FESTIVAL REPORT: All Tomorrow's Parties curated by Deerhunter, June 21st-23rd 2013

It always takes a few days for the dust to settle and to get your thoughts together after an instalment of All Tomorrow's Parties. This one was even more of a challenge for me as I had to work on Monday afternoon, so I was straight back into the ugly modern world with a bang. Now, over a week later, I'm still trawling through clips and pics and words on the internet.

After the Atlas Sound gig last summer, I knew this ATP festival would be special. That show, on top of one by Deerhunter several years ago, sealed it for me that Bradford Cox is a very formidable talent.

On paper it looked like a decent line-up, with a few naysayers grumbling that Deerhunter playing their three previous albums was not a strong enough draw, but in practice this turned out to be one of the best ATPs I have been to. There is no doubt that the factor that made this so special was Bradford Cox's very hands-on approach to curation. This always makes an ATP better of course, and the likes of Matt Groening, and more recently, Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel (at Jeff Mangum's ATP) or the twins from the National have made great efforts to engage with other artists that they've chosen to appear.

Bradford took this practice to extremes - appearing on stage no less than five times on Friday night. We had his apologetic opening turn as Atlas Sound, where he sang over backing tracks instead of playing guitar, claiming quite reasonably that he had been too busy re-learning 60 Deerhunter songs. He then briefly helped re-unite Stereolab during Tim Gane's Cavern of Anti-Matter set by bringing out Laetitia for a version of 'Blue Milk', and filled the TBA slot in the programme himself, by jamming an improvised set with the Tom Tom Club. In fact only Martin Bramah's reinvigorated Blue Orchids escaped his attention, their own 'Dumb Magician' providing one of the early, Bradford-less highlights.

The Breeders playing the Last Splash was a treat in itself, with Kim Deal smiling like mad the whole way through it, and they augmented that album with a cover of Guided By Voices's 'Shocker in Gloomtown', a very liberal helping of songs from Pod, and the inevitable Cox cameo on 'I Just Want to Get Along'. All of that meant that I missed most of No Age, but on the three songs I saw they were on blistering form, and it seems they are back to a duo again. The first Deerhunter appearance of the weekend ended the main stage activity for Friday, with the whole of Cryptograms and then the Fluorescent Grey EP getting played, and sounding utterly incredible. I meant to make notes on this, but all I wrote for this slot was "completely brilliant", so there you go.

Due to the fact that our chalet was right outside the venue, Saturday began with the Microcastle soundcheck rumbling through the wall. Some songs were played three or four times as I drifted in and out of sleep.

Once inside, it was over to Ex Models to start the day with an impressive jolt of spiky noise. Featuring Kid Millions and Shahin Matia from Oneida, this lot hadn't been heard of for over five years, but today they revisited their last album Chrome Panthers and it sounded ace. If Bradford Cox was the ever present persona on Friday - and in fact he was standing in the crowd near me watching Ex Models - then Saturday was Oneida's turn, as they all appeared for a mesmerising improv set with the legendary Rhys Chatham as well. They had a lot of fun, with Chatham switching between trumpet and guitar and the band providing the intensity. I found it an infinitely better improv effort than Kim Gordon and Ikue Mori's set, which didn't connect with me at all.

Tom Tom Club provided the Saturday night fun antedote upstairs, dropping in a cover of 'You Sexy Thing' straight after 'Genius Of Love'. A most un-ATP move, but it went down very well. My enjoyment of Panda Bear downstairs was dampened by a packed and humid room, and whilst his set was all new material, I have to say that the songs I heard sounded awfully pretty.

Maybe because it is my favourite of their records, Deerhunter's Microcastle set seemed to go up a gear from the brilliant Cryptograms performance. Although they had a technical hitch, this enabled Bradford to tell stories, and when they came back they played a TWENTY minute version of 'Nothing Ever Happened' which got into to such a krautrock groove it sounded, in that moment, the best thing ever.

Someone realised that Deerhunter and the B-53s share a bassist and this meant that the tribute band's slot was moved until the end of the main stage festivities. It was strange to have a tribute band at an ATP but they were damn enjoyable and perfect for Saturday night. As well as the hits, their version of 'Give Me Back My Man' was so much fun.

Talking of fun, I spent the rest of the night in the over-subscribed party at Chalet 205, which was the sweatiest, most claustrophobic and most fun chalet party I have been to at ATP. A seemingly impossible number of people were at it and when I left, on the friendly suggestion of security staff, it was daylight and the seagulls were already prowling.


(l-r: William Basinski, Rhys Chatham, Laetitia Sadier)

I was appreciative of Sunday's quiet start, including an attempt at the quiz where I learnt that Bradford Cox and myself stopped getting on with the NME at precisely the same point - namely the appalling 0/10 review of Stereolab's 'Cobra and Phases Group' in 1999. I never bought a copy since, and it seems he had a similar reaction.

The actual Steve Reich was first on the main stage first for a performance of 'Clapping'. Musicians from the London Sinfonietta performed his music for the next hour (Electric Counterpoint and New York Counterpoint), ending with a '2x5' which with its conventional guitar-bass-drums-keys arrangement sounds not unlike post-rock. It made perfect sense to have Reich and his music at ATP, as he has inspired so many bands that have played the festival over the years.

Quiet Sunday continued with a lovely set from Laetitia Sadier who seemed relaxed and eager to talk to the crowd. She played a lot of her new album and then she introduced a new song dedicated to the much-missed Trish Keenan of Broadcast which I think must have had an impact on Bradford Cox, as Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest set later that evening was touched by the same air of melancholy.

Before that though, William Basinski created some sedate loops to a mostly reverential audience in the sticky second-stage area, and the great Michael Hurley played a great set to an initially small crowd on stage one. It felt to me that everyone who ventured in to hear his set stayed with it, and I know the comparison is back-to-front, but he reminded me a lot of the late Vic Chesnutt. Nice rants about YouTube and Monsanto as well!

One of the worst clashes happened later on Sunday, when Pere Ubu and Dan Deacon overlapped for fifteen minutes. Pere Ubu sounded on great form, David Thomas seated and chatting centre stage, giving out against claims that he is "grumpy". I left after a superb version of 'The Modern Dance' and got in position for Dan Deacon.

Even though I've seen his 'audience participation' act before, there is still something very special about it. He gets a crowd who are too cool for such things to dance and run around a packed venue at his bidding, which makes me think that there is some sort of magic in the air. His drummers, Jeremy Hyman (of Boredoms and Ponytail) and Kevin O'Meara, play a blinder as well, and the energy level and humidity meant that I had to go and get changed immediately afterwards.

It is left to the final Deerhunter set to bring the metaphorical curtain down on the main stage with their album Halcyon Digest. Until tonight this was probably my least favourite of the three (there's little between them though), but this set built up slowly, again seemingly in tune with the underlying Sunday "vibe". The big blow-out this time was 'Desire Lines' which was just fantastic, but the memorable moments come around 'Coronado' and 'He Would Have Laughed', two pieces written as a tribute to the late Jay Reatard and tonight the latter is also dedicated to Trish Keenan, a woman whose influence (and that of her band Broadcast) was felt strongly at this festival. Bradford made an impassioned and genuine speech about how this weekend was the best of his life - and having witnessed him enjoying himself so much I cannot argue with that.

