The 2009 edition of Melt! festival went down last weekend at Ferropolis in Germany. It was an incredible fest with good music, good people and not so good weather. As promised before, here are some impressions (pictures below the text).

We started the weekend by confusing the updated line-up and missing Delphic’s show. We saw James Yuill first who was surprised by the large crowd that showed up for his set. (BTW: he’s one of the nicest persons I’ve ever met!) After that we caught the last couple of tunes of DJ Phono‘s set at the Big Wheel Floor (where people were dancing next to a huge digging machine from the former coal mine at Ferropolis). The smooth music got us dancing and in the right mood for all the things to come. Next up was Rex The Dog who played a brilliant set.

Röyksopp were a bit disappointing just like the cancellation of Metronomy’s show. Also, La Roux wasn’t too entertaining. The voice sounds awesome in a live setting as well, but over all the atmosphere at the tent was too cool.

We skipped Crystal Castles and enjoyed Matthew Herbert’s DJ set. He went from his own organic sounds into dubstep and back around to funk. A couple of minutes into DJ Koze’s mixture of 70s funk and techno we had to leave to see Simian Mobile Disco play a live set at Gemini stage. We liked it, a lot. But we’re still wondering: why is it that this machine that looks like a 60s NASA computer sounds like Ableton?

Unfortunately, all shows scheduled for 3.30 a.m. or later including Moderat and Deadmau5 were cancelled due to heavy rains and wind gusts!

We started day two with a short visit of Amazing Baby’s show, which wasn’t that amazing since they played the biggest stage. Clearly too large for them at this point in time. German-intellectual rocker Jochen Distelmeyer’s performance was better but we had go for cover from the rain again. Luckily this was the only hour of rain for the rest of the festival.

When darkness had crept in, the Whitest Boy Alive went on stage to play a fun show, which made the large crowd dance and smile. Huge fans of Erlend Oye, we were a bit disappointed by the platitudes between songs. Maybe this guy is just too shy to be funny and meaningful in front of 10’000 people.

Who Made Who didn’t talk much but played a great concert. Competition was strong though as Animal Collective were on at the same time. Phoenix were up next on the big stage: their set for festivals only contains hits. It’s almost as if these frenchies didn’t have any less known songs.

We grabbed some wurst and went on to Fever Ray. The show was astonishing: the songs were performed very slow and old-fashioned floor lamps on the stage brought the mood down. Very spooky but very touching! My personal highlight of the festival.

After this we went to  see Diplo throw down a crazy set at a stage next to a little beach. He was followed by Trash Menagerie favorite Drop The Lime. While Jesse Rose kept the crowd dancing in the sand, Erol Alkan and Boys Noize played a hard four-hour set together till 7 in the morning. People went crazy and it definitely drained my energies. Good to finally see Boys Noize!

Because of other obligations (job!) we had to head home on Sunday missing Miike Snow, Passion Pit and other great acts on the bill.

Melt! 2009 was a great fest with an overwhelming line up and a very friendly atmosphere. The thirtheenth edition will take place July 16 – 18 2010. Be there!

Here’s the combination of my two favorite acts this past weekend to ease the wait:

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Fever Ray – Triangle Walks (Rex The Dog Remix)

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