- Field Day is relatively new, and at the fourth event last Saturday, there was a feeling that this personality-filled festival is finally coming of age. Two years ago, the sound was so restricted that Modeselektor walked off in frustration, and it rained. Last year, the sound was a bit better, but it rained again. This time, the sun came out. And what was there to illuminate was, foremost, a high-quality lineup which gained the respect of fans of many genres. It was the first time in the last three years that it really felt like a festival, rather than a city centre substitute for one.
As the punters rolled in and the clouds duly rolled away, Tensnake was rocking out energetic and tough glittering nu disco. "Coma Cat" got the crowd bouncing around the filling tent with jubilant "Yesssss, we're at a fucking festival!!!" looks on their faces. The sound was much better than previous years, but variable—it seemed like the organisers were saving high sound levels for certain acts, and reducing the volume on others. Simian Mobile Disco, and Joker later on, met expectations stylistically. Field Day had done a good job of gathering up acts which—through no fault of their own—appealed to the Hoxtonite check-me-out-I-know-who-X-is crowd.
I found the crowd to be a bit posey at times, although that was kept down for the most part by the fact that a lot of these acts were genuinely good, and appealed to genuine music lovers as well. Steve Mason, as the ex-lead singer of the wonderful Beta Band, was a case in point. "I Walk the Earth," done under his King Biscuit Time project, always evokes a feeling of sweet reminiscence on the divine comedy of life, and it was a truly transcendental moment to see that song floating across a sunny festival field, with people sat down and chatting in their little groups.
No festival is, apparently, complete without a village fete, and an England v Rest Of World tug-of-war came to its inevitable conclusion, with England losing twice, and a rather hilarious scarecrow orating the proceedings. Ramadanman, unfortunately, suffered more than Tensnake from sound levels, as an interlude between other acts; on the open main stage the sound just got lost. He played "Work Them" amongst various clanking rhythms, but the go-nuts impact wasn't really there. It all got distinctly experimental near the Blogger's Delight tent around 6 PM, as Hudson Mohawke stuttered out unlikely Warp-signature dubstep, while across the road at the Adventures in the Beetroot Field, Matthew Herbert was acing him in weirdness ten times over with a step ladder wrapped in garden lights which he ascended to play a bit of equipment at the top of it and a two-man dome tent, and what seemed to be random orientations of beats within a four-bar structure. It was amusing to see the looks on the faces of some of the exiting fashionista females.
Pantha du Prince filled the small tent with one of the best atmospheres all day, playing lots of Black Noise, and getting much love from the crowd, despite a minimum of visible performance. By that point the queues for both the cash machines (more next year, please, it was 45 minutes long) and the can return (10p each—some people really got carried away) were getting quite lengthy.
Life is full of tough decisions, few of which equal a Mouse on Mars/Moderat lineup clash, and the great variety meant that set times were very short—too short to see both. It was clear though after a few minutes in MOM and hearing "Actionist Respoke" that they would be similarly enjoyable at home, as people seemed like they were mainly there to shoegaze. Moderat was a different matter entirely, and the sound was ample. As the three stood behind separate tables in, perhaps, a nod to Kraftwerk, silk sheets, shards of rock and fragmenting globes were displayed on large screens behind them. Cheers arose from the throng during epic trakcs like "Rusty Nails," and other grandiose numbers with the dubby low-range bouncing around the tent, building as if it were the end of the world and climaxing in a rock star blast of strobe, white noise and electronic buzz.