Within the hour a skinny stage diver is carried aloft by the still lively crowd watching the edgy electronica of Black Dice close out stage two. Of course it's Bradford Cox, and the crowd gave him a final lap of the venue as he surfs overhead. He was there at the beginning and the end, and seemingly all points in between, and the efforts of him and his band made this one of the very best ATPs. As I said earlier, there was magic in the air.

Some previous ATP adventures
Curated by Jeff Mangum
ATP versus the Fans
Curated by Slint

PREVIEW: ATP curated by Deerhunter

*** a review of this event can be found here ***
The last time I saw Bradford Cox on stage he was playing a rambling and diverse set in London's Scala, the hot and humid atmosphere playing havoc with his jet-lag. He was brilliant though, effortlessly improvising around the tunes we knew from the Atlas Sound releases and getting some inspirational sounds from what looked like a straightforward singer-songwriter set-up.
Now it is the turn of his band Deerhunter to curate one of the final weekend All Tomorrow's Parties - the last one in the summer, if any of you are last minute ticket buyers there is still time and the link is here - and they have pulled together a diverse and interesting bill. There is indie-rock a-plenty, not least with the Breeders revisiting the Last Splash on it's 20th anniversary, modern classical (Steve Reich, William Basinski) and luminaries of alternative music stretching themselves in new ventures. Panda Bear and Avey Tare from Animal Collective appear separately, the latter with his new project Slasher Flicks, as do Laetitia Sadier and Tim Gane formerly of Stereolab. Laetitia is solo and Tim has a brand new band called Cavern of Anti-Matter. I could go on but instead I'll point you towards a Spotify playlist which I have made as my homework, or prep, for the event.

ATP return to Camber Sands

There has been more head-scratching this week for attendees of December's All Tomorrow's Parties festival, curated by the National. With a sense of deja-vu after the Jeff Mangum weekend was moved back to this March, the rumour mill kicked in over the bank holiday weekend, when ATP were away running a stage at Primavera in Barcelona. Had it sold out, been cancelled or been moved? Another event was in place for Butlins on those dates in December and tickets were no longer on sale. Intriguingly, the "how to get there" section in the official festival info page had been changed to "details coming soon", which was the lead that suggested it had been moved.

The promoters have now announced that The National ATP will take place in the festival's original home of Camber Sands as Butlins, who had hosted most of the events over the last five years at Minehead, have ended their relationship with the festival promoters. The event is still being curated by the National and the impressive line-up remains intact. Existing tickets are valid, with the last batch going on sale tomorrow, and you have until the end of June to apply for a refund if you can no longer attend. All details are on their official site.

The Pontins complex at Camber Sands was the regular home to ATP festivals until 2007 when they began to use the much larger Butlins at Minehead for nearly all their UK festivals. The last one at Camber was the ATP vs Pitchfork event in 2008. ATP are assuring people that Camber has been upgraded, obviously worried that people will compare it unfavourably with Minehead.
Information on the refubishments can be found here, and I have to say it looks a lot better than when I was last there in 2005.
It states

Accommodation:
651 apartments have been redecorated including new curtains, new flooring in most and new beds
All Club and Classic apartments have had a full refurbishment
New fridges, new cookers, new flooring, modern microwaves and toaster kitchen inventory
Brand new addition of 130 new apartments added to the resort
3381 brand new beds.
Public Areas:
Two new brand Dance floors
Fully refurbished and new carpets in the Fun Factory and Lunars
Queen Victoria pub/restaurant fully refurbished

If you've never been there, I think it's fair to say that it has quite a few differences with Butlins at Minehead. When I was there we had to use £5 card meters for chalet electricity and someone had to sleep on a sofabed in the living room due to the layout. I don't think this has changed, but feel free to correct me if it has! There were only two main venues, although the larger one can hold everyone on site. I think the capacity is 2,800 which is actually smaller than the Centre Stage at Minehead. There isn't as much choice in terms of food and drink, though I thought the main bar, the Queen Victoria, was great. The lack of bars meant that Camber was much more inclined towards chalet parties and this obviously added to the fun. Also the venues usually sounded great and no bands had to play anywhere as soul-less as the Pavilion stage at Minehead. So it's a case of swings and roundabouts really, though I have a lot of affection for Camber. The picture above was taken by me at a chalet party at Camber; the digital timestamp says it was taken at 7am. No sleeping in the living room that night!

My review of the Slint curated ATP at Camber Sands is here

A photo from Alexandra Palace

I took this pic last night at ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror event at Alexandra Palace. I've already posted it on my own Facebook and instagram, where it's getting lots of 'likes' so I thought I'd make it more public. It was taken in the Great Hall about 20 minutes before Melvins kicked off proceedings in there.

My full review of the event will be up on the 405 next week. Yesterday's highlights for me were Melvins and Wolves in the Throne Room, although Sleep and Slayer were both on amazing form. A straw poll of others suggests Sleep won the day.

ATP I'll Be Your Mirror clashfinder

Well, usually I wait until someone else does a clashfinder for a festival and then share it, but this time around no-one has bothered so I've actually done my own. Happily there aren't very many clashes to get distressed about. If you are going to the festival feel free to share the clashfinder spreadsheet below, and don't be afraid to correct me if you spot an error.

I'll Be Your Mirror clashfinder

festival preview: I'll Be Your Mirror, curated by Mogwai and ATP

With less than two weeks to go to ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror at Alexandra Palace in London I thought I would do a bit of homework on the line-up. The organisers have had a bit of a nightmare with this one, as the original Sunday headliners Guided By Voices pulled out shortly after the festival was announced, and band-of-the-moment Death Grips have recently cancelled all of the upcoming dates due to recording commitments. Those disappointments aside, the festival still has a tremendous amount to offer. It's a novelty for me to have an ATP that I don't have to stay at, so I'm not sure how that will change things, but I know there is still plenty to see here.
For this round-up, I plundered our archives for some old interviews with some of the bands, all from our fanzine days, mostly dating between from 1996-1998.

Chavez
Mogwai
Archers of Loaf
The Make-Up

As well as the return of those older bands, there is plenty of new music on the bill. I've made my own Spotify playlist, which is pretty heavy for the first section, but once you get past Harvey Milk you can start to relax. I suspect the same might be true of the weekend itself....



I'll Be Your Mirror, London runs from May 25th-27th at Alexandra Palace in north London. All other info can be found on their official site

WATCH: Sebadoh at ATP 2012, full set

Some fine person has uploaded the entire Sebadoh set which concluded the recent Jeff Mangum ATP. This is especially handy for people like me who were the worse for wear at that stage. Also, I thought I had seen most of this gig, which on paper seemed impossible as I had watched all of Group Doueh downstairs. In reality I reckon I only caught the last 10 tunes of the 22 song set.
The whole thing is available at this youtube playlist

Here is song 20 out of 22, Beauty of the Ride, complete with some, erm, preamble. I was there for that one alright.



