Aside from seeing countless performers, you can also attend a large number of readings, panels and workshops during Eurosonic in De Oosterpoort concert hall (the epicentre of this conference). It is also invariably the place to meet like-minded professionals from all over the world. We’ll spare you the details of the professional encounters but what Eurosonic presented musically this year, well you can read that here, below.
On Thursday it was first the turn of TURZI from France. Tipped to us by many a Frenchman during our recent visit to that other showcase-festival Les Transmusicales in Rennes. Their biting sound was perfectly suited to their apocalyptic, psychedelic post-rock.
Turzi - Afghanistan (Official video) from Record Makers on Vimeo.
Time to go encourage our heroes ISBELLS. Though we already had a feeling that this wouldn’t be necessary. Indeed, the hall was full to the brim before the show started and the band managed to silence the generally noisy Netherlanders. A fine foretaste for their concert during 10 Years Duyster in AB on 30 January.
NICOLAI DUNGER was in the AB last Wednesday for an ABsession and on 6 April he’ll appear on the stage of our ABClub. Hopefully he’ll have a better backing band in tow then as these musicians blew Nicolai’s finely finished songs to pieces in Groningen. Unfortunately.
But then CHAPEL CLUB from Britain knew how to charm, with an – admittedly – very British sound that lies somewhere between Editors and a pop-drenched Sonic Youth album.
After that, the legs got a serious stretching to the abstract hip-hop-meets-dubstep of the Scot Scott Douglas Gordan, or rather LOOPS HAUNT.
Saturday was well filled with meetings so it seemed appropriate to commence the evening calmly. THE GOLDEN GLOWS managed to capture a spot at Eurosonic due to their placing at the Into The Great Wide Open festival. Few found the way to Huize De Beurs so early in the evening but those present saw the pristine threesome present a fine selection of their 20’s songbook and Alan Lomax prison songs.
Then it was the turn of the fiercely tipped folk band STORNOWAY from Oxford. Extremely beautiful pop and folk along the lines of Mumford & Sons. Just beware of the excessive violins but the songs are certainly not to be got out of our heads.
ROX was proclaimed by many as the new apple on the Winehouse/Adele/Duffy tree. Although she was surrounded by an extremely impressive live band, her vocal sound wasn’t able to touch me personally. Can we slowly start speaking of ‘thirteen to a dozen’ in this matter?
Twistedfolk, that’s the title of the live tour by persistently remarkable British folk performers (including the previously mentioned Stornoway but also Tunng), a group to which BETH JEANS HOUGHTON also belongs. Not only did she receive the prize for the best hairdo but her songs (in between the unfortunately long and not always equally hilarious pauses) were thrilling at times too.
We closed Eurosonic 2010 in the company of the (in France) immensely popular British singer-songwriter CHARLIE WINSTON. The man with the crooked hat had the audience in the palm of his hand but, unfortunately, the sound-mix made an unlistenable mush of his concert. Sneu (a shame), as they say to the north of the Moerdijk.
