The Great Escape offers a wealth of new music, like EMA, showcased by the sea

The Great Escape 2011 review

By Chris Mathews | Published: Wed 18th May 2011

The Great Escape 2011

Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th May 2011
venues in Brighton, East Sussex, BN2 9NA, England MAP
£49.50

Every year The Great Escape seems to grow a little, add a couple of venues, move around a bit and generally try to fit in as many bands from all around the world into the bars, pubs, clubs and churches of Brighton. The only problem is trying to get to as many of them as possible and not get stuck in a queue outside. The biggest difference this year was adding the Dome for the 3 big gigs of the festival. Though having well known artists is less in the spirit of the festival, it did manage to drastically reduce the queues I've seen in previous years and made hopping venues easier.

The massive diversity on new acts on show from all over the world meant there was something for everyone there. Showcases from labels from Ninja Tune to Alcopop / D.I.Y and the usual NME, HMV and Artrocker meant there was no shortage of both independent bands and hyped major label acts and no shortage of quality across the board.

Running around venues at a breakneck speed meant I sometimes only saw 5 minutes of some of the 30+ bands I saw but hey, here are my highlights!

DJ Shadow headlined the Dome to a sell out crowd and was a guaranteed show. Bringing his Shadowspere setupto England for the first time made for a visually stunning show. Playing tunes from Endtroducing and the Private Press would have been impressive but unhappy with just being a tribute to himself he added new beats and samples, mixing seamlessly across genres and styles, new to old. Filling the dome with noise meant the bass still throbbed at the back of the circle.

The Alcopop vs. D.I.Y showcase at the Pav Tav tapped the rock'n'roll spirit missing from so many shows now. Manic sets from The Xcerts and Stagecoach which had stage-invasions, crowd-surfers and bar-walking, not to mention a missing chandelier. Energy and enthusiasm with quality songs to boot, just fantastic. If you didn't leave with something broken, you didn't have enough fun.

EMA had to be the best act I'd never heard of before the Great Escape. Strung out lyrics of small town Americana with stunningly balanced melodies up against a grunge-like guitar growl. Unsettling and captivating well worth a listen.

Factory Floor finished off the festival with a mind blowing set at Concorde2. Dark atonal techno post-punk? Yeah, something like that anyway If you like a dance then these guys and gal should be top of your list for 2011.

iiris managed to captivate the audience at an early evening show at the coalition. Fresh pop that glowed love or tore at the heart as she lived the emotion of every lyric in her body not just her voice. Pretty special.

Otherwise, Brasstronaut were a fun live band. Emika played complicated electronica (in a good way). Babe, Terror created amazing soundscapes with taps of a mic on the floor and layering multiple loops of chants. Marina Gasolina toyed around with hangovers and Ghostpoet made being melancholy cool.

If you like new music and don't mind spending a few days in a great city next to the sea with a bit of sunshine as an added extra then you cant really go wrong.

around the festival site (2)

review by: Chris Mathews

photos by: Chris Mathews