SBTRKT - Bestival 2011 review

'It's the straining vocals counteracting the basslines that work here'

Daniel Fahey - 09 September 2011

8/10

The delights on Doris' PR tea trolley today are SBTRKT disguises, cardboard version of the producer’s faux-African mask. There is a switch of fans from a fairly bustling Big Top attendance for Cut Copy to a busy but spacious crowd, making it clear that the dub garage landscapes of our vowel-hating pal hasn’t fully diluted the main stream. Yet.

It’s nothing a pre-recorded, Drake-spitting version of ‘Wildfire’ won’t fix as the pair onstage start rousing the bass and twisting the vocal more times than Fonejacker. But it’s CD-ready impetuous of the vocal on the track that’s actually the low in an otherwise flowering rendition of the self-titled debut.

Built predominately around the drumming of our mysterious leader, it's scattering of competent skin bashing with a few guest singers thrown in for added flavour that makes the spectacle.

Rose Gabor steps onstage in a golden 80s puff top for the Calvin Harris-pop of ‘Pharaoh’ but it’s the straining vocals during ‘Hold On’ and ‘Living Like I Do’ counteracting the heavy basslines that work this into a mid-afternoon treat.

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