Review: Farmfest 2016

All good festivals have distinct personalities, and Farmfest’s is as laid back as it gets. While everything from techno to noise-rock is heard over the weekend, most of the music’s from the mellower end of the spectrum. The size of the site – which is set in beautiful Somerset countryside – adds to the relaxed atmosphere too: you can get pretty much anywhere in ten minutes, which means fewer stressful instances of dragging yourself away from a good set to meet up with friends. It’s a great little festival with a strong sense of place – much of the music and food is sourced locally, and one of the DJ booths is a tractor. 

On Friday the main stage kicks of with Feelgood Experiment – not a Wilko Johnson tribute band, but a super-tight modern R&B group with cosmic jazz leanings. Meanwhile, in The Sett, Any Other Day make a spirited grunge-pop racket fuelled by furious metal and hardcore riffs, as a large man in a ladies’ all-in-one swimsuit throws extraordinary shapes in front of the stage.  Cloudshoes are every bit as far out as their name suggests. Like a hippy surfer version of Arthur Dent, their bass player wears nothing but a dressing gown, and they trade in trippy alt-rock nursery rhymes that variously bring to mind Syd Barrett, Pavement and The Mighty Boosh. They’re joined for a couple of songs by members of Yama Warashi, whose own set of globetrotting psychedelic pop brings all manner of vibrations to the same stage an hour later (your correspondent having been dragged away to a didgeridoo workshop in the Kids Tent in the meantime).

Bristol rapper ThisisDA takes to the Big Blue stage next. A confident, versatile MC, his complex flows are equally dazzling whether performed over jazzy, ‘90s-style hip-hop, contemporary electronic beats or a cappella as the audience clap to keep time. On this evidence he could well be playing to bigger crowds in the near future. Another Bristol artist on the rise is Kayla Painter, whose DJ set in The Den is easily one of Friday’s highlights. She starts with a mix of her own productions – sonically ravishing abstractions of techno and garage, before moving onto a succession of utter bangers ranging from Jon Hopkins and Joy Orbison to Beyonce and MJ Cole.  

A spin on the Big Wheel and a hearty hog roast later, we’re back in the Big Blue tent for UK hip-hop veterans DJ Format and Abdominal. Their sound was retro in the first place and maybe that’s why it’s aged so well. Now reunited after a ten year break, they’re ambassadors for hip-hop as party music – a role they play to perfection this evening. 

Main stage headliners Young Fathers are intense performers whose often impressive back catalogue draws on hip-hop, indie rock, and R&B. While the group’s impassioned vocals give them a pop immediacy, the relentlessness of the rhythms and total lack of audience interaction are more typical of a band in the post-punk tradition. This commercial/alternative tension seems to be at the heart of their thought-provoking music, and is summed up neatly by the closing Shame, whose scathing lyrics and buzzing lo-fi bassline give way to one of the most anthemic choruses the UK’s produced in years. 

With their wickedly tight rhythm section, squalling guitars and baseball capped vocal rants, Idles hark back to Bristol alternative rockers of the past like 3hos and Ivory Springer. Muscular and aggressive but with humour to sweeten the blow, they see to it that the day’s proceedings in The Sett end on a raucous note. Equally energetic but more celebratory fare is on offer in the full-to-bursting Big Blue as The Hot 8 Brass Band drench Somerset in New Orleans sweat. Blending funk, jazz and hip-hop with the brass band tradition of their home town, their 20 years on the road together has made them fantastic showmen as well as masterful musicians.  

As the live stages shut down for the night there are plenty of late night options. There’s the ever-present pull of the dub tent for a start, while The Kitchen has acid and tech-house from Bristol heads like ELA 303 and Thomas Kenyon. It’s The Den, though, with its superb soundsystem that features the night’s most progressive beats.  Lone’s atmospheric electronica is enhanced by the presence of a live drummer, while Pearson Sound and Kowton thrillingly fly the flag for UK dance music’s cutting edge.

Saturday sees festival-goers try hangover cures as varied as yoga and samba drumming, although traditional remedies like bloody marys and bacon rolls are available too. Musically things take a while to get going, as both Rivers of England’s fussily arranged folk rock and Ardyn’s lightly rocking balladry fail to get the blood pumping. Far more interesting is the ingenious Rachael Dadd, whose breathy, free-spirited indie-folk – at time recalling Nick Drake – is fleshed out beautifully with imaginative arrangements featuring sax, clarinet, synth and electric guitar. She dedicates a song to her friend (and fellow Bristol-based artist) Ishii, with whom she shares an irrepressible bohemian streak.

Usifu Jalloh – also known as the Cowfoot Prince – is teaching African folk tales and dance steps in the Kids Tent. His extrovert enthusiasm is truly infectious, and he’s one of the junior hits of the weekend. Over at the main stage, Matuki also bring African flavours, but this time of an 11-piece funk band variety. Blazing horns match the still fierce late afternoon sunshine, while those stomp and sway polyrhythms are exactly what’s needed to get Farmfest back on its feet. Two men in front of us have a wrestling match to celebrate. 

Anchorsong’s set in The Den is a masterclass in creating soulful dance music on the fly. Live sampling synth melodies, basslines and percussive patterns over drum machine backing, the Japanese artist creates big hearted organic electronica with hints of Four Tet and Caribou. Elsehwere, the Soul Train (a raised dancefloor in the shape of a railway engine) is doing great business on Saturday evening, thanks to the presence of Fleetmac Wood – a DJ who plays disco edits of Fleetwood Mac songs for two hours straight. 

Although they annoyingly start almost an hour later than scheduled, Flamingods are well worth the wait. With band members based in both the UK and Bahrain they’re an international phenomenon in more ways than one, drawing on the musical traditions of disparate cultures to create a truly global psychedelia that’s completely irresistible. Band members swap instruments with ease, creating complex webs of interlocking rhythmic parts. Their music’s experimental alright, but the sheer energy and intensity mean there’s nothing dry about it. They’re far more suited to a Saturday night festival crowd than (for example) main stage headliners GoGo Penguin, whose undoubted technical brilliance comes with a side order of studied cool that makes for a slightly subdued atmosphere.  In a smaller tent earlier in the day they’d have no doubt been fantastic.

Whether it’s the sunstroke or the local farmhouse scrumpy that’s done it, we’re feeling a bit too silly for the exquisite selections of Gilles Peterson, and somehow find ourselves with Bentley Rhythm Ace, who have recently emerged from retirement to play their first shows for ten years. While best known for their 1997 chart hit Bentley’s Gonna Sort You Out, the big beat maestros were also a big festival draw in their day, and it’s easy to understand why. Featuring two members of Pop Will Eat Itself and the singer from EMF, their stage show features lashings of gold lamé and a DJ booth in the shape of an Austin Mini. With their funky breaks, driving basslines, quirky samples and the devilish stick work of drummer Fuzz Townshend, they sound something like Happy Mondays if they’d continued down the indie-dance route mapped out on Pills and Thrills. It’s fantastically daft, and a point of no return for our poor addled minds, which are then drawn, inexorably and inevitably, to the sweet oblivion of the dub tent.