A week after the Creamfields festival the residents of El Ejido in Almeria bore witness to another musical event, this time more pop oriented although you could still say that there was a chemical attraction among the party goers.
The diverse line-up of this edition of the Ola festival reflected the efforts made by the Catalan promoters, Sinnamon, to present new musical values such as MGMT, Ratatat or Hercules and Love Affair, to give us some established styles such as Bjork, Massive Attack or Goldfrapp and even the come-backs to rock, Kula Shaker.
The Icelander appeared as part of her 'Volta' album world tour and offered nothing different to her concert in Las Ventas, Madrid, more than a year ago. Apart from some saving moments with old favourites like Hunter, Bachelorette or an impressive, sinister interpretation of Army of Me it was a dense concert lacking in energy. A sensation which was augmented by a deafening sound set up with poor definition. Bjork's voice occasionally lost out to the 'React Table', the musical toy invented by the University of Barcelona and which was the constant theme of the giant screens around the stage.
Leaving Bjork for Massive Attack on another stage, this Bristol group offered several new tracks in a dark concert where the melodies and dense rhythms made the crowd vibrate. The style showed little change from that on their album Mezzanine, with female voices singing melodic lyrics over a complex and hypnotic rhythmic base. Highlights were the interpretations of Inertia Creeps, a brutal Save From Harm and Angel.
And onto the LO.LI.TA. stage for the end of Kula Shaker's set. Sixties psychedelic rock which had everybody dancing and a great finish with their cover of Joe South's Hush.
When The Editors finished their set the responsibility for keeping the crowds dancing passed to the hands of names like Soulwax, 2manydjs or d.a.r.y.l. giving those whose energy couldn't be sapped electronic and house music to dance to until the dawn.
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