Sziget Festival in Hungary

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  • The ugly, iron-wrought bridge that connects the river-island Obudai to the mainland across the great Danube river was plastered with colourful posters welcoming the masses in every conceivable language – a reminder of the “sphere of influence” over Budapest. Entering Obudai was like travelling to a parallel universe where art was statesmanship, and the only thing necessary to ensure instant camaraderie with your fellow Szigetian, despite language barriers, was the ability to say ‘Festival!’ Sziget draws all sorts of people together through their desire to create, or enjoy creation, whether it was via music, painting, cinema or ballet. One look at the line-up or the attendance figures – over four hundred thousand people crossed the bridge that week - and you can imagine the spectrum of human diversity on show: the festival happily embraced French hippies, Finnish metal-heads, German techno-heads, American jazz and blues enthusiasts, Italian romantics, Hungarian rockers and Australians just happy to be there at the right time and place during their European travels. Musically, Sziget was a great success. Although I didn’t get to the Hammerworld stage, on the main stage Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, Jazzmatazz and Hungarian group Anima Sound System were amazing, but it was the electronic music which completely blew me away: Project East/Club 7, Carl Craig, the guys from Fingerlickin’ Records, Tiefschwarz, The Orb and Kraak & Smaak were phenomenal. Tiefschwarz at Sziget Festival 2006 WEDNESDAY AUG 9 The first night, and Franz Ferdinand played a better than expected set on the main stage, after which I caught the Viennese duo Sterotyp in the Meduza tent. I’d never heard of these guys before, but knew their label Klein Records from the Sofa Surfers connection, and I certainly did not anticipate the dirty, grimy twostep that came spewing from the speakers. They started well with some bowel-trembling bass lines, but after half an hour of little variation the crowd intensity waned. Once MC Coppa took the stage matters got worse, the sample vocals were much better than what he had to offer. Sterotyp have the right idea, but in terms of diversity and melody, they’re completely outmatched by their Deutsch counterparts Modeselektor. Roger Sanchez’s new shaved head look may make him aerodynamic, but it certainly didn’t lend any dynamism to his music. Sanchez spun a set of uneventful tribal beats which couldn’t compare to his old funky, sax droppin’ form. I guess that’s the consequence of trying to distinguish yourself in Ibiza. But having said that, ‘Love Lies’ from his ‘Release Yourself’ series was a winner, and his introduction to Annie Lennox’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ secures his spot as the king of the build up. Technically he was perfect, melodically, he went nowhere. Quite frankly, he became rather boring: at one point the crowd started chanting the tune to ‘Seven Nation Army’ - I assume they were Italian - trying to incite Roger to do something different. It was to no avail. THURSDAY AUGUST 10 The Meduza Stage boasted the mighty clan from Fingerlickin’ Records, who celebrated their seventh birthday in style by putting the party in the party-break. When A-Skillz took to the decks, the funk hit the fan – he completely ripped it up. His scratching was flawless. Track selection was fat and fun, including tunes from Plump DJs (of course), Ils and the common (but enjoyable) break beat party fodder of Rage’s ‘Killing in the Name of”. A-Skillz at Sziget Festival 2006 Slyde had his own way with ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, mishmashing it with ‘Born Slippy’, ‘Somebody Told Me’ and ‘Sex and Drugs’, making the crowd, including myself, go a little crazy. These guys produced more cheese than a corporate dairy farm, and tonight included a great specimen of cheddar: a mash up between their own ‘Vibrate to This’ and Salt & Pepa’s ‘Push It’. I loved it, cheese is what Fingerlickin’ have always done well – that is why you go to see them. Still, no matter what the Fingerlickin’ website would attest, Jason Laidback’s scratching is hardly refined. But his beat juggling was good for a laugh and I give him ten out of ten for effort, and besides, Slyde were giving me such a good time that about five minutes after finding out that Layo (without Bushwacka) was playing a techno only set – which still seemed quite good – in the Party Arena, I made a u-turn back to the Meduza Stage. FRIDAY AUGUST 11 Guru, the master of the monotone and creator of the Jazzmatazz concept, played a fantastic set with his all-star Belgium backing band, in spite of his incessant gangsta ranting often aided by the superfluous