Connect 2008 Episode XII: The Epilogue

Hydro Connect is officially over for another year. The revellers have gone home to warm showers and washing machines, leaving the event staff to clear the discarded tents from the mud-splattered campsite.

But instead of grimly contemplating the forthcoming week of work, it's time to remember a few of yesterday's highlights from Inverary...

It is more a lack of options than any fanboy enthusiasm that draws me to the Oyster Stage for Elbow. I have to admit that I've got much more time for Guy Garvey the BBC6 DJ than for Guy Garvey the bandleader, and this flat set of sleepy indie only embeds my prejudice. The bluesy single Grounds For Divorce does redeem matters slightly, as does Garvey's obligatory weather chat: "This is my kind of weather. When it's hot everyone takes their clothes off, and it's not a pretty sight in my case."

There is little such joviality over on the Guitars & Other Machines stage half an hour later. That's because The Gutter Twins, the band fronted by two of American rock's great journeymen, Mark Lanegan and Gred Dulli, are taking to the stage. Lanegan is as unceremonious as ever, acting as if he has been coerced into performing against his will (cool as fuck, in other words). They are the loudest and heaviest band of the weekend, and special mention goes to backing guitarist Dave Rosser for his blistering solos.

Sigur Rós can only really be enjoyed to the fullest extent if you're prepared to forget your own everyday concerns and allow yourself to be swept away to their twinkling, glacially sculpted musical Neverland. With the mist hanging in the pine forest up on the hill behind the Oyster Stage, that's not such a lengthy imaginative leap tonight. They open with the sublime Sven-G-Englar, and reveal their sense of humour when a brass section marches on stage in See You Jimmy hats. The rest of their 75-minute show is rarely less than spellbinding, and when they leave the stage half-destroyed after a surging crescendo of a final track, everyone wanders to the bar happy, their daily grievances a distant memory.

Earlier in the day, Franz Ferdinand gave a press conference in which they denied rumours about an African tinge to their forthcoming third album. "Over the last year we've tried to talk as little about the music as possible 'cos it's not out yet," singer Alex Kapranos said. "And if you start talking about stuff that's not out yet then it turns into hype.

"So because we haven't been talking, the little snippets that we have said have turned into these exaggerated stories. So yeah we might listen to the odd bit of Afrobeat, but we're not making an Afrobeat record."

Kapranos was also asked if they'd had any ideas for a title for the January release: "None that are very good," he replied. "Nothing that we're happy with yet. We'll let you know when we know. We'd like to choose one word or maybe a lyric from a song. Not necessarily a song title."

He did reveal that there will be more Franz Ferdinand activity in 2008: "There will definitely be other things out before the end of the year. I mean, we're planning for the album to be leaked by October! That's the way it goes now."

When Kapranos and band step on to the Oyster Stage for their headline show some five hours later, they play a set that acts as a reminder of their sophisto-pop appeal and reveals the musical direction in which they're headed. They delight fans with hits such as Michael, Do You Want To and Take Me Out, but approximately half the set is dedicated to new material, the majority of which boasts a fuller, synth-ier and at times funkier sound than we've been accustomed to. There are plenty of hooks to propel Franz back into the charts again, so prepare for another wave of Glasgow guitar-pop mania in the months ahead.