T IN THE PARK S P EC I A L I S S U E
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From some Canadians to one other, fly your maple leaf flags high for R&B sensation Drake on the Futures Stage. The former actor and Lil’ Wayne protégé will have
the Auto-Tune cranked up to 11 for smash ‘Over’. Then it’s back to noble Scotia for some strangely uplifting death wish indie pop from The List’s favourite bodily obsessed band, Frightened Rabbit, knocking everyone for six with ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ back at King Tuts.
Our first foray into the Slam Tent next, where
folktronica mascot turned deep house enthusiast Four Tet will be showcasing the wobbling intensity of ‘Love Cry’. If you’re sweating Tennent’s after nine minutes of dancing along you should maybe think about doing a bit more exercise, eh? Or you could just retreat to the blissful, classic British folk- influenced world of Laura Marling for ‘Rambling Man’ at the Futures Stage. Where else after all that but The Prodigy on the
Radio 1/ NME stage? As long as you don’t look too closely at Keith Flint’s paunch, ‘Omen’ should fill you with enough venom to want to undermine the system and disempower the establishment . . . or just eat a burger and head back to your tent.
SUNDAY Darwin Deez makes the sort of music that you think kids should listen to: innocent; relentlessly upbeat; guilelessly arranged. And thankfully they do! See – there is hope for the Jedward generation just yet. Join them for a bop along to
‘Radar Detector’ at King Tuts. Then it’s time for a
groundbreaking trip hop classic: ‘Overcome’ from ex-Massive Attack rapper Tricky’s first solo
album, Maxinquaye. It’ll be moody in the Slam Tent no doubt, so straight after head for some uplifting guitar pop hooks from Two Door Cinema Club who’ll be creating bounce around ‘Undercover Martyn’ on the Futures Stage. Don’t even think about flagging as it’s
time for the archduke of US hip hop, the right hand of Obama, the back scrubber of Beyoncé, Jay-Z to bring out the undeniable awesomeness of ‘On to the Next One’ on the Main Stage. And we’re not done yet. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more epic, it’s time for Kasabian’s ‘Fire’. What other end to the festival could there be than a few dozen thousand people pogoing in unison like monks who’ve broken into the tonic wine stores? ‘Here we, here we, here we fucking go!’
T IN THE PARK PLAYLIST Listen to all the tracks above and more on The List's T in the Park Spotify playlist at www.list.co.uk/festivalplaylist
22 THE LIST 24 Jun–8 Jul 2010
‘A dance aesthetic with proper songs’ is how Delphic’s Matt Cocksedge describes his band’s musical outlook. Given that the Stockport-formed quartet (founders Cocksedge, Richard Boardman and James Cook, plus recently recruited drummer Dan Hadley) are touted as vanguards of the new Mancunian scene, that doesn’t seem a million miles away from the music their home city and its surrounding area was making two decades ago, when Madchester and the baggy sound was at the forefront of British popular culture.
‘It’s difficult to deny we’ve been influenced by Manchester, the city,’ says Cocksedge, ‘because obviously we’ve grown up around there,
interview. But it’s totally cool in a way, because it means that people all over the world are interested in Manchester.’ So let’s move on then. The rest of the world is something which Delphic have become intimately acquainted with since the beginning of the year, when their placing in the BBC Sound of 2010 poll and positive reviews for their debut album Acolyte stoked expectation levels for the rest of the year. Speaking in late spring, a bleary Cocksedge is only just recovering from the jetlag incurred on a tour which would have seen the group whip around four continents, had the Icelandic ash cloud not postponed their flights to America.
NORTHERN SOULS Delphic’s roots may be in Manchester but their outlook is definitely global, the band’s Matt Cocksedge tells David Pollock
although we’re too young to have been to the Hacienda and all that. But I’d say we’re more aware of the music the city’s produced and respectful of it, rather than being directly influenced by it.’ While it’s possible to draw a more or less direct line back to New Order from Delphic’s music (check out the Peter Hook-style bassline underpinning ‘This Momentary’), their youthful, blissed-out electronic pop optimism belongs firmly in the present day. The Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk, says Cocksedge, are the kind of classic benchmarks his band aspire to. Besides, the concept of a regional musical identity isn’t what it once was. ‘[The Manchester thing] is a bit of a millstone, to be honest,’ he says. ‘I must get asked about it in every
‘Yes, there may be a small element of that too,’ he laughs, when questioned about the effect of late night touring revelry on the ‘jetlag’. ‘No, it’s been really tiring, but it’s also been quite an amazing experience. We’ve played Japan and Australia off the back of these songs we wrote in our flat in Manchester, you know? That’s pretty special.’ It doesn’t stop there, with this appearance at T being only one of nearly two dozen transcontinental festival dates coming up this summer. If we didn’t know better, we’d almost be tempted to put that down to a Northern grafter’s ethic. Delphic play the Futures Stage at T in the Park, Fri 9 Jul.