Festival Review: Audioriver 2017

If you do something for the 7th time - and no matter what you do - it is hard to feel amazed and surprised. This year's edition of Audioriver left me quite dissatisfied. I don't know if it is about me or the festival so it's safe to assume that it's a little bit of both.

The atmosphere

The problem I have with Audioriver is that it is mainly supposed to provide you with an occasion to just simply dance and have fun with your friends. Nothing wrong with that but eventually it becomes both predictable and boring. You should have that in mind if you want to attend this festival and feel content. You will rather not find groundbreaking performances here but there's a high probability you may have a chance to listen to the masters of DJing on a superb soundsystem. It happened to me this year and saved my trip.

The saviors

The Belleville Three

While I was waiting for the gig, I read an interview in which Derrick May states that his mission is ''to save the world from bad music''. Quite an ambitious and challenging goal to reach so I just grinned reading it. Nevertheless, the three giants from Detroit - Mayday, Kevin Saunderson and Juan Atkins - were succesful in stealing the show on the first day of the festival. I doubt if you can expect more in case of mixing skills and track selection in a techno dancing set than The Belleville Three offers. 

   

The set was filled with energy, there were surprising moments, twists and rewinds. You could hear that they know how to play together, their styles complemented each other and each guy brought something to the table. I could never identify myself as a detroit techno fan so I didn't expect much from this gig but after a few tracks I stood stunned. I really appreciated how they understood the layering of sounds and mixing different rhythms; that's what I expect from a set to which you are supposed to dance. You might think that sometimes they play too much with effects and cutting tracks but when you are on the dancefloor it works perfectly well.

Moodymann

I went to Audioriver mainly because of his presence thus the expectations were really high. The first 20 minutes of his set were sloppy and dull; lazy mixes, safe and boring transitions made me doubtful. As it turned out later, there was nothing to be afraid of. Moody had to just examine the crowd and find a proper state of mind - at least it looked like it. Later, I had a feeling for which I came here. Moody played us an uplifting, funky set with some darker and eclectic moments. He spoke to the crowd in a visible excitement; asked repeatedly if they have fun and greated them using his favourite line: what up dude, what up doe ? 

In case of track selection it was a bit more funky and groovy than I thought it would be but not that I am dissapointed; I just thought that maybe he would play more stuff from his latest LP. His DJing was patient, he had long build ups and rarely mixed tracks in the middle but when he did, it was quite surprising and changed the mood significantly.
Check out the transition from The Beatles to Childish Gambino:

At the end of his set Moody wanted to keep playing but the stage manager told him that he has to finish. You could feel that he honestly enjoyed playing for this crowd. I want to see more artists like him; laidback dudes who relish doing their craft and interacting with the people. Hard not to smile when you look at them and that's what I love.

Summing up and just to make sure; if you ever have a chance to catch Moodymann, you should definitely do it. Of course, artists like him do not need a recommendation but these days there's so much music that you may miss a lot of great stuff just due to the lack of time for checking. Anyway, please find the time to check Moody - it's worth it!

The verdict

If you set up your expectations reasonably Audioriver may totally please you. The organisation is great, sound technicians really get their job done (T-Mobile Electronic Beats Stage had an outstanding soundsystem) they react quickly and correct artists' mistakes if these occur. The most disruptive thing is that you hear music from other stages and it really may drive you crazy and destroy some subtle transitions between tracks. Festival attenders may sometimes spoil your pleasure of listening by talking or acting strangely but there is enough space to find a calm spot. 

I want to express deep gratitude to my friend Maciej for allowing me to visit Audioriver every year for free and without having any concerns regarding eating and drinking during a festival - it truly makes a difference.