|
|
home » festivals » All Tomorrow's Parties » ATP - Nightmare Before Christmas 2011
Jazz, Dance & Psychedelia. Caribou see out the festival in grand styleATP - Nightmare Before Christmas 2011 reviewThursday 22nd December 2011 Sunday saw some extreme weather in the form of torrential rain and gales, but this is where Butlins as a venue for festivals comes into its own. The place is basically designed for holidays come rain or shine. Aside from a mad dash to the central complex you can easily forget what's going on outside. On my 7th visit to an ATP at Butlins I finally managed to make it to the cinema, attending an interesting abstract photography lecture by Jason Evans. He spoke of his work with Radiohead, one of the few clients that encourage full creativity without rules. This was part of a series of lectures, unfortunately most of which fell too early (for many of us!) or clashed with bands later in the day.
The legendary Jazz musician Pharoah Sanders' set gave us another complete change in direction, perfect for a Sunday morning (ATP time). Not my genre but highly enjoyable in a live setting, lots of solo instrumentals gained warm applause.
Another lively, fun set courtesy of The Ex followed, Jazz man Getatchew Mekuria guesting on saxophone. Their sets are always good value at ATP, though last year's seemed better to my ears.
Clad in colourful LED light head gear and more colourful, camp glittery attire (a big feature of the weekend if you hadn’t already guessed. . . ), Orchestra of Spheres played out another fun set on Reds. ATP describe their sound as "Channeling ancient future funk from the IS! Warping spatio-elastoplasticity with sound!" I think I'll have to take their word on that, though it sounded different certainly. Another highly influential musician, Silver Apples, performed his set of psychedelic electronica, at times downright gloomy and weird, but in a good way. On a day of big bands, dance and fun his set seems a little out of place, though such is the way of ATP.
The full 12-piece Caribou Vibration Ensemble closed Centre Stage in great style just as they had opened it, attracting another of the best crowds of the weekend. Despite the early hours slot on Monday it was clear most people had stayed on at Butlins to catch their set, normally crowds have noticeably thinned at this stage. Three drummers are always going to be good value live and the brass section had swelled compared to the morning show. Despite the epic assembly of musicians onstage, the audience seemed somewhat split on which of their sets was better, too many cooks spoiling the broth for some at the latter show. 'Sun' closed out the festival in grand dancing style however. 
The usual events that I never seem to be able to make time for also happened as usual; the band-curated cinema and TV program, Lord Sinclair's Pub Quiz and Book Club/Bingo, DJ sets and much more. A really lively weekend overall then, with great crowds frequently in party mood. The music slowly meandered its way from alternative rock-out to dance and psychedelic sounds over the course of the three days. Multiple curators seemed a definite plus as regards the variety of the line-up on offer. Lots of artists mixing with the crowds as usual, it would have been nice to see a few more guesting on others' sets perhaps, particularly with the vocalist-less Battles (Gary Numan and Matias Aguayo played the same day after all). There were lots of guest appearances for Caribou Vibration Ensemble however, including Marshall Allen, Four Tet and Junior Boys. The next instalment of ATP at Butlins features a (rescheduled) weekend curated by Jeff Mangum 9-11th March. For more information click here. review by Jason Wood photos by Jason Wood 
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
eFestivals is 
