1234 Shoreditch Festival Review: Disorder Magazine

Posted by Jameela Oberman on July 15, 2011 · 3 Comments 

The 1234 Shoreditch Festival, London, Saturday 9th July 2011 had a good vibe packed with heaps of bands in one day, showcasing the hottest new alternative acts and some legends like The King Blues, Raveonettes and Zombie Nation, amongst others, Despite food and drink expenses, overall it was a wicked day for checking out unique artists.

Firstly Disorder had a look round some of the smaller stages to see what the festival had to offer…

Sex Beet

Sex Beet are a quirky, catchy garage rock band that writes songs about surfing and are simply raucous fun reminiscent of The Beach Boys.

Echo Lake

Echo Lake are defined as a cinematic, sultry electronic shoe-gaze with with nymph-like vocals; sounds like Sonic Youth and Mazzy Star inspired unworldly pop.

Damo Suzuki

Damo Suzuki, former member of Kautrock band Can expands on the psychedelic, mystical and multi-layered tunes with exalted vocals.

The Little Bleeders

The Little Bleeders is a charismatic proto-punk rock n roll band who are mental like Art Brut and riff-heavy like Franz Ferdinand.

Fair Ohs

Fair Ohs took to the rough trade stage bringing with them some much needed summer vibes to 1234 festival. The tropical sounds from the trio had the crowd smiling and bouncing around from the start of the set. Whenever the double vocalists weren’t chanting into their microphones they would spin away into a kind of barefoot barn dance. The set had a great energy to it backed up by some quality drumming which was a bit of a rarity for many of the other acts at the festival.

Polen

On the dance stage hosted by Bad Life records an early band “Polen”, a South American electro-rock band full of intense beats and eargasm sounds to make you wana shake your boot andy get everything moving.

Next up was new comer Attaque a new DJ and producer who has gained a reputation being supported by the likes of Autokratz and Adam Freeland and it is very quickly easy to see why as he brings in a combination of Electro and Techno which is mixed with ease. Combining some of the output from Boys Noize records with his own new remixes. Attaque is definitely an artist for all of those into techno in the UK to watch out for in up coming months.

TWR72 is a combination of producers The Walk and Roger SeventyTwo. Firstly playing a DJ set at the festival and then a Live set at Bad life’s after party. You can see why these two have been quickly labeled as Future Techno.. With tracks such as Future Tool and Summer of 91 this act very quickly get too work developing a 4-4 techno groove which optimizes bad life records to which they have just currently signed.

Autokratz

Autokratz were hosting the Bad Life Stage as an ode to their new label. Having recently released their new album ‘ Self help for beginners’ they are very quick to show why they are seen as one of the best live electronic acts in the world. Even becoming the Wraith work for them instead of sampling Peter Hook’s bass line it is played live. The tent is full and as Autokratz dive round the stage, with the Korg bleeping out over the new addition of a drummer keeping the tempo. The song of the set for us is the rave anthem A-Train which comes as a bonus track on the album which takes the band and the full tent into overdrive.

Zombie Nation

Jameela Oberman checked out the Noisey Main Stage and picked three live highlights …

The Chapman Family 5:15 Main Stage

The Chapman Family

The Chapman Family, brooding goth-rockers from Middlesbrough, dished out a formidable performance churning out their debut ‘Burn Your Town’ – full of thunderous, tribal drums and slamming guitars that made contagious, manic live tracks. Front man Kingsley Chapman radiated a genuine passion on stage, like when playing ‘All Fall’, his trademark drawling vocal delivery culminating with screams into the mic. Chapman chatted to the fired-up audience in-between songs and deadpanned, “There’s an EDL march in my hometown today, I was going to stay there to tell them to fuck off but came here instead for the gig”. On record the characteristic phrase-repeats of the choruses in the band’s tunes can sound repetitive but played live the hooks were safe. At the end of the gig Chapman announced, “This is a song about murdering kids,” and the band hammered out ‘Kids’ a fast, cathartic cacophony of scratchy, condensed guitars.

Lydia Lunch 6:30 Noisey Main Stage

Lydia Lunch

The punk rocker legend that is Lydia Lunch graced the stage, her gravelly voice and witty vitriol transfixing the audience. Some of the crowd would have seen her back in the day, but most were the young and curious, knowing of her cult status from the 70s New York No- Wave Scene and her reputation for being a confrontationalist. Sneering Lydia, a commanding presence with cleavage jutting out, leaned over the stage glaring at her fans and mixed her songs with breaks of scathing words, against a backdrop from a vigorous lead guitarist. Lunch belted out tunes about a myriad of issues, like soldiers with PTSD, Pete Doherty and ‘love’ not paying her rent. At one point she picked on a fit guy in the audience, “You, looking pretty cute, must be 22/23, smoking away, don’t think you impress me, internet addicted, porn watching…your love don’t pay my rent.”

Black Lips 9:00 Noisey Main Stage

Black Lips

Headlining the main stage was Black Lips, clashing with both the King Blues and Zombie Nation. Nevertheless it was a good choice to check out the Black Lips’ who swaggered onto stage and managed to get the eager audience to jump, push, shove, yell and throw cans of lager in the air. Jared Swilley appeared on stage with a crate of lager cans and began throwing them to the audience; a guy in the crowd, dressed in an outsize black hoody and cap, shouted, “He’s giving out free beer, it’s free fucking beer!” This generosity set the motion for a full-on set, the Black Lips, notorious for their insane gigs lacked no less energy than usual blasting out ‘Fad’ with a crazed ferocity, Bad Kids was sharp as ever, sounding much heavier on the guitar live and Joe Bradley’s voice was on top form throughout the gig.

• Words (Intro, Small bands stages, Polen and Main stage reviews: Jameela Oberman
Fair Ohs Review: Chris Chudleigh , Dance Stage Reviews: Aaron Davies
• Photos: Chris Chudleigh

Filed under Arts and Culture, Music, Reviews · Tagged with 1234 Shoreditch Festival, Attaque, Autokratz, Bad Life Records, Black Lips, Damo Suzuki, Echo Lake, Fair Ohs, London, Lydia Lunch, Polen, Sex Beet, The Chapman Family, The Little Bleeders, TWR72, Zombie Nation