We’ve spent the last two days unveiling numbers 50-11 in our top 50 songs of 2011, and now the time has come to unveil what Muso’s Guide’s hefty panel of writers nominated as their top 10 songs released this year. It’s been a pretty diverse selection thus far, and the top end of the chart is no different.

10. Wild Beasts – Reach a Bit Further

9. Ghostpoet – Cash and Carry Me Home

8. PJ Harvey – The Words That Maketh Murder

7. Radiohead – Lotus Flower

6. The Horrors - Endless Blue

5. Metronomy – The Bay

4. Yuck - Get Away

3. Metronomy - The Look

2. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

1. Lana Del Rey - Video Games

It got so buried in the sea of ‘is she real, OMG her real name isn’t Lana’ sideshow, that it’s easy to forget how great a song Video Games is. True, it might already have become an albatross around her name, bringing about expectations of her debut album that simply can’t be lived up to, but that doesn’t matter for now. Ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present to you Muso’s Guide’s official favourite song of 2011…

PJ Harvey

Welcome to the fifth and final part of our albums of the year countdown – for the rest of the week, we’ll be bringing you our favourite albums of 2011, as voted for by our writers. Earlier this week, we revealed 50-41, 40-31, 30-21 and 20-11. We’ll bring you our favourite songs of the year next week. All in all, 24 lists were totted up by Mitchell Stirling, and votes were cast by Tom Bolton, Paul Brown, Sam Cleeve, Jane Corcoran, Lucy Dearlove, Rosie Duffield, Ben Dufton, Paul Faller, Stephen Ferdinando, Paul Gettings, Alex Kavanagh, Dannii Leivers, Steve McGillivray, Kenny McMurtrie, Jim Merrett, Greg Salter, Natalie Shaw, Andrew Schagen, Harley Sherman, Stef Siepel, Mitchell Stirling, Stephanie Stevens-Wade, Antonio Tzikas, and Russell Warfield. This list, and everything else that we do, would not have been possible without them and all our other writers – thank you!

10. Friendly Fires – Pala

After the sleeper success of their debut, Friendly Fires’ return was anticipated by many, and they didn’t disappoint. Pala is pure escapism – a carnival for a year when you might just have needed some distraction from the real world. The songs came in the colours of the parrot’s feathers on the LP cover – ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ and ‘Hawaiian Air’ in particular sounded like colour and sunshine and, briefly, forgetting everything else.

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9. Nicolas Jaar – Space Is Only Noise

“Just like space is a vacuum – except for the hulking great lumps of stuff within it, this planet being one of them – Space Is Only Noise is minimal techno in the sense that it’s actually constructed from a chattering web of disparate genres and influences, from Tom Waits to Panda Bear. If nothing else, the Chilean ex-pat should be commended for out Lynching David Lynch.” Jim Merrett

“There’s something about midnight that heightens ones senses, isn’t there? In previous years I have often picked the album I defer to when on the midnight commute to my little ol’ home for the top spot. This album just has that midnight, distant vibe all over it. Emotion through a sense of disconnect, like you are watching events unfold in life as opposed to being part of it. Or maybe I’m just thinking this for the French cinema bits thrown in there. Jaar has this very rare sense of knowing when to use what kind of sound. And in music, that is a gift, and an important one at that. Not to mention that the actual songs that come out of it are tremendous, especially that killer combo smack down in the middle of the album. The songs ‘Problems with the Sun’ and ‘Space is Only Noise If You Can See’ are such great examples of not only Jaar’s musical skills, but also how they can be turned into good songs.” Stef Siepel

“Dance music for people who don’t feel like dancing, would prefer to listen to musique concrete, but aren’t averse to beats that bounce like a giant rubber band. De la bombe!” Tom Bolton

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8. Metronomy – The English Riviera

Joe Mount, with the help of his band of musician, re-imagined his hometown in the south west of England on The English Riviera – it became a place of romantic possibility and summer escape. The appeal came not just from Mount’s tender imagination, but also his band’s patience with a number of elements that could have derailed the whole thing – those liquid basslines are inviting rather than cheesy, and the textures and attention to detail gesture towards ‘70s soft rock without getting mired in pastiche. The English Riviera seems genuinely thoughtful and sincere, as well as featuring the best songs of Metronomy’s career.

