Savages’ new material shines at Latitude 2015

“I want to see happy dust,” declares Jehnny Beth with menace, perched precariously on the front barriers and gesturing with a lazy finger into the centre of her crowd. “I see all your sweet faces,” she goes on. “This one,” she says, with a sly chuckle, and introducing new material “is called ‘Sad Person’.” By now, the crowd is a thrashing mess. Small children are leaving their parents and charging into the thick of it, throwing their drinks around and screaming in an unhinged fashion. Passing traffic at the tent fringe looks on, absolutely perturbed as Jehn blankly delivers the spoken word of ‘Hit Me’. Single-handedly, Savages have created terrific insanity.

‘Silence Yourself’ rarely finds a festival tent capable of containing its complex, mashing sonics, but the 6Music stage withstands the battering, and Savages’ post-punk sounds alive and writhing. Most bands play the long game with new material, but Savages, who prefer to let songs find their claws on stage, pack the set full of the stuff. Previews from an as-of-yet unnamed album sounds like looming mechanical, post-punk. ‘Adore’ especially takes Savages in a different direction, finding its impact point in near-operatic scale rather than brute, unforgiving force. Leaving Latitude in a strange, heady mix of euphoria and dance-rage, Savages are true to name.