Full festival round-up is here, and my review of the weekend is here.

review: All Tomorrow's Parties curated by Jeff Mangum, Butlin's Minehead 9th-11th March 2012

this was first published on the 405 on 15th March, 2012.

All Tomorrow's Parties festival is one of my favourite events, but there were a few things that worried me about this one. Would Jeff Mangum be able to pull together a bill and a performance that would reflect his brief but stunning legacy from Neutral Milk Hotel? Also, after this event was postponed from last December amid rumours of financial difficulties, would the festival itself deliver the same experience as previous years?
I need not have worried, because after three packed and varied days where it was difficult to find any musical disappointments, I can report that ATP was its usually awesome self.
The central Pavilion stage was closed during the festival and all the live action was concentrated in the smaller Centre Stage, Reds nightclub and the Crazy Horse pub. Although this was bad for business it also meant that the bands sounded great wherever they played. However, ticket sales may well have been a bit better than rumours suggested and a Butlins staff member told me they had 4000 people on site, which is more than the 2800 Centre Stage capacity. Despite a wristband system to guarantee access to Jeff's second set there on Sunday, apparently there were still a small section of people who failed to see him either night.

Friday was busy from the start, with the ELEPHANT 6 HOLIDAY SURPRISE kicking off events at the early hour of 4.30pm. Sadly that was too early for me, but the buzz was already building by the time I was inside as people told me about this de facto supergroup who had featured people and songs from the Gerbils and Elf Power amongst many other Elephant 6 bands, and they all ended up in the crowd on the last song.
The first act I actually saw was ROBYN HITCHCOCK, who was performing his classic solo album I Often Dream of Trains at the request of Jeff Mangum. This was the only 'Don't Look Back' type event at the festival and it worked very well, with Hitchcock in his usual rambling, humorous form, but it was the slower, reflective songs like the title track and 'Trams of Old London' that stood out for me.
However, for most people today was all about the return of JEFF MANGUM who didn't disappoint. When you think about it, In The Aeroplane Over the Sea is mostly a solo performance with occasional other musicians dropping in, and so was this. Although it wasn't technically a Neutral Milk Hotel reunion some of them did appear exactly when you expected them too. In particular Scott Spillane who, with his striking beard and ever present sousaphone, was one of the faces of the weekend, and the beautiful musical saw playing of Justin Koster, who has probably caused a post-festival sales spike in that particular tool.
Jeff was in great voice and people were hanging on every word. There were so many highlights – Ghost, Oh Comely, Song Against Sex, Naomi, and both parts of Two Headed Boy. The set ended with the instrumental The Fool, which is the closest it came to becoming a full band show. There was a lot of emotion in the room and a lot of love for these songs. It was still only 8.30 on the first day and the festival had already reached a huge peak.
Happily when he returned for his later slot on Sunday he played a different set and added rarities like 'Little Birds' and a cover of Daniel Johnson's 'True Love Will Find You'. That would be youtube gold, except all cameras were strictly forbidden at Jeff's request. Despite this rule, he seemed friendly and encouraged the audience to sing along. He was also spotted many times over the weekend, walking around and chatting to fans, perhaps in defiance of his perceived image as a recluse.
An admittedly jet-lagged JOANNA NEWSOM had the hard task of following this on Friday, but clearly a lot of the audience were here to see her too and both of her solo sets this weekend were well received. She alternated between piano and harp for an hour for each of her sets, and she returned to play an even better set on Saturday night. She played many songs from Have One On Me, although songs like 'Sawdust and Diamonds' on Saturday and 'Cosmia' on Friday were the real highlights. Friday's show stopper was 'Emily' despite some lyrical fluffs which she managed to laugh off and recover from. Superb and very endearing.
Downstairs THE RAINCOATS are also endearing, particularly when Gina Birch apologises for not having her bass amp switched on for the first two songs! Their set gets better as it goes on, touching on old classics like 'The Void', 'In Love' and a stunning, rarely played 'Life on the Line'. They play a delightfully gender-confused version of the Kink's 'Lola' and Verity from Electrelane pops up to play saxophone on one track as well.
Back on the centre stage, Raincoats contemporary Mark E Smith is also briefly touching on THE FALL's back catalogue, with a great version of 'Psychick Dancehall', although most of the set concentrates on their fine recent Ersatz GB album, with 'Nate Will Not Return' and a sneering, edgy version of 'Greenaway'. Smith was on fine form too, doing his 'live-mixing' ( i.e. fiddling with the amps) having a laugh, bashing his microphones and teasing Butlins security. It's the second great Fall gig I've seen in a few months, and one of my main highlights of the whole weekend.

I spent the sunny Saturday afternoon watching A HAWK AND A HACKSAW in the makeshift cinema of Crazy Horse as they performed a live score to the Russian film 'Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors'. Although you could hardly see them, they were sitting opposite each other on either side of the screen, and they played their own music but kept parts of the film soundtrack as well. It was very skilfully mixed and sounded great.
However Saturday, and to an extent the rest of the weekend, was all about BOREDOMS. By now well known for their epic shows involving multiple musicians, this performance was billed as being “very rare and entirely new” and for the first 45 minutes they played a brand new piece with five drummers and 14 guitarists, all of which were conducted and controlled with precision by Boredoms leader EYE. I'm happy to report that his seven-necked guitar tree was there, although I had difficulty naming the drummers apart from the regular members Yoshimi and Yojiro. If anything, this piece was played with even more intensity on Sunday afternoon, when the band held a one minute silence prior to it, as it was the anniversary of the Japanese tsunami disaster. It started as a delicate, minor key guitar piece with lots of cymbal washes and grew into something very overpowering and emotional. Amazingly after this they played for another 90 minutes and featured a few things that were more familiar to fans. They crammed so much other music into their trance-like mix, you could hear elements of krautrock, miminalism, dub and some of Eye and Yoshimi's vocal exchanges are an almost operatic babble. They closed both sets with an epic version of Acid Police which had to be seen to be believed and left most of the audience stunned. I'm not alone in saying it that this music had hallucinogenic properties.

If it was hard to follow Jeff Mangum, it was impossible to follow Boredoms. Although the festival was very musically varied, I felt it missed the presence of any dance or hip-hop acts and we were left with a schedule that offered Low, Mt Eerie and Earth at peak time Saturday night. Having said that I thought LOW played a great set. Alan Sparhawk was wired and angry about Syria from the start, but as a curveball he asked us all to meet him for a jog on Sunday lunchtime. It turned this was one of those brilliant ATP moments that actually happened, and about 30 people ended up going for a run with him. Music wise they played a festival set, with old favourites like 'Sunflower' and some of the strongest songs from the recent 'C'mon' album as highlights.
Later on SCRATCH ACID played an intense set of post-hardcore rock which didn't put a foot wrong. Although they haven't played together regularly since the 1980s, they look and sound like the best mid-life crisis ever. They were incredibly tight and they came over as across between the Birthday Party and The Jesus Lizard, the band whom both singer David Yow and guitarist David Wm. Sims went on to form after Scratch Acid originally folded. They were a highlight for many people here.
After that it was a relief to finish off the night with ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER in Reds. I can take or leave laptop performances really, but Daniel Lopatin had brought along Nate Boyce's visuals to accompany his set and they are always intriguing to watch. Musically, Lopatin stuck closely to the 'Replica' album and by 3am had sent us into the night content.

