The last night of Saturday, November 4 of the Pitchfork Music Festival at the Grande Halle de la Villette was simply exquisite: a careful program, flawless punctuality and a warm atmosphere! Loyle Carner, Jacques, Run the Jewels, The Blaze and The Black Madonna headlining, no less.
Originally Pitchfork is an American media located in Chicago publishing music reviews mainly focused on rock. Renowned actor in the field, dubbed and criticized, Pitchfork strives to offer the albums of the year by giving them notes.
Since its existence in 2006 in Chicago for a first edition welcoming 18,000 people, the Pitchfork Music Festival has made a place of choice in Paris since 2011. It has now become a must: meeting place for professionals, bringing together many Europeans, massively English and for an audience generally older than its colleagues.
This closing night is flawless.
Sweet start of evening with Sigrid. The Norwegian plays fresh and mainstream pop , a bit in line with MØ with her Don't kill my vibe.
Sônge is alone on stage but we only see her with her silver jacket. She was able to create an R'n'B mixed with pop where colors and sounds mix. The dynamism of his beats of Now or I come from pain makes the crowd dance. In life, his synaesthesia – phenomenon of associating the senses – made that the color came to merge with the hearing, hence this explosion of colors as on the clip of Now.
Tom Misch and his band, from violin to clarinet, and with his sister on sax for the time of Follow, make a sunny sound. Groovy rhythms, jazzy, the lightness of Watch me dance and I wish give something to dream. Tom already has his label Beyond the groove and released his latest EP Reverie in July. Moreover, on the tracks Crazy Dream and Damselfly he is featuring the rapper Loyle Carner: we would have dreamed of a duet on stage…
The highlight of the show is him, Loyle Carner. We had already heard about him when his first album Yesterday's gone was released in January 2017. He is only 23 years old but we already feel the maturity of his songs. Originally from Brixton (south London), he unfurls a rap gripping and mesmerizing, and assures us that he has been waiting for this show for more than a month already. He proclaims a Fuck Brexit, continues with his songs The Isle of Arran, NO CD… always with Cantona's jersey in his right hand, as a tribute to his father-in-law.
Jacques is true to himself, a bold and timeless artist. While a few months ago he released an album inspired by a Facebook live of 10am for a New York web radio, this Saturday on the stage of Pitchfork he offered us an experimental concert, as usual. He knows how to renew himself: recording the sound of a ping-pong ball, a fan being scratched, a brush rubbing a comb, a whole poetry. End of concert on a Chinese saying just invented I do not know where I am going but I know that I am going after inviting us to go to the wide world.
At 9pm BadBadNotGood enters the track with electro-jazz from Canada. Abstract music, these musicians are as fans of jazz as rap or hip-hop. They have collaborated with big names in the rap scene such as Tyler the Creator, the Wu-Tang Clan, Kendrick Lamar… Since their last album IV, the band has recruited a saxophonist, which reinforces the jazz atmosphere of the songs and especially this live.
Princess Nokia wears a real vibe. But this Pitchfork concert leaves us somewhat doubtful. The fault to avery strong b acking track, which almost gave the impression that the concert was in playback. Still, the music makes its effect, but again the decibels were very low compared to other shows. We blame the performance, Princess Nokia nous is full with her R'n'B and feminist lyrics and the assurance she offers girls to accept themselves as they are [with my little titties and my fat belly on Tomboy].
Fanfare debut with the arrival of Run the Jewels on We are the champions of Queens. The stage is adorned with two large balloons signifying their logo. They had already performed at Pitchfork in 2015 and returned with their latest album Run the Jewels 3 ! El-P and Killer Mike woke up the crowd with an explosive concert: from Talk to me to Down, committed rap and themes in tune with the times.
The wave of festival-goers with night tickets arrive for the electronic events at the end of the evening. We suddenly feel that the Halle de la Villette is populated by great excited, much more fit than those arrived at the end of the afternoon.
Surprising start of The Blaze's set. Then hidden by two screens diffusing flames, the music is switched on, keeping us in suspense. Then these screens arranged in spikes on the stage open to reveal the two cousins. Their set is soaring, between fiction and reality, but without apparent surprises for this very discreet duo. The hypnotic climbs associated with travel images in arid landscapes form a coherent whole. A real success of scenography sometimes suggesting an aurora borealis!
The duo Bicep kicked off the evening with a rather contemplative house. Originally, these two Irishmen ran the site Feel my Bicep on which they posted mixtapes. Now they have released an EP, including the song Glue which is a little melancholic unlike Aura where the synth notes border on psychedelia.
After the intensity of his set at the Nuits Sonores, we knew that with The Black Madonna we would not be disappointed. In the mile. The one-hour set is effective, with a rather heavy bassline and disco sounds. A moment of intense dance on his unstoppable techno-house. Only one thing to say, don't miss his next coming!
More than 2h30 set for Talaboman. John Talabot and Axel Boman are two producers who have already made their class and their place in solo. Their latest album The Night Land is a little nugget.
The lives are to be reviewed on Culturebox!
