Although I’ve lived in Brighton for a few years now, this is the first year I have attended the Loop festival, which focuses on electronic music with the tag-line ‘A festival of digital culture’. I now regret not attending earlier, as this is an excellent festival which had a fascinating and varied line up for 2008. Its also a one-day festival, eliminating the hassle of camping and reducing the nightmare of festival toilets! The two main tent-based stages (the Hub and the Futures stage) were in Victoria Gardens, a small park sandwiched between two main roads on the Steine in the centre of Brighton, with an outpost consisting of the two smaller stages in the University of Brighton Salis Beney building, the Limits being indoors and showing some excellent short films as well as bands, and the Outer Limits (as the name suggests) outside in the courtyard, focussing on more acoustic acts. The two venues are separated by a road, and my only problem with the split venue was the frustrating fact that alcohol couldn’t be carried between the different stages! As with all festivals, the schedule unfortunately sometimes presented me with a dilemma as two or more bands who I wanted to see were on at the same time, but I managed to catch a good number of them- I haven’t reviewed everything I saw here. Also fortunately, the very dodgy weather forecast was spectacularly wrong with sun or clear skies all day.
Liverpool’s Wave Machines where the first act of the day on the main Hub stage. As always for the first band on a festival bill, the crowd were thin on the ground, but those who were there undoubtedly enjoyed the music, described by the guide as ‘a kind of arty, lo-fi psychedelic pop’. Whatever genre it is in it was hard for me to find comparable bands, though the music is undoubtedly based in indie guitar music, a first sign of the eclecticism of a festival described as focusing on electronic music. Wave machines are easily distinguishable by the masks of their own faces that they wear on stage, but the music is far from threatening, with helium-fueled vocals and sonic invention making for a very enjoyable sound which will definitely appeal to fans of bands such as Super
Furry Animals. This is definitely a band I will look out for in future.
Wave Machines were followed by a trip to the Limits to hear A Scandal in Bohemia, who have previously appeared alongside better-known post-rock groups such as a silver mount zion. The five-piece band are young and formidably talented with obviously extensive classical training, each member able to switch instruments at will – the band used at various times trumpet, guitar, keyboard and flute alongside various more obscure instruments, with vocals provided by three different band members and superb drumming. The music itself has very strong contemporary classical elements alongside strong post-rock dynamics with a thrilling progression through many of the songs from delicate melodies to climactic walls of noise, and the overall effect is very powerful and an extremely impressive live spectacle.
The next stop was Seb Rochford and the theremin expert Pamelia Kurstin. The distinctively big-haired Seb Rochford is a very talented drummer who I have seen perform before -he has played with a large number of bands in the Brighton area and further afield, and is instantly recognisable! Pamelia’s command of the theremin is hugely impressive and my exposure to that instrument previously is pretty much limited to the Doctor Who theme tune. Parts were played live, then skilfully tweaked and looped in real time to build up multi-layered soundscapes. However I am unfortunately still not a convert, the overall atmosphere created was darkly atmospheric and suspenseful, but too reminiscent of horror movies for both me and my girlfriend and we left to look for other sounds.
Sticking to the University of Brighton outpost, London group Sunharbour were next up on the Outer Limits stage. Their music is warm and mellow, with a classic 90s sound reminiscent of down tempo electronica acts like Zero 7 and Groove Armada. There were two female vocalists and one male vocalist sharing the small stage with 9 other band members including a 3-part string section- so many members that the lead singer struggled to remember the names of everyone at the end… To me this huge band did feel like too much, the acoustics were probably not ideal for the band but the strings in particular were almost inaudible and my personal feeling was that their sound could probably benefit from paring down to the key elements. Nevertheless, the music was undeniably pleasant and skilfully performed, even if I will be sticking to the better-known acts mentioned above.
Gilbert were a more interesting proposition, with a warm and melodic
electronica sound that definitely doesn’t take itself too seriously. Like many of my favourite electronica/ IDM acts, with whom they definitely have common ground, Gilbert understand the virtue of simplicity when matched with well-chosen sounds and a strong melody (its the way I try to produce music as well- http://www.northcapemusic.co.uk ;-)). However, unlike myself, they are also a very entertaining live band, with an appealingly happy Japanese singer, bass player, drums and Gilbert himself (with a classical background and an alternative day job of film and theatre soundtrack work) on keyboards, violin and vocal monologues, delivered wearing a Stetson and in an American accent. The sound is above all upbeat as well as thoughtful and well-composed, delivered with flashes of humour.
Following Gilbert it was time to move back across to the main site, to see The Bays on the Hub stage. The Bays have been playing since 1999, but ONLY EVER play live, they never either record or rehearse music. The music is totally dance- based, with live drums and bass, keyboards, and samples and production carried out live… The set spanned trance, techno and drum and bass, and was consistently excellent and unsurprisingly, given the bands ‘live-only’ philosophy, very responsive to the atmosphere in the tent which was by now full of enthusiastic festival goers. A superb, energetic and seamless performance, and definitely one of my favourites of the festival.
Caribou was one of the handful of acts who drew me to the Loop festival in the first place. Caribou is Canadian artist Dan Snaith, who I have recently discovered through the superb chilled IDM of his debut album, but his style has mutated considerably since then- Caribou’s last album is much more guitar-based with reference points in 60s psychedelia. Unfortunately, through no fault of the 4-piece band, the performance was a disappointment, mainly due to the terrible sound quality in the tent during the set. Treble and detail were lost in loud bass-frequency mush… What I could hear of the music sounded worth further investigation, but I had to give my ears a rest.
Fortunately, the sound production team was switched before headliner Four Tet took the stage. Four Tet made his breakthrough with 2001’s Pause which is an album of beautifully clear and poised ambient IDM with a very organic, acoustic sound. Like Caribou his style has evolved, and the last album by Londoner Kieren Hebden, Everything Ecstatic, has a darker, more intense, minimal techno sound. The sound translates extremely well to a live set, which was brilliant and worthy of a festival headliner. The details in production which you’d expect from this artist were all there, together with, fortunately, excellent sound quality for a live performance. Strong, intense and driving yet evolving minimal techno- cool stuff!

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