The festival which has certainly well-established itself as the yearly highlight of the Southwest returned for another blowout year, and the second following the welcome addition of Colston Hall to its venue array. Again it served as the main hub to a host of tantalising headline performances including Mogwai, Nightmares on Wax and How to Dress Well.
It was however the smaller venues and stages to grab our attention early on, most notably Start the Bus, where Bristol locals Elder Island brought life into the legs of even those who were still recovering from their opening party exploits the night before. They also captivated with slower numbers, bringing the enigmatic Trilogy (remember them?) to mind. Fortunately they appeared again at the Colston Hall foyer for another humbling yet charismatic performance, rounded off with a cover of Tweet’s ‘Oops (Oh My)’.
A similar scene was set for Parisian beatsmith Onra, an hour set that created a dizzying vortex of eyes glancing down from every gap of the four-storey stairwell. Fondly remembered for 2007’s exotic Chinoiseries and 2010’s funkier-style Long Distance, Onra has made another comeback with a new sound perfectly cultivated for the dancefloor, including recent Modeselektor release, ‘Blast’.
The main room was later adorned by the mighty Nightmares On Wax, where beats, trip-hop and a touch of house were the order of the day. The vocal-led performance from the Warp Records veteran and his band wasn’t what some had been hoping for, so with one eye on the clash finder, they went in search of other musical pursuits. Those who stayed were treated to a mixture of new material from his latest album and some special performances of golden oldies which brought on nostalgic moments for more than a few.
Away from Colsten Hall, the whole courtyard production is worth a special mention. With hanging props in the form of disfigured mannequins and glass heads holding pine trees high above the DJs, Shapes had without a doubt the best attention to detail at the festival. Couple great sound quality with a bubble machine, insense, smoke and a toilet bowl with shrubbery emerging from it, and you have a lesson in how to make a drab courtyard into a real party venue.
Photo by Shot Away. Source: Line of Best Fit
Opting for the style of melodic techno you’d expect in the German capital, Bristol’s very own Dutchman DJ October took us through a catalogue of tracks that we hadn’t heard in ages. Hearing the familiar broken melody of DJ Koze’s ‘I Want To Sleep’ filtering in prompted a particularly enthusiastic reveller entering from another stage to throw her hands up and exclaim ‘that’s more bloody like it!’. Following on was American-born Berghain resident DVS1, famous for being a sort of protégé of Ben Klock, as the first to release on Klockworks apart from Ben himself. Zak Khutoretsky took us through four hours of the groovier side of techno that had many glued to the front for the entirety.
Over in Lakota, Hyperdub’s founder and owner Kode9 stepped up to the mark with what was one of Simple Things’ most high-speed, hyped sets. Opening with the emphatic steel drums of Fatima Al Qadiri’s ‘Shanghai Freeway’ and featuring huge tracks like Flowdan’s ‘No Gyal Tune’, Kode9’s set felt like a showcase of Hyperdub’s finest grime and footwork, including a sped-up homage paid to the late Rashad.
Much to our delight, Zomby actually turned up, bringing to the Fact Mag stage an unexpectedly eclectic set that included an extensive jungle breakdown. While the audience danced in a pool of blinding blue light, Zomby’s set reached levels of emotion and nostalgia in Coroners Court, which neither Actress nor the absent Happa could have possibly achieved.
Along with Shapes, Studio 89 seem to have emerged from Simple Things smelling the sweetest, thanks to superlative sets from Max Graef and DJ Sprinkles. First up was Graef, whose honed sound of dark and beat-edged deep house came littered with expeditions into Latin, disco and bass to keep us on our toes. It’s always surprising to remember just how much this guy has done when still so young! DJ Sprinkles then took over for one of the most hotly anticipated sets of the festival. After a surprise set on the Colsten Terrace of unreleased edits and obscure picks, her late-night follow up was the powerful, slow-building, deep house closer that everyone was hoping for.
Upstairs, Stamp The Wax offered some friendly competition with ava. label boss Damiano von Erckert. He was joined by his buddy Max Graef for a two hour b2b of four to the floor infatuation. Following a set from Admin that included an impromptu live sax collaboration, Lakota’s smallest room competed valiently with an imposing lineup across the other four rooms.
Come 5am, the site was reduced to one room at the Coroners Courts with Pardon My French and Studio 89 keeping energy levels high among the hardy festival-goers still remaining. Such was the quality and breadth of talent that Simple Things put on, sunrise came with the realisation that we’d forgot to check out the peerless DJ Harvey. If that’s not a mark for a festival’s success we don’t know what is.
Thanks to Julia Kisray, Raoul Rechnitz, Aidan Kelly and Henry Murray for also contributing.
