Since Saturday was going to be the final day of the full Sonar experience, we woke ready to get fully involved in everything that is festival, Spanish and summer.. – and with an impending bout of overcast weather, we thought it best to start the day soaking up some of the Spanish rays on one of the beaches. For three members of the team – myself, Taryn and Gordon – this could not have been a more welcome idea as we had all been landlocked in London for the previous two months and the excitement to get into seawater was definitely shared.

It must be said that Cape Town has a way to go from the all too familiar “ice cream, cold drinks, lollies” of the Clifton area to the full toot of Barcelona beaches – the place was teeming with people selling cocktails, beers, fans, sun-mats and… oh yes… massages. To date I have not found a level of luxury on any beach that could have compared to this. Taiwanese woman were all over the beach offering massages for what we initially thought would cost a fortune and actually turned out to be the most measly amount. Chris got involved straight away, with the rest of us very quickly following. An hour later, 5 Euros poorer (yes 5 euros – I almost feel as though I made money!) and totally relaxed, we had our first drink of the day. A massage followed by a mojito on the beach – heaven! Factor into that the seawater and the most amazing banana ice cream I’ve ever had, the day really could not have been more perfect.

It was decided to have a full seafood cook up and pre drinks before the final Sonar by Night session. Another special mention – who knew that Gordon was a budding chef? While Taryn was having a sleep, myself and Chris chatted while he did his famous routine of flicking through songs on his laptop, and all the while Gordon had disappeared into the kitchen and slaved away to make the most incredible seafood mash-up. I’m talking calamari, fish, mussels, prawns, sauces, salad and chips. Wow – what a legend.

With dinner and several Coronas down, as well as Taryn’s tequila that had actually become an almost ritualistic precursor of our Barcelona nights out, we got ready and once again headed off to the Sonar by Night venue in time for the start of Underworld’s set.

Underworld is a very well known electronic duo that started in the 80s, but found huge fame with the release of the movie Trainspotting. The track “Born Slippy” is still a track known even by some of most die-hard anti-electronic people. We arrived right at the beginning of their set and experienced an hour of what can only be described as a full blown rave. They played all of their classics, some remixed and some original, to a stadium-size crowd and with the most incredible lighting and PA set up imaginable. It was amazing to see these guys play. They must be in their late forties at least – true rockstars – and outshone many of the other artists of the festival. Here is a video of them performing Born Slippy that night, truly an incredibly show.

Up next was what I had been looking forward to for the whole of the festival – Paul Kalkbrenner playing on the open-air SonarPub floor. Everyone seemed to have piled onto that floor for his set, the place was absolutely packed! He played everything any of us could’ve want him to play, “Altes Kamuffel”, “Bengang”, “Torted”, and closed with the track that made me fall in love with him in the first place, “Sky and the Sand”. I am not sure whether it was the vodka, the awesomeness of the team we had during that hour, the sun rising while we were in the open air, or what, but I experienced one of the most incredible moments of my life while he was playing that track. Oh, the nostalgia I am feeling while writing this!

By the time James Holden came on, the sun was already up and the place was still full of people. He brought everything back down with a more deep.techno, allowing all of us to chill out a little bit after the madness of the night – the perfect way to end off Sonar by Night of 2011.

Thank you to such an awesome crew for the most insane experience. Same time, same place in 2012.

Love Anthea xxx

I’d love to say that, regardless of any hangover, the novelty of being in Spain had Taryn and I awake early and ready to start the day. However, were it not for the guys’ harassing phone calls I think we’d have easily slept the morning away. Eventually we managed to get ourselves up and head down to Sonar by Day, first to the Press office to collect my Dont Party Media Accreditation, and then to find out exactly what it is that makes Sonar the no. 1 rated festival in Europe.

Sonar by Day is a lot more eclectic than the more obvious strobe, high-decibel rave-orientated night time affair. The day session incorporates many different styles of music, a music technology exhibition and digital art – all laid out at the CCCB in the city centre. In the earlier parts of the day, a relaxed vibe is created around the main stage with mainly more chilled Indie Electro and Disco being played. Everyone sits on the astroturf, either nursing pain from the night before or energising for the day to come. The expo tents house companies such as Novation, Ableton and Virus, all demonstrating the latest in technology. I realised then just how many people in the world are highly skilled in, and base their lives around, electronic music. The tents were teeming with people, some playing amazing piano pieces on the keyboards, others remixing tracks from scratch, or the all-knowing and effortless use of even the most intimidating synths.

