Amelia’s Magazine | Latitude: The Festival Preview Series

Amongst a sea of nodding heads I can barely tread water enough to get a glimpse of tonight’s support man Ulrich Schnauss. All the way from the banks of the Spree; Schnauss is quite a regular on this side of the channel and particularly Manchester. Being sometime keyboardist for local favourite troubadours Long;View (or however they prefer to be punctuated). His coming over always creates a buzz and hence this sea of bodies amongst which I need to gasp for air.

Ulrich Schnauss in action

Alongside the sometime melancholic, cheapest adiposity sometime ebullient sound-scaping he produces is a projection that seems to depict the exact thoughts and visions created by the music. It’s as if the projector was directly plugged into my imagination and transmitting them live as they appear. Images range from sunsets on beaches, information pills flora, fauna and fairgrounds. All a little clichéd you may think but perfectly apt for the far from clichéd ethereal sound Ulrich emits. This link between the image and sound makes it very difficult to extricate yourself from either and irksomely difficult to invent any images of your own.

With M83 however my mind becomes satiated with strange and vivid imagery all coming from a magical blue box set in the middle of the stage emitting light, watts and ohms throughout the entirety of the Deaf Institute. Taking a certain quality of softly spoken vocal over loud reverbed guitar from shoegaze giants My Bloody Valentine and Ride, they create an all new form of dance music that sets it apart and creates an Ibiza club night atmosphere but with an air of Krautrock cool; let’s call it Neu! Disco. The crowd are euphoric, swaying, dancing and gyrating to an infectious beat, from the drum kit placed behind a perspex cabin, as I bob up and down, straggling to grab hold of a lifebuoy. Boy, it’s enough to blow your socks off, something front man Anthony Gonzalez would attest to (he plays barefooted, just to clarify).

M83

M83 are currently preparing to embark on a huge tour of Europe with Depeche Mode, if you’re on dry land and have the opportunity to jump aboard then get to it captain, batten down the hatches and hold on to your socks.

All photos and lovely illustrations courtesy of Simon Edgar Lord.
Continuing our Festival Preview Series, drugs today it’s Latitude‘s chance to shine and watch out Summer, there this year’s Latitude is going to blow your mind!
Musically, medicine 2009 is hotting up to live up to 2008′s highly-set standards. With their ‘living legend’ headliners, Grace Jones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Pet Shop Boys, all the way down to bright young things like Marina and the Diamonds, Casiokids, Marnie Stern and Wild Beasts.
Regina Spektor, who has been relatively quiet on the live circuit of late, will be playing her piano and singing stories to you and then Bat for Lashes will be captivating the audience with her twilight-magic pop, after all this whimsy you can dance your socks off to Pitchfork-darlings; !!! (chk-chk-chk, it’s fun to say!) and a Belle and Sebastian DJ set (can you hear me squeaking with excitement? Probably)
Without sounding like Captain Cliché there is something for everyone!
Latitude boldly touts itself as more than a music festival and indeed it is! There’s a comedy stage; laughs provided by Sean Lock amongst others, a Cabaret and a theatre arena. For the bookish among us there is a literary arena; touting Vivienne Westwood talking about Active Resistance and the legendary Sir Peter Blake, why not mooch on over to the poetry arena afterwards an catch ex-laureate Andrew Motion, or the world’s most loveable and talented wet blanket Jeffrey Lewis weave a web of comic books and poetry.
At the lake at sunset, the House of Blue Eyes will be putting on a fashion show called ‘Rock n’ Roll Faerie, fashion and music merge as well as a live performance piece by Johnny BlueEyes himself, I can’t wait! It seems Latitude pretty much have all the bases covered.

It takes place Thursday 16th- Sunday 19th July at Henham Park Southwold, Sunrise Coast, Suffolk. Tickets at £150.
Continuing our Festival Preview Series, stomach today it’s Latitude‘s chance to shine and watch out Summer, advice this year’s Latitude is going to blow your mind!

Musically, 2009 is hotting up to live up to 2008′s highly-set standards. With their ‘living legend’ headliners, Grace Jones, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Pet Shop Boys, all the way down to bright young things like Marina and the Diamonds, Casiokids (pictured below), Marnie Stern and Wild Beasts.

Regina Spektor, who has been relatively quiet on the live circuit of late, will be playing her piano and singing stories to you and then Bat for Lashes, pictured below, will be captivating the audience with her twilight-magic pop. After all that whimsy you can dance your socks off to Pitchfork-darlings; !!! (chk-chk-chk, it’s fun to say!) and a Belle and Sebastian DJ set (can you hear me squeaking with excitement? Probably)
Without sounding like Captain Cliché there is something for everyone!

Latitude boldly touts itself as more than a music festival and indeed it is! There’s a comedy stage; laughs provided by Sean Lock amongst others, a Cabaret and a theatre arena. For the bookish among us there is a literary arena; touting Vivienne Westwood talking about Active Resistance and the legendary Sir Peter Blake, why not mooch on over to the poetry arena afterwards an catch ex-laureate Andrew Motion, or the world’s most loveable and talented wet blanket Jeffrey Lewis weave a web of comic books and poetry.
At the lake at sunset, the House of Blue Eyes will be putting on a fashion show called ‘Rock n’ Roll Faerie, fashion and music merge as well as a live performance piece by Johnny BlueEyes himself, I can’t wait! It seems Latitude pretty much have all the bases covered.

It takes place Thursday 16th- Sunday 19th July at Henham Park Southwold, Sunrise Coast, Suffolk. Tickets at £150.

Written by Roisin Conway on Wednesday May 27th, 2009 2:55 pm

Categories ,Electro, ,Festival Preview, ,Folk, ,Indie, ,Literature, ,Poetry, ,Pop, ,Summer, ,Theatre

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