Sunday began in a quiet way with the noon performance by the AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC ENSEMBLE. This string quartet, who have collaborated with Grizzly Bear, Matmos and Hauschka amongst others, played an amazing version of Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet with Julian Koster from Electric 6 adding beautiful banjo and musical saw. If you don't know the piece, it is built around a loop of a homeless man singing which was left hanging in the air when they quartet finished, finally fading to black after about a minute and earning a standing ovation from the crowd.
After the Boredoms blew everyone away again, there was another jam packed schedule looming on Sunday evening. OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL were slightly disappointing, but this was mainly due to some sound issues in Reds, although the resolutely 90s indie-rock of VERSUS sounded fine in there later. MAGNETIC FIELDS pulled possibly the largest crowd of the weekend but I found they were too quiet and subdued to really carry. They have some great songs of course, Stephen Merrit was in fine form, and they do deserve credit for choosing varied songs and not just playing the new album.
Queues were in fashion tonight, and after an epic queue for the second Mangum show, I found myself in another one for GROUP DOUEH. This band are a family from Western Sahara who have been going for a long time but have been given a bigger audience thanks to the Sublime Frequencies label. Their sound is formed from the trance-like traditional music of Western Sahara and they feature two female singers and very long melody lines, although it was the guitar skills of Doueh that stole the show tonight. Playing his stratocaster behind his head as the women danced in their traditional costumes beside him was a memorable image.
Immediately afterwards SEBADOH finish off the main proceedings with one of the best sets I've seen them play. They included lots of favourites, 'The Freed Pig', 'Soul and Fire' and many more, although my notes had gone astray by this point.
I thought it was all over but I was tempted back downstairs by the Elephant 6 jam session, where members of the collective were on stage with some of Sun Ra Arkestra and Boredoms for a lively jazz-based finale.
As I stumbled out of Reds in the early hours, coincidentally with Scott Spillane right beside me, his sousaphone still attached, I knew it would be several days before the world got back to normal again. That's what a good ATP does, it changes your perspective and opens your mind, and this was a very good one.

An extensive and final Jeff Mangum ATP round-up

Well, I've written my 'proper' review of ATP for the 405, which you can read here
However, this was actually a festival where I met more people off twitter and the internet than ever, so it seems fitting to put together a page of links and embeds. It is what we call in work (pardon the jargon) 'user generated content', so here goes...

There is little point adding more to my 2000 word review, especially if you wade through all this and the embedded podcast below. I had originally intended to cover the festival with three 'audioboos' and leave it at that, but this proved a bit tricky. I did one on Saturday morning looking back at Friday, and here it is.

listen to ‘ATP day one ’ on Audioboo

As regular ATP-ers will know, the festival usually encourages people to film and photograph the bands, and this leads to a ton of great youtube clips and flickr sets. It was slightly different this year as Jeff Mangum had requested no photography of his sets, as the sign shows (left).
Lots of the other bands were captured, and this clip from Friday shows Mark E Smith at his most meddlesome and entertaining during the Fall's 'Cowboy George'. I can sympathise with the sound person trying to guess which mic he would use next!



Boredoms on Saturday and Sunday afternoon were the highlight for a lot of people, including myself. 14 guitarists, 5 drummers (including Yoshimi and Yojiro) and a brand new 45 minute piece. There are many clips of the set on youtube, but this one shows the drum interplay very well.



Sunday lunchtime was spent recording this podcast with a few other like minds for Plentyside, which turned out well. The clacking of the air hockey tables is already making me nostalgic!

Plentycast #33 - The Jeff Mangum ATP Cast by Plentyside on Mixcloud

Sunday's highlights once again were Boredoms, but Sebadoh were the last of the main acts that I watched, so I'll share a bit of them to finish.




some other reviews of the weekend...
My review on the 405, just in case you missed it up there, haha
Fellow podcaster Will Fitzpatrick's Festival Diary for TLOBF
The Gig Ghost, featuring the words of my twitter buddies @jkhigham and pics and vids by @pmhigham and @thelawes
And this Polish review, which has over 100 pics attached

some flickr sets...
by Simon Godley
by ukpeewee
by jaswooduk
by the_junes

My reviews or festival diaries of some of the other ATPs I've been to...
ATP curated by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
ATP vs the Fans
ATP curated by Slint

In brief: Jeff Mangum ATP day three (and a link to a related podcast)

**full round-up here**
A busy, busy day! It started beautifully with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble string quartet who played Gavin Bryars's Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet with Julian Koster on saw. First standing ovation of the day.
After that I missed the chance to go jogging with Alan Sparhawk of Low because I was being a guest on a 90 minute podcast, which has now been uploaded at this link. I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but it was recorded in the Pavilion area and you should hear the clacking of the air hockey games in the background.
As for the rest of the day, Boredoms were stunning again. This was perhaps an even more intense performance than the first one. They held a minute's silence at the start as it was the anniversary of the Japanese tsunami disaster, and I wonder if that gave them even more of an emotional edge. Truly amazing and as close to being hallucinatory and a religious experience as music can get.
It was almost impossible to follow this by seeing any other bands, so the likes of Olivia Tremor Control and Versus would have been better enjoyed at their own gigs I'm sure. Magnetic Fields pulled one of the biggest crowds but didn't really click with me either, despite a crowd pleasing set on the new and the old. Jeff Mangum was great again, and although he ticked all my boxes on Friday, he did add a fine cover of Daniel Johnson's True Love Will Find You and revealed that he had wanted Daniel to play the festival.
I'll do what I did on Friday and give you the set list- Oh Comely, The King of Carrot Flowers Pts 2 and 3, Song Against Sex, A Baby for Pree, In The Aeroplane over the Sea, Two Headed Boy pt 2, Holland 1945, True Love Will Find you in the End, Ghost, Little Birds, Engine, Two Headed Boy pt 1, Fool.
My notes are a mess for the later part of Sunday because I was enjoying myself too much, but what you need to know is, the queues returned and not everyone got to see Jeff, Group Doueh played a fine set of psychedelic West African music with a couple of amazing guitar solos, Sebadoh played a cracking set which was maybe the best I've ever seen them and the whole bash came to an end with an extended 'jam' in Reds, featuring over 20 musicians from the Elephant 6 bands, Sun Ra Arkestra and Boredoms.
Yet another amazing ATP.

In brief: Jeff Mangum ATP day two

**full round-up here**
Saturday was all about Boredoms, possibly my favourite live band, and they didn't disappoint. They played a 45 minute new piece, for 14 guitars and 5 drummers, as well as some other pieces including a rearrangement of Acid Police.
Other highlights were A Hawk and A Hacksaw playing a score for the soviet movie Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Low, oneohtrix point never, and a wonderful second set from Joanna Newsom which had a completely different set of songs from day 1. Also Scratch Acid finished the night on centre stage with a mighty performance which sounded amazing.

In brief: Jeff Mangum ATP day one

**full round-up here**

Have a listen to my audioboo about ATP day one at this link http://audioboo.fm/boos/705920-atp-day-one or try below.