Although my sentiments didn’t seem to be shared, I thought this was the perfect time for the first drink of the day – I mean, it was 5pm somewhere in the world and I was in Spain. Red bull and vodka in hand, I started to explore the area where all of the art was held. One thing to know about me – I may know enough about music and travelling to be able to fill a page of at least half interesting writing, but I know absolutely nothing about art, which is a pity as I think I would’ve gained a lot more from the it were I artistically educated. What I can say is that it was fundamentally digital art, with many computerised pieces, a lot of which were interactive and involved abstract takes on things such as pixelation effects. See the gallery for some pictures.

On the way back upstairs we went through the SonarHall and saw a band that was probably a highlight of the Sonar Day – a Barcelona-based electronic band Stendhal Syndrome playing in a dark hall, the perfect juxtaposition given the time of day relative to their sound – a moody, downtempo trip hop. This is a group that I think will do really well in the future. They have a great stage presence and are emo, yet dynamic and interesting in their sound. Although this isn’t what I would usually listen to or am generally well-acquainted with, I did find them really cool. Here’s a link to their soundcloud.

http://soundcloud.com/stendhalsyndrome

Look at that, educational on all fronts on that Friday morning! Who said you can’t drink and learn simultaneously?

Our day was cut short by the arrival of the last member of our crew, the El Gordo man himself, and we had to move all of our luggage from the hotel to the apartment that we’d all be staying in for the rest of the weekend. I still fail to understand why we didn’t opt for the taxi option. After an hour, a million flights of stairs, equally as many broken escalators and 30 degree heat, we arrived at our new abode. Special mention (again) to Chris for being such a champion and carrying my bag up the majority of the stairs. What a legend.

Sonar by Night is located on a huge warehouse-style property a little drive outside the city. Broken up into four massive sections, two open-air and all with incredible soundsystems, this venue could literally hold tens of thousands of people. And it did. At first glance the progression of artists on the line up is seemingly non-existent – I remember looking at the roster and wondering how on earth they had created such a haphazard order of artists. I realised though that it didn’t matter at all, as the line up in its entirety catered to every kind of musical preference and it was really easy to move around from floor to floor to optimise your personal experience of the night.

Playing an early set was one of the headliners, the very well-known Trentemoller. Musically, this hour was arguably unmatched by any of the other artists at Sonar – what I thought would be a DJ set was in fact a 7-piece band, playing the most ambient and intricate versions of all of his classics. He opened with what must have been a twenty minute intro, a slow, moody and journey-like piece, with a mixture of a keyboard, synths, a bass guitar, and even an electric guitar being played with a horsehair (violin) bow. This hour may not have been a headbanging and crazy set, but it definitely set the bar for the night, and it was clearly evident that all of the thousands of people in that room were appreciating every moment of its beauty.

A mention must be made about Scuba, who played a set that all of us enjoyed. His full-bass rolling techno, which reminded me a lot of Dubfire in his prime, was definitely one of the strongest sets of the night.

Three o’clock came, and with that was what I had been looking forward to (with much scepticism) the whole night. Die Antwoord were about to start in the ‘SonarPub’ room. We made our way through and got the last few minutes of Steve Aoki’s set. I had seen him that night at Assembly, and wasn’t overly impressed with his show, but that Sonar gig forced me to completely change my opinion of him. He had a crowd of thousands of people going crazy to his thrash electro, incredibly powerful voice and crazy stage antics – something that I thought that any succeeding artist would struggle to take over from… Enter Die Antwoord. The intro was really quite disturbing to be honest. Effective, but disturbing – on the screen was just the face of Leon Botha, the DJ with Progeria who had died two weeks before, while dark chords were playing. This must’ve lasted at least five minutes – until that all-familiar high pitched voice started.

