Love International 2017: Five key performances

  • Published
    Jul 6, 2017
  • Words
    Luka Taraskevics
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  • When The Garden Festival bade an emotional farewell to the European circuit in 2015, Dave Harvey and Tom Paine (two of the key players involved in The Garden) moved swiftly to ensure the legacy of the cherished festival wouldn't die. Unsurprisingly, Love International has managed to continue and successfully cultivate The Garden Festival's unique vibe. This is down to a number of factors: high production values across the site, a fiercely loyal crowd, and the remarkably scenic location of Tisno. Also, because of its intimate size, it's more hassle-free than other Croatian festivals. There was no token system complicating the purchase of food and drink. Aside from the odd bouncer looming in the shadows at Barbarella's, the festival's off-site open-air club, security was generally lax. It was possible to take the week as easy or as hard as you liked. In the space of two years, Harvey and Paine have affirmed Love International's status as a summer gathering that's hard to miss. Here are five key performances from across the week.
    Harvey Sutherland And Bermuda The Main Stage, one of the site's more standard venues (though still decked out with multicoloured cladding and foliage), was home to a number of live acts. Paranoid London brought the heat in the headline slot on Saturday evening, though the stage really shone during jazzier and more lighthearted performances from Session Victim and Croatia's own Jan Kinč, who was joined by Frenchman Regis Kattie. The strongest set, though, was from disco house trio Harvey Sutherland And Bermuda. Starting just before sunset on Thursday, Mike Katz (AKA Sutherland), drummer Graeme Pogson and violinist Tamil Rogeon played renditions of recent tracks like "Clarity" and "Expectations," interspersing them with groovy improvised passages. Culminating with the crowdpleaser "Bermuda," it was an irresistibly danceable performance that sent the crowd buzzing into the night.
    Palms Trax At around midnight on Friday, Jay Donaldson, AKA Palms Trax, hit the decks at the Beach Stage. Taking over from Medlar, he began at a considerably slower BPM than the crowd had become accustomed to—something few DJs are able to pull off without killing the vibe. But then Donaldson can't seem to put a foot wrong at the moment, and the current hype surrounding him meant that the stage was rammed. The next two hours were proof that the hype is justified, as he mixed perfectly between percussive, piano-led tracks such as Olivia Newton-John's "I Need Love (A Deep Need For Love Mix)" that proved enormously favourable with the glitter-clad audience.
    Prosumer Achim Brandenburg oozes passion. Spinning on Sunday evening, the Edinburgh-based selector might have played my favourite set of the weekend. His records, an ever-solid blend of timeless house and disco, were mixed in a manner as pure as you'd expect from someone of his experience. They perfectly framed the slowly pinkening sky clouding the Adriatic. The sun shone its last rays as stone-cold classics like Mood II Swing's "Ohh (feat. John Ciafone)" and Pépé Bradock's remix of Cheek's "Venus (Sunshine People)" were received with cheers. The place was packed, and as darkness swiftly fell over the beach, Brandenburg responded accordingly, switching into moodier, punchier selections that brought the set to an energetic close. He seemed to be loving it as much as anyone.
    The Black Madonna Is there a DJ on the circuit instigating as many raucous, feel-good scenes as The Black Madonna? Over the course of her recent and meteoric rise to the top, Marea Stamper has proven she's more than capable of rocking a room with anything from The Weather Girls' "It's Raining Men" to Jeff Mills' "The Bells." She played twice at Love International, both times for RA. The first was aboard The Argonaughty, one of two boats that hosts daily parties, where she played solo and then back-to-back with Beautiful Swimmers on Saturday evening. Later that night, she played between Saoirse and the US duo at Barbarella's. Both sets, as her performances tend to be, were underpinned by unashamedly big disco and house cuts. Whether it's your thing or not, it's hard not to smile when she's dropping tunes such as Dharma's 1982 Italo disco classic "Plastic Doll" or Buba's upbeat "Feels Like Dancing." As both a female DJ and an outspoken liberal, Stamper's role in contemporary club culture is vital. That she, like anyone who identifies as queer or female in our scene, continues to face day to day inequalities adds an element of defiance to her uplifting sets.
    Craig Richards back-to-back Ben UFO Craig Richards' Sunday night takeover at Barbarella's featured one of the week's most hotly-anticipated bills. After Call Super's even-tempered warm-up, Richards and Ben UFO began their four-hour back-to-back, starting out with funkier groovers such as Luther Davis Group's "You Can Be A Star," before venturing into bigger tunes (Slam's "Dark Forces"). The pair were on particularly fine form—Richards ensured the set remained driving and dance floor-focussed, while the Hessle Audio star dolled out the more oddball selections. In one particularly explosive one-two-punch, Richards reached for Cedric Dekowski's "Mörchende," only for Ben UFO to swiftly layer in Duckett's forthcoming twitchy workout, "Black Sheep." As the sky slowly brightened, the tunes became more euphoric. Rave classics like Andronicus' piano-heavy "Make You Whole" slotted in comfortably alongside fresher acid numbers like TLR's edit of Chicago Shags' "South-Side Will Rise." The set drew to a close at 6 AM to rapturous applause. As both DJs gave sheepish nods of appreciation to the audience, I couldn't recall enjoying a DJ set as much in recent memory.
    Photo credit / Carys Huws - Lead, Harvey Sutherland, The Black Madonna (DJing), Full site, Barbarella's, The Black Madonna (Profile), Beach, Bunting, Busy beach, Pink man Here & Now - Palms Trax, Prosumer, Craig Richards & Ben UFO, Group photo
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