A last minute decision saw Pelski hurriedly packing a bag for the second day of the Gatecrasher festival. Both days collectively, without a doubt, provided the best line-up any festival offered this year (given the truly rubbish line-up of Glastonbury, while Global’s and Creamfields’ don’t exactly stand out). Saturday boasted the likes of:
- Prodigy, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The WHip
- Digitalism, Annnie Mac, The Count and Sinden, Switch, Bloc Party Djs, Crookers, Black Ghosts, Hijack
- Dj Mehdi, Busy P, Feadz (and…ahem…Uffie)
- Armand Van Helden, Dave Spoon, Laidback Luke, Streetlife Djs, Josh Wink
Yes, Saturday was arguably a better line-up, (I’ve been wanting to see Crookers, Black Ghosts and Switch for some time), but Sunday was my choice due to travel complications – and displayed an almost equally heavyweight line-up:
- Chemical Brothers, Soulwax, Crystal Castles, Hot Chip
- Justice, Tiga, Chromeo, Erol Alkan, Boys Noize, Proxy
- Simian Mobile Disco, The Glimmers, Meat Katie, Alex Metric
- Dizzee Rascal, Dj Yoda, Skream, Benga, Noisia, Shy FX
So on the 24-5th of May a motley crowd of 60,000 ravers descended on Turweston Aerodrome. An assemblage of the new rave (and clearly underage) wankers, the lager-swilling lads, the fleuro-trance sluts, the moronic ‘jokers’ dressed in impractical cow costumes, the hardened old school ravers, and the many, many pill-troopers all on a mission to grind their teeth into oblivion. And Pelski.
First off, let’s get one thing straight. The name ‘Summer Soundsystem’ is well off the mark. Though it must be agreed that it was a typically british summer festival, it certainly didn’t represent your romantisised picture of summer festivities. Suncream and sun-hats were wasted investments, while umbrellas and rain coats were wise ones… 
That said, rain shouldn’t really matter: after all, 99% of the acts were under canvas. I mean its only May, we all expected a little drizzle, right? Well… apparently not.
The ill-prepared organizers seemed to think they were hosting Benacassim, as though the sun would beam down on our gurning little faces throughout. But inevitably a little rain began to fall – dampening the floor and slightly soggying our shoes. Fine. But this, apparently, was too much for the Gatecrasher organizers: for them this was a momentous disaster of epic proportions. The type of catastrophe only Katrina could inflict. For some unexplained reason this light rain had spelt the end for Sunday’s main stage – no Crystal Castles, no Hot Chip and, of course, no Chemical Brothers (not to mention Black Ghost’s Simon Lord unveiling his new solo project Lord Skywave). This was a British festival that did not prepare for a little rain – an absurd contradiction in terms.
To make matters worse, the stewards knew even less than us. Had the headlining acts been wisely moved to another stage. Who knows? Perhaps there was some really cool tent errected at last minute that I – and 60,000 others – didn’t even know about.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Let’s not forget, it wasn’t just the headliners that had pulled in the crowds. In the drum’n'bass arenas mashed rude boys were raving fervently – as if experiencing particularly savage epilepti
c fits. In the Acid House tent, the old-school ravers were vigorously sucking on their dummies, throwing shapes in their overalls and leaping around like they’d rediscovered the madchester scene. While the Hardcore Heaven tent…well…the less we say about that the better. And, despite the off putting name, The Zane Lowe tent was filled with happy, bouncing scenesters showing off their overpriced ed banger tshirts, skinny jeans and now thoroughly muddied air maxes.
On arrival, I stumbled into the Zane Lowe tent, greeted by some nicely gnarled sounds from Alex Metric and then a bouncy DJ set from Meat Katie who threw in some fidgetty warping and 
heavy bangers. But the real saving grace was the Turbo tent, sponsored by Turbo Recordings – a label who’ve released tracks by the likes of Tiga, ZZT, Chromeo, D.I.M., Boys Noize, Von Party and Brodinski. The first act I saw, and possibly one of the standouts, was the Russian additon to Turbo Records: Proxy, who’s fuzzy, wobbly distortion filled the room with heavy reverberation. He started off his live set with sure-fire hit ‘Decoy’ and then proceeded to smash the place to bits with more booming bass, crunchy sounds and nasty noise. This guy is like a slowed down Boys Noize; an experimental Justice; or a minimal, darker Digitalism. His sounds live, anyway, are a million miles away from just listening to them on your ipod. He finished with his latest booming single ‘Dance In The Dark’ that samples icelandic singer Djork (recently immortalised in Pelski’s Playlist III). Heavy, heavy:
Proxy – Decoy [pelski highly recommends]
Proxy – Dance In The Dark [pelski highly recommends]
Boys Noize – Let’s Buy Happiness (Proxy Remix)
Chromeo – Tenderoni (Proxy Distort mix)
Boys Noize then took to the Turbo tent, with his blazing electro-tech. By now we’re all pretty well-acquanited with his heavy, energetic tunes, filled with roaring, growling anger that sound like a dirty engine revved up and let loose. And, as per usual, he did not disappoint. I’ve seen quite a few of Boys Noize’s sets, and they can be a little repetitive, but as his discography increases so does the diversity of his sets. The boisterous, raucous noise fills the room and get s everyone bouncing. He aptly drops ‘& Down’ and my personal fave ‘lava lava’, while he gives us plenty of his distortion infused remixes. By now we’re all bored of Soulwax’ s Phantom Pt II remix, so Boys Noize’s dirtier remix of Pt.II is a welcome and wonderfully energetic finale to his set:
Boys Noize – Lava Lava [pelski highly recommends]
Justice – Phantom Pt II (Boys Noize Unreleased Turbine) [pelski highly recommends]
Foreign Islands – Fine Dining With The Future (Boys Noize Remix) [pelski highly recommends]
Teenage Bad Girl – Cocotte (Boys Noize Rework)
Alex Kid – My Way (Boys Noize Remix)
So, next up on the Turbo stage is Chromeo. Chromeo’s funky 80s
vibe has always drawn throngs of remixers. His unremixed material though are pure fun, cheesy disco. But raving material? Nay. Their perfomance – played out on keyboards and guitars – was a pleasant change and provided a distinctive shift in mood, as a funky, retro vibe entered the tent. But their slightly un-banger-esque tunes prompted me to break one of the 10 gig commandments:
- “Thou shalt never be the annoying motherfucker who sits down in the middle of the raving crowd”
Yes, I sat down with a group of friends…. We were greeted with disapproving looks. Pelski hung his head in shame. (But I had to recharge my batteries: Justice and Erol were yet to perform…).
