Resident dance music blogger Kate Hutchinson heads to Barcelona to bring you the latest from the Sonar festival.
It´s beating down with sunshine. We´re on a roof of a warehouse block in central Barcelona, overlooking the hustle and bustle surrounding electronic music festival Sonar down below. Over in the corner, there´s a makeshift radio set-up with DJs spinning lazed-out, psychedelic hip hop beats, settling our stomachs after the rickety service lift that we took to top floor tested their strength. It feels every bit the pirate station, but there´s no dodgy mast gaffer-taped to the scaffolding, just a laptop and a turntablist crouched behind it.
NTS Radio is a different kind of station, however. Usually operating out of a shop-style shack in Dalston, east London, it´s part of a new wave of DIY internet broadcast communities across the UK, focusing on youth culture defined chat and forward-thinking music in an atmosphere that could turn into a party at any second. So, naturally, Sonar is an appropriate jump-off point for NTS´s regular breakfast show, presented by Thristian (aka The Bpm), which has come to the festival this year in pop-up form thanks to Red Bull Music Academy.
It´s the perfect start to the festival. Yesterday, to warm up Sonar-goers (and unwitting holidayers!) they took over the Barcelo Hotel´s panoramic roof terrace from 10am, with some of the rising talent at Sonar this year dropping by for a chat and to spin a couple of tunes. But today, breakfast presenter Thristian (aka The Bpm) is broadcasting his show from this death-defying open-air space. US synth-funk producer B. Bravo, who is playing the RBMA stage later this evening, is showcasing tunes from his forthcoming album on UK label Earnest Endeavours, and Glasgow´s Numbers crew, who are taking over a stage at Sonar by Night tomorrow, are about to hop on the mic.
"I was coming out here to film the Red Bull Music Academy stage for The Boiler Room," says Thristian of the cult webcam-fuelled broadcast he films with Blaise Bellville in south London, "and I didn´t want to miss doing my weekly breakfast show, so we decided to find a roof and do it here instead."
The result is part party, part radio show, on the fringes of the festival, reflecting the breadth of underground parties and events that form the city´s Off Sonar schedule. Tom from Earnest Endeavours hypes their Sonar closing party with LuckyMe on Sunday at Be Cool, while dubstep documenter Joe Muggs sheds some light on the music at the RBMA stage that day too.
Sonar has three generations of UK radio this year - BBC Radio 1 are hosting their usual Sonar stage, this time with presenter/DJs Annie Mac and Benji B at the helm (more on that later), while legendary pirate-turned-FM station Rinse are representing on the RBMA stage, where Katy B and Zinc are performing this afternoon, and at Sonar by Night, where their show hosts Night Slugs are showcasing their future-thinking label.
NTS, however, is the future: it´s community-based, festival-style radio that sheds lights on local scenes and trends with down-to-earth, semi-professional presenters that can ´pop-up´ at any minute in any space that´s thrown at them. Anything, really, could happen (just not, we hope, in that darned lift!).
NTS Radio broadcast live seven days a week from www.ntslive.co.uk. Check back for their Sonar podcast, which will go up next week.
And keep checking back for Blog on the Dancefloor´s Sonar updates, interviews and reviews.
Want more?
- Read previous Blog on the Dancefloor entries
- Follow Kate on Twitter: @katehutchinson
- More music on redbull.com
Comments
Add a comment