The Triptych music festival was back in Scotland for the 3rd year between 25-25 April 2003! The festival presents a selection of diverse musicians playing venues in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, with many artists alternating cities over the course of the weekend. With so many interesting alternatives, I decided to stick with Edinburgh to minimize costs even at the expense of missing Jamie Lidell on the Saturday night in Glasgow.

Bring on the machines

First up, Friday night was going to be big no matter which way I turned. I had the option of taking in a Derrick Carter set, going to see The Bays featuring Talvin Singh or visiting the Warp Records and Leaf showcase night. Having been really taken by Clarence Park, and recently getting into the new Manitoba and Murcof offerings, I plumped for that and bought a bunch of tickets for the show. As we wandered into The Venue, Murcof was just kicking off his set on the main floor.

Murcof stood intently behind his laptop producing sweet glitchy sounds while the crowd swayed. I sometimes find it hard to appreciate the live use of laptop, but the sound was spot on and his manipulations were enough to give the performance character… Then, it was off to the Chris Clark performance. He was just getting started as I walked into the second floor, invested by the Warp crew. Chris was standing behind an altar of equipment delivering a huge slab of ambient noise to the trembling crowd. The packed floor didn’t quite know what to make of it. Just as the crowd was starting to twitch, Chris dropped in a huge, block rocking, hip-hop beat, instantly relieving the tension and sending the place into frenzy. This formed the basis for his act. Adrift on distortion and delay, only to be snapped back into focus with some hellish good drum patterns. Chris had here the rawest, most live sound I've heard from an electronic artist in ages, and was totally unpredictable.

Beans, ex-member of Anti-pop Consortium, was next up. His approach was definitely more minimal than most, with him just rapping in front of a backing track, but in some respects a lot more substantial. His spasmodic movements matched the stilted quirky flow he delivered perfectly and gave him amazing presence. After knocking out Phreek The Beat and Mutescreemer, two of his latest album’s more traditional hip-hop influenced tunes, he took the time to really flex his skills with some raw acapella.

Plaid followed with a rather disappointingly polished set, with the band suffering two short power failures, eventually visibly frustrating both the band and the crowd. Last act of the night was Manitoba, playing tracks from their new album Up In Flames. This was definitely the most visually entertaining act of the night, with some excellent big screen animation and a full band line-up. The band members seemed to take turns on drums, guitars and keyboards and gave things a real knockabout festival feel with their antics. The sound wasn’t mixed to its top potential though with backing tracks and live sounds not meshing together very well on a few songs. Despite this and a lack of live vocals, they still rocked the house.

All that Jazz

Saturday evening swings by and it seems I'd managed to get the hot tickets for the night. The prospect of seeing the Matthew Herbert big band was clearly having an effect on the queue of golden-ticket holders, the atmosphere was electric.

Just as I took my place on the floor at the Liquid Rooms, the support act came on to enthusiastic applause. It would have been literally impossible for anyone there to find fault with the Lou Donaldson Quartet. The quality of the sound mix combined with the raging talent of the musicians combined as they proceeded to educate and entertain. Lou Donaldson himself is almost the epitome of jazz; a stooped, weather-beaten saxophonist, complete with tales of the tragic humour in his life (and of his wife). Their rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow had couples in the audience holding hands and looking meaningfully into each other’s eyes. The audience had been sufficiently entertained and showed warm appreciation as the band went off.

As the huge collection of band members filtered into place, Matthew Herbert had sidled onto the stage with a trumpet in a plastic bag. With a curious, playful expression on his face, Matthew proceeded to smack bits of said trumpet off of things, whilst manipulating his sampling gear. Over the space of a minute, he had built up a beautiful, intricate rhythm and without further hesitation, the band leapt in with some warm, jazzy big band music. The result was stunning. From this moment on, Matthew was showing high level of energy, redirecting his microphone (his sampling source) and playing beats, rhythms, lead parts and bizarre sounds, all taken from audience noises and the band themselves. The mood was infectious. Herbert’s wife, Danni, came on stage to grace the audience with her soulful and punchy voice, adding emotions to the music. More excellence followed with Herbert picking up the tempo with his accordion, an instrument he clearly loves playing. The last song was a thing of immense beauty, a live house-music masterpiece which left everyone in the place dancing.

Pick It up Y’all

Finally, Sunday provided the chance to take in some hip-hop at the Mish Mash night. First on the bill were Zero7 mixing up some old school hip-hop with funky dancefloor disco stuff, with a decent tune selections, and a good knowledge on how to work the floor. Then Kid Koala hit the decks. By then, the crowd was ready, and with a deft touch he got the night off to a proper start with some monster beats. Kid Koala had the crowd roaring non-stop as he was going through his off-beat collection of records. When a DJ can mix Cyprus Hill, the theme from Weird Science and Radiohead into the same set, you know you’ve found something interesting and original. I was fortunate enough to be able to see his techniques from my vantage point and it really helped my appreciation of what I was hearing. At various points he opted to use his decks as a more traditional instrument, using scratch techniques to create the different tones in traditional basslines. A perfect entertainer, Koala took the time to chat to the audience between tracks, maintaining his grin at all times.

Last act of the night was Roots Manuva, London’s new holder of the UK hip-hop crown, with a DJ set. Sure enough, he came on, selected a few tunes and the crowd went wild. It was odd having just witnessed one of the best DJ sets I’d ever seen, to be expected to appreciate this, totally unmixed set. Thankfully, after about 45 minutes, he relented and picked up the microphone. Roots Manuva is a good rapper. He has the swagger and confidence of a man who knows he’s got the skills he needs, and he’s got the stage presence to get the crowd jumping. And the packed-out dance floor was jumping.

All in all, an incredibly diverse and exiting weekend, which would have proved even better had I managed to keep up with the gigs in Glasgow and Aberdeen too. Now in its third edition, Triptych is more than ever proving one of the most interesting musical events around.

Paul Evans