Parklife, how little I knew ye. No, really, I had no idea it existed. I didn’t even know there was a large park-like area called Birrarung Marr in the city. Wait, city?! Aus-what? Planet?!? OMG no one tells me anything. My senility aside, the incredible line-up of artists for the 2008 Parklife festival was too good to refuse, so I went in blind and hoped for the best, and got exactly that.
The Melbourne weather held up surprisingly well for most of the day, but as soon as the sun disappeared and the ominous Independence Day-ish clouds-that-could-be-alien-spaceships-in-disguise rolled in, it got hella windy and icy cold. All I can say is, thank Buddha for the alcohol, it’s got so many uses! One major thing the 2008 Parklife wanted to crack down on was, apparently, the crowd swell. I’ve experienced this firsthand with Good Vibes, which along with bad sound, became the main reasons I no longer attend it. Parklife organisers chose wisely to limit the amount of tickets so as not to over-populate the area, and also abolished drink tokens or tickets, instead opting for the easier “cash + bar = drank” formula. It was one of Einstein’s most important, but lesser known revelations (that other stupid one gets all the attention).
I started the day off by eagerly making my way to the Water Stage to see the duo known as Metro Area spin some shit. Morgan Geist and Darshan Desrani’s single solitary self-titled album in 2002 was one of the buried pre-cursors to the rejigged 80s sound we now have today. The album consisted of phat beats and basslines, no vocals and a healthy dose of synths which make the 80s sound better than it ever did. Among the fray is also a minimal sensibility to their work, all of which mostly dominated their DJ set.
Oddly-named, and oddly-looking Boy 8-Bit was rocking the Fire Stage with some strong hard tech house (I think there’s meant to be a comma in there somewhere, damn these subgenre titles are getting longer and longer), with most of the day being filled with similar sounds from other DJs. In amongst the 4-on-the-floor energy were The Bamboos, a tight (and homegrown) funk band. They were joined on-stage by vocalist Kylie Auldist to inject some stank into the proceedings, and to break things up musically-speaking. Highly-regarded US hip-hop group Blackalicious, a duo consisting of DJ Chief Xcel and the inimitable Gift Of Gab on the mic, also rocked the Earth Stage which, in this reviewer’s opinion, was the stage that featured the meatiest line-up for the day. Gab possesses the ability to rhyme at ridiculous speeds that would make any mere mortal spontaneously combust, but he somehow pulls it off, on beat, and doesn’t turn a strange purple colour from lack of breath. The only drawback was sometimes he would rhyme too fast, and words would no longer cease to exist and would be replaced by loud, repetitive “bakalakabakalaka” noises. A completely minute downside to an otherwise hype performance, which got even hyper as Gab brought out special guest Lateef The Truthspeeker to perform (and promote) their new collaborative album as The Mighty Underdogs (consisting of himself, Gab & Hednodic).
Still on Earth Stage, in-between the afore-mentioned in-betweens, were a couple of DJ sets which impressed, annoyed and then impressed again. Confused? WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE. After DJ Slyde kept me interested for an uninterrupted 60mins with dope selections, I was exposed to a collective named the Plump DJs, who dished out a 1.5 hour set. The first 15-20mins of their set sounded like a mid-90s song by Enigma (sans the Gregorian chanting), which at this juncture of music as a whole, is definitely not cool. And this is coming from a guy who loves all things retro, and CORNY, but there are shades of corny which are actually, really corny. Somehow they managed to work in some newish techno sounds, but they still looked too much like Sash in the Adelante music video, raising their hands up in unison every-so-often. I was ready to give up on these guys when they turned it all around halfway through, amazingly winning me back in the process through solid mixing and much better track selections. I realised they had lain down a challenge, and I’m glad I stuck with em in the end.
By the far the most amazing thing I witnessed at the entire festival was Diplo’s set. I’ve long been a fan of his askew musical aesthetic, and credit him with my obsession with bailefunk. He played a set that would rank up there with one of the most panty-wetting sets I’ve heard thus far, right next to the set ?uestlove (of The Roots) played in 2005 during their tour of Melbourne. The Diplodocus-named artist and DJ spun through a set that melded old classics, like The Prodigy’s Firestarter, with underground club bangers that I NEED TO FIND OUT THE NAMES OF… Yeah… that’s right Diplo, holla atcha boy. Transitions from one song to the next drew a lot of squeals of delight from the crowd (yeah, I squealed), and by the time he threw on a techno remix of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, everyone let out a roar, then I suddenly burst into a 2 minute headbang. And if you’ve ever a headbung (?), you know 2 minutes is a long time in headbangland (making up words is fun). The only performance to compare to the continual ear-candy surprise hurricane/torrential downpour that rained down from the altar of Diplo, was the last act to take the Earth Stage: Dizzee Rascal.
Hey Australia, the rumours are true, he is indeed a Rascal. But the jury’s still out on the Dizzee part (am I in the minority in thinking it’s a nod to one of his biggest influences, Dizzee Gilespie…?). What’s definitely true is the energy him and his crew brought to their live show. I have to say a highlight throughout his set and all of the others I saw on the day, along with the musicians themselves of course, was the impressive VJing going on in the background on each stage. As the day grew into night, and I got so tired that I secretly hoped Earth, Water, Fire and Air stages would unite and bring forth Captain Planet, I realised it was (sadly) time to go. Parklife has been one more stepping stone for my personal journey in falling in love with the festival circuit all over again. Now that I am at least aware of its existence here, in Birrarung Marr, in Melbourne City, in Australia, on planet Earth (see? I learned something), I will become its loyal foot soldier for many more years to come.
lovetronic says...
baile funk is a rough translation of what the Portuguese call it. it's pretty much ghetto music from the slums/favelas of Rio, mostly influenced by Miami booty bass. it's like a booty bass/ghetto tech-ish beat with an MC rapping over it in Portuguese...or at least that's the best i can do to describe it lol. i'm sure Google will be ur friend. all u need to know is that it's "the shiz".
Tennessee says...
awesome review, made me wish i had gone.
Kat_in_Japan says...
Mad review lovetronic! :-P
Kitty99 says...
yeah Parklife this yr was good,,,less flouro, more room to dance. Much more organise this yr. A very enjoyable day. did anyone see the guy who try to climb the tent pole during Martin Solveig set.
Verbal says...
good review... funny stuff
kato8 says...
awesome day! great music!!! really well organised (maybe some more toilets needed?) and visually spectacular. the only downside was being constantly shoved around by tweenies in high-waisted shorts and side ponytails. i'm not that old but i remember a time when everyone was happy and polite... please bring your manners!!
Rocca says...
haha cool! what is bailefunk though??
tisfortyson says...
Rocca, Baile Funk is Brazils answer to hip hop. It's a tribal sound with looping drums, a kind of tribal sound. The MC's don't usually rap in english, only portuguese.