Welcomed by another day of blazing hot sunshine, I make a beeline for the Red Bull Music Academy tent after attending a brilliant Digital Music 2.0/10 session with Paul Brown of Spotify and Scott Cohen of The Orchard. Check my blog if you want to hear more about that. Meanwhile, the Red Bull Music Academy rolled out a succession of aces with Australia’s Dizz 1, Colombia’s Lucrecia Dalt, New York’s Pursuit Grooves and the UK’s Braiden all on their artist roster.

Dizz 1 kicked things off for me – this mental Aussie DJ is rollin’ and scratchin’ all over the place, like DJ Shadow if he went a bit mental with the bass and overloaded everything with samples like grade-A sickness was the order of the day. He really is truly outstanding and if you ever get the chance to see him, you’d be a fool not to take it! Following him is Lucrecia Dalt, a miniscule but very cute Colombian girl who loops samples of guitars, drums and more obscure instruments along with programmed beats to create a lush, orchestrated soundscape that complements her ghostly vocals perfectly. She reminds me a bit of Spiritualized and her floppy fringe, white/beige clothes and apple green guitar kept her in the spotlight for photographers.

New York’s Pursuit Grooves scratches, remixes and packs out the tent to bursting point

After Dalt’s coquettish femininity, Noo Yawk’s uber-DJ Pursuit Grooves aka Vanese Smith is the other end of the spectrum entirely. With her short dreads, jeans and big red glasses (probably for decorative purposes), she’s obviously raring to kickstart the crowd into life again. On the bill is a clash of soul, deep funk, house, techno and unadulterated sass. She scratches and remixes with awesome fluidity and her 45 minute set is a surefire hit, packing out the tent to bursting point. Everything she does is presented with unbelievable verve and style, what a kickass woman!

I decide to make a break for the main stage and catch the UK’s Nedry, who are composed of Chris Amblin and Matt Parker on guitar, bass, synths and Japanese singer Ayu Okakita who looks and sounds oddly like the Icelandic goddess of eccentricity Bjork. The vibe is very different to the tent with Nedry alternating between providing idyllic synthesized beats and a succession of rhythmic electronic fits. It’s a bit like a cross between the almighty Klaxons and Zero 7.

Braiden is hit by a power cut and instigates mocking chants from a group of British ravers

After a quick food break (yeah, I do need to eat, y’ know!) I head back to the Red Bull Music Academy tent to check out Braiden, aka Steve Braiden – a photographer and DJ from London. Even though the start of his set sees the tent sparsely populated with most punters looking confused by his presence, he quickly manages to pull things round with a powerful concoction of electro house and superstar mixing that gets the whole crowd dancing like crazy. Just as things get going though, he’s hit by a power cut which most people find hilarious and instigates chants from a crowd of British ravers of Na Na Na Hey Hey Hey. He looks embarrassed and disappointed but can see the funny side and, almost unbelievably, manages to pick things up again once the very long power cut gets sorted. Star in da hood.

Even though the eagerly-awaited Japanese girl DJ from Los Angeles Tokimonsta was an act I’d wanted to see, the opening bits of her set couldn’t distract me from the yawning chasm in my stomach and the fact that by now, my feet were a bit shattered from constant dancing. I broke off to recover before the Sonar By Night session taking place at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona. …

The Fira Gran Via is like a massive meat market – grotty, dirty and annoying to navigate

Ok, so my first big and major issue with Sonar By Night is that it’s a bit like a massive meat market. The Fira Gran Via must hold about 30,000 people and with acts like LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip and Flying Lotus on the bill, it’s no surprise that it’s full to bursting point. But with so many revellers, the venue is grotty, dirty and just annoying to try to navigate around.

What with all the nonsense the French football side seem to have inspired during the World Cup, it seems as if other representatives of this Gallic nation might have let the national team’s absurd antics get to them. This is definitely not the case with Air, who are as cool and smooth as ever and show their childish side by using robotic vocoder to thank the crowd in Spanish– much-as, gra-ti-as. Haha. They play a hit-laden set complete with numbers from their electro-prog masterpiece 10,000 Hz Legend, which to my surprise go down incredibly well with the raved-up crowd.

Hot Chip play a blinder – the geeks have well and truly inherited the Earth!

I then make my way to the second stage to see UK keyboard-geeks Hot Chip, who clearly should be on the main stage with the huge crowd they’ve attracted – and it’s not just us Brits here. There’s kids from the US and Australia who are eagerly awaiting these unlikely hitmakers. I’m not expecting too much, but blimey – do they put on a blinding set! The geeks have well and truly taken over with an incredibly confident and fluid performance tonight. They play a set that’s jam packed with hits that keep the crowd dancing throughout. Boy From School, Over And Over and One Life Stand were the standout numbers, seeing plastic balls and a mad gang of drunken Aussie blokes trying to create some sort of human pyramid at the front centre. Highly amusing. Trying to get out of the stage at the end though, was akin to struggling through an Indiana Jones-style Temple of Doom type saga with no clever Japanese kid to guide you. I was lucky to have escaped with my life intact. Never again!

Gearing up for LCD Soundsystem on the main stage, I decided I couldn’t face clawing my way through a sea of thousands of punters to get to the front, so unfortunately, had to make do with only being able to see James Murphy et al on one of the giant screens erected around the stadium. Kitted out in white (perhaps not the best colour option for the ahem, larger gentleman) Murphy led his extremely able musical army into the catchy Drunk Girls, the sublime classic Daft Punk Are Playing At My House and the inimitable North American Scum. One drugged up punter asks me who’s playing, and I’m left gobsmacked by the question but perhaps not entirely surprised. Sonar By Night really doesn’t have any of the atmosphere of a true music festival if you’re stuck in the middle of 20,000 strangers in a massive dirty warehouse.

Flying Lotus is truly awesome – even better than when I saw him with RZA a few years ago

It’s this sense of disappointment that makes me abandon the arena after catching some of Flying Lotus’s (pictured) truly awesome mixmaster wizardry on the tiny middle stage. The guy is even better since I last saw him in Manchester with RZA a few years ago. Incredible! I hurriedly fend off the unwanted attentions of some amorous Spaniards and get back to the city, making more friends along the way.

Related posts:

1. Review: Sonar Festival 2010 - Day One
2. Review: Sonar Festival 2010 - Day Three
3. Alkaline Trio, Nottingham Rock City, 2 June 2010

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