I will have a general review of the festival on the 405 next week {EDIT: full review is now online here), but this post will be my brief notes, made public.
Sadly too late to see Elephant 6 Holiday Surprise but I heard some great reports. Costumes, Elf Power songs and a Sun Ra cover at the end.
Robyn Hitchcock played I Often Dream of Trains which was pretty special if, like me, you like that album. Terry Edwards and a few others assisted.
Jeff Mangum was on surprisingly early and was every bit as good as you might expect. A classic set of songs. You're all googling this looking for the set list so here goes...
Two Headed Boy pt 2, Holland 1945, Song Against Sex, Gardenhead, King of Carrot Flowers, Oh Comely, Ghost, Naomi, In the Aeroplane over the Sea, Two Headed Boy pt 1, The Fool.
Joanna Newsom had the tricky task of following him but she was yet another highlight. Emily still is an astonishing song. And it was a solo set where she just alternated between harp and piano.
I saw most of the Raincoats too. Utterly charming and a bit shambolic at the start. In Love and No One's Little Girl are two of my favourite songs and they played them both.
The Fall were on similarly excellent form as they were in London in November, and probably stole the show today.
I saw some of Watt and Hurley but they didn't click with me, but Jon Spencer Blues Explosion finished off in fine style.

My own Spotify playlist for next week's ATP

Listen here

It has been a very long wait, but there is now just a week to go until the All Tomorrow's Parties festival curated by Jeff Mangum. To celebrate this I have together a Spotify playlist which features one track each from most of the acts appearing at the festival. The likes of Joanna Newsom and Boredoms are only missing because their music isn't available on Spotify. You can listen or subscribe to the Spotify playlist at this link.


The playlist is mainly indie-rock and is a lot more accessible than last week's challenging mix which I uploaded to mixcloud. It was more of an exploration of some of the stranger music that Jeff played during his stint on WFMU in 2002. Have a read about it and listen via mixcloud here

The National to curate ATP's Nightmare Before Christmas 2012

***UPDATED INFO - here - in brief, this is now at Camber Sands and is no longer the sole December ATP event***

Whilst some of us are still waiting to go to last December's Jeff Mangum curated event, the finest festival promoters in the land have announced plans for this year's Nightmare Before Christmas. The event will run between December 7th-9th, 2012 at Butlin's in Minehead and will be curated by the National. This will also be the National's only UK performance in 2012, therefore almost guaranteeing a sell-out. Tickets are on sale from Friday 20th January at 2pm.
I'm pretty excited about ATP announcements in general and I've definitely got a buzz out of this one too, despite hearing a pretty strong rumour about it last Friday. I see there are a few grumbles from regulars already on various threads but I reckon the National will put together a good ATP. The line up so far is
The National
Kronos Quartet
The Antlers
Owen Pallett
Boris
Tim Hecker
Sharon Van Etten
My Brightest Diamond
Wye Oak
Lower Dens
Megafaun
Suuns
Dark Dark Dark
Buke and Gase
with many more to be added. Also, after the panic surrounding the Mangum event being rescheduled I reckon ATP needed to nail someone with a huge fanbase who could shift tickets quickly. So enough of the moaning folks, you wouldn't want ATP to go under now, would we?

FESTIVAL REPORT: ATP vs the Fans 18/19/20 May 2007

FRIDAY: 'Hi, How are You?'



From the outset this was always going to be a different ATP experience than the Slint-curated event I attended two years ago. Different venue, different weather and an awful lot of bands that we all wanted to see, after all we had voted for half of them. One concern was that, with more than double the amount of people at this Butlins venue compared to Camber Sands, there may be queues and delays and general hassle, but due to great forward planning and organisation this didn't happen to any real extent over the three days.
After initial arrival and a lot of drinking in a giant pub on the seafront we checked in and flew straight up to the Centre Stage to see THE THERMALS kick off the whole weekend. They were a great choice of opener with their energetic punk rock and a lot of people get in to see them as well. I'm not going to get into set-lists and so on as this report will take forever, but suffice to say I've only heard their last album and I recognised a lot of the songs.
By now there was a huge crowd for DANIEL JOHNSTON and a false rumour circulating that he had missed his plane and wouldn't be appearing. Obviously not everyone in the crowd appreciated Daniel and what he has had to come through in order to even play live so some people were just playing "let's laugh at the funny guy", but mostly he got a heroes' welcome. Despite shaking like a leaf and sounding like he was playing his three-quarter sized with gloves on, it made me very happy that he could get up there and perform. He went on to play three more sets over the weekend, including one in a chalet so I think he enjoyed himself too.
Sadly YO LA TENGO aren't enjoying themselves as much as they should be on the main stage. They weren't the only band this weekend who would have benefited from a more intimate venue. The extended instrumentals like 'Pass the Hatchet' just got lost in this giant mall although the percussion based ones seemed to work ok. The long-lost 'Decora' and the encore of 'Speeding Motorcycle' with Daniel Johnston were pretty special though. Still, I love this band and although I've seen them loads of times I still plumped for them over THE NOTWIST in the first clash of the weekend. I learnt my lesson early - if the clash involved seeing a band in the Pavilion (giant daylight shopping mall) or the Centre stage (large dark nightclub) I went for the latter from here on in.
That decision means initially I plump for SPARKLEHORSE over MOGWAI, though as it was so easy to move between venues I get to see quite a bit of both. Sparklehorse are a low key, stripped down version of themselves with never more than three people on stage. It's occasionally lovely and I found myself reminded of how many good songs they have. I am too hyper to chill out for the rest of their set and I succumb to the overload that is Mogwai on the main stage. Sure they can be predictable - quiet bit gets loud gets quiet and comes back even louder - but they fill this venue with their sound and 'Glasgow Mega-Snake' just shreds the air. There is always something going on elsewhere at ATP and during the latter part of Mogwai's set I find myself utterly gripped by the Notts Forest v Yeovil play-off second leg which went to extra time (Yeovil won!).
I was thankful that my next gig was TALL FIRS in the Reds venue which was pretty chilled out and I even got a seat which recharged the batteries for the rest of the night. I imagined this lot to be in the Low/ Codeine vein, but you could have shut your eyes and believed you were listening to the quieter moments of Sonic Youth. I pass on Death Vessel as I saw him (and it is a him you funny people!) supporting Low the other week and head back upstairs for AKRON/FAMILY. I have one song by them ('Shoes') in my iTunes and I love it, but they didn't play it or anything like it. In fact what they did play was audience participation games and a load of alomost celtic tinged pub rock. If it wasn't for the fact that all of my gang are in here and I had drunk copious amounts of beer I wouldn't even have stayed (never mind done several mexican waves, ahem!).
It was back down to Reds for SUBTITLE who turned out to be one of those faces of the weekend - he was everywhere you looked for the next few days - i even saw him when I was leaving on Monday morning! He was clearly enjoying his brief stint up there on stage even though he seemed to run out of material quite early on!
I was hyper again and I went back to the Centre stage and just got talking to so many people that i ignored Youthmovies totally - sorry guys! From there it was down to Crazy Horse and some fantastic records - I remember hearing Fugazi, MBV, the Cramps, meeting a lot of friendly people (mostly from Dublin) and calling it a night immediately after 'Free Range' by the Fall was played. I looked at my watch - it was 4.15am and I had been up for 24 hours!

