Retreat! marches forward

The spirit of Retreat! can be easily summed up. According to Bart Owl, who co-founded the festival alongside Emily Roff, it’s simply “a celebration of the local musical community.” This most rustic and simple of music festivals was started back in summer 2008 as a reaction to the complete dearth of local music in the wider programme of the Edinburgh festival.

Rob St John, one of Retreat's star draws, adds: “This is the product of a certain group of musicians, plus a much larger audience, plus a realisation that we could do this without any money, any promotion or input from the mainstream music industry.”

This year’s festival is a little bit different, taking place over one day rather than a whole month. “With a Broken Records headline show, Unicorn Kid and Young Fathers at Cab Vol and Meursault opening for Frightened Rabbit, there’s a much better Edinburgh representation at this year’s Fringe”, explains Bart Owl.

Indeed, the tactic appears to have worked, with Retreat! 2009 attracting scores of fans, well-wishers and curious Udderbelly wanderers to the gentle surroundings of the old Bristo Church on Forest Road. Arriving just in time to catch the beginning of anti-folk exemplar Withered Hand’s set, I set up camp towards the back of the church, right by the tea and toast stand. Dan Wilson and his band quickly build up a warm rapport with the audience, and never has the term "endearingly ramshackle" seemed more appropriate than for tracks such as ‘No Cigarettes’ and ‘I Am Nothing’. I caught up with Wilson afterwards to chat about Retreat! and the surge of underground music in Edinburgh. “It’s quite surprising really, it’s more popular than I expected! A lot of bands are now getting the exposure they need, something that wasn’t really there before.”

Edinburgh has often suffered in comparison to its musical big brother, Glasgow, but Wilson turns this on its head arguing that this, in fact, is a positive: “In Glasgow, a lot of bands have this problem of a trajectory already being laid out for them, because the city has a history of producing successful bands. I guess in Edinburgh we don’t really have that, so the pressure is off and there’s less urgency.”

A misconception has existed for too long that Edinburgh’s home-grown music scene was rather threadbare, especially in comparison to its bigger cousin in the West. What Retreat! has done is to provide opportunities via this prevalent DIY ethic. With all the pressures of the mainstream industry removed, bands are getting recognition without the need for the bureaucracy of managers, promoters and record labels.

Later on in the day, Leith based but Lancashire raised ambient folk master Rob St John takes to the stage. ‘The Shipping Forecast’ is a wistful pop song that allows St John’s vocals to come to the fore. Finale ‘The Sargasso Sea’ is a frenetic beast of a rock track over which the muse of Neil Young looms. It’s a startling finish to St John’s set, which was at one time known for being the epitome of low key.

“The community allows people to do what they want, because even if you’re good and a little leftfield, you might struggle to find an audience in a more industry-driven setup,” St John says after his show. “And that hinders you because you’re always struggling or striving to be a little more mainstream. Shows like today where you just put some bands on and it’s free, and 200 people turn up, it just cements this undercurrent of things going on in Edinburgh year-round.”

Later in the evening, I caught rapidly rising "folktronica" outfit Meursault who have been making waves since the release of debut album Pissing On Bonfires/Kissing With Tongues on the interestingly-named Edinburgh label, Song, By Toad. Tonight an electric guitarist with a plethora of pedals joins the banjo, ukulele, drums, acoustic guitar and electronics that make Meursault’s stage show resemble the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. A moving version of the solo ukulele track ‘Sleet’ is a highlight, alongside their terrific new material, which is all omnichords and thundering drums.

Meursault’s front man Neil Pennycook echoes the thoughts of Rob St John and Dan Wilson on the importance the DIY spirit which Retreat! promotes: “Bands are being priced out of studios, rehearsal spaces. If you’ve got limited means, you can really narrow in on what you’ve got, even if it’s a battered old acoustic guitar and a snare drum. I’ll never record in a studio because I think it would be the end of me. I’m fine with my old Apple mac, as battered and as horrible as it is, I get on with it and I think that’s a big part of it, recording our own music and putting on our own gigs, taking a little bit of the power away from the mainstream industry.”

It all boils down to simple values; with enthusiasm, a passion for local music and heaps of goodwill a strong musical community can be fostered and and a fantastic celebratory day like Retreat! can become a reality. The event was roaring success, and during this most famous and chaotic of industry festivals, that is no mean feat.