I'm not going to write a whole lot about each as it's already pretty late in the game, but here are videos and tracks from each:
(GORILLAZ NOT INCLUDED)
Fionn Regan
Let's start in the daytime now shall we? Traipsing across the artsy surrealism of the festival ground in the afternoon summer glow (hopefully) nothing goes down better than a cheeky squat on the grass near some gentle folky balladry, and Fionn Regan is the Big Mac to fill that craving! Beneath his docile and humble melodies lies a fascinatingly surreal lyricism, particularly in this track, starting right off the bat with the incomprehensible 'hey rabbit, you've had it, your fingers are in the coin disposal'. Even if you don't care to chinstroke your way through the labrynth of his words he'll provide a suitably chill atmosphere for your festival day.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ Fionn Regan - Snowy Atlas Mountains
Panda Su
And why not have some more folk? Admittedly this songstress from the happenin' Fife is a tad generic and her lyrics have about as much poetry as the digested remains of yesterday's curry, but her unassuming croon sits comfortably enough on the unstrained ear (and you should've heard some of the shit I had to trawl through before I got to her myspace).
Couldn't find any downloads, sorry! Visit her myspace
Darwin Deez
Ooh now someone vaguely famous! Well done SGP. Darwin Deez is(/are? - the band and the frontman share the same name) a bit of a blog bitch round about now. This track's a winner - it's basically anything off the first Strokes album if Julian Casablancas was an oddly effeminate runner bean who's hairy in all the wrong ways. I like it, he'll be a laugh. The track's called Constellations but I couldn't find a download.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ Darwin Deez - Radar Detector
James Yuill
If any of you have been lucky enough to receive one of my uber-sentimental compilation CDs over the past few years you'll undoubtedly have heard this man's music ('james who-the-what-now? Oh yeah Callum he's now my favourite artist, I listen to your CD every day, it's basically my life...') as I cram half the tracks off his first album into any deserved playlist. Oddly overlooked in the lineup (right at the bottom in small font when I found him there) perhaps because of his slightly sex-offender-like appearance, he is nevertheless a perfect example of folktronica working. His oh-so-polite vocals and sickly-sweet lyrics might not work so well on their own feet but the man has quite a talent with a synthesiser and a sampler, making lush textures with samples from his guitar and surrounding his twee lyricism with a bouncy electronica production that distracts from the simplicity of it all and suggests the existence of quite an IDM record collection in Yuill's bedroom. This track is the first I heard a few years ago and one of many crackers, he's a must-see for yours truly (even if just to see how he manages to program all of the backing tracks, play guitar, sample it and sing all at once.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ James Yuill - No Surprise
♪ James Yuill - Over The Hills
♪ James Yuill - On Your Own (new single)
The Apples
I'll be honest, I only listened to a couple of tracks once that didn't get me too excited but have purely chosen this band for their Rage Against The Machine Cover. Regardless of its quality, nothing would stop me posting 'Jazz/Funk ensemble from Tel Aviv do Killing In The Name Of'. Luckily it's also shit hot - their turntablist makes things very interesting (alas no none of them sing 'fuck you I won't do what you tell me' thirty times, I'd love to hear 'MOTHERFUCKER!!' in Arabic). They'll be a must-see as well I reckon for a cheeky skank in the early evening.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ The Apples - Killin'
Caravan Palace
Parisian Electro-Swing? Only at SGP right? Nah actually this band are kinda big (as far as Electro-Swing takes you...) and unmistakably French! Gypsy tones and Paris-in-the-thirties vibes fit snugly alongside Daft Punk influences and modern house bass synth lines, it's all a bit cheeky and great fun - perhaps inevitable considering the band started out by being commissioned to soundtrack silent porn films...
DOWNLOAD:
♪ Caravan Palace - We Can Dance
Doorly (& Marina + The Diamonds)
Perhaps not the best or most famous example of Doorly's production but it was a neat link to one of the headliners Marina + The Diamonds - yet another sucker for the 'girl name' + 'plural of stuff' band title that's getting a wee bit passé (Florence + The Machine, Pearl + The Puppets etc. etc. - the latter is also playing but I have come to the conclusion that she is horse shit). This track is to me the perfect transition of day to night at the festival, her summer singalong anthem treated to the very lightest of bass dives and beats (and a really fucking annoying robot voice, what's with that Doorly?) Anyway even if you don't like it his other remixes are pretty sweet and I'm sure he'll fit together a decent set with wobbles aplenty.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ Marina + The Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot (Doorly Remix)
♪ Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers [ft. Armand Van Helden] (Doorly Remix)
Jakwob
What was that about wobbles and remixing upcoming female singers? Oh look it's the chief of both of the aforementioned. Skyrocketed to fame after his remixes of both of (are we expecting any more? really?) Ellie Goulding's hits 'Under The Sheets' and 'Starry Eyed', and arguably instrumental in if not responsible for her success, british dubstep producer Jakwob certainly knows his way around a wobble. A blunt and tedious instrument in the hands of most dub producers, this man turns it into a choral hook, his tracks rest on the chirpy bounces between waveforms that turn dull songstresses' tracks into dancefloor skank-inducers. Especially this one, Katie Melua can suck Mixt Ape's dick, but listen to the wobbles on that drop!!
DOWNLOAD:
♪ Katie Melua - The Flood (Jakwob Remix)
♪ Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix)
High Rankin
Okay, local bias, you got me. This one's from Henfield! Fuck it most of you know who he is (if you were at my 18th - OHH NO HE DIDN'T HAVE HIGH RANKIN' DJING, YEAH HE DID). Previously a dnb producer, the man with the penchant for stupid facial hair and gags about fallatio seems to have found peace with 140bpm (DUUUUB). This one's clearly a bit of a joke but with enough of a drop to take it from pure comedic dick-around to scrotum vacuum. Oh look I just succumbed to the dumb blunt innuendo that is anyone trying to write about dubstep. Shut up you love it.
Download it yourself.
The Golden Filter
In my search for decent music at the festival this group were probably the 7th or 8th generic disco plus female singer outfit, but they didn't piss me off sufficiently to leave them out, so here you are! I can imagine this track being far more relevant at 1a.m. in a drug-fuelled wonderland.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ The Golden Filter - Hide Me
Mercury Rev
If I'm entirely honest this band have managed to pretty much evade my attention completely. Knew the name, nothing else. Apparently they're quite famous. I'm not entirely drawn in, they seem a bit like The Flaming Lips with less talent and even more of a tendency to slip into rubbish 10-minute jam sessions. But it's all echoey and I'm sure they're famous for a reason, let's go see them, yay.
DOWNLOAD:
♪ Mercury Rev - Senses On Fire
Well sorry that was slightly lazy journalism but you have no idea how much absolute shit there is at this festival. I suggest thorough inebriation to distract yourself from the overwhelmingly bad music.
Also not mentioned here: (in rough order of merit, best first)
seriously old-school (pre-Toots) ska outfit The Skatalites (they're great I just forgot to include them)
generic maccabees-sound-alikes The Crookes
stadium-dnb-rock-group-before-pendulum Freestylers
annoying Spanish electro-punk-twats Crystal Fighters
and a whole lot of other shit
SEE YOU THERE! woop woop
