- The Guardian
Tuesday 30 July 2019 13
Live reviews
PHOTOGRAPHS: ADAM BURZYNSKI; TRISTRAM KENTON/THE GUARDIAN; ELLIS O’BRIEN/BBC
Days earlier, Foals frontman
Yannis Philippakis tweeted:
“With love & humility ... we’re the
best band in the world.” His claim
is neither humble nor accurate,
but Foals are the perfect band
to headline this kind of festival,
crashing between heavy riff s, pop
hooks and indie disco hits. From one
band who claim to be the greatest in
the world to another, with Echo and
the Bunnymen singer Ian McCulloch
proclaiming “This is the greatest
song ever written ”, as the band whip
up a stirring version of The Killing
Moon. Having seen the Murder
Capital play post-punk dress-up in
raincoats, suits, malevolent stares
and freshly lit cigarettes to walk
on stage with, it shows how little
the new Irish band have expanded
on the true spirit and dynamism
of the genre – their conceited
aff ectation is even more transparent
compared to the clattering ferocity
of the Bunnymen.
Indie dominates Y Not. It’s a bit
like being tuned into Steve Lamacq’s
6 Music programme for three days :
a haven for some, but eclecticism
suff ers. One of the mid-2000s indie
boom acts to come out of that era
with memorable tunes and a shred
of dignity is Franz Ferdinand.
They play a brilliantly fun, punchy,
at times almost cheesy set, with
frontman Alex Kapranos embracing
the role of suited compere.
Rare variation of genre is
welcome, such as rapper Wretch
32 ’s fl uid vocals and heavy bass
diverting from the band format.
Similarly, sets that weave between
the sparky, grungy and poppy from
Sunfl ower Bean and Wolf Alice are a
much-needed break from the fairly
omnipresent sight of four white lads
playing guitar music as if the last 15
years hasn’t happened.
This is the frustrating dichotomy
of Y Not: it has done a brilliant job of
attracting a huge number of engaged
young people, but the lineup fails to
refl ect their post-genre sensibilities.
Daniel Dylan Wray★★★★☆
Bold Tendencies, London
Pop Programme until 18 AugustY Not festival
Proms
BBCSO/Oramo
‘Y
Not festival. Why
not go home
when it’s fucking
thrashing
down?” asks
Shaun Ryder
during the Happy Mondays’ Sunday
afternoon set, as freezing cold rain
batters the audience. A huge chunk
of them already have, driven home
by non stop rain and a site turned to
brown sludge.
Located in the beautiful Peak
District and one of the fastest-
growing festivals in the UK, Y Not
has an unusual demographic that
is almost a perfect split between
teenagers and over-40s. It’s a divide
that Sports Team notice, as one
half of the crowd bounce along in
sweat-drenched clusters whil e the
other nods reservedly. “Is this the
parents’ side?” asks singer Alex Rice.
“How’s the craft beer tent? Sorry
Idles couldn’t be here.” However,
this attempt at caustic wit quickly
stumbles as the band mess up new
single Here It Comes Again and haveto start over. It also doesn’t help
that it sounds like a past-their-best
Art Brut track.
Idles do indeed turn up the next
day and play an impassioned set,
one that gains a sad relevance when
singer Joe Talbot introduces a song
about depression, 1049 Gotho ,
having just found out a friend took
their own life. Some accuse the m of
sloganeering, but it’s a spiriting thing
to witness a band with an audience
this big declare , “Long live the
European Union and immigration ”,
to a cross-generational audience
united in the pit.A
lmost everything
Olivier Messiaen
wrote was intended
“to glorify God ”.
But he made that
intention explicit
in his description of Des Canyons
aux Étoiles ..., his longest orchestral
work, composed in the 1970s. It was
commissioned for the bicentennial
of US independence, and inspired by
the vast desert landscapes and night
skies of the American south-west,
and of Utah in particular.
