Review: Simple Things 2015, various venues

As in previous years Simple Things is a glorious gathering of the tribes. With fourteen stages doling out everything from disco to post-rock it seems purpose built to nudge music fans out of their comfort zones.

4pm is early to be in the company of DJ Funk but he makes the best of it. Looping his own vocal chants and dirty rap samples over sinewy drum workouts, he’s a master of dance music at its simplest and most urgent. Towards the end of his set at the Firestation the Chicago house pioneer invites a random punter to take the mic – using the results as raw material for a live machine jam. As it’s Bristol there’s more Red Stripe being chugged than booty being worked but that booth is most definitely on fire. 

The Lantern is rammed for Sex Swing, who turn out to be one of the day’s highlights. Featuring members of Mugstar, Part Chimp and Dethscalator, the band throb with menace. Disorientating and danceable at the same time their hard-nosed psych / kraut jams are topped with semi-articulate moans and howls of overblown sax. There’s swing of a more tasteful kind on offer from Nicole Willis, whose Stax-style soul and modern R&B blend sounds like it might have been created especially the Colston Hall foyer.

Coaxed out of retirement for their first show in 25 years, Maximum Joy were one of the surprise bookings of this year’s festival. While their righteous mess of punk, dub jazz and funk is undoubtedly dated it’s an interesting reminder of the roots of the famous Bristol Sound. Close your eyes and you could be at Ashton Court Festival in 1983. A different decade is being channelled at the O2 Academy though, where neo-’90s college rockers Speedy Ortiz sound a bit like The Breeders fronted by Alanis Morisette.

All dark synth washes, reverb-drenched drums and occasional flashes of noise, HEALTH’s stadium goth sound is dramatic but a little lacking in substance. Equally atmospheric but more engaging is Liturgy’s ambient metal earthquake in The Lantern – a fine racket underpinned by incendiary drumming. Savages are a powerful four-piece who deserve their great reputation as a live act. Their PIL-meets-Siouxsie inspired music is a little samey but what they lack in variety they make up for in passion and chemistry, and singer Jehnny Beth is that rare thing – a proper rock star. Crowdsurfing ensues.  

Back at The Firestation the party’s in full flow. As at Simple Things 2014, Shapes have set up next to a fire escape in the courtyard, and to the right of their DJ booth there’s a ramp leading into the bowels of The Island. It’s this underground space that Helena Hauff treats to two hours of captivatingly intense techno, producing the best party atmosphere of the whole event. By 11pm there’s a 100-strong queue to get in.

Meanwhile in The Firestation proper, Dean Blunt’s set is every bit as contradictory as you’d expect. Beginning with a few tracks from latest album Black Metal the set is easy on the ear at first – the only sense of danger coming from Blunt’s confrontational expression and deadpan delivery. Suddenly, the stage lights go down and the set self-immolates in a fireball of electronic filth and squealing sax. The second half of the set – an ingenious battery of low-end rumbles, dub FX, white noise and strobes – includes a cover of Shellac’s brutal revenge fantasy Prayer To God.

Having seemingly abandoned the industrial edge that made them interesting in the first place, Factory Floor play a rather functional set of minimal acid house. Willing a band to fulfil the potential you know they have is a thankless business, so it’s off to Lakota for 4/4 dance music of a subtler and more immersive kind from Objekt. Having missed Vessel, Wire, Skepta & JME and most of Holly Herndon thanks to the inevitable set clashes the day’s not been without its frustrations, but that’s festivals for you. Five years from its first outing Simple Things is still a grand celebration of underground music in all its variety. 

Top image: Savages. Inset image: Helena Hauff. Photography by Hannah Burrows.