Good Weather For Airstrikes

I went to three of the four days of the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park last weekend and saw a number of excellent performances, but the blinding (literally and figuratively) brilliance of Daft Punk’s MONUMENTAL set on Saturday night renders any effort to even so much as remember any of the other acts of the festival all but pointless. No amount of superlative adjectives could even begin to do the show justice, but hey, I’ve never let that sop me before; let’s do this.

With me in London and at the festival this past weekend was my dear friend (my #1 stunna, if you will) and former classmate at UVA Jia Tolentino, and we made a point to get as close to the front of the stage as possible for Daft Punk, which meant situating ourselves in a prime position three hours before Daft Punk was to take the stage. The wait was made incredibly tolerable (to say the least) by an excellent set from CSS and my first ever LCD Soundsystem live experience (which was amazing, as expected), but while I’d normally wet myself at the prospect of seeing those two acts on the same stage in any setting, it almost felt like obligatory foreplay with the knowledge that DAFT MOTHERFUCKING PUNK would be directing a crash course in euphoria in only a few hours time.

Moments after LCD exited the stage an ominous black curtain was pulled across the set and the frantic construction of Daft Punk’s now-infamous pyramid began, only adding to the nigh-unbearable anticipation. After one of the most interminable waits of my life, the massive LCD screens to the right and left of the stage went black and an ominous synth line led us into the teaser trailer for Daft Punk’s latest cinematic odyssey, Electroma, which debuted to mixed reviews at Cannes last year and is currently being shown as a midnight movie on a regular basis in Paris. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome the movie looks, but I digress. From there it was another fifteen minutes before the stage was finally revealed eliciting uproarious applause from the crowd and soiling more than just a few trousers I reckon. Then, it began.

Leading in with an alternating refrain of “HUMAN” and “ROBOT”, Daft Punk built up an almost unbearable amount of anticipation for the beat to drop, before finally dropping the monstrous central riff of “Robot Rock” and throwing the crowd into a complete frenzy. You’d have been hard-pressed to find anyone in the 20,000 people (a very conservative estimate) crammed in front of the main stage who wasn’t completely freaking the fuck out at that point, and things only got crazier when the spoken verse of “Technologic” burst forth from the speakers accompanied by each word spelled out in twenty foot tall letters across the massive LCD screen behind the pyramid. It initially employed the lusty vocals of Busta Rhymes’ “Touch It” before evolving into the robotic high-pitched vocals of the original version, at which point the crowd let out another tremendous roar of approval. “Crescendolls” came shortly thereafter and was one of the few tracks that was played largely unchanged in its original form and was just a straight-up party from start to finish. Then it was time for the show’s first true climax, when the duo dropped “Around The World” transitioning FLAWLESSLY into “Harder Better Faster Stronger”. Suffice it to say, SHIT WAS BANANAS.

But the undeniable highlight for me and the moment I’d been waiting for all night (all my life?) was when at long last the ominous bells of “Aerodynamic” burst forth from the speakers, announcing the arrival of the “Aerodynamic” edit of “One More Time”. All of the highlights from each track were thrown together to create one massive, empire-toppling mega-anthem, resulting in rampant shit-losing throughout the crowd and some of the most incredible four minutes of my life. RIDICULOUS.

No single track was able to top “Aerodynamic”/”One More Time” (though “Da Funk” came damn close), but that’s not to say that the second half of their wasn’t every bit as life-affirming as the first. At one point during “Prime Time of Your Life” I had my hands over my mouth and my eyes transfixed on the stage, prompting a woman next to me to ask me what I was worrying about and demand that I have fun, but the fact of the matter was that I was simply just too completely overwhelmed by sheer, unadulterated awe to even move at that point. Fortunately, it was only moments later that “Da Funk” dropped and sent me and everyone else into another frenzied dance session once again. After an hour of pumping out an unrelenting stream of solid-gold jams the duo struck a triumphant pose and left the stage, giving everyone a few moments to reflect, recharge and refuel before one last final burst of euphoria.

