Burn Selector Festival – Eccentric Dance

Eccentric Dance

On 3 and 4 June Kraków’s Błonia will be invaded by a dance revolution. Yet in reality the Burn Selector Festival kicked off in March, with the announcement of the first headliners. The organisers are experts at building tension – it is an electronic music festival, after all.

Red expression and Atari torpedo
The first announcement of the event threw many dance music fans onto their knees. La Roux are one of the greatest discoveries and hopes in electronic music of recent years: they received this year’s Grammy award in the category! Elly Jackson, the charismatic 23-year-old red-haired (hence the name) singer is the face of the project, featuring in videos, interviews and concerts. But La Roux is really a duo. Ben Langmaid, producer and composer, plays an equally important role in the group, although he doesn’t usually give interviews or participate in live concerts. The duo’s hallmark is a hard synthesiser sound combined with a dance rhythm, all with an 1980s twist. During concerts Elly Jackson is supported by additional musicians. This will be La Roux’s first visit to Poland.

The performance by the next duo appearing at the Burn Selector Festival could do with a solid grounding. Crystal Castles are a volcano of unbridled energy, so things are promising to be hot and uncompromising. The Canadians Alice Glass and Ethan Kath provoke through their music, behaviour and appearance. Their sound concept is inspired in its simplicity: bass lines going into overdrive, Alice’s processed vocals, noises straight from 1980s computer games, and everything liberally sprinkled with a dance flavour. This club torpedo in a punky, old-school framework has enormous firepower. Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough!

New rave and addictive refrains
Klaxons are a great example of the trend ruling the charts, dance floors and festivals in recent years. The group has given a common language to fans of electronic music and rock. The British band is regarded as a precursor of the new rave scene. Characteristics? Psychedelic dance rhythms and a rock dynamic – everything that Tiggers like best.

New rave is also represented by Does It Offend You, Yeah?. These Brits are known for their excellent live performances and remixes of tracks by other bands (for example Muse and Bloc Party). The “Rolling Stone” magazine described the quartet a one of the musical discoveries of 2008.

The next performers breaking the boundaries between indie rock and electronic dance music are Fenech-Soler. They are no strangers to club dancefloors, low bass lines and keyboard chords, while remaining faithful to the British tradition of catchy melodies and rock’n’roll cool. Take care with these lads; their sweet refrains and euphoric play can be addictive!

The four from Liverpool and Saturday Night Fever
Liverpool and the number four – what does this bring to mind? The Beatles? True, but the future belongs to the Ladytron four. The band doesn’t renounce history though: their own name comes from the title of a song by Roxy Music from 1972. Ladytron formed twelve years ago, but it wasn’t until the 2005 single Destroy Everything You Touch that they gained international recognition. The band arrives in Kraków with a compilation of singles Best of 00-10, as well as new material Gravity The Seducer, which will reach music stores during the latter half of this year.

Remember Saturday Night Fever, the 1977 film which became iconic of disco culture? If the film were remade today, instead of the Bee Gees John Travolta would be dancing to the tunes by next band in the lineup. Hercules And Love Affair became famous straight after their first album. The New York DJ Andrew Butler turned out to be a musical miracle-maker, and with the help of Antony Hegarty (Antony & The Johnsons), Nomi, and Kim Ann Foxman he raised the spirit of the disco era from the dead. The brilliantly produced material shimmers with funk and sounds taken straight from hot dancefloors of American clubs of the 1970s and 80s. After the massive success of their first album, the musicians have once again come together in the studio. Blue Songs, launched earlier this year, features 10 brand new tracks, this time inspired by the New York house scene from the early 1990s.

On the pioneers’ trail
The Orb are unquestionably a legend of electronic music. The group reached the peak of its popularity in the early 1990s, when their album U.F.Orb topped the UK Album Chart, and the single Blue Room – all 40 minutes of it – is a part of the UK’s musical history. The Orb are headed by Alex Paterson, initiator of the style described as ambient house for well over a decade. Paterson isn’t cutting himself any slack or slowing the pace when working on his latest projects. Their extraordinary musical collages and crossing the boundaries together with invited musicians, not usually linked with electronic music (e.g. Johnny Marr from The Smiths or David Gilmour from Pink Floyd) mean The Orb are forever written into the canon of electronic music. Their performance in Kraków will undoubtedly be an almost metaphysical experience for some.

A princess with an international entourage
Burn Selector Festival will also feature Katy B – a 21-year-old star of the British dubstep scene blessed with a distinctive voice; SebastiAn – a 30-year-old French DJ who shot to fame with his remix of Rage Against The Machine’s Killing In The Name; and Logo – two young French producers whose inspirations can be traced back to King Crimson, Nas, and Donald Fagen.

And there will of course be no shortage of Polish musicians: Dog Trot And The Mushroom Band!, Catz’ N’ Dogz + Frederik Nnaji, Kamp!, Bartek Szczęsny, Last Blush, and Rubber Dots. The first group in this lineup is worthy of particular note. Dog Trot And The Mushroom Band! is a collective project of Öszibarack, already very familiar to listeners, and Igor Boxx – one half of Skalpel, and our representative in the legendary London label Ninja Tune.

Eccentric dance, falling into trance… ((Artur Jackowski, "Karnet" monthly)

3-4 June
Burn Selector Festival forms part of the City Festival.
Organisers: Alter Art, Krakow Festival Office
www.selectorfestival.pl