and annoying producer Solar (I have no idea why this guy was on stage). Miss Camille, female vocalist, was fantastic, performing brilliantly especially on ‘Keep your Worries’ and “Trust Me”, while Tom, the wind instrument genius, swapping between sax, flute, and trumpet throughout the set, played an especially fine part in ‘Loungin’. The foiled Heathrow terrorist attacks meant, unfortunately, Gomez and Coldcut couldn’t make it and so I ended up in front of The Scissor Sisters. After too many crass jokes and, quite frankly, poor quality music, I came to the realisation that as a society we are going look back on this and cringe. For what it is worth, I guess they played what they play well. DJ Storm finished off my night with some pots and pans. She played an enjoyable set that technically wasn’t the greatest, but with the help of MC Fats, who reminded me of MC Conrad, made for an enjoyable experience. SATURDAY AUGUST 12 Radiohead were perfect. Nothing I can say would do them justice. Carl Craig at Sziget Festival 2006 The hotly anticipated Carl Craig was amazing – the torch of Detroit tech has passed into this man’s hands and it’s burning brighter than ever. With a funked up version of Derrick May’s ‘Strings of Life’ and as much Kevin Saunderson and Frankie Knuckles as one could desire, Carl Craig gave us a two-hour lesson in Detroit techno that left the punters begging for more. Detroit techno has evolved by the laws of natural selection: the second generation may even be funkier than the first. SUNDAY AUGUST 13 This was one of those nights where you go out not expecting much, but are treated with something really special. The guys from Project East, an initiative aimed at international culture exchange, put on an amazing show. Slack Happy from Austrian radio show Dogs Bollocks started with some spectacular glitch, much of which I had never heard before, which made for an enjoyable learning experience. Then to liven things up, he dropped some great Chicago-house tunes, concluding with a Glitch-tech remix of the Gorillaz’s ‘Feel Good Inc’. Amazing. Patrick Kong from Club 7 Records treated the crowd to a forty-five minute live set of electrohouse heaven, all clean, rolling xylophone layers and emotionally moving melodies, while Smac, also from Club 7, spun deep, deep techno spiced up with Cure mixes in a seamless set of deck mastery. Brilliant. MONDAY AUGUST 14 Anthony Rother’s tedious techno loops and monotonous robotic whining through his vocoder made for a very boring set, while Berlin’s Tiefschwarz (German for ‘deep black’) certainly lived up to their name. The brothers Schwarz are a Mercedes Benz of music: the perfect combination of style, class and German (electro) engineering. Starting their set off minimally with some glitch tracks, they slowly but tantalisingly progressed through stages before finishing in true Tiefschwarz style: deep and melodic. Taking it in turns, the brothers’ were perfect in mixing and track selection, they kept it predominantly house, playing a few DJ Hell tracks and a great remix of their track ‘Damage’ along the way. TUESDAY AUGUST 15 Tuesday was a roller coaster musically: The Prodigy put in a solid yet unexceptional set lacking substance. While their new tracks were fairly average, it was good to hear the old favourites. Kraak and Smaak at Sziget Festival 2006 Dutch Dynamos Kraak & Smaak were an hour and a half of pure funkin’ ecstasy and probably the best electronic music act at Sziget. The brainchild of Mark Kneppers, Oscar De Jong and Wim Plug, their stageshow featured two keyboards (De Jong and U-Gene), a hotter-than-hell bass guitar (Marc Baronner), drums (Ro Krom), a DJ (Plug), the funky male vocals of U-Gene and the amazingly deep female vocals of the beautiful Rose. Their repertoire included some great Parliament and even Marshall Jefferson renditions and of course their own track ‘Money in the Bag’. The band left the crown panting and wanting more. It was a hard act to follow, and Mylo certainly did not step up to the plate. Let’s just say that people should stick to what they are good at: Mylo is a great producer but I won’t be rushing to see him behind the decks again anytime soon. Dropping The Knack’s ‘My Sharona’ after a house build-up is not my idea of funny or enjoyable. His track selection was boring, and for most of his mixes he might as well have pressed stop and then start. Mylo’s only saving grace was a great mixing in of ‘Drop the Pressure’, which I am sure he has practiced many, many times. It was a shame to end the festival that way but all up I have only praise for Sziget. Apart from one minor annoyance involving the lack of set times in the Party Tent (which maybe the organisers can sort out next time), it was fantastically well run, and a fantastic week of music.
RA