NESS-ESSARY LISTENING Henry Northmore picks his ten musical highlights from this year’s eclectic Rock Ness festival line-up
FATBOY SLIM
Big beat may belong to the 90s, but you can still bathe in blissed-out beauty as Mr Cook drops ‘Praise You’ with Loch Ness as a backdrop.
Key Track: ‘Right Here, Right Now’
THE STROKES Cooler-than-cool New York punk hipsters, bringing some indie guitars to Rock Ness on one of only two UK
dates in 2010. Key Track: ‘Last Nite’
PENDULUM
Fusing drum & bass with metal guitars for a cluster bomb of mosh- pit mayhem (light the fuse and stand well back as ‘Slam’ kicks off).
Key Track: ‘Propane Nightmares’
BLONDIE Old-school, new-wave punks Blondie helped to provide the building blocks that evolved into the aforementioned Strokes. They may have aged but the hits are timeless – ‘Atomic’, ‘Call Me’ and ‘Rapture’ are just the tip of the iceberg. Key Track: ‘Heart of Glass’
APHEX TWIN A skewed musical genius who has provided electronica with some of its key moments from ambient to harsh
techno. Key Track: ‘Analogue Bubblebath’
SOULWAX/2 MANY DJS The best of both worlds, the Dewaele brothers come in two flavours over the Rock Ness
weekend as their live indie incarnation Soulwax and masters of the mash-up 2 Many DJs. Key Track: ‘E Talking’
THE BLOODY BEETROOTS A serious acid electro assault as the masked avengers Bloody Beetroots make their live Rock Ness debut with
their Death Crew 77 project.
Key Track: ‘Warp 1.7’
ENTER SHIKARI Gonzo metal trance hybrid with a DIY ethic and hordes of devoted, rabid fans. Hard, fast and totally ridiculous,
expect mayhem. Key Track: ‘No Sleep Tonight’
CRYSTAL CASTLES
Anarcho electro-punk duo fronted by Alice Glass, who’s love of stage- diving and harsh acidic beats makes each gig feel like a physical assault.
Key Track: ‘Untrust Us’
DAVE CLARKE John Peel dubbed him the ‘Baron of Techno’ and who are we to argue? He’s been tearing dancefloors apart since his immense Red series back in
the 90s. Key Track: ‘The Wolf’ ■ For all these tracks and more, check out our Spotify playlist at www.list.co.uk/festivalplaylist
27 May–10 Jun 2010 THE LIST 37
full-length albums, 2007’s Oi Oi Oi and 2009’s Power, containing such gems as the furious ‘Lava Lava’, the techno stomp of ‘& Down’, the hyperactive insanity of ‘Starter’ and the bully boy tactics of ‘The Trooper’. These were records that made you move, animated by an electronic funk that instantly connects with mind and body. His remix work includes names as illustrious and diverse as Depeche Mode, Röyksopp, Marilyn Manson, Justice, Tiga, Snoop Dogg and Fiest. But perhaps it was his exceptional reworkings of Bloc Party’s ‘Banquet’ and Kaiser Chief’s ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’ that brought Boys Noize to the attention of a wider audience (not forgetting a truly exceptional Bugged Out! Suck My Deck mix CD that joyfully skipped from electro to punishing techno) leading to Ridha producing ‘Let the Beat Rock’ for Black Eyed Peas.
But his most frequent and creative partnership is with UK DJ and producer Erol Alkan. ‘The funny thing is we both come from different backgrounds but it’s a really fun collaboration where we generate something
completely new,’ says Ridha. ‘We create tracks I wouldn’t do alone and he wouldn’t alone, so that’s super interesting. We get along really well and have a lot of fun in the studio. For us it was really important to get into the same room to get the ideas together. Of course now it’s super easy to send ideas back and forth but for us it was the old school way, he came to my studio and I went to his studio and we had good times.’ Now the lure of Rock Ness is bringing Ridha back to Scotland. ‘It’s a great festival, I’m truly excited about it. I played there once and it’s a beautiful site as well. It’s something you can’t really control, you just get amazed by the site, and you get a good feeling about it. When you’re at a festival and you’re playing for 10,000 people, it’s incredible, there’s a great energy. For some reason, the more people there are, the more I wanna rock.’
Rock Ness, Dores, Fri 11–Sun 13 Jun. See our next issue for more Rock Ness coverage. To win tickets see Reader Offers, starting on page 6.