Playlist: Summer Sounds Of Green Man Festival
Belle & Sebastian, Grandaddy, Battles, Lush, Laura Marling, Wild Beasts… Green Man have released a perky playlist to get you in the mood for the sunny — and hopefully scorching hot — Welsh mountains…
Is it the most picturesque music festival in the UK? Arguably, the Brecon Beacons setting for Green Man music festival is one of its best draws; nestled within a lush mountain range, the area includes South Wales’ highest mountain, Pen y Fan, as well as a national park. Lucky “Settlers” are already there enjoying a spectacular pre-camping holiday, with the festival programming commencing Thursday to Sunday this week.
But what about the music? Heavy with Indie and Americana influence and featuring a few heavyweights from the 1990s (Lush!) and early noughties (DJ Yoda!), it’s a perky, laid-back line-up guaranteed to satisfy first-timers to event veterans alike.
First up, Belle & Sebastian‘s (playing Sunday’s Mountain Stage) I Want The World to Stop from their 2010 album Write About Love: a heady, keyboard driven sigh about urban living. “Towns’ and cities’ populations up and grow / The workers move to the suburbs / In between I watch and go / I run alongside rush hour traffic / A prayer for every car.”
In the same vein, Grandaddy‘s (Sunday’s Far Out stage) suburban hymn Stray Dog and The Chocolate Shake is a classic, and completely appropriate for sitting in the Green Man long grass, reminiscing about school days and spent youth.
Fancy something a bit more psychedelic? Relax with Flamingods (Thursday’s Far Out stage), whose assorted instruments, “collected from around the world,” they say, leave a taste in the mouth akin to a musical strip of Juicy Fruit. Aside from my awful comparison to tropical-flavoured gum, the band’s patchwork of global influences and collaborators (including Argentinian producer eSmink) have earned comparison to Animal Collective, and merit a listen.
Things get a little more futuristic — and dark — with Dymytro Morykit‘s (Thursday’s Cinedrome) acclaimed new score for Fritz Lang’s Metropolis ((1927); explained here with aplomb by our writer Nic Glover). Festival goers can watch the restored film in it’s entirety, accompanied live by Morykit on the piano; prepare to be awed by the dizzying effects (achieved with very limited early production tools), depicting the gleaming cityscapes and monstrous, robotic leader of Metropolis.
Having been a bit of a fan since buying 2002 album (and all the subsequent ones) Moving Up Country, I’m really looking forward to seeing Scottish folkster James Yorkston in new fusion band Yorkston, Thorne & Khan (Saturday’s Mountain stage). Also on The Itinerary: 2008 Mercury Music Prize nominee Laura Marling (Saturday’s Mountain Stage); Bella Union success story Ezra Furman (Sunday’s Far Out stage); Leeds-based Wild Beasts (Thursday’s Far Out stage) for some neon-lit dirty pop; and the hysterical drumming of Battles (Saturday’s Far Out stage), as I’ve enjoyed them so much live in the past.
Not on this playlist are two oddball performances I’m most looking forward to see: Hackney’s Deep Throat Choir (Sunday’s Rising stage) and Charlotte Church‘s — yes, THAT Charlotte Church — Pop Dungeon (Friday’s Walled Garden). Both promise, in essence, karaoke: hugely entertaining, alternative versions of pop classics. Church had NME dribbling that she was “better than The Fall” at April’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, covering songs from Super Furry Animals, Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie and Joy Division. I’m sold.
Laura Robertson
Thursday to Sunday – Green Man Festival @ Brecon Beacons, South Wales — £175. Expect live music, comedy, talks and screenings
