Let Them Eat Cake 2014 Wrap Up

I was really, really tired. I was dreading even the thought of dealing with a giant crowd after a long night and treacherous drive, but here I am feeling comfortable and pleased amongst the heaving throngs of LET THEM EAT CAKE.

I feel space. I feel lots and lots of space. Hear that, One-Day Festival Gods? I, the utterly faithless, have seen the light here at Werribee Mansion.

I have walked through the gates and across spongy, immaculately kept lawns toward the sound of BICEP. I have felt vaguely threatened not by gaggle after gaggle of juice heads, but only by the grim expressions on the faces of the local cops wandering aimlessly around the security checkpoint. I have come out from the pouring rain and received a free poncho (read: garbage bag) from the merchandise table. I have lined up for and received a drink in mere minutes. This is what I want. This is just right.

Later, I'm watching the collective mood of the sleepless thousands lift and rise to meet what JAMES HOLDEN has brought to the table. This is an artist exhibiting all the qualities that make him so fiercely individual and compelling, his set flowing freely between bursting, abrasive cuts and minimal, percussion-driven expanses.

This is what makes HOLDEN so fascinating to me. There seems to be a lot of discussion (see: a lot of the critical discussion around LPs from FLUME and DISCLOSURE last year, for example) about a "post-internet wave" of artists who work from an impossibly broad, disparate base of reference points in their music, transcending geography and constraint. It's argued that young, stylistically intrepid artists have unprecedented access to the world's back catalogue, and are subsequently producing music that fits no pre-existing genre or label.

Standing enthralled and disoriented in the middle of the crowd at LET THEM EAT CAKE I realise that if there's any weight or worth to that argument, HOLDEN really is the perfect embodiment of its case.

He may be known for a background in the world of trance, fill his mixes with obscure prog and kraut rock records from the 70s and talk openly about his love of "heavy duty techno", but listening to him playing 'Renata', 'The Illuminations' or any of the other tracks he pulls from his 2013 return LP, 'The Inheritors', I'm stunned by their coherence in the set, while still hard-pressed to immediately relate them to any of the other, non-HOLDEN inclusions.

Like this entire festival, HOLDEN is easily recognisable not as a sum of parts, but as a much, much greater whole.

What could underscore that realisation more than wandering over to watch KODE9 mixing in LUDACRIS' 'What's Your Fantasy?' This, like those unbelievable zucchini chips over at the food area or FLOATING POINTS' disco-laden set, is surprising but somehow everything that I could possibly want right now.

And I guess that's the point, really. This morning I was feeling totally cynical and burnt out, expecting to be stressed and claustrophobic. Trudging back into the dark with KOZE's remix of 'It's Only' echoing over puddles and between trees, I'm a lot more ready to accept that every perfect little detail about this festival only seemed surprising because of my dumb expectations and general Festival prejudice.

So, here I am waiting for January 1st, 2015: ready to love again.

Words by Sam Gill

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HOMETOWN GUIDE: BICEP ON BELFAST