar by the majority – and summer festivals in sunnier destinations like Spain or Portugal still woe the holiday goers.
And we got lucky on the weather. I nearly cried when the forecast for the four days was rain, rain, rain and rain. But apart from a small deluge of 45 minutes on the very last day we didn’t get a drop during the festival time. However it rained every early morning which ensured we got a fair bit of mud to handle during the day. If ever you are in doubt – Wellies are the only way forward in festival. Always.
So the music.
The festival opened with none other than The Kills. What a bang to start with. But almost a pity as I would have wanted the music stretch to start with something a little lighter so I could have been looser for this incredible band. I saw The Kills back in November last year – following a month where I listened to them and only them for about 6 hours every day. After an amazing performance it was clear to me that the duo was nothing short of SEX ON STAGE. And their performance at the festival was at an even higher level. This band is ROCK N ROLL on steroids. They have the presence of gods and the moves to match. No one looks hotter than Alison and her dance moves as she bangs her head and her messy blonde and pink hair goes flying all over the place. Tight skinny pants on her long legs, lace up boots and a jacket with minimal top and rocking accessories is her repeated look – and she owns it. The energy bounces of VV as she grinds around the stage and the entire crowd can do nothing to do but stare.
As for Jamie, he strings his guitar as confident as can be (he is married to Kate Moss after all) and with his few but effective moves he is the hard-core rock pillar allowing VV to rock around his Hotel. When they sing facing each other and let their voices intermingle so perfectly you cannot feel but strength in both of them. And that they must have had sex numerous of times. Even if surprisingly they are not together. That intimacy cannot come without it. There are several rumours that they were dating before but it’s hard to figure out which bits are true or not.
And all that energy and boom and that was that. The first act of the festival was done. And off we were. Running to get a beer – then having to down it in 10 seconds when we realized you could not take it out of the designated food areas until 11pm (with the occasional sneak) and running to the other side of the festival to catch Yeasayer.
If there is one thing that I think Opener could improve on – it’s reducing the distance between the Main stage and the Tent stage on the other side of the old Airfield grounds. This is FAR – and since most of the major acts were back to back on either sides of the field with at least a 15 minutes overlap – it meant that you missed a good 30 minutes of some acts (and were pretty breathless when you arrived).
Anyways run we did and it was well worth it. Yeasayer were jamming! The tent is wonderful for electro style music as the atmosphere created by the closed environment can really be amplified by good lighting. Yeasayer sounded nothing short of amazing live and we danced hard to the sound – which I must say was of a much higher quality than where I first saw them in Barcelona two years ago.
Then next up was the headliner (which surprisingly was) Bjork. There is no doubt the lioness haired Bjork is nothing short of striking. Her performance was highly intensified by the large female choir behind her. All dressed in pagan looking clothing you felt that the performance was done by mystical creatures praising the elements. And with the DNA style videos it all kind of fit. Not my style of music but still a great show.
The final act of the night, what a privilege, was the old school legends New Order.
It’s no secret to anyone that I am very much a new age fan and my knowledge for the oldies is limited. But the reformation of what was Joy Division after the suicide of Ian Curtis caught more than my respect. It was just incredible to see them perform with all the energy they must have had at their peak. These legends who made huge leaps in both new wave and electro music gave us their all. This is what I call a build up. Have a look.
They also performed some Joy Division songs and it’s quite something to say I got to see Love Will Tear Us Apart Again live.
All of this in a day. WOAH. We trekked back with happy faces, both for what had just hit us and for what was to come.
MasMusic 