Infected Mushroom

IM were, well, fantastic. A nice way to recover from a disapointing (despite low expectations..) Two Tribes. I had an argument with a friend last year as to whether they were the best live act I'd ever seen. Contenders were Chemical Brothers, Kraftwerk, Binary Finary and Basement Jaxx (because the shows are kinda kool, and they are really nice and friendly people).

I'm afraid I have to declare IM the winners. Although Chemical Brothers are a very close second. IM just have got everything right - the guitar work is awesome, and its just an amazing event. I don't know how to describe it really I guess.

This year they did an extended-extended-extended version of 'Cities of the Future' and it was nothing less than absolutely fantastic. My only complaint was when they would 'swap' off the stage - sure, its a two and a half hour act, but you really noticed when someone left. It shouldn't be too hard for them to 'remix' theyre old stuff so it sounds a little more consistant. Then again, I'm sure there are fans that prefer the 'old' sound..

There was also a local group that came on before them - 'Somovaw' (NOT a catchy name!) but a great live act with a fantastic singer (female) and a great drummer. A nice touch with a violin player and obviously a couple of people behind them doing the wonders with the synths. They were a bit rough and needed some work - both on their live act and their tunes (some of the drum machine loops really stood out as needing some work at parts), but they got a good reaction from the crowd so I would expect them to put in the effort to scratch up - the next releases from these guys would be worth keeping an eye on.

The drummer I've seen around in other local acts and really pulled the live performance through - I hope the rest of the members of the group are buying him beer for being the 'public face'- the rest need to work on the shyness - especially the girl (because she's going to be a center of attention, so she needs to get used to it!).

Future prohpecies were also great, but no longer being a real d'n'b fan, I don't have much to say about them other than - I enjoyed it, and they had a pretty flawless performance. Nicely built up set, good stuff.