SATURDAY: "We were there when the world got great, and we helped to make it that way.."


A slight lie-in was interrupted by the unintentional genius that is R Kelly's Trapped in the Closet on ATP tv. It seemed that everyone I spoke to in the next few hours had seen it they all knew exactly what you meant if you said "miiidget, miiidget, miiidget!"
There's lots of time to kill so we chill out, have some proper food and bump into Steve Albini in the shop! SHELLAC were on first but due to late running soundchecks they don't play until 3pm therefore clashing exactly with the FA Cup final and a bit of Current 93. I had made my mind up to watch a bit of Shellac and then go upstairs for C93 but Shellac do 'The End of Radio' just as I'm about to go and it just floors me. Absolute lump-in-the-throat, hairs-on-the-back-the-neck material. They played 'Prayer to God' after that and then I tore myself away, as I would be seeing them again tomorrow and CURRENT 93 gigs are scarce and they were already well into their set upstairs.
I arrived just after they start 'Lucifer over London' and saw about 5 more songs, some of them beautiful, some of them annoying, all of them could be classed as English folk music. Sadly, they played to a scarcely populated room but they seemed to enjoy themselves anyway. And yes folks that was Andrew 'Party Hard' WK on bass.
I actually watch the last 10 minutes of normal time in the FA cup and it is dullsville! You people that watched this missed the music of Steve Albini and David Tibet you know!!
Those that suffered extra time also missed CLINIC. Despite being a fan of their first few releases I was surprised to find that they have released two more albums since I last really listened to them. Still I recognise a few tunes - 'Evil Bill' and 'The Second Line' in particular - and there was something perversely appealing about watching this bunch of guys in surgical masks and top hats playing their sinister music in a darkened nightclub when it's a blistering hot day outside.
THE GO! TEAM seem as strange an inclusion to this festival line-up as Current 93 earlier, but they are bold and FUN and they make the main arena work for them. Perhaps they would have suited better later on as I need a break and I only catch a couple of tunes. I just wished I had had their energy at this point!
I was back in for LES SAVY FAV who are of course one of the most entertaining rock bands you wil ever see, and they don't disappoint! I was slightly delayed getting back in and i miss the singer's haircut and the first costume change! There was lots more fun though as front man Tim Harrington had raided the Butlins toyshop for costumes, fake blood, face paint, masks, plastic swords, you name it! Every time you looked at him he was doing something different. LSF are both laugh-out-loud funny and a kick-ass punk rock band. The new songs sound great too, and that was a Superchunk cover at the end wasn't it? One of the real highlights, an unforgettable performance - just key "Les Savy Fav ATP" into You Tube and see what you get!
Time to calm down with WILCO downstairs on the main stage. Jeff Tweedy seemed displeased at first to be playing "in a food court" (he has a point) but he lightened up a little and his band were in stunning form. I liked the new songs and the triple guitar interplay on 'Impossible Germany' was just the sweetest thing all weekend.
Naturally the packed nature of this bill means you've gotta miss something and the queue for Battles is just too long for me to bother with, though judging by I would believe a lot more people watched them then Wilco. Everyone who got in said they were one of the very best acts all weekend. I also managed to miss both Annuals and Okkervil River in Reds, both of whom I would happily go and see any night of the week, so I try and make up for it by watching a bit of GHOST although I catch their folkier, less psych-rock part of their set and it doesn't really grab me.
One of my all-time heroes, PATTI SMITH, is up next and she starts brilliantly with 'Gloria' and 'Redondo Beach' and I wonder for a minute if she is going to play 'Horses' in order. She isn't, as she then goes into 'Are You Experienced' from her very disappointing new album and I realise that I've seen her four times since I last saw CORNELIUS and head upstairs.

Cornelius is every bit as stunning as the first time I saw him 4 or 5 years ago in the Royal Festival Hall, brilliant musicianship and wonderful visuals breathe new life into the 'Sensuous' material. 'Gum' and 'Beep it' are awesome, 'Count Five or Six' had me heading right down the front and 'Starfruit Surf Rider' was just the icing on the cake. This was my favourite show of the whole weekend, and for many people who stayed in here the whole evening the Les Savy Fav- Battles - Cornelius was a hell of a run of good music.
Cornelius was a hard act to follow but THE APPLES IN STEREO downstairs in Reds make a damn good show of it. This was mostly the pure indie-pop of the recent 'New Magnetic Wonder' album and it goes down a storm. Catchy pop was in short supply and the Apples made up for that.
I had an ill advised hot dog and stayed in Reds for WHY? which was yet another great show. I can't adequately describe what Why? sound like, as they get the hip-hop tag a lot because of their Anticon/ cLOUDEAD connection but their sounds leans towards people like Beck as well. They play most of 'Elephant Eyelash', at least one cLOUDEAD song and they also do a cheeky Conor Oberst piss-take which goes down well too.
More fully-fledged hip-hop with EDAN & MC DAGHA and a pretty fun end to the live part of the evening, especially the bit with the record sleeves. The kazoo was a little bit grating on the nerves and their late finish (2.20am) coupled with unpopular DJs in Jaks meant that Crazy Horse was seriously oversubscribed and nowhere near as interesting as last night. Back to the chalet for beer, Battle Royale (another great ATP tv choice) and bed.


SUNDAY: "...as we come to the close of our broadcast day..."



