NOW IT'S ISTANBUL (NOT CONSTANTINOPLE)
Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, Samina Virani
On June 9, needles of all sorts, from the lush dewy pines to the DJs' prized crafting tools, took center stage at the fourth annual Efes Pilsen One Love Festival, held in Istanbul, Turkey's charming Belgrade Forest June 9-11. Under the spotlight and amid a thick blue fluorescent smoke, the two silhouettes of electronic music's maddest scientists — the Chemical Brothers' Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons — emerged, and the all-too-familiar sound of the syncopated bass line from “Block Rockin' Beats” resonated through a sea of bopping heads. What followed was a highly charged button-pushing jam session of the duo's most celebrated tracks that sent a nostalgic crowd raging with “It Began in Afrika” and quite literally out of control with the fittingly titled “Out of Control.”
Visually, the show was a riot, living up to the musicians' reputation for projecting trippy simulations. XL Video mastermind Adam Smith, who was responsible for the effects, created a decadent treat for the eyes — a sharp, exquisite array of images including insects, animals, plants, robots and other abstractions blended into a sensory extravaganza. Recently returning with Push the Button after a three-year recording hiatus, Simon and Rowlands had the followers of their brotherhood waiting in dire anticipation of an encore. Given all of that time off, one might have expected some sort of riveting cosmological explosion from the duo, which, despite a solid performance, wrapped up its already-short beat fest fairly abruptly.
But the Efes Pilsen One Love Festival was about more than the Chemical Brothers. Other performers included former Stones Roses front man Ian Brown, psychedelic experimental rockers Super Furry Animals and the leftfield downtempo groovers Lemon Jelly. In recent years, Peter Gabriel, Keziah Jones, Manu Chao, Moby and Gus Gus, among others, have appeared as special guests at the event.
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