Playground magazine

2. Sónar By Night

When they were announced for the festival, we jumped up from our chairs with joy, as “Be Strong”has given us so much pleasure in the past few months. Nevertheless, the happiness faded somewhat when we learned that they would not be playing a live but a DJ set. I didn't expect much, but in the end it turned out to be brilliant. Raf Rudell and Joe Goddard don't only know their house and warm rhythms; they are also capable of keeping the pulse of a perfect set (except when the technology abandoned them at the start of “Jump To The Beat”). While waiting for the spectacular “Gabriel”, we danced our heart out to Goddard's remix of Nneka's “Shining Star”. But the most remarkable moment was when the two bruins took the mic and rocked the place singing the fabulous “Bear Hug”. Those two are oozing class and savoir faire. SdA

>The second round of New Order - this time for everyone who had a normal ticket instead of just a lucky few with invitations and litres of beer in their bellies - was like the first, only in condensed form. It was just 60 minutes, during which they forgot about the minor songs and went straight for the hits: “Bizarre Love Triangle”, < “The Perfect Kiss”, “586”, “Blue Monday”

Here's some non-news: The Roots“Sweet Child O’ Mine”, among others, yesterday) can easily be forgiven, with everything that happens before and after. There was some news on that front: they didn't play one minute of “Undun”

With “The English Riviera”, the Britons not only became a four-piece on stage, they also sweetened their melodies, saying goodbye to the nu-rave sounds of their beginnings. The change may have been for the worse to some, but thanks to the metamorphosis (apart from having gained a whole new fan-base), their sound is more classy and organic than ever. Focusing almost exclusively on their latest album (though there was room for some old gems, like the playful “Heartbreaker”), the band gave meaning to their new status, with a powerful and very consistent live set full of hits. Sporting white shirts (except for Anna Prior, who's become a new drummer muse in record time), they looked like a band you'd find on a cruise ship. But the most important thing of all is that the change of formation, sound, and intentions is for the better, and they're well on their way to becoming a new big hitter in indie music. The challenge will no doubt be their next album. SdA

The Barcelona DJ's audio-visual set is like a long version of Quasimoto's marvellous “Rappcats”: a crushing tribute to the history of hip-hop, didactic and danceable at the same time. Last night, it served as a complement to the majestic teachings of The Roots. The visuals didn't consist of the original video clips alone; 2D2 used his own images as well. For example, the video of KRS-One's “Sound Of Da Police” contained images of the Catalan autonomic police battering demonstrators at the recent 15-M demonstrations. Someone said that if there are conscious Catalan rappers, Felip Puig - the Catalan minister of Interior Affairs - is our Giuliani. So there. He played a string of hits: the classic Coldcut remix of Eric B & Rakim's “Paid In Full” (which I had never heard with such great sound - thank you SonarPub), a moombahton version of Beastie Boys' “Intergalactic”, A Tribe Called Quest's “Can I Kick It”, and some non-hip-hop tunes (Adele, Bob Marley, The Specials), mixed up with excellent skill. Wonderful. DR

Miss Maya Jane Coles took the baton from Metronomy in a totally rammed SonarLab. It's clear the girl has a huge attraction, given the size of the crowd and the diversity of its components. On the back of her releases on Hypercolour, 20:20 Vision, Mobilee and her “DJ-Kicks”- on which she showed she's not only a top notch producer but also an excellent selector and mixer - Maya Jane Coles played it safe last night, with a selection of tech- and deep-house, which would have been better for a closing act. However, she knows how to read her audience, so the connection with the crowd was perfect at all times, with “Parallel Worlds” as the highlight of the set. MF

If you missed out on Die Antwoord's “Ten$ion”, under their belt. Given the number of people at the SonarClub, they have gained a lot of fans and expectations were high. Ninja, Yo-Landi, and a DJ Hi-Tek - who seems to have done a Dukan diet - came on stage with some delay, but the first notes of “Enter The Ninja” immediately unleashed the madness, and the South Africans were immediately redeemed. There were some new tunes, alongside some from their first album, and we even heard Ninja spit a few verses from Enya's “Orinoco Flow”(respect). You might not be convinced by the concept of these art students come ghetto personalities, but it has to be said: they're pure entertainment. An ocean of hands in the air and the crazy dancing throughout the concert was proof of that. MF