An even bigger lie-in thanks to my industrial strength earplugs means we cut it fine for SHELLAC on the smaller centre stage. Today's set was a bit different from yesterday's, it did feel a bit too early to be really getting into that sort of thing, but Todd Trainer is "baked" in Albini's words and is the star of this performance. His Meg White impression, his belittling of the heckler, his roaming snare during 'The End of Radio' made this pretty memorable. Steve and Bob dismantle his kit during the last song leaving him with nothing to play on. Saturday's set of songs was better but today's show was more memorable, so I'm glad I watched both.
Back down on the main stage SLINT are playing the spooked masterpiece that is 'Spiderland' in broad afternoon sunshine and I think it is really lost on a lot of people. I don't even bother with the first two songs and I'm a huge fan. They soon reel me in though and surprisingly i can walk right up to the front and get into it. I agree that the delays between songs and the mid-afternoon time slot spoilt it slightly, but at the end of the day this was Slint performing the likes of 'Breadcrumb Trail', 'Washer', 'Don A Man' and a particularly awesome 'Good Morning Captain' so I enjoyed it a lot. It was strange to end with the instrumental 'Without Monicker' which I don't think a lot of people knew.
I have only a passing interest in Bat for Lashes (eyewitness reports differed and said "amazing" and "dreadful") and I think Architecture in Helsinki are a poor live band so it's time for sunshine and drinking.
Back indoors for what turns out to be BAND OF HORSES debut UK performance. They are possibly the best kept secret of the weekend as they play one of the very finest shows. Ben's voice just carries so well and the material from the debut album is fast becoming a classic. 'Wicked Gil', 'The Funeral' and 'The First Song' are magnificent, and the new material shines too. I think they won a few fans today.
I wasn't a fan of MODEST MOUSE and I miss a bit of their set for all of Band of Horses and a Pizza Hut buffet where I shuffle around the salad bar with Daniel Johnston beside me! Happily I can hear the Modest Mouse set really well from inside Pizza Hut (must remember that for next time!) and it sounds good enough to get me out of there. I understand this is a seriously expanded line-up (2 drummers - one wearing a beekeepers hat!) including the legend that is Johnny Marr on guitar, but they are so impressive, probably my favourite act on the main stage. I had none of their records before ATP but I've since bought 'The Lonesome Crowded West' and I'm convinced they did a good few from it. Interestingly Johnny Marr was centre stage with a spotlight on him, Isaac Brock was stage left throughout. They were great though and I was converted.
Consequently I saw much less of ISIS than I thought I would and although they are too metal for my tastes they are impressive. I saw the first three songs of ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN but they seemed like they couldn't be arsed and neither could I. BUILT TO SPILL are the next significant act that i encounter and they are just superb. In fact they are so much better than the noodling trad-rock performance I saw them so 6 or 7 years ago in London. I had forgotten how many good songs they have, and even if there was no 'Car' this was all pretty great.
The end is in sight and no-one interesting was playing so a chalet based party was in order, but not before we called round to see Todd Trainer from Shellac who is loitering near our chalet and it turns out he is a neighbour. What a great guy he was, a pleasure to meet him.
Only GRIZZLY BEAR and DO MAKE SAY THINK to go, although I did manage to miss the Grizzly Bear beach performance. I was looking forward to them so much that I was slightly disappointed, although they were impressive and played some of the loveliest music all weekend. Those harmonies! Do Make Say Think are an absolute blast, a great closer to the festival and it was such a thrill to see so many people going mad to instrumental post-rock, even if I did spend a lot of their set trying to get served at the bar.
After that it was Crazy Horse (I forgot to even check Jaks but it looked busy!) for an another epic bash, people making their own percussion after the music ended, marching through the empty arena hyper and taking a trek to someone's chalet which was taking a bit of a beating due to the enthusiastic percussion. I reckon they lost their deposit. And could someone please tell me what the Arthur Fowler Memorial Bench is all about!??
Overall this was another superb ATP. No hassles, great music, great atmosphere and great people. Cheers to the 15 people in our posse who made it so enjoyable and the many more I met along the way. Let's do it again some time!
[pics by me: top to bottom - YLT and Daniel Johnston; Shellac main stage Saturday; Cornelius; Slint. There are some fantastic pics of this festival floating around on line, I recommend the ATP myspace page, Flickr (ATP vs the Fans) and of course You Tube (ATP vs the Fans) for those all important mobile phone movies!)

REVIEW: ATP/UK 2005 curated by Slint

25-27 February 2005

This is my first ATP experience so I'm not as miffed as some people who are already complaining as soon as the running order is announced. The issue isn't with the names that are appearing - most people have had a few weeks to prepare for this and seek out music by the more obscure acts - but with the numbers of acts on the bill. The scarcity of bands results in two quirks - there are no clashes, and the live action alternates between the upstairs and downstairs venues all weekend - which, my fellow ATP veterans tell me, is not normal.
Another thing which isn't normal is the weather. It's not the best idea to go to Pontin's in February but given the mild winter we've been having we could have been forgiven for not expecting the sub-zero conditions we actually got!
BORN HELLER are on first in the smaller venue and it seems like everyone has come out to watch them. They come across as a fairly old-fashioned folk act and they don't really grab my attention.
LOVE AS LAUGHTER open the proceedings upstairs and, in keeping with Born Heller, they come across as a fairly old-fashioned indie-rock act somewhere between Pavement and Neil Young. I do recognise a couple of their tunes, but again I am a bit nonplussed.
EARLY MAN at least drive me to have an opinion, as I can only stand the first three songs and I leave to make some phone calls. Early Man have a great name but what they play is 80s speed metal not unlike Helloween and I have no interest in them at all. My venture outside did raise an early alarm bell that the bouncers were not letting you outside with your drink from the bar, therefore disabling you from refilling in your chalet and upping the amount spent over the bar by quite a bit.
Back upstairs for DEERHOOF, who are as far as I'm concerned the first really impressive thing all day. You never quite know what they are going to do next as they flip around between hardcore and psychedelic music. One of the few bands on all weekend to use their full hour in an interesting way, but then I guess they have a bigger back catalogue than a lot of these acts. The singer wears some giant fluorescent fingernails for the final song, and by this stage it seems anything is possible.
BAD WIZARD may have the sort of name that may make you avoid them, but they put on the performance of the weekend downstairs and win a lot of people over. They play unreconstructed classic rock with such a passion that you wonder why it went out of fashion! They've got big afro hair and a girl on bass who looks like she could be in the Ramones, and they evoke prime AC/DC, MC5, ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy, Cheap Trick.
Upstairs, the previously unheard of SEAN GARRISON (long term friend of Slint) plays some dull pedestrian country which I'm too busy chatting to bother with then he just changes things around, gets louder and starts making people pay attention. For a couple of my chalet mates Mr Garrison was actually the best thing all weekend, so naturally I'm cross that I was ignoring him.
I wasn't sure what I would feel about seeing the MELVINS as I last encountered them in '92 and I haven't listened to a lot of their music since but they blew me away. Apparently some of their recent music has edged towards industrial/ electronic sounds, but tonight they are just classic stoner grunge. King Buzzo has the best hair all weekend and he makes a lot of people happy by announcing their surprise guest - David Yow of the Jesus Lizard - who wears a toga and does his best to lose it during his crowd surfing! Awesome.
I pass on the first Staremaster heats downstairs (it's a staring contest in case you wondered) and head back to the chalet for some more booze, fully intending to return for the late DJs, but Slint TV is showing Turkish Star Wars which is easily the worst thing I've ever seen, and I'm too worn out from laughing to do anything but crawl into bed.
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Given the relatively early night last night, we gear up for Saturday checking out Camber Sands (most things are shut) and walking for over an hour along the beach. Although it is seriously cold, the sun actually comes out for a little while and you can nearly kid yourself that you are on holiday!
After this burst of healthy activity it's straight to the ATP pub - The Queen Victoria - originally for the Arsenal match - and as it wasn't on we settled for some early afternoon drinking instead. Each of us interrupt this at various points to check out today's first band BRIGHTBLACK. They do sound a lot like Low, and are therefore a reasonably pleasant start to the day's music.
MOGWAI continue the Shellac ATP tradition of going on early to get the crowd in (although to be honest there isn't much else to do!) and they are introduced by two loudmouths who have been going around the festival filming and generally hassling people. They intro Mogwai as "some people from a country called Scotland who like to hunt deer - ladies and gentlemen - Mowgli!" which made me laugh as that was the name we used to call them in our house years ago. It's an in-joke not worth going into here! I've seen Mogwai loads of times and I have to say this was one of the best gigs I've seen them play. There is at least one new song, 'Hunted By a Freak' is awesome and they bring on Aidan Moffat from Arab Strap for the long lost 'R U Still In 2 It' from the first album. I'd never seen them do that before. Best of all is the closing 15 minute 'Like Herod' which is one of the highlights of the entire weekend, the excellent sound system really did this arrangement justice - the bits where it jumps from quiet to ear-splitting were really powerful.
I skip the NAYSAYER for some food, I heard from different people that it was one of the best sets of the weekend, and from others that it was really awful, so I guess you had to be there. Whatever, they featured Tara Jane O'Neil (Rodan, Sonora Pine), so I tend to believe the former and I regret missing them a bit.
When I return to the venue NEED NEW BODY are playing some unhinged psychedelic music on the main stage. Some of it is just short bursts of lo-fi pop, occasionally they get noisy and they even throw in some dub-reggae for good measure. Although I enjoyed them I got the impression that the band were having a lot more fun than most of the crowd. They were well worth checking out though, yet another act that I had never heard prior to this event that I will be listening to again.
Ditto FAUN FABLES in the downstairs venue, who in my opinion are the best of the 'nu-folk' acts this weekend. They are a duo - a singing guitarist and a percussionist - and they play a kind of unhinged and slightly creepy folk music that oddly reminds me of Slint. It doesn't sound like them, it just inhabits that same kind of eerie, gothic space. They are the first band to make me think about Slint's skills in curating this event, in creating an odd little world full of talented but overlooked musicians.
Faun Fables are charming too, and their set includes costume changes (headscarves mostly), cutlery and some truly dynamite yodelling.
SPOON are the most mainstream act here, and for some people they are a welcome break from the experimental acts. I've always had a lot of time for Spoon, going back to the mid-90s, and it's interesting to hear how they have matured. 'Lines in the Suit' is a great pop song and one of the highlights.
Back upstairs there is a lot of anticipation as Slint are getting close and MATMOS have the thankless task of providing background music to people's conversations as they try and decide where they are going to stand later on. I've seen matmos once before, I quite like their records, but this show was lost on a lot of people. Although the visuals (endoscopes, eyeballs) were designed to grab your attention I got the feeling that a lot of people were ignoring them, which was a shame because along with Mum they were the only electronic acts on the bill.
Naturally, everyone is here to see SLINT, in fact the running orders we were given when we arrived have an asterisk beside the 11.30 slot in the bar which just says 'go upstairs - that's why you are here'. Despite all this some dumb people attempt to ruin the show for anyone near the bar by talking all the way through. Quite amazing really, £120 a ticket, severe guest list restrictions and these people still manage to drown out the quiet bits.
I mention this because the overall impression I get from this Slint show, (and the Dublin show I caught a week later) was that it was a recital. The music from 'Tweez' and 'Spiderland' is faithfully and impressively played but there is little interaction between band members. Having said that I have to agree that they were awesome. 'Breadcrumb Trail', 'Charlotte', 'Nosferatu Man' are three early highlights, they sound every bit as good as you would expect. In fact their sound balance is excellent. Brian only plays guitar on the instrumental songs, preferring to call up his brother to play when he is singing which works well. The new recruit on bass is superb. Britt comes out from behind the drums for a superbly spooked version of 'Don, A Man' and for a little while it becomes my favourite Slint song. The third guitar comes out of nowhere at the end and sends shivers up your spine. They save the best 'til last of course and 'Washer' and 'Good Morning Captain' are easily the highlights of the weekend.
I miss Staremaster again due to chalet-based partyin' but I do actually manage to return to the venue for some truly great music from the downstairs DJs. All-time classic masterpieces loud as anything until 6 am. You can't really beat that!