As much as I, and many others, have had a lot to say about their sound and how they might be downplaying the genuine musical talent in South Africa, all of these thoughts quickly disappeared the minute they walked on stage. I had no idea how big they have become! Opening with their flagship ‘Enter the Ninja’, they had created a warehouse-full moshpit of thousands of people, from all over the world, jamming and singing along to the duo. It genuinely was a proud moment watching a South African group put on a performance like that!

What a great way to end Sonar Friday!

Sending lots of love xxx

Anthea

Click here if you missed part 1

There is a certain sense of calm in the wake of something life-changing. Sitting at the airport with my laptop, headphones on and cigarette in hand, these are moments when I understand the energy that is created in movies as part of an opening scene, perhaps before you are taken back in time to witness what was experienced, – those quiet, contemplative moments when trying to recall everything that had just happened.

Over the past few years I have heard about Sonar from many different people, all trying to describe how mind-blowing it is – the energy, the festival, the quality and diversity of the line-ups, off-Sonar parties and the art – but, as I have realised, unfortunately no words could do justice to what goes down over that five day period in Barcelona. Rated as Europe’s top festival, it came as no surprise to realise that Sonar is nothing like all of the many other generic festivals. It is a totally multi-faceted, alternative and rather eccentric form of musical and digital art experience that attracts over 90,000 people every year. With a series of posts over the next few days I will try to describe the mayhem and brilliance of the festival, and get everyone to understand exactly why they should try to experience it themselves at some point in their lifetime.

Thursday started with the Resident Advisor Rooftop party featuring Cassy, Ovum Recordings legend Josh Wink, Claude VonStroke and a Space Dimension Controller set on the rooftop of Hotel Diagonal in the middle of Barcelona. Think pool party with panoramic views of the entire city and the RA stamp on a line up which could only ensure top musical quality. Myself, along with Blush n Bass’s Taryn Pickett and Killer Robot’s Bruno Morphet spent the afternoon taking in the first few moments of what was going to end up being one of the best experiences of our lives.

Then it started – Chris Jack called to give us directions to some random fruit stand near Las Ramblas, a few stops away. With the pre-drinks down, and myself happily skipping down the road to the next party, life couldn’t have been more perfect. It was hot, such a welcome change from London’s misery, and I had some of my South African friends with me (and was about to see the rest of the crew). Apparently all we had to do to find the venue was to listen for music when we arrived at Las Ramblas. After several failed attempts, run-ins with the (really strange) policemen, and arguing over who got the group lost – I still maintain that it wasn’t me, Taryn tells me to ask for flower stands, not fruit stands, I can’t be held responsible for her error – we hear the all-familiar sound of a muffled kick drum. Just off the plaza is a maze of fruit markets, with an amazing energy that made me feel as though I had just stepped into some previous Aladdin-esque time. Down the path, there it was – Richie Hawtin and Marco Carola playing back-to-back from a fruit stand in the open air to about two thousand people! There we joined the rest of our crew, in what we realised to be some sort of South African dj meeting – myself, Taryn, both Killer Robot members and Chris Jack drinking Sangria and listening to Techno. From a fruit stand. In the sun… Bliss.

Being Thursday, the actual Sonar festival had not yet started, but there were many off-Sonar options for what to do that night. We decided on the Visionquest beach party. I will never understand why Cape Town can’t have parties like these – situated literally on the beach with a huge soundsystem playing to thousands of people, seemingly without a care in the world and just loving every minute of it. A bit about Visionquest – it is the new ‘it’ brand of techno culture, primarily functioning as a record label, and is run by heavyweights Seth Troxler, Ryan Crosson, Lee Curtis and Shaun Reeves. Apparently all four of these guys have known each other from a young age and grew up in Detroit. They all moved to Berlin at similar times to chase the same dream, to become well-respected DJs, and ended up becoming one of the strongest forces in the electronic scene.

Thursday night was one of the best parts of the whole trip. Musically it was perfect, and I’ve noticed something that seems to be an indication of where electronic music is headed – funk is back! When I say funk, please erase any kind of Opium-related memory you may have right now. I am not talking about Funky House. At all. I am talking about old-school 60s/70s James Brown- and Prince-inspired rhythmic electric bass-orientated groove. It brings back such a level of sexiness to music – even the most die-hard electro fans would be able to appreciate what was being played that night.