Chromeo – Bonafied Lovin (LA Riots Remix) [pelski highly recommends]
Chromeo – Fancy Footwork (Laidback Luke Remix)
Chromeo – Tenderoni (MSTRKRFT remix)
Justice’s live set was, as expected, huge. Xavier and Gaspard were each lit up by two singular blue beams of godly light. They bounced their heads and chainsmoked their way through a heavy set of gnarled, dirty sounds that maintained the Turbo tent’s ever energetic mood. Their set was slightly different this time, with the inclusion of a couple of treats. They slipped the round-and-round booming and clattering of their Franz Ferdinand remix, and even included the excellent MSTRKRFT remix of their D.A.N.C.E. While they milked the acapella of ‘We Are Your Friends’ for everything it was worth and cajoled an amazing, euphoric sing-along from the excitable crowd. Water Of Nazareth is my favourite Justice tune and was dropped somwehere near the end, and didn’t fail to disappoint, though the crunchiness of that distortion was somewhat lost in the live rendition (though Erol’s remix was always my favourite version). All in all… heavy, heavy indeed:
Franz Ferdinand – The Fallen (‘Ruined by Justice’ Remix) [pelski highly recommends]
Franz Ferdinand – The Fallen (Justice Remix) [this version is a sped-up, superior version of the remix, given out free in NME two years ago] [zshare link]
Justice – D.A.N.C.E. (MSTRKRFT remix)
Etien De Crecy/Justice vs Simian mash up – Erol Alkan [zshare link]
Waters of Nazareth (Erol Alkan’s Remix)
Erol’s DJ set was a dirty amalgam of whirring sirens, teched-out noise and thumping bass. The first hour was certainly better than the second, and hit all the right spots. The second hour, too, had its moments. And, as usual, his excellent mixing was present. His inclusion of a raucous edit of Late Of The Pier’s ‘Focker’ was an inspired drop (as he looped that dirty, clattering chorus), along with Dusty Kid’s ‘The Cat’ (this time nestled neatly in the middle of his set rather than at the start). If my hazy memory serves me correctly, other standard bangers slipped in were Digitalism’s ‘Home Zone’, ‘Jupiter Rooms’ and Von Party’s remix of ‘Disco Sirens’. An altogether excellent set.
[If anyone has this or Proxy's set please post below, or even just the tracklist. Many thanks]
Midfield General – Disco Sirens (Von Party edit)
By this point my legs were ready to give way, but I blundered over to the Zane Lowe stage. Looking around, it was apparent everyone here was having a good time despite the Chems’ cancellation. Hundreds of kids were chewing their faces inside out, weakly pummeling the air with their fists, staggering around high on poppers, trying to maintain some kind of rhythm as either the come-downs or cramp started to set in. Nevertheless, it wasn’t that late yet and Simian Mobile Disco really mixed things up with an excellent set of bleepy, acid-tinged dirtiness. Cheers and affectionate singalongs greeted ‘Hustler’ and frantic, energetic raving accompanied the dirty, pumping mash-up of ‘Tits and Acid’:
Simian Mobile Disco – Boatrace
Simian Mobile Disco – The Count
The only artists I’m really sad to have missed were Brodinski and Soulwax (and, of course, those who were cancelled, due to what can only be described as pure idiocy):
Brodinski – Bad Runner [pelski highly recommends]
D.I.M. – Is You (Brodinski remix) [pelski highly recommends]
Felix Da Housecat – Rocket Ride (Soulwax Rock It Right Mix)
Verdict: A chaotically organised event, where the only thing more useless than the stewards was the mainstage. But to overlook the other smaller stages would have been a crime against humanity. The banging electro and buoyant atmosphere of the Turbo stage alone saved the day from impending catastrophe and was well worth the ticket price.