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7. The Horrors – Skying

“The Horrors finally find their sound, a great psychedelic album and one that restored my faith in the band.” Antonio Tzikas

“While not the quantum leap forward that 2009′s Primary Colours represented, Skying saw The Horrors consolidate their sonic progression with another fine collection of songs – as well as finally earning a deserved chart breakthrough, (on their own terms, no less). From the driving, look-laiden likes of ‘I Can See Through You’ and ‘Still Life’ to sprawling, brilliant epics ‘Moving Further Away’ and ‘Oceans Burning’, Skying moulds The Horrors’ myriad influences into a sound that is very much their own.” Paul Faller

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6. Ghostpoet – Peanut Butter Blues And Melancholy Jam

“Probably one of the most addictive albums of the year, this took over my life for a little while. A nocturnal soundtrack that had the ability to seep into your mind.” Jane Corcoran

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5. Radiohead – The King Of Limbs

While the release came out of nowhere, the content didn’t. Sitting somewhere between the tenderness of In Rainbows and the crunchy electronica of Kid A, The King Of Limbs was at once a futurology lecture and a Radiohead history lesson. Colder than its immediate predecessor and not the massive paradigm shift of the band’s mid-career albums, this was no less a joy to actually listen to and the only real complaint is its all too brief length. And since when is being left wanting more a bad thing?” Jim Merrett

“Not to everyone’s taste, Radiohead continue to defy expectations. A darker, shorter and more brooding album than In Rainbows, it continues Thom Yorke’s fascination with electronica while keeping a firm grip on their signature sound.” Alex Kavanagh

“A lot was said about Radiohead’s previous album to this, In Rainbows. Was it a return to form after their more experimental phase? While everyone was still figuring this out, along came The King of Limbs. Now nobody was thinking about it as this was most definitely a brilliant Radiohead album – this was Radiohead back to their glorious best.” Steve McGillivray

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4. Wild Beasts – Smother

“The baffling omission of Smother from the Mercury Prize shortlist turned out to be but a minor blip in the continued ascent of Wild Beasts. The band adopted a more pared down, less-is-more aesthetic than on previous records, which has been exquisitely combined with their thought-provoking, intimate lyricism to produce one of the year’s most stunningly beautiful records.” Paul Faller

“The clue’s in the title: smooth, insinuating, sinister, replete with thinly veiled threats sung in unsettling falsetto. Wild Beasts make seriously complex music, but resistance is futile.” Tom Bolton

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3. James Blake – James Blake

“The fact that the record is self titled ought to have provided a clue to the ‘where are the fucking beats?’ naysayers. This isn’t a quasi-sequel to ‘CMYK’ – it’s a standalone artistic statement; an invitation from James Blake for us to re-evaluate his craft with completely fresh ears. Still laced with an incredible – if sparing – sense of rhythm, the album is a fabulous exercise in restraint, of doing more with less, and the possibilities of subtle build and release. Incredibly simple-but-effective shifts in texture frequently push these songs into unduly emotive territories, even when (or especially when) Blake’s vocal is accompanied only by piano, or nothing at all. To get angry that the record didn’t meet preconceived notions of what it would (or should) have sounded like is ridiculous. He can go back to proving himself as an unparalleled dance producer in due course. But for the moment, we’ve been happily introduced to a second Blake – one with an abundance of soulful atmospherics and a keen ear for vocal harmony. There’s more than enough room on my iPod for both Blakes.” Rusell Warfield

“An interesting and at times haunting album that pushes sound in new directions. Blake’s cover of ‘Limit To Your Love’ is undoubtedly a highlight.”  Rosie Duffield

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2. SBTRKT – SBTRKT

“SBTRKT’s debut album was worth the wait – paring down and smoothing out element of grime, techno, dubstep, garage, jungle and, yes, pop, he produced one of the most listenable and coherent album of the year. For a debut, this is no mean feat. Meanwhile the guests shone – Yukimi Nagano makes ‘Wildfire’ her own, Roses Gabor relishes the spotlight on second half highlight ‘Pharoahs’ and Sampha brings a sense of melancholy and sense of self awareness that wins you over from the off. Stunning while also intimate, I’m genuinely excited to see where SBTRKT takes us next.” Greg Salter

“After a string of remixes, the bedroom producer reveals himself, sort of. A tight, poppy debut that owes as much to Detroit techno and Chicago house as it does to south London dubstep. But not even the bassline wobbles are enough to shake off that mask.” Jim Merrett

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1. PJ Harvey – Let England Shake

“Believe the hype. PJ Harvey makes what many consider to be her best record yet, a profoundly moving ode to an England that exists only in our imaginations, at once desperately sad and romantic.” Alex Kavanagh

“Clearly deserved (though totally pointless) winner of this year’s Mercury Music Prize, another artist still producing excellent work in her prime.” Kenny McMurtrie

“Objectively speaking, Let England Shake is one of the year’s most outstanding artistic achievements, and I’d personally rank it as the best thing PJ Harvey has ever put her name to. To take on the subject of war without resorting to “WAR IZ BAD” tubthumping is commendable in itself – Harvey takes the far more restrained approach of narrating the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of the soldiers who were there. In doing so, however, she paints a more damning portrait of war than any protest song could ever hope to – and that’s the true genius of Let England Shake.” Paul Faller

“Polly Harvey’s songs are entirely original but sound as though they’ve existed for ever, or at the very least since the 17^th century. Weighed down by history, buoyed up by melody, England all over.” Tom Bolton

T in the Park

We bring you the round up from our next stop in an 11-festival calendar with Vodafone VIP – Scotland’s pride, T in the Park festival.