As if things could get any more ridiculous, the climax of the encore came during a reprisal of the bridge of “Aerodynamic” mixed with Thomas Bangalter side-project Stardust’s “Music Sounds Better With You”, in which the music stopped suddenly for a beat as all the lights went out, and neon orange lights lining every detail of the duo’s robot suits lit up and caused one final audience freak-out before they pumped out a few more jams with their suits still ablaze with neon and left the stage for good. The only disappointment of the encore - nay, the entire performance - was the exclusion of “Digital Love”, but it certainly didn’t keep the show from going down as the best live experience of my life and a performance I will never forget.
With the exception of a few changes here and there (the exclusion of “Crescendolls” from the Coachella set, for example), the setlist was largely identical to the one from Coachella 2006 and most of the same tricks were employed, so those well-versed in the incredible quality bootleg of the show should know what I’m talking about. For the uninitiated, you’ll find high-quality soundboard recordings of the shows below along with a grip of some of the better Daft Punk remixes to surface over the years.

MP3s:
“Robot Rock” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Technologic” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Around The World/Harder Better Faster…” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“One More Time” (Aerodynamic Remix) (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Da Funk” (Live @ Coachella) - Daft Punk
“Harder Better Faster Stronger” (Dirty Disco Youth Remix) - Daft Punk
“Human After All” (SebastiAn Remix) - Daft Punk
“Human After All” (Justice’s Guy Man After All Mix) - Daft Punk

For a few moments after the show I thought I may never be able to see another live due to the knowledge that nothing will ever top Daft Punk’s seismic throwdown in Hyde Park, but with the news that Kissy Sell Out would be manning the tables in an hour at 333 in East London and a need to work off some SERIOUS adrenaline, we didn’t think twice before jumping into a cab and heading straight for Shoreditch.

KISSY SELL OUT @ 333


There’s no doubt that Phones was the king of the remix world in 2005, but 2006 saw the crown being shared by three newcomers. Metronomy, SebastiAn and Justice all churned out their fair share of incredible mixes, and you’d have been hard-pressed to declare a consensus favorite without considerable backlash. However, in 2007 it looks like a lone Brit is set to own the title once again. With a grip of mind-blowing remixes for the likes of pop behemoths All Saints, Mark Ronson and Gwen Stefani already to his name this year and publications already declaring him “an English Justice”, 2007 is shaping up to be the Year of the Kissy in a big way.

We made it to 333 with time to spare and killed time over drinks before Kissy took the stage at 12:30 and jumped straight into the early stages of his set, an impressive 30-minute run that included a hot mix of New Young Pony Club’s “Ice Cream” and was remarkably solid despite it’s obvious warm-up status. All of a sudden the opening synth burst of Kissy’s AMAZING mash-up of “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble” and Ali Love’s “K-Hole” burst forth from the mix and it was GAME ON. We quickly downed our drinks and legitimately raced to the dancefloor to revel in what is legitimately one of the single most brilliant mash-ups I’ve ever heard. There wasn’t a seconds rest before Kissy set off his signature fog horn (as in, dude has an actual fog horn on stage with him), which is basically his own special way of saying HEY IT’S TIME TO FUCKING DANCE OKAY?, and jumped right into his excellent “True Romance” mix of Mark Ronson’s recent chart-topper, “Stop Me”. The next hour was a relentless onslaught of jam after jam after JAM, with his remixes of the Black Ghosts “Face” and Gwen Stefani’s “Wind It Up”, as well as a mix in which dude took Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” and managed to turn it into a poppy-as-shit dancefloor burner. The final stages of his set featured a bangin’ update of “SexyBack” and GoodBooks “Leni”, but it wasn’t until he dropped his UN-FUCKING-BELIEVABLE (as in, the best remix of the year) mix of All Saints’ “Chick Fit” that the show reached terminal euphoria. Shortly thereafter Boy 8-Bit took to the decks and Kissy exited the stage to riotous applaud from an audience of sweaty, but immensely satisfied customers, and it was unanimously agreed that Kissy Sell Out’s set was truly the only thing in the world that could have followed Daft Punk’s performance and not have been a complete letdown.