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Sunday morning doesn't really happen and I am barely conscious in time for the Ireland v England rugby match (and the Chelsea Liverpool match at the same time). We watch the first half then head for the venue, just in time to get caught in the first blizzard of the day!
I watch a bit of MIIGHTY FLASHLIGHT cos I like some of their records but this venue is a bit big for them to really carry well in and I head back for the rugby. I would say that the temperature doesn't get much above freezing today so I'm amazed to meet someone wearing shorts on my way back to the chalet!
I see most of KING KONG, featuring original Slint member Ethan Buckler, and although it's a long time since I've heard their music they don't deviate from their original blueprint of simplistic, almost kid-friendly melodies and lyrics. They play a bit too long for my liking, but as most of the crowd are nursing hangovers, King Kong are thankfully not too demanding. More people are watching the extra time in the footy in the bar, and you can hear King Kong's bass lines through the wall so I opt for this for the latter part of their set.
An even better hangover soother is Arab Strap DJ Aidan Moffat filling the gaps between the bands upstairs. I'm lazing about up there when RED NAILS come on. They're a quite ordinary indie band from Louisville and I only stay for a couple of songs.
Some late afternoon food and drink is very welcome and we return for PEARLS AND BRASS back upstairs. They are a cross between a classic rock power trio and a post-hardcore band and they sound pretty good. One of my chalet mates compared them to Cream, and I've since read another review which said the same thing. I'd have said they were a bit more left-field than that, but what do I know!
WHITE MAGIC come across like a slightly folkier version of Cat Power (without the stage fright) and some of their songs are quite interesting, although some of it sounds a bit sloppy - the percussion on the last song was miles out of time! No-one really has the stamina for this on the last day.
SONS AND DAUGHTERS are filling the empty slot on the main stage caused by Mark Kozelek's illness, and although they may stand out a bit from the rest of the bill, they put on a good show, much better than their recent show in Belfast. Less of the posing and more concentration on the songs, and of course 'Johnny Cash' is awesome.
Another awesome thing is the return of BAD WIZARD to finish off the second stage tonight. Maybe twice in a weekend was a bit much and the surprise factor has worn off, but they still rock the place better than anyone. It was also a chance for everyone who missed them to check them out, as they really have been one of the talking points of the weekend.
MUM take things to a gentle conclusion upstairs. Again this kind of ambient electronica struggles to fill the large ballroom and a lot of people are distracted during their set. I don't recognise a lot of the material so I assume that it's from their new album. 'Green Grass of Tunnel' is right at the end and makes me very happy.
I actually manage to catch Staremaster which has reached the grand final and is surprisingly entertaining, then it's into the Queen Vic for some flat-out classic rock, then next door for some excellent DJing from Stereolab and Lisa Capsule. I will probably never hear MBV's 'You Made Me Realise' at this volume at this time of day (approx. 4.30am) ever again!
The bar shuts at 5am, people are dancing on the outside tables in the snow and we end up in a posh chalet with Need New Body and some Irish people until we get ejected by the bouncers. Apparently we were partying underneath someone important and we had to go. The snow is about an inch deep, and after a detour via a chalet occupied mostly by San Franciscans I watch the sun come up on a snow covered beach with some people twirling batons of fire.

ATP veterans may not consider this to be the greatest ATP in terms of line-up, weather, or non-music related activities, and while I can kind of see that, it was still a brilliiant experience. Slint were worth it, and while their curation of the festival came in for some criticism, I saw it as their creation of their own little world. They gave us classic rock, punk rock, post-rock, creepy folk and some very strange TV, and the whole experience was unforgettable. There was something about a holiday camp covered in snow but full of people that fitted perfectly with this whole event. It wouldn’t have been the same if it was sunny.