Music, Style & Culture

The Field, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas

What could have been a sleep-postponing 2am danceathon is instead sadly a bit of a snoozer.

Photo Credit: Simone Scott Warren

Axel Willner, otherwise known on the front of his album covers as The Field, brought out ‘The Looping State Of Mind’ just a couple of months back in September to mass acclaim. It’s an album that dwarfed his previous and also pretty damn impressive 2007 debut with a near-masterpiece of unwinding electronica. Therefore you’d imagine how much large proportions of the ATP crowd must be looking forward to this live show (with Willner flanked by a guitarist to the side and drums behind) but by golly do they not show it.

Not that The Field doesn’t impress. This is definitely not the case as, musically-speaking, the Stockholm musician could be mistaken for playing his recent release from front to back with some highlights from ‘Yesterday And Today’ interspersed. The kraut-esque ‘Is This Power’ and the nod to Radiohead that is ‘Then Its White’ are as entrancing in their remakings as they appearing in the original recording.

But this is perhaps precisely the problem, in fact. Even with his live set-up, there is nothing that draws a viewer in - especially one that isn’t already acquainted with the Swedish producer’s music. A lot of the crowd, instead of getting into the groove and dancing off a prolonged hangover, seem to be idly waiting around for something to “happen”. Given the type of performer The Field is, he’s not exactly going to leave the stage and break out into a Les Savy Fav-esque dance routine, this is quite foolish and just emphasises the lull.

But more over the positioning of the set in the billing doesn’t help any bit. The idea of putting a techno artist at 6.45pm is quite baffling, especially when it’s followed by more rock-based bands that would have been more appropriately suited to this slot. But what could have been a sleep-postponing 2am danceathon is instead sadly a bit of a snoozer, which is a right old shame.