Sonar is Europe’s premier electronic music festival that has the potential to reaffirm your faith in the festival experience.
In an oversaturated marketplace where line-ups are over-familiar and over-similar, Sonar offers a truly enlightening and refreshing experience. Artists you’ve never heard of make sounds you’ve never dreamed of and enrich your appreciation of music once again.
The festival itself is divided into two distinct daily events at two different locations. Sonar by Day, kicking off at 1pm every day and running through until about 10pm, is located in the city’s Museum of Contemporary Arts and presents a variety of emerging electronic artists, hip hoppers, DJs and bands upon its three stages.
Sonar by Night is an epic experience not dissimilar to raving in Stansted Airport, being based as it is in some sort of modern conference centre. Spread across four arenas, each one more colossal than the next, Sonar by Night is a jaw-dropping evening’s entertainment that rolls past dawn well into the following day at which some of the biggest and best underground and left of centre acts in the world can be seen. If ever a festival offered the opportunity for unbridled musical indulgence and downright hedonism, this is it.
And what of that music? Well, with over 72 hours or near rolling giggage, it would always be difficult to pick out highlights, but highlights there were. On the inaugural day, competition was fierce, but even in the face of a blistering set from XX Teens in which much waving of arms and shaking of booty was induced, North London’s very own Bass Clef stole the show in the intimate Sonar Dome. Firing forth an entrancing dubstep set, Ralph Cumbers, A.K.A Bass Clef, shook the foundations with his live trombone samples, layering live whistle and percussion samples over downright filthy basslines and cosmic beats. Resistance was futile as the roof was well and truly torn off. Elsewhere, Sweden’s Little Dragon provided a rather pleasant distraction with their jazzy loungecore sounds, but you couldn’t help but feel that without the addition of the Spanish sun pouring down, many audiences would have been more aware of the distinct lack of hooks amidst all of their skewiff synths.
By day two, Sonar was beginning to find its groove and some of the attendees were beginning to find their limitations, whereas others were simply pushing on through. After a few not so swift cocktails by the beach, it was back to the festival site for some outstanding sets, notable amongst them Florida bred, London engineered, female hip hop duo Yo Majesty, who produced one of the most energetic live performances of the whole festival. Elsewhere, British label Ninja Tunes showed our Iberian cousins how it’s done in the Sonar Dome as it showcased the best of its talent. The Heavy opened up proceedings there with their riotous punk funkery, leaving a trail of ecstatic Sonarites in their wake, but it was the epic expansiveness of Jneiro Jarel’s Shape of Broad Minds closing set at Sonar Village that had the crowd dancing through sundown. Fusing freeform hip hop experimentation with DJ Shadow-esque beats and an uplifting house ethic, it stylishly closed proceedings for The Day and whetted appetites for The Night.
And what a night it was. From perennial party favourites Rob Da Bank and Madness, to spectacular sets from Diplo and Justice, through to head-churning sets from Boys Noize and Erol Aklan at 6am, Sonar Club was the only place to be on Friday night, and judging by the huge crowds in attendance, Barcelona knew it. Bizarrely though, whilst the likes of Sonar favourite Richie Hawtin, Hercules & Love Affair and Roisin Murphy were all doing their cutting edge thingin dazzling style, Darren Emerson teamed up with Jamie Cullum to surprisingly good effect. Never judge a jazz hobbit until you’ve seen him at Sonar seems to be the lesson there.
A quiet Saturday was dominated by a 2am set from Soulwax in which they reminded everyone exactly why they are the band for every occasion. From afternoon festival sets to DJ sets in tiny sweatbox clubs, this Belgian band of electro-rock hybridisers are one of the most underestimated acts presently trading their wares in the musical world. Inducing chaotic near hysteria in Sonar Club, they set things up nicely for a set from Ed Banger’s head banging DJ Sebastian that put a glittery digital cherry on top of the whole festival.
You see, the thing is, festivals are supposed to be about wonderful indulgence of the unknown, not survival of the dishearteningly familiar. At a time when many British festivals are becoming worryingly homogenised, festivals like Sonar offer a fantastically unique experience on all fronts. And isn’t it always better to come home from a musical weekend away with a smile and a tan rather than trench foot and food poisoning? Sonar 2009 in Barcelona: see you there!
