Homelands 2002

Andrew Future, Paul Stickings - 01 June 2002

Bask! Go on, bask! Fuck Bacardi, Strongbow, Red Bull and Arse Mobile, the most important sponsor today is old flamey himself. Homelands; officially sponsored by British Summer! British Summer? Surely an oxymoron? Nope. Not today. MELT!! Melting, can you feel it? You feel it. Fantastic. You're feeling... Red faced, bikini laced; tanning, larging, all in great taste.

Splicing good vibes across 12 stages, The Plump DJ's provided the Muzik arena with some dirty breaks early on, before Yousef put the funk into our dancing feet over in the Subliminal/Back2Basics/Underwater arena. This loveable scouse rouge turned on the charm with a beautifully crafted party set, before handing over the reigns to the three amigos.

X-Press 2 have seen and done everything over the past decade, but that didn't stop them from pounding out another chunky set of progressive proportions. With AC/DC and Smoke Machine still commanding maximum respect on the dancefloor, the boys pulled out another storming musical display from their bag of tricks.

Drink on Bacardi guzzlers, and gleam like The Beta Band, or The Baiter Band as VF's foreign photo femme dialects. Instrumentals-swapsies, lighty mics and stoned out sampling indie-acoustic swings a breeze through the Muzik Live tent. Not far to walk back. Must drink more. Must drink... clouds.

It can only be a matter of time before Layo and Bushwacka! join the ranks of the super league DJ's. They played a stunning live set (with tracks taken from their new album Night Works) inside an unbelievably rammed Space arena, which is testament to the duo's increasing popularity and their sublime production and mixing ability. The gorgeous vocals and flowing beat of Love Story certainly hit the spot and the wooden floor and crazy visuals and lights gave the Space tent a real authentic club vibe.