Some of the group realised that there was an entire weekend to go, and that this whole day had merely been a warm-up to the actual event, so didn’t feel that throwing too much name was the best idea. So we went to bed (yes, I know, seriously). Chris (still dubbed Get-off-the-Wall) being the trooper that he is, stayed on long after we left, and had managed to get into the backstage area although subsequently got kicked out by angry bouncers who weren’t too happy about him drinking an illegal €1 beer. How did I miss that!

Check out the pics! Even got one with Steve Bug! Legend.

Love to everyone

Anthea x

Click here if you missed part 1

So it’s been a year. A whole year. I almost feel obliged to be a bit depressed about the fact that time has gone so quickly… One year since I started my blog, since I packed up all of my things and embarked on a musical adventure across Europe. After a month in Germany, arguably the heart of Techno, several trips to Ibiza – including one for the IMS (international Music Conference) – a week in Amsterdam and plenty of time on London, I came back to Cape Town having just had the most incredible four months of my entire life. I saw more artists live than I could ever have imagined – Richie Hawtin, Sven Vath, Deadmau5, Monika Kruse, Sasha, Adam Beyer, Josh Wink and Chris Lake, to name a few – became (almost too) well acquainted with Fabric in London and met some hugely influential people in the industry. On top of all of this I had an amazing holiday and on either side of it I played two incredible gigs, one in Kenya and the other in Dubai. Okay, I am now depressed.. Time machine please?

This year things are going to be slightly different – I will be visiting places that I didn’t visit last year, and spending more time in each place, as opposed to the four month whirlwind of trains, planes, taxis, more trains, backpackers, and then some. This statement, of course, does not hold for Ibiza – there is no chance that I will be missing the mayhem of the White Isle while I am in Europe.

Right now I am in Milan. I have totally fallen in love with this city.

Milan, as the metropolitan part of the country, is considered to be “less Italian” than places such as Florence, Venice and Rome. It lacks the lengthy history, the story-telling architecture, and the romanticism that is generally associated with Italy. And where smaller towns have family-run restaurants serving home-cooked meals, Milan is more americanised. Nevertheless, the people here are the friendliest of any I’ve ever met and the city still manages to retain that creative/cultural Italian feel – there are exhibitions everywhere, art galleries, quaint deli’s, vintage markets, photoshoots… and models. Lot’s of models. With it being the modelling season in Europe, and Milan being at the heart of the European fashion world, this place becomes home to hundreds of the world’s most beautiful people. It would sometimes seem that, due to this, Milan holds an air of arrogance and pretence – but if ignored, it really can be the most fun city in the summertime.

As a warning to the girls – Italian men could be deemed a different species entirely. I’ve learnt that their “Italian Stallion” reputation is a total fallacy – unless your idea of ‘Stallion’ involves men who sit on the side of the road whistling at every woman who walks by. “Ciao Bellissimo, Ciao Bellissimo” being the most common phrase. This isn’t only the men in construction or on lunch breaks from work – most of the Italian men really do have no shame. Married men walking with their wives will happily stop and stare at anything that even remotely resembles another female (anywhere else in the world I’m quite sure that said wife would’ve delivered a solid right hook in this situation). I even experienced a priceless moment involving a guy on a bike and a near-collision with a car. I maintain that that is not because I’m special – this behaviour is pretty much standard with every girl. Having said that though, I did meet and party with some awesome guys, and the perverted ways of everyone else has provided so much entertainment – I literally couldn’t stop laughing at how ridiculous they were.

From a musical point of view, Milan seems to have a long way to go to catch up to her European neighbours. The pretence of the city obviously extends to the nightlife – clubs filled with beautiful people, David Guetta-type tunes playing and champagne everywhere – think midsummer’s night in Camps Bay. I’ve done research, and it seems that there is not much of an electronic scene here, other than a club called Plastic, which isn’t often open, and the rest of the (few) clubs that do play techno are very strongly linked to the gay community and apparently not entirely safe. In fact, the closest that I have been to techno while I’ve been here was a car parked outside of my apartment playing Paul Kalkbrenner – a hugely welcomed change from the usual Rihanna or J Lo reverberating through the block, but still a far cry from any kind of musical education I may have hoped to have gained in this city.