For those who presume that a festival containing 70,000 ‘revellers’ (as the local papers will have you picture it) in a giant muddy field can’t possibly have the excitement of their favourite band headlining a venue in their town, T in the Park is a strong challenger.

Many of the same acts are filling the upper echelons of 2011’s big-draw festivals, it must be said, but there’s something different in the air around Glenrothes [Ed: or Kinross - as pointed out by the commenters below (sorry!)] - it’s a sense of hysteria, theatricality and excitement that spreads farther out than just the rows in front of the barriers.

It’s not just in the crowd that the performance button’s been switched up to maximum, but the stages too. Metronomy are in their perfect setting: a dark tent with crowds thronging towards the front. They’re a smoother machine than ever on this showing, and uncompromising with each note – there’s nothing missed, but with The English Riviera’s warmer tunes not one bit as clinical as non-fans may have had it down for around the release of Nights Out. This sounds overly defensive: the point I’m trying to make is that if there are a more startling incredible live band out there than Metronomy, then we’re yet to find them.

Diplo’s set is another of Sunday’s highlights, with snippets of the producer’s work with Beyonce and M.I.A. turned up to full blast alongside crunching, lurching cuts from Major Lazer and Hudson Mohawke – the womp and wobble of ‘Pon De Floor’ shakes up T’s raviest tent into a far later setting than its 6pm ought to feel. The set’s attention-deficit makes it seep into at such an early time, but it’s a stormer nonetheless

Arctic Monkeys’ Friday headline sits sour-faced at the opposite end of the scale, for lack of show – the sound in most of the area around the main stage is muddied and distorted, disguising the variation between their most raucous material from the debut and their most contemplative – as the music’s spun out ever since. 2manydjs whip proceedings up into a frenzy earlier, but it’s Saturday and Sunday where T in the Park comes alive.

Beyonce has members of the audience in tears as she turns on the style and flicks the switch on that incredible, effortless voice and stage-show – all without even breaking into a sweat. It’s difficult for non-showmen Coldplay to follow that, but a firework display and a rousing ‘Fix You’ keeps the crowd’s spirits raised.

Gerard Way’s My Chemical Romance blast out ‘It’s Not Okay (I Promise)’ early on Sunday, recreating teenage rebellion in the desperately longing way that only they can – it’s not a nostalgia that brings back anything as necessary as Pulp’s, as Jarvis Cocker reminds us just why music needs characters to get fans pro-active.

In spite of Pulp’s mere hour on-stage, Cocker emerges out of the shadows wide-eyed, toying playfully with the crowd by throwing Twixes into the front row, but more than that – praising the SNP victory and rousing the huge crowd into one collective, together. If you put N-Dubz’s instructive “put your hands in the air” together with Ke$ha’s filthy-girl cynical tunes and time-intensified fame, they don’t come close to the level of popstar that Cocker performing ‘Babies’, ‘This Is Hardcore’, ‘Disco 2000’ and ‘Common People’ have him achieve. It’s easy for time to erase just how consummate a frontman Cocker is until he’s on-stage in your horizon, when it all becomes apparent. Pulp’s reunion is essential, not only as an exercise in nostalgia but an exercise to many of today’s top-drawer acts – acts who are shy of conflict, or opinion and of spontaneity.

Muso’s Guide is working with Vodafone VIP across festival season, be it live-blogging, video-interviewing artists, Tweeting (we’re at @musosguide) or reviewing weekends in handy snapshot form.

Vodafone VIP is part of the VIP programme for customers, and Muso’s Guide is taking on official music blogger status at some of the summer’s hottest festivals. There are currently competitions running to win tickets to Latitude, T in the Park and Wireless, with more to come over the summer.

The Vodafone VIP experience extends further too – there’s a Vodafone VIP area across fashion, festivals and Formula 1 over the summer, a viewing platform giving customers shelter and brilliant views,  a recharging truck capable of charging 2,000 phones at once and selected apps allowing festival-goers to see what’s on and where, locate their tent via GPS and  plan schedules for their weekends.

Visit http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vip to find out more.

Its Monday once again which means its time for a trawl through this week’s harvest of singles in search of something just off the beaten track worth a listen.

