Electric Frog and Pressure Riverside Festival, Glasgow, 29-30 June

Glasgow crowds don’t get too many opportunities for al fresco partying and, when these events do come around, there tends to be a bit of acclimatising needed at the start. Sure enough, there’s a fair bit of milling around this Friday afternoon and the crowd is perhaps not as large or engaged early on as the promoters may have liked.

Still, manning the North Stage alongside local heroes Optimo and frequent collaborator Joy Orbison, Ben UFO isn’t slow to whip up some atmosphere. Incredibly flexible in his scope, the Hessle Audio co-founder particularly impresses with his selection of house and garage party tunes, with a notable bump in the volume coinciding with an increase in activity on the dancefloor. When Optimo’s Twitch steps up, you’re never quite sure what you’ll get, and he soon decides to transition out of UFO’s vibe with a tougher selection of industrially charged techno, building in intensity as he goes. As this reaches its crescendo the tables are again turned as the piercing percussion makes way for Aphex Twin classic, Windowlicker, providing perhaps the first hands-in-the-air festival moment of the day.

Meanwhile, at the event’s new Sunset Stage, which faces out onto the Clyde, Prosumer puts in a rather commendable shift in front of a dismally small crowd. Perhaps the stage’s positioning – in a cul de sac off the walkway connecting the two main marquees – contributes to people strolling by as opposed to wading in. Prosumer’s stint here certainly deserves more attention and he brings things to a close with DJ Deeon’s 2 B Free, a glorious disco house rendering of Loose Joints’ track Is It All Over My Face?

A major disappointment of the day is one which is out of the promoters' hands, as Detroit master Robert Hood’s appearance is cancelled due to illness – the prospect of a Floorplan set, which marries his robust techno sound with house and gospel elements, was one which could really have been a highlight of the weekend.

Despite the loss of Hood, local whizz Gary Beck and Pressure hosts Slam keep things on course with typically full-on sets before Blawan and Pariah take to the stage to unleash a fiercely uncompromising live set. As Karenn, the duo have come to be regarded as leading lights in the renaissance of British techno in recent years and here they provide plenty of evidence to support such claims. Theirs is a twisted, pulsating breed of techno which gnarls and hisses its way out of the speakers, fully immersing the Pressure crowd, which has swelled considerably by this point. At times there are lulls and brief lapses of direction, but lacerating hi hats continually emerge to tie things together, imposing a sense of urgency on the proceedings. Ultimately Karenn’s material is set apart by the incredibly engaging quality of the alien textures and metallic shards of sound they embroider through their productions.

 

Back out at the Sunset Stage, Optimo’s second shift of the day sees them teaming up with Midland for a set full of variety, at times dipping into rich tribal rhythms of the kind found in their releases as Autonomous Africa – the label/charity venture helmed by Optimo’s Twitch. Alas, this area of the site is still far too subdued in terms of numbers for their efforts to be fully realised. Musically, things are working very well here and perhaps an earlier start time, during a sizzling summer day (possibly somewhere on the continent), may have made all the difference.     

After Julio Bashmore does his thing at the North Stage, the headline slot belongs to Siriusmodeselektor, the live collaboration of the Modeselektor duo and label mate Siriusmo. You could be forgiven for thinking the former group are getting bored of their own company as their Moderat collaboration with Aparat has taken up a lot of their time in recent years, while this new incarnation plays a host of shows across Europe in the coming months. On this showing their latest project is much more similar in style to their early work as a duo – hip hop attitude with chunky basslines and stuttering samples provide one of the day’s most unique sets, particularly as the rhythms are more broken up and organic feeling, though techno is still a clear reference point. Credit goes to visual collaborators Pfadfinerei who provide an incredibly colourful and typically bombastic backdrop, complete with regular appearances of Modeselektor’s iconic cartoon monkey face. This is certainly the most complete performance of the day, though the music maybe has more of a stop/start feel than some would like.

Closing the Pressure tent, techno globetrotter Len Faki impresses in a way that most big name acts often fail to – his set bristles with energy and avoids the kind of overly digital techno-by-numbers sound that is too often peddled by artists of a similar standing. While few could match the power and ingenuity of Karenn earlier in the day, Faki is clearly well placed to close the noisiest corner of the festival and a sweaty Pressure crowd seem delighted with his efforts.

As things begin to wind to a close, Midland and Optimo are by this time delivering an all out disco assault at the Sunset Stage. The nagging thought persists that some of the freshest and most interesting music played all day has emanated from this frustratingly overlooked corner of the venue, though it is notable that the small crowds here have always looked gleefully ambivalent about their relative lack of companions – and, in fact, the extra dancing space was probably welcomed. [RM]

Saturday’s event attracts a much larger crowd and there is clearly more energy across the different areas from early on. In particular, the fully open-air Sunset Stage comes to life and Horse Meat Disco are a particular highlight, offering a different option for those not here for Cocoon’s twin showcases, taking place across the other two stages. Their set provides a consistently more chilled vibe than some of the other acts on offer.

Theo Kottis impresses with a set which has more of a dancefloor edge, at times sounding much more robust than the more ethereal sound he has put out on his records for Moda Black. Local favourites Melting Pot also put in an excellent shift, keeping the party going while always maintaining a sense of fun and offering some of the most accessible music you will hear all day.

With this leg of the event dominated by the clubbing behemoth that is Cocoon, their own visual stamp is noticeable throughout the proceedings – though after Pfadfinderei’s impressive visuals for Siriusmodeselektor last night, Sven Väth’s label’s continuous branding feels a bit over-commercial by comparison. Väth himself has always been quite the showman though, and his typically exuberant set is performed alongside a group of gogo dancers – bringing some colour to a clubbing scene all too often filled with empty stages and the feeble glow of a solitary Macbook.     

Of the other headliners, Detroit legend Carl Craig and Russian act Nina Kraviz are both well-received, providing a heady mix of techno and keeping the intensity up throughout. Craig manages to keep his set slightly more exciting though and the energy levels soar while he works his magic.

Minus label alumna Magda delivers a set full of variety and her beats aren’t as cranked up as some of those emanating from elsewhere – her more interesting arrangements offer a nice counterpoint to some of the more four to the floor sets offered today. Admittedly, she sometimes loses the crowd at points when her experimentation is a little bit over-stretched. Similarly eccentric, but perhaps more a master of keeping the vibe going, Ricardo Villalobos delivers an exciting and varied selection – continually building up and stripping back, navigating between a poppy Latin sound and a more purist form of minimal techno.

With the Electric Frog and Pressure collaboration seeming like a more regular event on the year’s clubbing calendar, and with no shortage of impressive acts on offer, we suspect it will only become more refined and more successful. Crucially, if Scotland can develop more of a culture for these kind of outdoor events, and the weather obliges a little more, there’s no doubt people will be partying by the riverside for years to come. [AB]