Field Day is overshadowed by some of the most hyped bands of the last 12 months

For those who haven't been to Field Day before, it's a small, quaint but perfectly formed festival, with over 6 stages of music and entertainment, including a small village fete themed area, with highlights including blindfolded making a pot of tea, it's definitely a major festival with a bit of a difference.

Held in East London's Victoria Park, the line-up included the crème de la crème of independent bands, headlined by Phoenix, the most blogged band of the moment, and with supporting cast which definitely makes you question the more than reasonable £35 ticket price.

Opening proceedings on the day on the Bugged Out curated stage were New York synth pop trio, The Golden Filter. With deep bass drawls, over Human League esque chord stabs, creating a real disco feel to proceedings. Lead singer Penelope Trappes certainly looks the part and her vocal range is certainly up to scratch, living up to all of the great 'disco ladies' of the past, and with singles 'Hide Me' and 'Thunderbird' really demonstrating the band's sound well, and certainly getting the festival off to a dancing start.

With some impressive DJs on the Bugged Out stage for the rest of the day including Tensnake, Rory Phillips, and a huge set by Simian Mobile Disco, the rest of the day was overshadowed by some of the most hyped bands of the last 12 months.

London trio Is Tropical, having had a busy year of touring with the likes of New Young Pony Club, were greeted to a large audience, a lot of whom certainly seemed to be friends of the band, and didn't let them down. Creating a tropical sound, perfectly of the summer, with 'When O When' and 'Seasick Mutiny', using nautical, almost pirate like riffs, and drawn out synthesizers chords over leading, dark, bass lines.

Previous touring mates Egyptian Hip Hop followed Is Tropical, and combined similar musical themes, unfortunately not performing African style hip hop. Their music described as 'Pyramid Pop' is more than an accurate description, really pop choruses, never more evident than on 'Wild Human Child' combined with almost African styled guitar riffs, and the result is certainly original. However, perhaps performing a set for a little longer than they should, songs seemed to wash into one another, and for me, the band, with little stage interaction, lost the audience's attention, but no band unfortunately achieved this more than former London post-punkers These New Puritans.

The band released their second album 'Hidden' in January of this year, and received great critical acclaim, but it was far cry from their new wave, art-rock driven debut album. With lengthy songs, which really aren't that accessible to open public, they've turned into a really 'chin stroker' aimed band, with the band clearly happy with what they've achieved.

However, poor sound quality let the band down and as the set went on, even with singles from the album such as 'We Want War' not even being warmly received, it seems that the band were starting to loose interest from even their die hard fans, but the band clearly don't feel the same, and when it came to playing 'Elvis', which was received more than warmly by the audience, the band clearly didn't share the same sentiment, and from this it starts to become obvious the band are seemingly starting to lose interest in their past, and are more interested are about developing their new sound, but it's a case of how many people will stick around for the ride.

However, the last two bands that I saw of the day far from disappointed, especially Los Angeles noise pop duo No Age.

No Age are one of the bands that are always highly praised in the independent world, and deservedly so as they produce some of the finest music, and having ever released two studio albums, with their third on their way this month, and with only two of them in the band, the noise that these two create is definitely intense.

'Loosing Feeling', 'Eraser' and the racket induced 'Everybody's Down' are certainly the highlights of the set, and new single 'Glitter' is a perfect introduction to the band, with pop stylings over noisy guitars and raucous drums, the band performed one of the sets of the day.

Manchester band, and cult heroes The Fall, however, were definitely my personal highlight of the day, closing the day for me. Lead by one of the most interesting and influential figures in post punk music, and one of the most prolific with the band releasing 28 studio albums since 1979; not many bands can compete with that.

Delivering a perfect festival set with highlights including 'Touch Sensitive' and the dark and brooding, yet exceptional 'Reformation' as well as some much earlier songs, the band showed why they're so talented and have stuck around for so long, and even with songs from their new album 'Your Future Our Clutter', it's clear that the band are still more relevant today, than ever before, showing that punk still has place today, and live, they're certainly an experience.

Latest Updates