The History Of Apple Pie
You’re So Cool
When listening through ‘You’re So Cool’ you find yourself immediately transported back to the memory of some sleepy beach barbecue smouldering under a rosey orange sun burnt to the horizon line. You passed out listening to an old Idlewild CD and Belinda Butcher singing ‘Drive It All Over Me’. You woke up drunk and balled up in a bundle of stolen wooden deck chairs. From its opening, throaty guitar chugging, ‘You’re So Cool’ projects a pleasingly lazy, sun-bleached vibe that clings to your throat like the saturated, humid smog of summer air. It’s this almost visual and falsely nostalgic quality that makes for such an engrossingly pleasant listen. The cover isn’t half bad either, looking like the front to an romantic comedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt or similar. ‘Your’re So Cool’ is out on Roundtable.

Younghusband
Carousel
This sandy lensed vision of a summer in denim shirts and slo-mo sunshine continues with Younghusband’s ‘Carousel’, out this week on Too Pure. The entire track feels as if blended out into a fluttering wash of ringing guitar, murmured vocals and sharp, snappy drums, the latter of which slices through the haze to provide some welcome shape to the floating ambience overhead. The result is a breathy, atmospheric smudge of a song that ebbs, flows and swells with its bassy foundations, with the momentum often feeling quite bottom heavy. It’s charmingly understated and enjoyable enough and although not immediately memorable, it does leave you lingering over the replay button for another run through. You may not find yourself mumbling along to ‘Carousel’ after you’ve put it down, but your ears will yearn for its shimmering warmth once it’s gone.

Metronomy
The Bay
Metronomy’s latest has a far more exact and clean sound in comparison. ‘The Bay’ is a song beating from a synthetic heart and every element seems to pulsate to a bass drum that snatches up mouthfuls of sound with every beat. This thumping core gives a solid platform for Metronomy to build on, allowing for some unashamedly pop flourishes. From the near-ear sweeps that fly through each transition, possibly the closet thing we have to the star wipe in music, to a nigh-funk bass line that snaps back and forth like an old soulman’s crotch at the care home disco. The vocals feel well measured and unobtrusive even manage to turn an inability to pronounce Berlin correctly into a little knotted, hidden treasure you look forward to with each return to the chorus. ‘The Bay’ isn’t so awfully effective that it could be considered a guilty pleasure but there’s an element of near-cheese that makes it so much more intoxicating. Destined for dance floors across the land.

Balto
The Railyard
Absorbing from its outset, ‘The Railyard’ contains an elegance missing from the other tracks covered this week. Balto have created a richness through their writing craft and balanced arrangement that is both beautifully sincere and thoughtfully considered, not to mention effective. The vocals feel framed by the instrumentation, adding space or texture to emphasise and encourage the voices which are clearly the focal point of the track. ‘The Railyard’ lingers with you after listening and, with such pretty production that brings out the true colours of the vocalists and instruments, you’ll keep coming back for more. If such an accolade were to exist, this would be track of the week.

Patricia Vonne
Cut From The Same Cloth
Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarrantino are supposedly fans of Patricia Vonne (her music has appeared on the soundtracks to ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’, ‘Once Upon A Time In Mexico’ and ‘Hellride’) but perhaps it was her ability to ape a second-rate dusty country sound, perfect for the wild west B-movie aesthetic both so often dabble in, rather than the substance of her music that earned her credits. ‘Cut From The Same Cloth’ sounds like it was almost written for the opening titles of a regional US cop show, or a bar scene in one of the aforementioned director’s films. It feels rigid, disconnected and sterile and, in terms of the average and generic, cut from the same cloth.

Reading Festival

August 27-29, 2010

When the music at Reading Festival begins on Friday (following a boozy Thursday session in the town centre), a hangover is as welcome as the evacuation of vomit that preceded it (said sickness is still being blamed on an salmonella-friendly campsite BBQ on Thursday night). As the phrase goes, time stands still for no man (even one with a hangover) and a now-successful remedy is to get a cold pint of Gaymers (other ciders are available, just nowhere near the festival site) and head off to see some bands.

The early afternoon begins with Frankie & The Heartstrings, Surfer Blood and New Young Pony Club, and all benefit from a fresh crowd keen to jump around and revel in the weekend. Girls provide a welcome decline in pace, even if the crowd aren’t as supportive, waiting patiently for closer ‘Lust for Life’.

By the time Two Door Cinema Club hit the stage the arena bars have all been located, and the aforementioned hangover is a distant memory, which is lucky as this set was the real surprise of the weekend. Sure, ‘Tourist History’ is a decent album, but to fill out the tent with such an energetic crowd leaves the band looking almost awestruck. Reading regulars Biffy Clyro always draw a big crowd, but lead-singer Simon Neil’s questionable bleach-blonde beard and pink jeans combination is something that can’t be overlooked, no matter how good their set is.