I’m not kidding when I say this guy’s the best in the game right now, and you’d be wise to get your hands on everything and anything he touches. Below you’ll find a handful of his remixes and an original track he recently dropped for an Annie Mac mix on BBC Radio One. I’m serious about that “Chick Fit” remix; it’s some next-level shit.

MP3s:
“Get Ready For The K-Hole!” - Kissy Sell Out ((highly recommended))
“Chick Fit” (KSO’s Excellent Adventure) - All Saints ((highly recommended))
“Stop Me” (KSO’s True Romance) - Mark Ronson ((highly recommended))
“Face” (KSO’s Essex Street Corner Dubplate) - The Black Ghosts
“Leni” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - GoodBooks
“Wind It Up” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - Gwen Stefani
“We Are Rockstars” (Kissy Sell Out Remix) - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
“Harriet” (Annie Mac Edit) - Kissy Sell Out

MUSE TAKE OVER WEMBLEY STADIUM
Everyone who wasn’t at Daft Punk was across town for the second night of Muse’s ridiculous takeover of Wembley Stadium, which seems to have made it to the top of everyone in attendance’s Best Gigs Ever lists. From what I’ve heard it certainly sounds epic, but I was having my own OMGZ BEST SHOW EVER moment at Daft Punk, which I wouldn’t have traded for the world. Thus, I can’t tell you what it looked like, but I can tell you it sounded something like this:

MP3: “Map of the Problematique” (Live @ Wembley Stadium) - Muse

“Map of the Problematique” is their newest single and the only track from Black Holes & Revelations that I really loved, so I was considerably pumped to find out that it would be the second song to be destroyed via remix by Does It Offend You, Yeah? after their sufficiently excellent remix of “The Prayer” last January. Nothing terribly brilliant, but fairly bangin’ nonetheless; feel free to get at it below.

MP3: “Map of the Problematique” (Does It Offend You, Yeah? Remix) - Muse

MORE ELECTRO HOTNESS
“D.A.N.C.E.” has been remixed by pretty much anyone with a laptop at this point, but it’s ALL about the MSTRKRFT mix. Their “D.A.N.C.E.” remix joins their “Two More Years” and “Monster Hospital” treatments in the pantheon of untouchable MSTRKRFT mixes and takes an already insanely danceable jam and somehow puts it into an even higher gear. Brilliant.

MP3: “D.A.N.C.E.” (MSTRKRFT Remix) - Justice ((highly recommended))

I really thought I’d said all there was to say about Kate Nash, but then James Mount AKA Metronomy AKA My Favorite Remixer of 2006 decided to drop some hot fire all over “Foundations” and put her into even heavier rotation on the ‘pod. Whereas Metronomy’s generally kept to himself in terms of vocals on his remixes, his “Foundations” mix sees him reworking the chorus with his own “Fing-ger-tips, the cracks in our foundations” refrain and drenching the track in his usual production bells and whistles.

MP3: “Foundations” (Metronomy Remix) - Kate Nash ((highly recommended))

Never did I think I’d see the day that Van She Tech would get in the mix on a Feist track, let alone one as dainty as upcoming single “1-2-3-4″, but sure enough my inbox yielded none other than Van She Tech’s edit of that very track today. Not a banger by any means, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work quite well. I really like the way these new Feist singles are being handled; first Boys Noize on “My Moon My Man” and now Van She Tech? I could get used to this.

MP3: “1-2-3-4″ (Van She Tech Remix) - Feist ((highly recommended))

Enough MP3s for you? Jesus. Sorry for the lack of activity recently, I’m at one of my various jobs every day and this is the first night I’ve not gone out in two weeks, but I’m doing the best I can.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 21st, 2007 at 8:06 pm and is filed under Live Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.