Another Form of Relief

(Apologies for the lateness of these reviews. I came back from Indietracks and quickly came down with something I immediately feared to be swine flu. Thankfully, I was quickly reassured that it was merely twee flu and that it was perfectly normal. What a relief.)

Indietracks isn’t the first festival I’ve gone to this year, nor will it be the last. It’s hard to see how it will be anything other than the most enjoyable event of the year though. Launched in 2007, Indietracks is the ultimate in niche festivals. A tiny capacity, a very precise view of the kind of bands it puts on, with all of this set in a small rail yard. It’s a wonderful feeling (and an unheard one at a festival) that you can walk between any of the stages within a couple of minutes. Most importantly of all, it’s by far the nicest festival that you’ll ever visit.

Arriving at Butterley station on Saturday morning, things didn’t seem so perfect. Bands are starting to play, yet to access the site you have to wait a little while for a steam train to come along and take you there. It’s not a huge inconvenience, and one that was rectified on each return trip to the site by driving around back lanes and being able to park right by the main stage. Seeing as there was nobody on immediately that I was excited about upon reaching the site, there was time to pop round to Brittan Pit Farm. The llamas there have become the stuff of Indietracks legend, and it was mildly disappointing to not see them spit on anyone while visiting. No problem though, as the farm as a whole proved to be a lot of fun, with it’s dalmatian ponies, goats and birds regularly providing a welcome diversion from the festival excitement.

The Frank & Walters ended up being the first band caught in the afternoon, who I wasn’t familiar with beforehand. Typically, just as I arrived to watch their set, they suffered a power cut, which ended up with them having a kickabout on stage (almost bringing it down in the process) to fill the time. They were back on track again within a few minutes, and they turn out to be a pretty enjoyable way to get started. At times they come across a little rocky and perhaps out of place at such an event (at one point asking “is this a trainspotters festival?”), but they seem to go down quite well with everyone.

Wandering over to the train shed, which acts as the main indoor stage, it’s time for Butcher Boy, a Glasgow band I’ve liked for a while now. This was the first time seeing them live, and they managed to greatly impress. Their songs lose none of the zeal of their recordings. Sounding perfectly arranged, in a few minutes they managed to prove that not all indiepop has to sound ramshackle. Unfortunately, I have to confess that I didn’t pay attention to a part of their set as I’d spotted the mighty merch stall for the first time. A vigorous browsing session later and I’d left with albums by Cats on Fire and Zipper, a label sampler, a Ballboy shirt and some Fortuna Pop badges. I could have spent a hell of a lot more there, so let’s be thankful that there wasn’t a cash machine on site.

Some general wandering of the site followed, which saw a bit of Speedmarket Avenue’s set (fine, but not really my cup of tea) and The Lovely Eggs setting up on the church stage. Annoyingly, the setting up was about all I did see, the heat/crowd in the church quickly becoming too much. Apparently their set was incredibly good too. Back to the train shed again, and it’s time for Cats on Fire, a wonderful band from Finland, who manage to bring on the dancing for the first time of the weekend. Their set was rather heavy on their latest album, which I hadn’t heard much of beforehand, but the almighty singalong and general happiness that radiated through the set meant that I had a copy by the time I left the festival. Alas, I missed the later part of their set as it was time to wander over to the main stage for Camera Obscura.

I was a little anxious about seeing Camera Obscura as while I’m a big fan of their music, they don’t seem to have the greatest live reputation. Fears are rapidly quelled though with a stunning set that healthily mixes in new album material with a number of the old classics. The band themselves may look utterly miserable on stage (I’m sure they aren’t really), but the beautifully arranged sound played out with a backdrop of the sun setting behind the stage makes for one of the performances of the festival.

Back to the train shed once again where Emmy the Great should be playing, but there’s actually no sign of her. Nothing has been set up on stage, everyone looks a bit confused and I even overhear someone discussing how she hasn’t turned up yet. Eventually her band hurry onto the stage about 45 minutes after the scheduled stage time, and within minutes the set is under way. Apologies are made about being stuck in traffic on the M1 in between songs, but it’s seemingly ruined any flow the set may have had. She lurches from song to song without a setlist, constantly checking how long she’s been playing for before finishing up barely past the thirty minute mark. Still, the storming version of Where Is My Mind? means that most complaints are quickly overlooked. As a whole, the songs individually are fine, but as a set, it left a lot to be desired.

This is about where Saturday at Indietracks ends up for me. On the way out, I caught a few minutes of La Casa Azul, who was putting on an electro-pop set both mystifying and brilliant on the main stage. Would have stayed longer if not for the desperate need for food and some sleep.

Well, that was just about the most perfect weekend ever.

A proper review (you know, with words and stuff) will be following tomorrow, but here are 134 pictures from the joy that was Indietracks 2009.

As usual, you can click through to Flickr for the full size versions.

Great British Hopes celebrates new British music that is really bloody good.

As I was preparing to write this, I came across a fact that threw this piece into question. I tend to write these Great British Hopes pieces as a way of talking up the absolute best from all of the new bands I hear. Doing some research on Butcher Boy though, I discovered that they have been playing for 11 years. Which begs the question of whether they can really be hailed as a hope for the future of music. I decided to go with it though, as regardless of their longevity as a band, this is just too damn good.

Butcher Boy have floated around my mind for a while now. A Drowned In Sound review here, the odd promo email there. Even with that though, I never paid them much attention. I got the impression of another Scottish miserablist, and really, a man who already has a complete Arab Strap collection probably can’t take much more. Then the magic phrase appeared. “Compared to Belle and Sebastian” read the email, and I was in*.

Not that the end result is Belle & Sebastian exactly. Sure, you can hear those elements in the strings, but this is a band that is more down to the earth. Earnest lyrics sung out by someone who has listened to a lot of Smiths records but doesn’t quite know how to be Morrissey. No, if I were to place this on this indie pop landscape, I’d slot it alongside recent Swedish offerings like Jens Lekman or Pelle Carlberg. The sound is certainly British, but it likes to travel.

This kind of indie pop seems to be short supply in the UK at the moment. Butcher Boy may have formed 11 years ago, but with their second album release in three years, one gets a sense that they may have finally found their way.

React or Die will be released in April, but the lovely How Does It Feel To Be Loved? is selling advance copies through their shop right now.

* It occurs that I’ll probably now getting death metal bands mentioning the fact they sound like Belle & Sebastian in their promo emails.