Mumford & Sons draw the biggest non-headline crowd of the day on the NME/Radio 1 Stage; such is the desire to see songs with accordions and banjos that many people are forced to watch on the outside screens, with hoards of punters clamouring to get just a glimpse inside. For some people, there are probably a million better things to do whilst waiting for sub-headliners Phoenix.

Despite not personally watching them, it is almost compulsory to at least make reference to Guns N’ Roses, as (for the wrong reasons) their hour-late arrival is amongst the most notable moments of the entire weekend. Hearing reports from friends and other notable figures on Twitter makes the decision not to buckle to temptation and check them out entirely worthwhile.

LCD Soundsystem and Marina and the Diamonds are the main beneficiaries of the lack of activity on the Main Stage, but James Murphy edges out Ms. Diamantis on the basis that his band’s days are numbered (however much everyone wants another LCD album) and they play out the first day with a superbly well-received set that spans all three of their records so far.

After the shambles that was Axl Rose the night before, Saturday is crammed full of bands eager to announce themselves punctual, or to have a dig. Whilst they are obviously entitled to an opinion, bands without a particularly prominent stature (for example, Hadouken) attempts to gain a quick laugh seemed a little disingenuous…

Besides the promising return of Everything Everything to the festival (after playing the BBC Introducing Stage last year) the day is spent at the Main Stage. This is lucky, as the clouds disperse, making way for welcome rays of sun. Mystery Jets are joined during their set by recent collaborators The Count and Sinden, whose single ‘After Dark’ gets everyone dancing.

The Main Stage is home to some acts that have moved up the festival ranks over time –  The Gaslight Anthem, The Maccabees and The Cribs all show they are willing (but more importantly, able) to showcase their wares to some of the biggest audiences they have played in front of at festivals. For The Maccabees and The Cribs it’s a last chance to perform to festival crowds before heading back into the studio to work on new material.

When it comes to reunions, The Libertines’ set is destined to go one of two ways: either a disjointed mess which would effectively ruin the legacy they had garnered over the last ten years, or a performance worthy of their (rumoured) £1.25m fee which would leave those there desperately wishing for more. What transpires is emotional to watch, and to see Pete Doherty and Carl Barat on stage together again is something that many thought would never happen again.

In terms of Reading/Leeds headliners, Arcade Fire might not be the most obvious choice, but of the three on offer over the weekend, they are the band with the most to gain from the festival, and lead singer Win Butler humbly acknowledges that they didn’t have a hit song, but are just pleased to be playing. A set that comprises of their best work from ‘Funeral’, ‘Neon Bible’ and recent release ‘The Suburbs’ may just about cement their place amongst the festival elite.

As most of the weekend has remained dry, it seems only predictable that Sunday’s weather would not be so generous. Still, this means that heading towards the NME/Radio 1 tent is an even better decision, with sets from The Joy Formidable, personal favourites Los Campesinos! and Mercury Prize nominees Wild Beasts, drawing bigger crowds than they may have initially expected.

A quick wander around the arena leads to the BBC Introducing Stage, where The Drums draw a rather sizable throng for a cynically well-publicised ‘secret’ appearance on Radio 1’s Live Lounge. Whilst their recent single goes down well with those gathered, a ropey cover of Arcade Fire’s ‘We Used to Wait’ is mercifully forgettable and sees the numbers dwindle substantially.

In the Dance Tent we see Four Tet and Metronomy. The former, whilst sounding amazing, isn’t a great visual spectacle – and might as well be dancing round whilst playing ‘Football Manager’ with iTunes in the background . Joseph Mount et al play the majority of their only ‘proper’ album, ‘Nights Out’, throwing in a couple of old tracks for good measure.

Sunday evening is a mixture between musical past and present wth, with Paramore, Klaxons and the supremely witty We Are Scientists, mixed with the likes of Weezer and Blink-182. In a weekend full of reunions and returns, it is only fitting to roll back the years and laugh at jokes about masturbation, giving Barack Obama a blowjob and covering Jedward singles with Tom DeLonge, Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker.

With measures taken in the campsite to curb most of the ‘traditional’ anti-social behaviour in the early hours of Bank Holiday Monday, Reading Festival might be returning to the point where the music is more important than rioting – roll on next year!

Standon Calling - view from the crowd

Earlier this week, I read an article about how miserable the music festival experience can be. One of their prime examples was Chicago’s Pitchfork Festival; a festival which I had the pleasure of attending last year. And whilst I had an undeniably great time, I can see where the writers of the article were coming from – it was cramped, it was hot, and it wasn’t ideal.

