Futuresonic

This past weekend in Manchester was Futuresonic, which is described as an "Urban Festival of Art, Music & Ideas". The four-day event showcased some of the best music in the world and it brought companies together for a conference exploring the latest advancements of today's digital culture. Not that I really care about the latter, but I think I'd be a pretty nice excuse for a businessman to hit up a music festival.

The first day opened with a showcase of contemporary classical and minimalist electronica at the Royal Northern College of Music, not more than five minutes walk from my hall. I've walked past the building many times, watching students train in sound studios onlooking the street. Inside was super posh, as expected. Patrons drank wine and bought expensive deserts before the show started. The concert took place in an opera theater and my seat was in the second row, even though when I bought my ticket, the website warned "Buy quick, selling out fast!" Everyone around me seemed to be laughing at that nifty marketing trick.

The first act was Denis Jones. He looped together acoustic guitar, vocals and smooth electronica. He looked like the dude from Iron and Wine and his songs had the same folk air. It was unbelievably beautiful. He only played for half an hour but received the only standing ovation of the night. An older man behind me called him a "genius". The next performance was the one I'd be anticipating, the contemporary Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson. His 2008 album "Fordlandia" is one of the most moving works I've listened to. It's what I fall asleep to. His show with a string quartet was otherworldly. The headliner of the night was the Mexican electronica duo Murcov and AntiVJ. It was a world premiere of their audiovisual work, which was...strange. A screen separated the DJs and the audience and on it was projected linear movements of the music. Sometimes it was like watching live Fantasia but mostly it just kinda looked like the visualizations from Windows Media Player. The best part was looking back behind me at the lights shining over the audience, particularly the stars. Some people were asleep.

On Friday I went to see a free performance at the RNCM. It was a collaborative performance from RNCM and Seed Studios presenting panel-selected works that blended genres like "a country song that morphs into a Stockhausen-esque soundscape". Sounds amazing right? I convinced my friends Mark and Trent to come along. We arrived 10 minutes late, which I thought would be ok, considering most performances start at least 30 minutes after the time given. We were directed to what looked like a middle school music room at Christmas. Bleachers lined one side of the room and the bands on the other, with tacky streams of light thrown on various fixtures. It had already started and the three of us awkwardly waited for a sign to stay or leave. We sat down after the song. As it was, all the performers looked straight out of the crazy house or no house at all. An elderly black lady played a xylophone in one song, just going up and down the scales without any real purpose. Then she sang a song next, called "Hello Halo Angel", which she wrote last year when "Life was really bad" or something like that. It was an awkward spoken word gospel tune. A drunk homeless man behind me announced really loudly in the middle of it he was going out for a smoke and did so. The MC for the night (presumably the instructor) played a song he'd been "cooking up for years" about his parents and his piano playing looked like that of a muppet. The three of us left after intermission, holding in our laughter and I apologized profusely. We walked uptown and found the CUBE displaying art for Futuresonic. There was some cool stuff inside, like plants connected to audio samples that played when you touched the leaves. There was also free wine. We went further uptown to an old man pub for some cheap pints with a good view of the Manchester Wheel. And homeless men taking unfinished drinks.

Saturday I went to see a lo-fi indie mini-festival at Urbis. Times New Viking started things off loudly. Their latest album is probably the loudest I've listened to outside of Guitar Wolf. Despite the feedback and distortion, the band is surprisingly clean and pretty. It's also just the type of band I'd like to play in, given the choice. Simple guitar work? Check. Drummer and keyboardist do all the singing? Check. Keyboardist is cute? Check. The drummer dedicated each song to something or someone, which was pretty funny and after one song when NO ONE clapped he boldly mentioned that "It's cool, you don't have to clap." I felt bad, like I was a part of this. I'm like you! I'm American! Dammit. Crystal Antlers was next and they easily win the prize for "Most Homeless Looking Band". They would have been super generic except for this one dude who looked like they just picked him up off the street. His job was to play the bongo (rock bongo?) and make interpretive/sexual dance moves. It was hilarious. Marnie Stern came on after, which was a nice change of scenery. She's a rock goddess, in my book, and one of the few (only?) modern female rockers known for her guitaring. Why the guitar is so staunchly masculine is, to me, one of the greatest mysteries in rock music. A woman shredding is like finding a four-leaf clover. Why? Marnie rocked the socks off everyone expecting some Bangles shit. The sound mixing was horrible most of the show but the funny banter between Marnie and her bassist made up for it. Ariel Pink closed the night. The lead singer looked a bit like Golem and acted the part, talking to himself at various points. Their brilliant new stuff was the highlight, especially the poppy "Flashback", which sounded like a cover from a bad 80s movie theme and caught everyone completely off guard. The best part of the night was that all the bands were excited to perform with each other, so when they weren't on stage they'd mingle and dance in the crowd.

Last night I went to a free show at Night and Day Cafe to close Futurefest: "From Japan with Love". It was the best night of the fest, by far. The themes of the night were energy and cute. While he mixed songs, De De Mouse bounced around like he was doing DDR at home. Riddim Saunter sounded like if DFA records produced a ska band. DJ Tucker played just about every instrument in the house, lit his keyboard on fire, then spun on top of it, kicking and breaking a light. 80Kidz all looked way too young to be in a bar but were super dancey and fun. Also the acts were poignant: it started right at 7:00 and ended relatively early, something they could teach western artists. It was probably the most fun I've had at a show since Monotonix or the Hold Steady.

Among the acts I couldn't see, for reasons of money and/or time, were Anti-Pop Consortion, Daedelus, Phillip Glass, and one of my favorite new artists Soap&Skin. Sorry this post was super long. As thanks for getting this far, here's a lovely song from Johann Johannsson. Y'all come back now.

Johann Johannsson "The Rocket Builder (Io Pan!)" (mp3)