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Review: Lovebox Festival @ Victoria Park, Hackney // Day 1, 15th June [Live]

Headliners: Crystal Castles & Hot Chip, Big Top tent hosted by Rinse FM. All photos by Katja Ogrin and Alex Taylor unless otherwise stated.

by Alex Taylor, June 24th, 2012 and has been Read 1572 times.
Last Edited by: Chris MUG5 Maguire June 30th, 2012.

Lovebox has come a long way since its inception in 2002. Originally a club night dreamt up by Groove Armada, it has steadily matured, in size if not mind-set, into a fully formed three day party bonanza. The first outdoor event, held one year later at Clapham Common, was a sign of things to come; the 10,000 ticket capacity sold out within 48 hours. By 2005, Lovebox moved to Victoria Park in Tower Hamlets, expanding to two days and a capacity of 25,000. Finally, the festival moved toward a three day residency from 2010, although notably, Groove Armada were missing from the bill. However, they made no mistake this time around; helping to celebrate the ten year anniversary in style. The organisers pulled out all the stops to bring a slice of cosmopolitan London to the park, incorporating art and fashion stalls alongside the eight music stages.

Friday proved the wettest day, but the beefy line-up of bass heavy dance music fought valiantly to shake the rain away. Throughout the afternoon, the Big Top tent, taken over by Rinse FM, built up to headliner, Skream, with a variety of acts representing all variations of the genre. These included: N-Type, Zinc, and famed producer Redlight. In amongst this fray stepped the crossover appeal of Ms Dynamite; spicing up old classics such as ‘Dy-Na-Mi-Tee’, before unleashing contemporary hits, ‘Wile Out’ and the Redlight driven, ‘What You Talking About’. The performance proved very much a family affair for Dynamite, who allowed her son, brother and niece to perform with her, but not to the detriment of the set, which whipped the place up into a ball of energy which exploded once Plastician and P Money took to the stage.

Photo credit: Chris Mathews

As the all-star line-up continued to roll out under cover, the open air of the relatively small Stockdale stage saw the 2 Bears manage to coax the sun out (at least temporarily). Despite trudging on looking as if they’d slept in Victoria Park overnight, wearing wearied raincoats and with beer cans in hand, the duo of Joe Goddard (a.ka. Will Ferrel) and Raf Rundell, played a set that defied their appearance. Heavily influenced by the early 90’s inspired, rave-laden sounds of their debut, Be Strong, its house tinges and synthesisers going down a bang. The tunes offered the perfect soundtrack to the temporary hedonism curated by a festival, reflected in the themes of the album itself. Whether you were a student enjoying summer break or a proletarian slave bunking off work to lose yourself a few hours earlier than usual, while there’s still daylight no less, everyone began to let loose - particularly to the remix of Wiley’s ‘I’m Skanking’. Certainly, the drink started to flow more freely, meaning that by the time ‘Bear Hug’ stomped around, the crowd were very much smiling like bears covered in honey. About 10 hugs in, (it was difficult to keep count); someone jumped the barrier to give the DJ’s a warm embrace. Predictably, once one made the move, the whole crowd followed and the security guards pretty much gave up. Mr Raff started to get a little grizzly after nobody would get off the stage, but regardless, it was indicative of the great atmosphere.

WATCH // 2 Bears Stage Invasion

Coincidently, the track you can hear being introduced during the invasion is Goddard’s spanking new remix of ‘Control’, produced by nu house outfit, Disclosure. They followed the 2 Bears, and played to a loyal sizeable crowd, who chose to jump up and get down rather than watch the England game on the big screen provided. Headliner, Jaguar Skills was equally impressive and typically eclectic. Listen to his mini-mix, featuring the best from 10 years of Lovebox, below.

LISTEN // Jaguar Skills' Lovebox 10 Year Anniversary Mix

http://soundcloud.com/lovebox-official/lovebox-jukebox-27-jaguar

Over on the main stage, Devlin spat his hard hitting rhymes with ease, gradually drawing in more people over time. It was refreshing to see a former underground artist, now signed to a major label, including early EP tracks in the set list, rather than relying solely on the chart friendly numbers such as ‘Brainwashed’ and ‘Runaway’. The Essex born rapper seemed genuinely overwhelmed at being back in London, playing to a home crowd, and finished with ‘F64’, an undeniably impressive 64 bar freestyle.

WATCH // 'F64'

However, it was Crystal Castles, fronted by the enigmatic Alice Glass, who nailed the atmospherics expected from a main stage act. Facing a criminally short 30 minute set, no time was wasted with crowd interaction. Not that this bothered Alice, a figure who usually remains silent to the crowd, yet embraces a persona that represents an immeasurable number of different things on stage. Her role cannot be overstated; if Ethan’s beats act as the fundamental base, she symbolises the complexity of music in material form; acting like a tormented puppet on a string, offering herself to the crowd.

WATCH // New untitled Crystal Castles track

Things were no different this time around, dressed in all black, the pair opened with a new, untitled track, that is presumably going to feature on their upcoming third album, released later this year. Dark, brooding and jagged in sound, Alice’s screams pierced through the beats. The song would have been perfect as part of the film score for Prometheus, and made for an anthemic start to the set. Admittedly, the England game did lessen the numbers, although ‘Celestica’, 'Alice Practice’, ‘Crimewave’ and ‘Baptism’, combined with Alice’s crowd surfing turned security guard fighting, warmed the crowd. Closer, ‘Not In Love’, minus Robert Smith, worked wonderfully under the darkening skies – Alice loosening her hoodie to reveal a flash of purple hair. Then, they were gone, just as quickly as they’d arrived. Probably to worship satanic Aztec gods.

Frustratingly, Hot Chip were over 45 minutes late for their headline performance, which meant I could not cover Magnetic Man or Skream, but by all accounts they each went down a storm; 2011’s golden girl Katy B, joining the former for her collaborative hits. Bizarrely, Rusko failed to show and has yet to offer an explanation. We can only speculate.

If Hot Chip’s introductory remark, ‘it’s 3 -2!’, is anything to go by, it appears the lax time keeping was a result of them being unable tear their eyes away from the game. Nevertheless, they were at pains to point out this was their first headlining opportunity and did not disappoint, playing a career spanning set covering all four albums.

Interestingly, the group were keen to eradicate any trace of their nu rave roots. Starting with ‘Motion Sickness’, the first track on their recently released In Our Heads, it became clear Joe Goddard’s expansive house-driven approach to 2 Bears has filtered into his work with Hot Chip. Classics, ‘And I Was A Boy From School’, and ‘Over And Over’ were given more depth, but still maintained enough nostalgic edge for me to want to ring up my friends from college and tell them to get the old neon jeans out.

Another particular highlight was the 7 minute long ‘Flutes’ which soothingly abridged the set, hinting at a possible future direction for a band that keeps on going. Moreover, it allowed the now somewhat drunken festival goers to preserve energy for the predictably manic, and fitting, ‘Ready For The Floor’. Sure, it would have been nice to hear some more songs from The Warning, but it is understandable that the band lent heaviest toward its newer release. Just remember, I’m only going to heaven if it tastes like caramel.

Read Lovebox Part 2 here