Without much to tell from a musical perspective, this first post of my trip serves more as an introduction to the blog than anything else. Although I will be so sad to leave here (and my awesome roommate) there are some amazing things lined up for this trip which I hope will keep you entertained and interested over the next four months of the European summer. On the cards are events such as the LED Festival in London, Sonar in Barcelona, Hamburg (and hopefully a quick stop by in Berlin), and a few weeks in Ibiza in August. Who knows, perhaps I may even manage to convince a few of you to come over!

Love to my beautiful South Africa xxx

Anthea

GALLERY

LINKS

• ANTHEA ON FACEBOOK
• ANTHEA ON TWITTER

The third wave is becoming a stand out event in the Cape Town weekly schedule and the line-ups for February feature some awesome local and JHB based acts. Throw in R10 Tequilas and half price seafood and you’ve got yourself a winner!

R10 Tequila All Night

Half price seafood and cocktails before 7pm EVERYDAY

3rd Wave February Line up ‘s

Thursday 10th of February

• Yor Father
• The Fogshow
• Deadbeat FM

Thursday 17th of February

• Anthea
• James Copeland
• Jimmy Chronic
• The Fogshow

Thursday 24th of February

• Craig de Sousa
• Mey
• The fogshow
• Pascal & Pearce

Hello kids!

Woke up thinking it was Thursday today which isn’t really ideal is it? Anyway I now have a full day of dealing with the extra stress of Wednesday. The bonus of Wednesday is that usually I like to drink today which means going out, which means seeing a pretty boy, or a not so pretty boy with pretty boy swag.

What am I talking about? The picture here is of this British guy I was on the airplane with recently. He wasn’t particularly pretty in the face but he wasn’t ugly either, so what about this man was prompting me to secretly take his photo in the airport bus? Not so pretty boy swag. This is basically someone not that good looking who has all the swag of a supermodel and usually has every right to this swag because of how he dresses. So obviously you could get a dude dressed in any kind of style that has swag as it were but my personal favourite is this guy. I don’t know what to call him but I’ma a go with “Brit style” for now. It’s the well fitted pants, collared shirt, blazer, Mulberry duffel bag and the suede wingtips with the pink socks. It’s a joy for me.

Anyway the point of all this is that you don’t have to be the best looking guy to have the most swag, just dress proper in whatever style you choose and be confident. Give yourselves the challenge NOT SO PRETTY BOY SWAG THURSDAY!

Morning Kids!

Happy 2011 and all that! I’ma come right back into the year with the old skool, some of you might be too young to even remember this in which case take it as a serious education. For us oldies in the house I hope this makes you smile in the flippn disgusting heat. All fashion goodness to follow next week but for now lets relive the greatness of a time when MTV was innovative and cool and not playing Justin Bieber and Sean Kingston.

Happy Friday!

Ahoy kids!

Just a quick note to say I’ll be out on holiday until 5 January. Until I’m back use all we’ve talked about this year to stay in style.

Drink yourself silly and get a tan, and if you felt the need to get me a gift these little MiuMiu brogues will suit fine

Happy Holidays!

HAPPY FRIDAY KIDS

For those of you nursing a hangover like myself good luck in this heat, all I’ma say is get ready for FEADZ tonight and Sole Food Cook Out tomorrow! ANYWAY in other news, lets talk about the fucken greatness of the gear I got to see the other day.

Our friends over at Shelflife Store are making the dopest stuff I’ve seen in looooong. So today is dedicated to them. I don’t want anyone ever telling me again that we can’t get cool shit out here. Just look at this stuff. Seriously.

So be prepared to drop some cash this summer and purchase yourself one of each.

Christmas fetish deluxe.

DO IT

Synergy Live: A 3 Day music festival held at Boschedal Wine Estate in Cape Town. Sounds simple, well it wasn’t! Let Dont Party.TV throw you into the throngs of only the best and most intense moments of this festival. Check out the thrills and spills from the weekend spanning 26th – 28th of November!

SCREENS

CREDITS

• Filmed, shot, drunk and partied by Ty Kuypers, Michael Hazell and Silo Dimba.
• Edited by Silo Dimba

MORE SYNERGY?

• Synergy Photos on Dont Party
• Synergy Review on Dont Party
• Synergy Live website