On paper, the Pitchfork Festival – like so many other American festivals – is brilliant: an eclectic mixture of great artists for an astoundingly friendly ticket price. The thing is that it never quite becomes anything more than the sum of its parts; nothing more than a collection of great bands in one place. When I wrote about it this time last year, I failed to muster anything more stimulating than a systematic day-by-day listing of which bands were good, which bands were bad and which were somewhere in the middle.

Last weekend’s Standon Calling, then, comes as a staggeringly fun reminder that – despite having a significantly smaller muscular flex than America – we in Britain can pull off a three day party so life affirming and joyous that its stellar line-up of bands almost becomes a matter of secondary importance. Aside from its brilliant line up in terms of music (which I’ll get onto in a moment), Standon Calling is set apart by its strikingly friendly vibe and its let’s-all-have-a-great-time atmosphere.

A lesser festival just has a bar; Standon Calling has its bar built into a cluster of trees, adorned with fairy lights. A lesser festival has people walking around in normal clothes; Standon Calling has a full-on fancy dress party. A lesser festival has no swimming pool; Standon Calling has a motherfucking swimming pool.

It’s testament to the overall feel of the festival (and the people who attended it) that I can get this far into the review without mentioning how brilliant (and brilliantly eclectic) was the musical line-up itself. Liars headlined Friday night, Etienne De Crecy (with his spectacular light show built around a giant structure of neon cubes) headlined on Saturday and – wait for it – Buena Vista Social Club nearly brought me to tears of joy with their unbelievable Sunday night performance. Can you think of a more eclectic trio of headliners at any festival this year? I’m certainly unable to myself.

Brooding rock, French house and Cuban jazz – all received with equal zeal and appreciation. Further down the bill, the eclectic nature continues to thrive and I would wager that Standon Calling is one of a rare breed of festivals where a French jazz covers musician named Benoit and hardcore punk outfit Fucked Up can arouse equally enthusiastic movement in a festival crowd within the space of just a few hours.

Blending their line up between up-and-comers like rap outfit Sound Of Rum, nostalgic pop merchants Summer Camp and psychedelic rock band Sleepy Sun (check all of those bands out) and more established acts like The Magic Numbers, Metronomy and Efterklang, Standon Calling announces itself as a festival with its finger firmly on the pulse. But, as I’ve said, Standon Calling is far more special than how its line up reads on a poster.

Whether it’s the playable piano in the middle of the field at the main stage, the holding of a dog show on a sweltering Sunday afternoon, the live-band karaoke sessions, or the seemingly unlimited amount of fiercely inviting dance-parties (huge, deep beats continue across the site until 5 o’clock every morning, by the way) – every little detail of the festival oozes with fun and friendliness while all in attendance spend their weekend dressed up, acting silly and partying hard.

I feel confident in saying that Standon Calling is most probably the only place on Earth where a lanky white-boy dressed as Avon Barksdale, dancing to tribal African rhythms, can be described as ‘blending in’. That is both my highest endorsement and my most accurate encapsulation of this delightful and wonderful festival.

Offset Festival

September 5, 2009

So here we are again: the first weekend of September. An autumnal chill on the darker nights, and one of the last festivals of the summer – Offset, in a beautiful country park in Essex.

Muso’s Guide latched onto this particular fest in its infancy – 2008 was the very first Offset – and on a rainy and miserable Sunday we experienced the delights of seeing Gang of Four ripping up the main stage and Metronomy sparking a mass dance-off in a teeny tent.

This year, Offset really is bigger and better, and Metronomy return as Saturday night headliners. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there are other fish to fry first. We kick off with a bang by heading straight to the Main Stage to catch The Chapman Family. Favourite sons of Teesside and one of the hardest working bands I can think of, TCF (who are not a cult, coincidentally) hit us with a blinding set. Recent single ‘Kids’ loses none of its power and wrath, as frontman Kingsley stabs himself in the chest with his microphone and mocks up a noose with the microphone lead. Confronting the alienation and apathy that it’s easy to feel when you come from a grim town with dark, choking indie-fuzz, big things are coming The Chapman Family’s way. It’s long overdue; we’re well excited about their forthcoming album here at MG Towers.

Team Muso's takes a well-deserved rest at Offset

After starting Offset on the good foot it’s time for a wander of the perfectly sized festival site; with six stages (five of them inside marquees) it’s dead easy to make your way around the site and catch as many bands as you feel necessary. It seems like a large proportion of Shoreditch has decamped to Hainault this weekend but, dodgy haircuts aside, there’s a nice atmosphere here – much preferred to the beery-leery types at Reading and Leeds. Enjoying the last of the afternoon sun, we head to the ECC Stage to catch the excellently-named Teeth Of The Sea. All melodic-but-very-loud instrumentals, TOTS propel their eardrum-shaving noise with a hypnotic floor tom, entrancing the whole tent with tunes from their debut record Orphaned by The Ocean.

