Dodgy DJing and Joy Division? (Dance Day (Saturday))

Member Name: Ian Proudfoot

Product:	Dance Day (Saturday)
Date:	15/07/01 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great Music, Bus service , Brillant organisation

Disadvantages: Muffled sound in DnB tent

With Glastonbury off the menu due to the foot and mouth crisis ,last year’s crowd problems and the tragic events at Rosklide. The V festival turning even more into corporate hell with Richard Branson cast as the devil. Reading/Leeds Carling Weekend offering the most derivative and unchallenging line up since the year of Meat Loaf, Bonnie Tyler and Starship. Things were looking bad for the UK festival circuit. Praise then to the organisers of the Essential Festival for producing the most eclectic and interesting festival line up of the Summer.

Initially things didn’t look good for the Essential festival, forced to relocate from Brighton (foot and mouth again) to Hackney Marshes in East London. The change of venue looked like it was going to cause problems, particularly since the new home was unproven for holding such a large scale event. Link this to a weather forecast that was one of rain and intermittent sunshine and my heart began to sink. Memories of Reading 1992 flooded back, memories of heavy rain, waterlogged fields and mud that threaten to pull and bury you under the ground.

The good thing about being a pessimist is that your never disappointed and arriving at Stratford train station things began to perk up immediately. There may have been a little rain in the air, but this seen cleared and surprise of all surprises the Essential Festival organisers had arranged buses to ferry people from the station to the festival site. After a short wait , we were on are way to a journey into the magical and diverse world of dance and electronic music.

The Essential festival like Glastonbury is structured around having several stages. Unlike Glastonbury all these stages are in Marquees. The main Essential Stage is the place to find all the large name live acts. This year headlined by the Stereo MCs and Public Enemy. Whilst the other stages support a large range of current dance/electronic music forms from the mainstream chart
orientated Ibiza trash to the experimental and leftfield world of the underground.

My day kicked off with a visit to the Wax/Flux tent to catch a DJ set from the legendary baldy techno boffin Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman). His set of minimalist techno went down well with the majority of the crowd who seemed to get over excited by a few simple 909 kicks. Personally Mr Hawtin’s left me completely unmoved and to be honest bored me. Maybe it was because it was early in the day or maybe it’s because minimal techno has had it’s day, but I soon wandered off to other pastures.

Second port of call was the British Underground stage to catch a rare DJ Set from dark breakbeatologist
Zan Lyons. Technically Zan’s DJing skills are equal to mine i.e.: bloomin’ awful, but his set contained a fantastic mix of Digital Hardcore, Power Noise and experimental sounds. He also coolly dropped Bjork, Radiohead and Joy Division into his musically bludgeoning and groundbreaking DJ set. Pity there was not many people around to see it.

After catching a snippet of DJ Rap’s and Andy C’s drum and bass sets in the ‘Legends…” tent. Both sounding bizarrely muted and quiet compared to the other tents, it was of to see the first live act of the day Cakeboy. Discovering Cakeboy was a bit of luck, because of the poor sound in the ‘Legends..” tent we had decided to go to the Experimental tent to catch some nu-school breaks and nu-school breaks is what Cakeboy delivered. His live set of deep electro groves, slamming break beats and throbbing 303s was stunning. Anyone who could stand still during his exhilarating set most either a) be dead or b) concreted to the floor. Trust me on this one, the name Cakeboy is one to look out for.

Next it was over to the main stage to catch the Lo-Fidelity Allstars, Reprazent and the legendary Public Enemy. The Lo-fis once again proved why they are not on
ly the best artists on Skint but one of the best live dance acts in the UK. Tracks like Battleflag and Disco Machine Gun still have sounded as powerfully funk driven and fresh as they did four years ago. Let’s hope that a new album isn’t too long in the offing as the Lo-fis are at the height of their powers and as happens to so many great bands a long wait between albums can be crippling,

The Lo-fis are then followed by one of Bristol’s finest acts Roni Size and Reprazent. Reprazent played a strong set, mainly culled from their recent In The Mode album but also including the awesome Brown Paper Bag from New Forms. Who told You is delivered at hyper speed, with MC Dynamite’s vocals tearing around the accelerating breaks. Whilst In + Out is delivered with the phatest bass line of the day. Reprazent prove that live drum and bass is equal to any amount of angst ridden nu-metal bands in terms of sheer power.

There are few bands around who deserve the accolade Living Legends. Public Enemy however are one band who do. By the time Public Enemy arrive on stage the main tent is rampacked with people come to worship at the church of Chuck D and Flavour Flav. Public Enemy however are without Terminator X, which is a big disappointment. They also suffer from having a muddled sound where it becomes difficult to pick out individual sounds. They storm through a greatest hits set that includes ’Don’t believe the Hype‘, ‘911 is a Joke’ and ‘Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos‘. Sadly there’s no ‘Bring the Noise’ or ‘Shut ‘em Down‘. Even though the sound is ill defined, the presence of Flavour Flav makes up for it. He involves the crowd in call and response and that cry of ‘Yeaaaah Boooooy’ still remains one of the gems of modern music.

After Public Enemy it was time to head home, the Stereo MCs no longer being the force they were. A short wai
t for the bus back to the Station and it was all over. The Essential Festival was the best festival I’ve been to in a long time. Not only was it full of a wide range of music, it also had a relaxed atmosphere were people could just chill out.

However the main thing that made it for me was how well it was organised. From the free buses to the bars everything was run smoothly and efficiently. After the shambles that was the bar system at Radiohead the week before it was fantastic to be able to get servrd immediately at the large number of bars on the site. For a change I feel like writing a letter of praise rather than negativity to the organisers of an event. So is with great pride that that I give the organisers of the Essential festival the coveted Mr P Thumbs up award for organisation. Keep up the good work people.

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