Along with the monumental
piano cycle Catalogue d’Oiseaux,
the 90-minute work is Messiaen’s
most ambitious celebration of the
natural world (“God’s creation”, to
the devoutly Catholic composer).
Birds sing in all 12 movements of Des
Canyons, many of them transcribed
by the composer in Utah, though
songs from elsewhere – the Sahara,
Australia, Hawaii – are incorporated.
The score was an obvious choice
for a Proms season that is taking
threatened nature as a theme , and
it got an evening to itself, played
by the BBC Symphony Orchestraconducted by Sakari Oramo , with
pianist Nicolas Hodges , horn player
Martin Owen and percussionists
David Hockings and Alex Neal.
Unlike some of Messiaen’s
works, Des Canyons was not
specifi cally written for a large,
resonant performing space, but the
Royal Albert Hall acoustic suited it
well. The massive diatonic climax
that ends the second of the three
parts was easily accommodated;silences were tinged with the dying
echoes of the tuned percussion;
the tangles of wind lines, as in the
ecstatic explosion of birdsong in
the penultimate movement, were
superbly defi ned.
Interstellar Call, the solo horn
movement, which now seems
an unlikely precursor to some
of the instrumental solos in
Stockhausen’s Licht cycle , was
made into a masterly tour de
force by Owen, just as Hodges
was fearsomely authoritative in
his two solo movements, both of
them bird portraits. But under
Oramo’s command, it was the
variety and virtuoso fl air of the
orchestral writing that made the
biggest impact. There may be
moments that recall Messiaen’s
earlier works – Turangalîla, Oiseaux
Exotiques, Chronochromie – but
there’s much more that remains
thrillingly fresh and unlike
anything else he ever wrote. As
this performance reminded us,
Des Canyons aux Étoiles ... is one of
his greatest achievements.
Andrew ClementsDance
L-E-V: Parts
of Love
T
his reminds me of
Berlin, says my friend,
watching the cool,
beautiful bodies of
L-E-V’s dancers in the
brutalist setting of a
multistorey car park, as cocktail-
fuelled revelry rages upstairs and a
stiff south London breeze sweeps
through the gaps in the concrete.
Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal
is in residence at Bold Tendencies,
the Peckham car park turned art
gallery. The company’s presence
amid the buzz of hipster nightlife
makes sense, with work that carries
echoes of the dancefl oor, the
dangerous edge of life after dark,
and a co-director, Gai Behar , who is a
former party producer.
This fi rst of four programmes
features extracts from Eyal’s
repertoire, starting with a mesmeric
solo that glues us to the slow
movement of bones and muscles
shifting under the skin: pelvises,
shoulder blades, fascia being
stretched, joints pushed out of line.
Eyal’s style is distinctive: model-
like limbs indulgently elongated or
corrugated into sharp angles; balletic
control and fl ashes of classical
lines; an underlying carnality, ultra-
stylised , as in a n expensive perfume
campaign ; and an aloofness that is
magnetic, like the person you fancy
more than they fancy you. Eyal
knows how to make the body an
object of desire, but with no obvious
come-on; there’s deep sensuality,
but androgynous detachment. And
there is compelling movement, the
eight immaculate dancers often in
unison and always wedded to an
insistent bass – one reason why the
work has an accessible pull, even in
its physical oddness.
There are more shows to come,
including a new creation and a
collaboration with record label
Young Turks. It’s exciting if Eyal’s
dance can reach new audiences here
that wouldn’t go to Sadler’s Wells.
They’ll be impressed.
Lyndsey Winship★★★☆☆
Pikehall, Derbyshire★★★★☆
Royal Albert Hall, LondonThe Proms continue until
14 SeptemberFranz Ferdinand
come out of the
00s indie boom
with dignity
Mesmeric ...
L-E-V: Parts of LoveRare variation
... Wolf Alice at Y NotVirtuoso fl air
... Sakari OramoРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS