Hot Tips for Field Day
With Field Day getting excruciatingly close, the festival’s very own Tom Baker has highlighted five of his must-see acts at the festival, which takes place on Saturday June 2nd in Victoria Park in East London.
“I am so excited to welcome Mazzy Star to play Field Day, their first live appearance in fifteen years… Among My Swan was one of my favourite albums in the late nineties, so I am really honoured to have Mazzy Star play Field Day and also looking forward to hearing their new material played live for the first time.”
One of the original dream pop artists, Mazzy Star has been scrobbled 8,665,992 times, helped by the lasting popularity of tracks “Fade Into You” and “Into Dust” from 1993′s So Tonight That I Must See. The former was listened to by 4,457 unique listeners last week alone.
Beirut (pictured above)
“Its brilliant to have Beirut as a UK Festival exclusive, such an amazing amazing live band and a band Eat Your Own Ears has worked with for many years, from their first shows in London to 200 people to selling out Brixton Academy.”
Beirut have certainly come a long way from Zach Condon’s original traverses across Europe to find musicians to play with him on his songs. Scrobbled a resounding 56,091,072 times, newer tracks such as “Santa Fe” are giving older fan favourites such as “Nantes” a run for their money, with the former being Beirut’s most scrobbled track last week with almost 9,000 unique listeners.
“If you dont know Here We Go Magic, well you must check out their glorious new album “A Different Ship”, a great live band as well that mix hazy electronic textures with endlessly-spiraling lyrical loops, occasional forays into extended sections of ambiance and noise. Id say if you like Sam Prekop, Nick cave, Sonic Youth then you will seriously love this! One of my albums of the year for sure.”
Here We Go Magic will be playing the Laneway Festival in association with Last.fm and we’re very proud to have them. Formed in New York four years ago, 2010′s Hidden Magic has been scrobbled 721,794 times – a fair portion of their total scrobble count of 1,806,939.
“Someone I have just discovered recently, (infact via my dad sending me a link to her music; he would have read about her in Wire magazine) is Julia Holter. It’s incomprehensibly beautiful delicate pop songs. A must see at Field Day, she is on early on the Bleed Tent so it would worth getting up and making it down to Victoria Park to check her out.”
Two albums into her career, Julia Holter is ready to bring her sprawling sounds to big stage. You can grab a free download of her track Je Vivroie Liement here, but expect to hear tracks from her 2012 album Ekstasis, released in March.
“An INCREDIBLE live act and an amazing story: Malian guitarist Djelimady Tounkara and n’goni player Bassekou Kouyate were invited to Cuba to take part in a collaboration with Cuban musicians. They never made it to Cuba due to passport problems, and the session that they missed became The Buena Vista Social Club. 14 years later the collaboration did take place, and it produced the magnificent Afrocubism. Combining the guitar, double bass, congas and bongos of Cuba with the talking drum (tamani), kora, n’goni, and balafon, of Mali, their music sounds at ease with the Cuban and Malian elements, blending gently together. Their music blossoms in a live context where both the material and the musicians had the time and space to breath. The double bass, congas and balafan create a solid, looping groove over which soaring vocals from both the Cuban and Malian Griot tradition take turns with the talking drum and n’goni to create rich melodies and solos.”
Quite a story it is, and listeners have responded with 152,531 scrobbles of the musicians collective. Definitely one of the more unusual acts on the lineup, Afrocubism’s set is sure to be a feast for the eyes as well as the ears.
Field Day Radio
“Field Day Radio is back for its third installment with me Tom Baker. This time round, I chat with Alex and Paul from Franz Ferdinand, in their only interview this year! We also have a very special mix courtesy of Liars, ahead of their 6th studio album expected on the 5th of June. Plus Turner winning artist and musician Martin Creed reveals his artistic influences and talks about his new record. Plus I play loads of great music from acts playing at Field Day, so worth checking out to discover things you may not have heard.”
http://www.fielddayfestivals.com/field-day-festival-radio/
Beirut 