These Londoners are incredible. We can debate endlessly about which their best album is - and whether In Our Heads” is innovative or not - it's obvious that when Hot Chip come on stage, they give it their all so that nobody leaves the room unsatisfied. Of the many times I've had the privilege of seeing them live, they have never scored anything below 'good', and some would even say 'historic'. Instead of playing a set with the odd ballad here and there, they went full-blast, even stripping “Boy From School” from its candid and innocent halo, turning it into a right party tune. Their songs made the people dance until the soles of their feet came off, with hits from yesterday (“Over And Over”,“I Feel Better”, “Ready For The Floor”) and today (“Flutes, “Night And Day”) - they even played a respectful version of Fleetwood Mac's “Everywhere”. Their attitude on stage was the same as ever: infinite charisma, with Alexis Taylor looking like a cross between Super Mario and a Formula1 engineer, and a keyboardist dancing like there was no tomorrow. Good vibes. AGM

We had been waiting to see Azari & IIIat an event like Sónar; especially because those who had seen them already spoke rapturously about a live show with a low-cost aesthetic, but irresistible staging. The two main culprits are singers and dancers Fritz Helder and Starving Fut Yell. While Dinamo Azari took care of the percussion, and Alexander III did the synths, the two divas entertained the crowd with some excellent voguing (especially brilliant on “Reckless (With Your Love)”

Mary Anne Hobbs and her sequin jacket versus Blawan and his tattooed biceps. A set of strict techno with some flashes of bass; which we expected from him, but less so from her. We could say the godmother of British bass music was playing an away game, while Blawan was clearly feeling comfy - even enough to experiment with beats and putting R&B a cappellas and spoken word pieces over them. The set gained intensity when he took charge, ending up in a full-blown hard techno feast, a bacchanal of frequencies between drones and industrial, to take one's hat off to. DR

>There was a guy walking around with a giant mouse head (I even had my photo taken with him, like many other people), the same head Joel Zimmerman puts on when he plays live. It says something about the level of popularity the Canadian has reached. deadmau5 is definitely one of the most famous and highly-regarded producers in electronica right now and he invaded the SonarClub with his electro-house and flashes of multi-coloured LED lights – getting off to a spectacular start, full of hard and echoing sounds. The whole set was equally astonishing, with an intelligent use of video and 3-D images, and a string of hits: “Ghost N’ Stuff”,“Sofi Needs A Ladder”, “Strobe”and the like, with some obvious nods to Daft Punk. All this, in front of a huge, flabbergasted crowd: this is probably the best thing in current mass dance music. Sergi Brunet

After the hurricane of Azari & III and the mass exodus from the SonarLab,Cooly G opened the Hyperdub showcase with a new live show based on her debut album on Kode9's label, due out in July. While the press release for the LP already warned us that she sounds a lot more introspective now, more soulful and less danceable, last night we could hear it for ourselves. We also learned that she's into singing now, holding the mic in her hand at all times and vocally accompanying the sounds from her laptop. The crowd's reaction was lukewarm, with some eyebrows raised when she played a rendition of Coldplay's “Trouble”, also included on her new album. We suppose it wasn't her choice, but Cooly G's gig would have fitted better on Sónar By Day, under the sun in the early evening.

Sir Steve Goodman, the King Midas of the hard-core continuum, then took to the decks; and that's synonymous to high expectations. Even Flying Lotus approached the stage to witness the Hyperdub boss' performance, because anyone who wants to become someone in the DJ booth should take note of the ways of Kode9. There are no style barriers to him and he proves it in every set. With the first four tracks alone - mixing UK garage, UK funky, grime and hip-hop - he already had everyone wide-eyed and open-mouthed. And he didn't stick to those four genres. Quite the contrary in fact: he explored the outer limits of modern dance music - playing new values like Ill Blu, new-born anthems like S-X's “Woo Riddim”, and glories like Africa Hi-Tech - only to end up at 160 BPMs, with footwork and jungle. I hope someone has recorded the set and puts it on the internet, for this was a master-class in danceable electronica.MF

Die Antwoord already said it at the end of their gig: nobody's going to tell them what to do; they play by their own rules. Well, Modeselektor are doing just that. After saying hello in abominable Spanish, with filtered voices, they kicked off with a wonky tune - slow, sinuous, and with a synth reminiscent of Gerson Kinsley - only to follow it up with a thug-like crunk track (remember they were tagged “Euro-crunk” when “Hello Mom!” came out? Those were the days), and one by their French rapper buddies TTC. Then, they made a faux phone conversation, after which they tore us apart with some saturated but very danceable techno. Some people should take note. Frantic and very mischievous. DR