PEPPER MACPHERSON.
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LOUD PLACES 25’
Line up is everything, until it’s not:
Line up is everything until it’s not & maybe one of the more sonically important lessons I’ve learnt this year is that just because you don’t know everyone on a line-up, doesn’t make it a bad one.
Loud places festival is a 500 capacity electronic music festival that doesn’t need big names to make a lasting impression. Located a couple hours outside of London this festival boasts three well curated stages with impressive (& potentially non regulated) sound systems.
The perks of a non commercial festival is you not only get to support the very DIY culture that House and Techno were birthed from and emerge yourself within an environment that actually feels like a community but you also get the luxury of very reasonably priced pints, a £50 weekend ticket, no one kicking you out the main arena once music’s stopped and certainly no hour walk back to the tent to grab more booze or a jacket. It’s tiny and that’s part of the charm.
Loud places might be a small festival but the records spun were the opposite. The beauty, I'm realizing, in Electro and techno is that the curators are the fanbase and they are inspired, slightly judgemental but in a hot way & most importantly understand a true selector can’t settle for finding their records through Spotify’s ‘radio’ algorithm. You have to care enough, to search hard enough, to find the good shit.
Loud Places isn’t like seeing your mate perform back to back KETTAMA records that broke a million streams, although sometimes that’s all you need, and that’s okay. Instead you are being given the treatment of what DJ’ing was and perhaps has lost across other genres in the last decade which is a performance that introduces you to records you love but have never heard of before and can’t find anywhere else but the dancefloor.
BUNNEY
It’s rare I imagine, to be able to have 200 people simultaneously clinging onto your every word but Bunney’s closing set on the Friday did just this, only the words were a serious Record selection. If you don’t know the DJ or are unfamiliar with the genre but the post show applause exceeds 1 minute straight - you know you probably just witnessed something very fucking good.
SPORTS DAY
After going to bed at 6am you might think the following day that you’d be in need a coffee but i am here to confirm, what you really need, is watching 6 teams playing tug of war infront of a large crowd whilst listening to old school bangers on the Wiggle Room’s PA.
If Houghton had a teenage daughter, she’d be sneaking out the house to go meet Loud places.