Hands down a major highlight for my 2010 was The Garden Festival, in the world’s top festival location of Petrcane, Croatia.
For some reason a lot of the reviews last year ignored the euphoria inducing set by Henrik Schwarz playing live on the final day of the festival (often, unfairly in favor of the phenomenal crappiness of the Phenomenal Hand Clap Band – will this year be the year journalists and reviewers start watching sets instead of reading press releases?). So let me take this opportunity to send a special thank you to Henrik for giving me one of my all time favorite festival moments. And to Mr Scruff and Mayer Hawthorne while were on that tip.
They’ve just announced the first round of artists, and theme of ‘going back to their roots’ across the long weekend of 6th of July to the 13th. Check out their full site for more details and the complete first wave of confirmed artists and DJs, including Larry Heard, Tensnake, Greg Wilson and Sir Norman Jay. As usual however, here’s our top 5 picks thus far, descriptions jacked from http://www.thegardenfestival.eu, which probably quite obviously is where you should also be heading to buy tickets and find out about accommodation and boat parties etc.
JULIO BASHMORE [DIRTY BIRD / SOUL MOTIVE]
Labels, media and clubbers seemed to instantly ‘get’ the skewed angle at which Julio attacked house music in 2010. Night Slugs, Ten Thousand Yen, PTN, Dirtybird, fabric and Soul Motive were among those who housed productions/remixes—and this list of forward-thinking labels seemed fittingly representative of Julio’s future-facing output. But what is it about his sonic approach that has created so much fever around the name Julio Bashmore? It’s difficult to say exactly. But bounce to blissed-out Garage of “Footsteppin”, lose your shit to his Mosca remix, or turn out the lights for “Batak Groove” and you’ll realise, simply, that it’s just something you feel.
COMMIX [METALHEADZ]
SOUL CLAP [CROSSTOWN REBELS / WOLF + LAMB]
By harnessing the past Soul Clap looks to the future, with forward thinking productions and remixes, creative DJ sets and some of Boston’s best dance music events. Soul Clap released their first 12″ records on Airdrop Records, “The Giraffe”, “die Ente” and “Puppy Crack”. In Boston, each summer they organize Dancing On The Charles (one of Urb Magazine’s six best outdoor parties in the US) and every Wednesday they host Midweek Techno (Boston’s longest running techno night), while continuing to broadcast live to planet earth on The Adventures of Soul Clap Podcast. With a recent bomb on Crosstown Rebels, a 2010 summer Extravaganza and slew of remixes coming soon, you better make sure to catch the clap in a city near you while you can.
QUANTIC [TRU THOUGHTS]
Multi-instrumentalist, producer and record collector Will Holland aka Quantic has sold in excess of 100,000 records in his various guises, including solo projects and with his acclaimed live funk band, the Quantic Soul Orchestra. In 2007 Holland moved to Cali, Colombia’s third largest city, to pursue his passion for unearthing lost treasures from Colombia’s musical past and making new music with the golden array of talent available today. Upon realising the potency and sheer quality present in these players – some of whom contributed to the acclaimed QSO album, ‘Tropidelico’ – Holland assembled his Combo Bárbaro (literally translating as ‘group of barbarians or people from outside Europe’) to take up the baton from the Quantic Soul Orchestra in the next phase of his musical vision.
MOTOR CITY DRUM ENSEMBLE [MCDE / PRIME NUMBERS]
Having blown the world away with his ‘Raw Cuts’ series, released on his own label “MCDE” (run together with Pablo Valentino), Danilo aka Motor City Drum Ensemble has made an enormous impact on House and Techno. Thanks to his remarkable musical talent and overflowing creativity, Danilo has become a sought after and very successful re-mixer as well. With just 25 years of age and including all his projects he has already released on more than 25 labels.