Posts tagged ‘Major Lazer’

September 11, 2017

Reading Festival 2017 Was Another Year of Triumph [Review]

Reading Festival as always brought hoards of festival goers over to the Richfield site. Still clinging onto to it’s Rock roots, the festival now also caters to pretty much all music tastes from Grime to Hip-Hop, Indie, House and Drum & Bass, it’s a festival where no one can adhere to one genre.

 Arriving quite late on the Friday, we managed to catch a bit of Sub Focus, Shy FX and Mist over at the NME, Dance Stage and BBC Radio 1Xtra stages. Sub Focus had the stage packed dropping their own classics such as ‘Endorphins,’ whilst Shy FX as always impressed with his D&B sounds playing his own classic bangers including ‘Feelings,’ and Congo Natty’s ‘Junglist.’ Mist smashed his performance full force with his hit single ‘Karla’s Back’ amongst others.

 

Saturday began in the BBC Radio 1Xtra tent watching South London artist Cadet who hyped the crowd up with his DJ first then exploded onto the stage with a mad energy. 67 were up next and the crowd seemed to know all of the lyrics to the Brixton Hill rap crew’s tracks.

The highlight though of Saturday night had to be Major Lazer on the main stage and of course Eminem. Major Lazer brought a pure carnival theme to their set for everyone who was missing out the fun at Nottinghill over the weekend. As darkness descended we were treated to their full electronic party sound, which had all of the fields of the outdoor Main Stage dancing whilst the lights flashed across us. The dancers on the stage gave festival goers extra ammunition to party harder too.

 Around 80,000 people flooded to the Main Stage to watch Eminem the headliner of Saturday night. He got everyone to chant ‘Fuck Trump’ before playing a quite large set list including ‘White America,’ ‘Solider,’ ‘Real Slim Shady,’ ‘Stan,’ and much more. He walked off stage and some people left, whilst others are crying for him to reappear which he did ending his set on ‘Lose Yourself.’ The rap icon will never disappoint.

Sunday began with Birmingham Grime emcee Jaykae at the BBC Radio 1Xtra stage who impressed us with his energy and passion at his early set of 1.30pm. He performed his well-known tracks ‘Pull Up,’ and ‘Toothache,’ which was recently featured on TV show Power.

The king of Sunday had to be Giggs though who performed on the Main Stage at 5.30pm. He opened with ‘3 Wheel Ups’ spitting his verse of the Kano tune and JME’s ‘Man Don’t Care’ getting the crowd really buzzing. Then out jumped Drake for ‘KMT’ and more people had run across the field to catch the Canadian star. It was a big moment, but Drake hopped off the stage letting the main man Giggs take care of his set that led onto his old skool tracks ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’ and ‘Talkin The Hardest.’

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November 13, 2012

LIVE REVIEW: RED BULL CULTURE CLASH (LONDON)

It was the biggest music battle to hit London this year and only one sound system could win. The rules were simple; four rounds which are 15 minutes long, you have to save the special guests and the dubs until the last round, you can’t play a tune that’s been played already and the winner is crowned from the decibel reading at the end…

Even though the rules were simple, Major Lazer played as if the rules were there to be broken, playing dubs and bringing out special guests before the end round. Round one kicked off with Channel One bringing roots and culture to the clash, moving on to Annie Mac who kicked off with tunes like ‘Clique’ and ‘212’.

Major Lazer played a Bruno Mars dub on the first round and then dropped their hit ‘Pon De Floor’, starting the first round off with electricity. Diplo also got into a massive blow up see-through ball and tumbled across the crowd in it.

Boy Better Know’s first round was so hyped; playing the biggest and best bass instrumentals from Pay As You Cartel’s ‘Know We’, Faze Miyake’s ‘Take Off’ and Breakage’s ‘Hard’. Just from the first round alone, I thought it was going to be Annie Mac or BBK who was going to win.

The second round is where it got tense, with Major Lazer playing more dubs and also bringing out Stylo G. BBK weren’t happy, as Skepta said: ‘You’re not meant to bring out special guests till the end, Major Lazor better turn their lazors off!”

Wiley’s hits ‘Heatwave’ and ‘Can You Hear Me’ were played in round two and the man himself also jumped into the crowd, giving fans a special surprise. P Money also MC’d over some dubstep on Annie Mac’s set. BBK got more upset on round three, with JME warning his competitors, saying ‘I’m gonna slap someone!’ Channel One also stepped in saying, ‘Major Lazer don’t disrespect, have some respect for the artist dem.’ Round three was called ‘Sleeping With The Enemy’, which meant they all had to play the sounds of an opponent’s sound system.

Round four was the time to get serious, where contestants brought the disses, the dubs and the guests. Major Lazer brought out impressive guests Rita Ora and Usher, which saw Rita have a wardrobe malfunction and revealing a boob! Usher performed ‘Climax’ with Diplo remixing it to a reggae version.

Annie Mac presented us with remarkable guests, including Maverick SabreKaty BMs Dynamite and Example. BBK got came with a Giggs dubplate, also bringing out their guests Lethal B and Chip.

BBK were crowned as the winners, but I think Major Lazer’s screams were bigger and Annie Mac played more of a variety – but you can’t win when rules are broken so they had to go home empty handed. Congratulations to BBK who played fair and came with wicked tunes and entertainment.