It’s Male Bonding up next, in the Loud & Quiet tent. Of course, the “Quiet” bit of the stage name can be disregarded for these grunge-punks from East London. The trio play a slamming set (and turn out to be my highlight of the weekend) to a rapturous reaction from the crowd, who are clearly as pleased as the band are about their recent signing to Sub Pop. It’d be silly to overlook the similarities to Nirvana; they are there and they are plentiful, but it’s the funner, poppier side of the Seattle legends that Male Bonding have taken on board. Guitarist John Arthur Webb pulls off moments reminiscent of Graham Coxon in his ’90s heyday while his bassist leers around the stage with his long blonde hair in his face. A horde of kids invade the stage, pogoing everywhere, toilet roll flies through the tent and someone hijacks the mic to sing The Vaselines’ ‘Molly’s Lips’. Crazy and utterly glorious. Another album we’re so excited about…

Back to the Main Stage, and Future of the Left are doing their darnedest to push their mega-rock onto the crowd who are milling around. I sort of wish they were in a tent, but they do a pretty good job of gravving the scenesters and getting them nodding along. ‘Best Laid Plans’ is cracking, as the remnants of 2003 favourites Mclusky stand their ground with the Main Stage big boys. Watching these fellas with a spicy chana aloo wrap from Chapati Man (truly the food of the Gods), and with the sun going down across the fields – this is pure class. The Futureheads are next up on the Main Stage, sticking with the forward-looking name theme, and what a set of jolly Mackems they are! Guitarist Ross Millard is on form, telling a chilly member of the crowd to “get another Bratwurst down yer, man, and keep quiet”. They rattle through the big numbers at speed, cramming as much as they can into their set, and while it’s all fun and a nice singalong, we’re sad to say that The Futureheads might have lost a bit of their charm on us now. We’d love to see them take a completely new tact on their next album, but time will tell.

The Futureheads - photo by Paul Caudell

Feeling the need to warm up and man up a bit, we rock over to the tent for Dead Kids. Much loved by a few Muso’s writers, Essex’s Dead Kids are the connoisseurs of entertaining live shows. Frontman Mike Title is menacing, standing on the monitors holding his microphone aloft. Amusingly, a raft of bouncers turn up (Right Guard Security, safety fans) to which Title’s reaction is to shout “calm the f*** down, security!”, before berating his own band for complaining about the sound. It’s all very heartening, really. Mike Title is probably the last person you want to spill your pint on, but his arrogance is not misplaced as Dead Kids really are great, dragging punk up off its arse and making it look easy.

As the smaller stages wind down for the evening, it’s back to the main stage and The Slits. Concluding a set that’s heavy on newer material, the ’80s punks have taken a turn towards reggage and it seems to be falling flat on a crowd ready for one hell of a Saturday night party. Maybe it’s for this reason that Metronomy are upgraded to first class: a Main Stage headlining slot.

Metronomy - photo by Paul Caudell

Gone are the novelty-in-hindsight pushlights but the addition of Gbenga Adelekan on bass bolsters their sound into a tour de force of even more cosmic proportions. They’re in need of some new material now, aside from that recently released Not Made For Love EP, but once it comes their impact’s set to be even more distinctive. ‘Heartbreaker’ is still addictive, ‘Radio Ladio’ is frighteningly moreish and the general conclusion is that they’re still one of the funnest live bands the UK has produced in the noughties.

Click here for our thoughts on the Sunday.

Metronomy

Completely out of nowhere, Metronomy have just released a new EP. It’s the first fruit of their new line-up, and it’s a decidely different offering to Nights Out. In fact, it verges closer to the lo-fi (hell, it’s relative!) of their debut album Pip Paine (Pay Back The £5000 You Owe). Kind of. Well actually not really; the Not Made For Love EP is an interesting stopgap with not too much indication of what the future holds.

Title track ‘Not Made For Love’ feels restrained. It’s a slow-builder, with the line “you made a big mistake” repeated over an ever-building cross-section of lines into a still-pared down climax. The sound comes together masterfully, staccato rhythms dropping in and out over the top of delirious in-unison syncopation. Thoughts, hopes or fears that the addition of a drummer in the live show would turn Metronomy into a guitar band seem to have been royally dismissed.

