SuperSonic Festival, Friday 13th & Satuday 14th July 2007, Custard Factory, Birmingham, UK
Introduction
I came across SuperSonic Festival by chance, but chance in this case took the form of a series of logical musical steps: a massive consumption of French electro vis a vis the Fluokids made a natural segue into 26-year-old New York City electro grime-techno DJ & producer Drop the Lime (DTL).
When I saw DTL was performing at a then unheard of festival in Birmingham this summer, I picked up a ticket, deciding I would do the festival solo if need be. The line-up information provided me with the impression that the weekend programme was eclectic to say the least, a giant mashup of djs, bands, experimental musical mentalists and it was all taking place under the auspices of a former custard factory. Brilliant.
What I wasn’t expecting was the fact that part of this year’s festival would be a homage and symposium to Metal. As in Heavy. An aspect of the Midlands (West Midlands to be exact) I never considered much was that it was kinda the birthplace of heavy metal and all its beautifully strange progeny. For the past five years, the festival has been curated and produced by Capsule’s Lisa Meyer and Jenny Moore, who are “Birmingham’s most innovative art and music promoters, with the ears of true fans and a DIY commitment providing a regular flow of cutting edge, vital new music + art”.
Friday 13th July Line Up
So here we were, Friday night, and the sun was only just starting to set across the city. My friend Niall and I travelled up together from London Euston. We arrived, dropped off our stuff at our budget hotel and took a taxi to the industrial section of the city not far away. After walking up the cobble-stoned road and heading towards the Custard Factory banner billowing in the wind, we joined the queue. And it is then that we made friends with three Birmingham natives, Dave-Becky-Adam.
“You came all the way from Brighton just to come to this festival?” Becky asked. I nodded. Niall elaborated – “It seemed like a cool thing to come to.” It was. A lovely group of people, Dave-Becky-Adam were our friends for the remainder of the festival, nipping us out to a local pub for cheap pints and shots of Sambuca. Let’s get this party started.
Friday’s line up sprawled across two stage areas – the Medicine Bar and the Kitchen. The Medicine Bar was the live music stage, and the Kitchen featured DJ and live electronic music sets. Friday was, for all intensive purposes, the electro-tinged aperitif. It goes without saying that I spent most of the night in the Kitchen. Fuck Buttons (see below) were a two-man law unto themselves, performing with the aid of a keyboard-filled suitcase and a day-glo toy loudhaler. I wasn’t overly impressed to start and was further perturbed that everyone around me was close-eyed, swaying and looking like they were experiencing a communal holy wank. However, Fuck Buttons ambient music-making did grow on me and I got into the subtle vibe. For a bit.
Towards the end of the Fuck Button set, I wandered off. I was standing in the back of the Kitchen talking to someone when I saw him. Drop The Lime. “Hey look, it’s Drop the Lime,” I said to DTL. Okay, I was a bit drunk by this point (five cans of K cider, 8.4% of total badness, on the train might explain a little of that) and I do have a penchant for making an ass out of myself with DJs, (more…)
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