The starting gun for this summer’s festival season – characterised as ever by aimless wandering, bursts of euphoria and a calorie surplus from aggressive fruit cider – slightly misfired at this dinky weekender, showcasing the wonderfully porous world of UK bass music.
A nice head of steam had built up on day one, as Mr Mitch slipped in Chris Brown and Usher jams amid uptempo grime instrumentals, supergroup the Square ranged lankily around the stage and climaxed with Elf Kid’s irrepressible Golden Boy, and Bugzy Malone brought his Mancunian burr to hard-headed rap bangers. Lady Leshurr arrived with a royal wave to the strains of God Save the Queen, and showed why she’s the UK’s reigning punchline rapper – around her well-known championing of oral hygiene and clean underwear, it’s the EastEnders diss of “I’m Phil, you’re Ian” that’s the most brutally concise. But her good work was undermined by US rapper iLoveMakonnen, who on record is endearingly slipshod and singsong, but on stage goes for straightforward bland bravado. Grime godfather Wiley doesn’t even turn up, souring his enigmatic image with diva behaviour; his little brother Cadell and P Money fill in, but don’t have the hits, and the day’s momentum dwindles.
Sunday welcomes an influx of east London’s power-hipsters, massing in kitsch post-normcore threads for a stage celebrating the capital’s dance underground. Mssingno blends trap drums with emo chord changes to create trashily heartfelt R&B; he’s followed by AG Cook, head of PC Music, a label that has thrillingly asserted the vibrancy of derided styles such as trance, J-pop and happy hardcore. His set is all build and no drop, a study in permanently delayed gratification – perhaps a reflection, however oblique, of the never satisfied Tinder generation that make up his audience.
Over on the main stage, the sunshine can’t thaw freezer-burned dub from Youngsta and Kahn & Neek, who, in dropping the Bug’s new apocalyptic smash Iceman, sticks two fingers up to the encroaching summer. But via a brilliant set from Laurel Halo and Hodge, where techno’s froideur was poked in the ribs by carnival-friendly house, the chill abates. MC Versatile constantly invokes the twin deities of bass – namely “energy” and “vibes” – over Crazy Cousinz’ greatest-hits set of garage and house, his middle-fingered exhortations slightly darkening said vibes.
Male energy continues to spill over. Novelist, accompanied by half of Lewisham’s menfolk, paints himself into the corner of the rave rather than speaking wider truths. Jammer only just corrals the closing Lord of the Mics set, with the ageless D Double E – all strangulated ad libs and sinewy flow – bringing some star quality to the MC brawl. But Katy B is typically charismatic in a surprise set, Kyla’s sexily coy Do You Mind is pure sunlight, and Nadia Rose is fiercely on point. Even without Azealia Banks, removed from the lineup after a racist Twitter rant, it was the female artists that kept this festival focused.
