BrainLove Festival 2011

With Meursault, Napoleon IIIrd

BrainLove Festival isn’t so much pints-of-cider-in-a-sunny-field as it is cutting-edge-music-frontier-in-a-dark-pub. There’s a free barbecue too.

After a bit of time for eyes to adjust, it soon became clear that there was a serious collection of artists in Brixton’s The Windmill, most of which hung around for the duration of the festival.

A lynchpin of the day was David Thomas Broughton, playing the second, smaller stage in the pub garden to a rapt, silent audience. The wind and menacing clouds suited his sound perfectly, with guitar and loops (the latter being almost ubiquitous in the artists on the line-up) backing his distinctive, rich and sonorous voice. His final track saw Broughton using this voice to full effect, unaccompanied and entirely unplugged.

Earlier, artists like Mat Riviere and Pagan Wanderer Lu had set the scene for a day of experimentation. The former charted new territory, performing with Oliver Barrett (Bleeding Heart Narrative), who added distorted cello to Riviere’s occasional electric guitar, loops, and jarring but effective vocals.

Towards the end of the evening, Napoleon III’s epic, confident waves of noise proved well worth waiting for, with various backing band members contributing to a satisfying set – his performance was big and bold. All in all, an unusual prelude to the far more introspective headliners for the festival.

But Edinburgh-based Meursault couldn’t have wrapped things up any better – earnest, heartfelt, and finely wrought. Compared to past performances, and for better or worse, they sounded less lo-fi, and maybe cleaner around the edges than they have before. But it was still Meursault, and it was still Neil Pennycock’s wailing, heart-rending voice, augmented by delicate, beautiful melodies and, on this occasion, harmonium provided by Rob St John.

If the festival was about pushing boundaries, it achieved. And there are clearly some great things going on out there.

Words and Photo by Clinton Cawood

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