Red Cup goes to Paris - Pitchfork Festival and We Love BoomBox (October 2011)

Paris....the city of romance, fashion and baguettes.  Or is it? Last Friday the Red Cup team embarked on a trip from Athens to the French capitol in order to experience a weekend filled to the brim with electronic music and on a mission to shed the aforementioned stereotypes to which half of us here adhered to.  Truth be told the 'French touch' spearheaded by Daft Punk, mellowed out by Air, turned on its head by Jackson & His Computer Band, rocked out by Phoenix, collected, compressed and spewed out by Justice and carried on by Busy P's Ed Banger label has had a huge impact on the city OST.  Paris was always a hub for art and culture, yet now it finally feels like a musical place in the modern and electronic sense.

During our weekend in Paris, the initial plan was to go to both days of the Pitchfork festival (28-29.10.2011).  However, when the "We Love BoomBox" event was announced for that Saturday (29.10.2011) with a roster we couldn't resist, we decided on skipping the second day of Pitchfork and spreading our time between the two events.

Pitchfork Festival Day One - 28 October, 2011 (for complete line-up go here)

The entrance

Upon arriving at the Grande Hall de la Villette during the Wild Beasts' live set (we didn't make it to Washed Out in time) we immediately noticed that the sound was not very loud, the crowd was mostly non-french and the liquor was weak (apparently there's a french law against hard liquor in live electronic music concerts).  Despite our initial impressions, we did our best to immerse ourselves into the event and work up an appetite for the night's highlight: Aphex Twin.  Unfortunately Mondkopf didn't quite do that for us though to be fair it must have been the low volume that was uninspiring.  

Aphex Twin live

When the time finally came for Richard D. James to begin his set, we had already worked our way up to the front and had our camera poised and ready: from the first note you immediately had a sense that the fiber of Aphex Twin's music is of a completely different nature than anything else around.  It could be his innate genius, his vast collection of vintage and rare synthesizers or his developed programming skills, but it's probably the three combined.  In a set largely composed of unreleased tracks (we thought he was DJing in the beginning) he managed to keep our attention more than any other electronic act could with a set of songs we know and love.  

Aphex Twin live

The visuals were also excellent as expected and completely synched to the performance.  All in all this was an awe inspiring experience for us that we still can't manage to shake off.  This despite the low volume that was also a problem during his performance - as you can see from our video below of an incredible unreleased track, you can still hear the chatter around even though we were up front and right next to the speakers:

Shame.  It was for this reason that we decided to leave the night early.

"We Love 1024 BoomBox" -  29 October 2011 (for complete line-up go here) 

The BoomBox in all its glory

The second we arrived at the Grande Hall de la Vilette (same location as the Pitchfork Festival) for the "We Love BoomBox" event things were looking way better than the previous night.  The drinks were still weak (it was a live electronic music event in France after all), yet the BoomBox installation looked incredible and the sound was much much louder.  The crowd was definitely mostly French this time and the whole affair seemed much more authentic and well-organized.  

Actress DJ Set

Starting the night off was Red Cup favorite Actress with a DJ set reliant on a rare breed of experimental techno that was nonetheless tailored for the dancefloor. The major highlight was when he played out a modified version of Daft Punk's "Rollin' & Scratchin'" while the BoomBox was flickering shades of blue and minimal geometric lines - next best thing to a Daft Punk live pyramid.  Watch this rare moment below:

Next up was Parisian Jackson & His Computer Band and the only representative of the 'French touch' we were going to see. This blog has repeatedly confessed its admiration for this man's music despite the fact the he disappeared off the face of this earth after an incredible and critically acclaimed debut on Warp back in 2005. 

 

Jackson & His Computer Band DJ Set

Needless to say, we were very excited to see him return, yet slightly anxious as we had no clue what to expect after all this time.  Then Jackson opened his set with Hudson Mohawke's "Thunder Bay" and immediately all our worries vanished and we knew we were headed for a good rest of the night (Jackson seemed to love that EP as he also played another track off it in the middle of his set):

Jackson's set was littered with highlights, both musical and visual, yet a major stand-out for us was the nostalgic drop of Squarepusher's "Journey to Reedham (7.AM Mix)", one of our favorite electronic music tracks of all time. Watch below: 

 

Last but not least, Warp legend LFO closed off the night for us (we didn't stay for Miss Kittin) with a performance that saw his early and latest material reworked and improvised for the live environment.   

LFO live

Verdict: Paris je t'aime

As we mentioned at the beginning of this post, some of us had doubts as to Paris' music cred.  This weekend definitely turned things around and all of us here at Red Cup are now on the same page. It's not Berlin or London, but in the past decade Paris has earned its place among the top European capitals of electronic music.  The Pitchfork Festival was slightly disappointing, but the mere fact that it took place in Paris is a testament to how much things have changed in the past decade.  The BoomBox event, on the other hand, was an incredible audio/visual experience revolving around electronic music that would have made any other electronic music city scene envious.  Lastly, during our time spent on the margins of the festivals we came across various signs pointing to the fact that electronic music is finally creeping into the historic city's sub-conscious.  For starters, we saw flyers for an Emika show only two days after Boombox.  During our multiple stops at one of our favorite shops in Paris to get our hands on KAWS' Snoopy and some Cool Cats T-shirts, we also came across a substantial music collection with many Red Cup highlights.  Last but not least, on our way out from a colonial burlesque inspired Hotel we were greeted off by Holy Other's "Touch" on the establishment's speakers.  If that's not proof enough we don't know what is. Until next time...

For these and more of our photos from both events go to the relevant album on our Facebook page 

(Photos & Footage by Vanessa Keen)