REVIEW: Sonar By Night

Written by Zainab Jama

Sonar By Night.

Friday night saw the first instalment of Sonar by Night. Situated in an air hangar on the outskirts of town, you’re greeted by three enormous main rooms, (30,000, 10,000 and 7000 respectively) an equally large room selling food (4am crepes were a great decision), t-shirts and possibly the highlight of the festival bumper cars!

But back the music, Friday nights was the night I was most excited about. With in the main room the headliners included New York’s mighty LCD Soundsystem, playing the main room at 1am. Singing their heart out and playing tracks from their last three stunning LPs, they set the 30,000 strong crowd alight with their energetic performance.

To the left I went to check out BBC Radio 1 Mary Anne Hobbs stage. Having curated the Friday night Sonar by Night stage on Friday for the past four years, past guests have included Martyn, Gaslamp Killer, Joker, Skream, Benga and Mala. This year saw an equally impressive line up, starting off with bringing back Los Angeles biggest electronic musician Flying Lotus (he’ll be back in London this summer, check the dates here), UK Funky don Roska and Joy Orbison. First up was Joy, playing a set full new school Dubstep and 2-Step rhythms, he gave an impressive display, bowing out on his massive ‘Hyph Mngo’, it was easy to see that the tune was made for a stadium, as the scene of 10,000 strong putting their hands in the air was immense. Roska played a dancefloor set full of his own productions, with ‘I Need It’ to ‘Wonderful Day ft Jamie George’ on the playlist it translated perfectly to the Sonar Lab stage while up next Flying Lotus did what he does best. With a simple laptop and MPC he set the stage alight not only with his infectious personality with cuts from his Los Angeles series being played he also dropped a couple from his new LP Cosmogramma which had a great reception too.

A turn of tempo saw Sugarhill Gang take to the stage after the bassweight of Roska, Fly Lo and Joy Orbision. Playing back-to-back classics, the gangs tunes we’re welcomed by one and all. Hudson Mohawke had the pleasure of stepping up after the Sugar rush of the gang, accompanied by Oliver Daysoul, Hudson gave us a DJ set to remember by playing some of his early work including the massive ‘Overnight’ from the Polyfolk Dance EP that prompted not one but two reloads. While ‘Joy Fantastic’, ‘FUSE’ and ‘ZOOOoom’ all sounded incredible on the Sonar Lab soundsystem.

Saturday night saw a different side of the music spectrum being catered for. With Chemical Brothers headlining the main room, not only was the room packed more than the night before, their spectacle of lazers, video footage and simple stage presence proved that it could only be Sonar.

Dizzee Rascal was one person I was very excited to see, having not seen him since a £10 gig at Shepherds Bush Empire and it was a pleasure to hear that Dizzee had upgraded from the 7000 capacity venue he played three years ago to take on the main stage where in front of 30,000 people himself and DJ Semtex drove the crowd wild. With Dizzee’s grime tunes getting the biggest reception, with ‘Fix Up Look Sharp’, ‘Jus’ A Rascal’ and ‘Sirens’ on the set list. Even the hardest Dizzee Rascal heads (yep that would be me) couldn’t deny the guilty pleasures of ‘Hoilday’ and ‘Dance For Me’. It was nice to see that ‘Da Boy From The Corner’ has done good and is intent on having a good time. Go Dizzee.

With the little energy I had left it was time to step back into the Sonar by Lab stage to see what Glasgow’s music/art/parties collective LuckyMe had to offer. MachineDrum on live as I went up to the stage, he played a beat heavy set that was fully enjoyable. Filling in for Mike Slott who couldn’t make it, Lunice took on his second set of the day and dare I say it, it may have worked better on the bigger stage, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and we got to do the stanky leg all over again! By this time I was beat and it was time to bow out of 3 days and nights of incredible music and dancing til you drop. After one last spin on the bumper cars, a 5am Crepe (cheese and jam please) and one last walk around the Sonar by Night venue, it was sad to leave the place that is like no other festival in the world!  So thank you Sonar, see you in 2011.

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