Truck Festival, Saturday 24th July 2010

In it’s 13th year, Truck proves that superstition is a baseless concept. This comes admittedly from the viewpoint of a first time attendee but if it were to have fallen foul of such a curse, then we REALLY wish we’d been at previous years. The first act of the festival proper (the BBC Introducing stage played host to local bands on the Friday night, for those with early passes. Of the handful we saw, Dial F For Frankenstein were the highlight) leaves us with a sense of foreboding though: Meursault’s music itself is reminiscent of fellow Scots Frightened Rabbit if they had listened to some ambient electro along the lines of worriedaboutsatan. So far, so good. Then he starts singing. Sweet Jesus, it’s painful. The timing does him no favours: it’s always going to be hard to win over a largely unfamiliar yet expectant crowd with Scots-accented yodelling but at midday, it’s nigh on impossible. The music itself shows promise though, enough to recommend investigating further if the vocals are low down in the mix: VERY low down in the mix. We venture onwards after a few songs and walk past the Village Pub tent to hear the heavily 80s sound of The Silent Alliance. The tent is surprisingly filled: evidently many have followed a similar route to us in walking past and thinking ‘ooh this doesn’t sound half bad’. They are by no means original but their take on 80s pop is done very well and without even a hint of cynicism. They’re earnest in their performance, appearing genuinely delighted at the turnout and their set is short enough to ensure attention doesn’t wane. One of the surprises of the weekend.

We next venture to see Ace Bushy Striptease in the Barn, having never heard of them before. Our only reasoning for doing so being drunkenly stumbling into the bassist the night before and being forced to promise we would do so. The programme tells us they’d sound like a sugar coated Johnny Foreigner - not quite accurate but their guitars are scuzzy and distorted, the lead female vocalist is intriguingly timid yet able to hold your attention and the songs played show promise. They’re not the finished article by any means but ones to keep an eye on, certainly. On a whim, we then go to see Visions Of Trees in the Beathive tent, purely on the basis that the description of them in the programme sounds our bag. They turn out to be the find of the weekend. Taking inspiration from several areas, their blend of ambient electronica, drone, noise and electro (but more Knife than Erol Alkan), the duo manage to entertain the eyes as much as the ears - the tribal rhythms encapsulating the music are played live on drumpads and the singer’s hypnotic dancing matches the ethereal vocals in captivating the crowd. They’re brilliant. If pushed to make reference points, Fever Ray, Fuck Buttons (but old Fuck Buttons along the lines of ‘Sweet Love For Planet Earth’) and Bat For Lashes would come to mind, but their remixes of acts such as Teeth suggest a grittier, more aggressive edge. They leave to a huge round of applause, which at two in the afternoon is no mean feat. Local boy Chad Valley is next and while his blend of sweet, saccharine melodies with pounding percussion initially captivates, it soon becomes apparent that this is all he has in his arsenal and we soon depart.

Esben and the Witch are in the Barn - all credit due to the Truck organisers, it’s the perfect setting for them. The light show that accompanies their performance successfully intensifies the atmosphere that the music itself creates, the shimmering guitar and low end bass a nod to the music of Jesus And Mary Chain. The manipulated vocals are eery and unsettling. You get the sense Esben and the Witch’s entire performance, from the lightshow to the music and even the clothes they wear (the singers face is obscured by a hood the entire time) is constructed with the main aim of disorienting the audience, a feat aided by the heat, cramped conditions and smell of cowshit. It’s a memorable performance, though not all of that can be put down to the band themselves. Slowly establishing an underground following, they look like they may well have the quality to justify it.

On to 65daysofstatic next. DIY has made a point of promoting them fairly heavily in the past few months and this writer is incredibly biased, having seen them countless times and considering them one of the best live bands on the planet. They maintain this viewpoint with their performance, despite several hours drinking and sunstroke taking its toll. It also seems that the prick percentage in the crowd is far, far higher than normal - whilst their new material is designed to get a crowd raucous and moving, the sheer level of moshing and violence coming from five or six guys in particular puts something of a dampener on the set. I’m all for a jumparound and a bit of barging but seeing one guy seemingly targeting the people on the barrier by repeatedly smashing into them elbow first leaves a sour taste. 65days themselves put on as strong a set as ever though with a leaning towards the new album (‘Mountainhead’, ‘Crash Tactics’, ‘Weak4’ and ‘Go Complex’) and the climax of ‘Radio Protector’ into ‘Tiger Girl’ is truly astounding. At any other festival, ‘Tiger Girl’ would by some distance have been the best set closer. However - Mew are here.

A real coup for the Truck organisers, Mew are still a band in this country who are benefitting from the old ways. Word of mouth has seen their audience gradually increase year on year, people mystified but drawn to their mix of melody and racket, the contrast of light and dark imperative to their ethos as a band. This is continued in their performance - whilst they may not have the projections screen behind them as usual, this gives the band greater impetus to put on a show themselves - evidenced by the unusually aggressive tone of the drums. This and the lack of projections means the music loses some of it’s dreamlike qualities but this is not necessarily a bad thing as the fuller sounding guitar creates a roughness that not many will have seen in a Mew show. The lightshow is blinding at times (again the contrast of light and dark at play in the near pitch black) and the band play a fairly even mix of all three albums. Whilst ‘No More Stories’ is patchy in places, tonight the stronger material played such as ‘Repeaterbeater’, ‘Introducing Palace Players’ and ‘Silas The Magic Car’ stands up to any material from ‘Frengers’. ‘Snow Brigade’ is a particular highlight for the ridiculous interplay between the guitarists and ‘Comforting Sounds’ is as fine a piece of live music as you will ever hear. Bizarrely, the band then come out to play an encore. Whilst ‘Special’ (complete with extended intro) and ‘Zookeepers Boy’ are excellent songs, they can’t help but feel flat after the ten minute wonderment of ‘Comforting Sounds’. It means the gig ends as something of a damp squib, but overall the mix of all three albums (the playing of ‘Circuitry In The Wolf’ make the fanboy in me very, very happy) and the focus on sound rather than whole performance meant it was a Mew performance you’re not likely to see again.