- Recent years have seen Poland become a prime destination for festivals catering to underground electronic music. One of the more important events of this sort is the Tauron Nowa Muzyka festival in Katowice, which made its debut back in 2006. The city of Katowice is located in the industrial region of Silesia, and has never been high on the list of tourist cities in Poland. But now this is changing.
This year's Tauron Nowa Muzyka was inaugurated by a Thursday night performance by Lamb, held in a one-time mining complex called Wilson, which has been revitalised and transformed into an art gallery. The Manchester duo were greeted by a devoted audience, but, although the performance and visuals were quite polished, the new tracks they showcased seemed outdated and not overly impressive. In addition to a somewhat flat performance, the high temperatures outside made the gallery almost unbearably hot.
Friday, the second day, saw the festival gain momentum, with a selection of four stages on offer combined with a lengthy and diverse lineup. The first highlight of the day was an acid and Roland-heavy live set from Chino, a local techno producer from Katowice. On the main stage, Modeselektor turned out a somewhat excessive and inconsistent DJ set, demonstrating that Berlin techno and Girl Unit sometimes don't mix well. Next up was Amon Tobin and his ISAM project, which saw the Brazilian locked inside a giant construction that looked like something between an igloo and a gigantic pile of bricks. The visual part of the show was simply extraordinary, with the crowd mesmerized by a collection of astral images that shifted with every second.
Later on, New York-based producer Machinedrum made an energetic DJ showing that was accompanied by some interesting and abstract jungle visuals. Following him at around 4 AM, was Teebs, who managed to keep most of the seemingly fleeting crowd interested. The producer closed the night a chilled and accessible live set—very adequate for the time and place.
First up on Saturday was Ras G, another key figure at Brainfeeder, who dropped a highly experimental hip-hop session. Straightforward beats were lost in a wild maze of improvisation, but the outcome, though blurry at times, was very interesting. Canadian producer Lunice then followed with one of the night's highlight sets, dishing up a selection of crowd-friendly hip-hop to the people amassed on a small artificial beach. Saturday's main draw card was a stage curated by Mary Anne Hobbs. The English DJ and radio host received a warm welcome from the crowd. Her ensuing set was very liquid and included some interesting dubplates. She showcased a relatively wide variety of sounds, but didn't stray too far from the bass spectrum. Popular Rinse FM jock Roska went on to drop a joyful UK Funky set, but it remained a challenge to wait around until 5 AM for Pearson Sound. Even so, the young producer flexed his DJ skills, supplying one of the weekend's most memorable sets, thanks to his brilliant mixing, and tunes from Boddika, Joy O and Zomby.
The festival concluded on Sunday with appearances from Jamie Woon and Mount Kimbie. The setting for the former's performance was Katowice's Evangelic Church, and was sold out. Mount Kimbie, meanwhile, performed at Hipnoza, a legendary jazz club in Katowice. The English duo took to the stage at around midnight, going on to build up a seductive sphere of sound through electronic percussion, a keyboard and an electric guitar, playing several tunes from their Crooks & Lovers album. Their concert was incredible, but lasted less than an hour, the pair eventually sincerely explaining that their discography was too short to play an encore.
Overall, while the festival gathers together a selection of artists who represent a whole array of genres and cultural backgrounds, the curators tend to make conservative choices. Acts like Lamb, Amon Tobin and Modeselektor belong to the tried-and-tested musical establishment, so one would find it difficult to perceive them as examples of novelty and freshness. As such, the festival's artistic direction still has space for improvement. If this is to be a truly experimental and innovative event, the experimental criterion should be pushed to the limit.