For an EP, there’s a shedload of variation here. ‘What Do I Do Now’ has heavily vocoder’ed vocals on the frontline, just to throw in an example. The roboticism drops in and out at rapid fire, before and after being hit with a pared down electronic fugue. Not only does this track bring to mind Felix Mendelssohn, but Electrelane’s ‘Eight Steps’. Has this combination been attempted before? Probably not, but no wonder why; it’s not entirely convincing and feels like the peak never quite kicks in. Nonetheless, it’s a symbol for Metronomy’s frightening display of variation – what the heck can we expect from the next album?

‘Do The Right Thing’, a far closer cry to the party-starting antics of the last album, is another indicator. It’s lyrically more sensitive, Mount pondering what he owes a certain someone in a form of call-and-response. He’s faced with a double-tracked falsetto backing vocal incessantly crying “the right thing, the right thing now” like a voice inside his head. It’s got the addictive loops of ‘Holiday’ after a Kraftwerk-ish opening four bars, before going all Hot Chip. ‘Do The Right Thing’ is easier to take in than the other two non-remix tracks on the Not Made For Love EP, yet still one of Metronomy’s most sparse songs to date.

There’s less desire to peak so obviously here, yet more flux and an equal amount of aural MSG. The six remixes of ‘Not Made For Love’ include one by Leo Zero curiously sitting somewhere in between Cher’s ‘Believe’ and stoner-rock on the moon. Whatever happens next, it seems we’ll certainly be kept on our toes – and on our toes, dancing. Hell yes.

Metronomy

Woah there, MG live favourites Metronomy have been announced as the headliners of Loud & Quiet’s stage at Offset Festival this very year, taking place in Hainault Forest on September 5 and 6.

In a line-up already featuring the unchartered likes of A Certain Ratio, The Slits and Damo Suzuki amidst 2009′s tried and tested (The Horrors! Wild Beasts! Future Of The Left!), it’s lining up to be one of the most diverse billings across the year’s festival calendar.

It hasn’t even sold out! And you can check out bands just about to blow up (hopefully not really) such as Male Bonding and An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump.

Standon Calling, Hertfordshire, and White Heat, Soho

A warm late July morning, clouds moving fast across the London sky, England giving the Aussies a run for their money in the third test, and a man in a grey towelling bathrobe brandishing a chisel at us as we pull away. All this augurs well – a fine day for a rock show.

man in grey towelling bathrobe

Our little Vauxhall estate is groaning with the paraphernalia of the working band – Fender Stratocasters, Vic Firth drumsticks and cherry pie. We’re not past the Archway roundabout before the little bugger gives out. We enlist the help of some burly bystanders to get the show back on the road.

Vauxhall estate + burly bystanders = back on the road again!

Knights of the Holloway Road! We salute you.

Standon Calling, out by Stansted Airport, is an eerie place at 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon, in the midst of a train strike. It’s our first-ever festival set and, whilst the little bubble dome tent we’re playing in is not exactly overflowing with punters, we acquit ourselves with reasonable aplomb. A couple of Koppaberg pear ciders and we’re away – the catering pasta salad we consume before playing kicks in around midway through the set: better than red bull for sure. We make sure to catch Django Django before heading off back to London for sweet Archway Kebab Centre falafel. Good times.

So, from the empty Hertfordshire wastes of Standon to the fleshpots and fleapits of Soho – our ‘Billionaires’ single launch at White Heat, Madame Jojo’s. When Armageddon comes, it’ll be just the cockroaches and Keith Richards left. And they’ll be sharing a WKD blue at White Heat.

Launching a single is like waving goodbye to your child on their first day at school. You dress make sure they’ve tied their laces and remembered their lunchbox, and then basically they’re out in the big bad playground where other singles by the likes of The Horrors and Jack Penate and Beyonce will come and box their ears and threaten to bogwash them and throw them in the holly bushes. But it’s a step you’ve got to take, so it can make its way in the big bad world.

White Heat is like a comforter for said child – a consoling note in the lunchbox. The first band on was Frankie and the Heartstrings, who were awesome and who feature Pete Gofton, aka Johnny X from Kenickie, on guitar and keys. Basically my new favourite band.

Frankie and the Heartstrings

We had a lovely time. I made friends with Adam, the security guard. He kept backstage stocked up with icy-cold cans of Stella Artois. Plus, he told us to say to the crowd to move down from the bar and closer to the band – which is the last refuge of lame when it comes from a shitty band trying to make the place look busy, but when it’s a security risk it lets you off the hook completely. And it looked busy!

Adam: hero

Thanks Adam. You’re the best. When I’m as famous as Michael Jackson I want you as my personal bodyguard. And when I’m as dead as Michael Jackson I want you as my pallbearer. You made our single launch all the more sweet.

[We love you, Your Twenties. So should everyone else, comes to that! ''Caught Wheel' will be hitting your eardrums and dancing feet some time soon. Hear that!]