Photo: Press/Vinvent Arbelet
So, summer may now be a long lost distant memory in the thick winter fog, but the joy and escapism of festival season was kept alive for one last hurrah with the ever-brilliant Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2015.
The sprawling space of La Villette becomes a cathedral of sound and hub for the finest alternative acts on the road. As if the line-up wasn't enough, it comes complete with an atmosphere like no other courtesy of its impeccable set up where no performance seems to run late, a small but gourmet food court, a pop-up adult playground and a party atmosphere that never ends.
Pitchfork Festival has already found immense success in the US, and is now growing under the skin in the heart of Europe. Fingers crossed that it one day makes it to the UK, but if not, make damn sure that you visit Paris next year.
It was a weekend of highs, but these were the true enlightening highlights and the the eight things we learned at Pitchfork Paris 2015.
1. There ain't no party like a Run The Jewels party
"This is our last show of our last European tour this year," RTJ tell the howling crowd, above a sea of fists and gun symbols. "We are legitimately stoned, we are legimately drunk - but despite those handicaps, we are going to do everything possible to make this a fucking blockbuster night."
And so it went. Not only did rap's great bright hope completely blow the roof off La Villette, but they inspired the most feral moshpit of the weekend. 'Lie, Cheat, Steal' shows that Killer Mike and El-P can cut it alongside the likes of Public Enemy when punching upwards at authority while still making you move, and the awesome finale of 'A Christmas Miracle' rumbles with a menacing groove and masterful command of words that sets them echelons above their peers.
You can't bottle greatness, but RTJ are legitimately drunk on it tonight - please don't be gone for too long, guys.
Watch our interview with Run The Jewels below
2. Father John Misty is made of elastic
"Happy Halloween," snarls Father John as he leans sideways against his swaying mic stand. "This is my contribution to the canon of Halloween novelty songs," before flowing into the sultry swagger of 'When You Are Smiling And Astride Me'.
Fortunately, the vast majority of the crowd at Pitchfork Paris don't buy into the gimmickry of Halloween. There's a sparing amount of skeletons and slutty cats out tonight, so the cliche-free posturing of FJM is met with the reaction it deserves - that of witnessing an icon in the making.
The liquid-limbed lounge lizard lothario inspires so less than wide-eyed screaming love from the many men and women with arms outstretched hoping to grasps Joshua Tillman as he stalks and invades the front rows. His every elastic movement is a spectacle in itself, but they lend themselves only too well to him truly embodying his tales of lust and lunacy.
With I Love You, Honeybear, he's released one of 2015's finest albums. With sealing his campaign with the kiss of his appearance at Pitchfork Paris, he may also be our favourite live act of the year too.
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Photo: Richard Gray
3. Thom Yorke gives his most assured performance in years
We'd be lying if we said that we weren't somewhat disappointed by Yorke's surprise appearance at Latitude Festival earlier this summer. We approached with baited breath and anticipation to see how much the Radiohead man could improve his Tomorrow's Modern Boxes live show to make it worthy of headlining an event of this stature.
Loosening his man-bun before losing himself to dance as he and producer and collaborator Nigel Godrich step out on stage before huge screens rushing through hypnotic visuals for 'The Clock', Yorke kicks off a flawlessly tight and mesmeric set - leaning heavily on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, but adding a twitchier and more introverted mechanical menace to tracks from The Eraser and AMOK.
As he jerks across the stage and howls into the vast Parisian venue, we realise that this is the most immersed and involved Yorke has been in a performance in quite some years. The intimate sounds of his solo work truly translate live, inspiring sheer hero worship throughout Pitchfork Music Festival Paris 2015. This shall be a talking point for years to come.
The reimagining of his solo work into acid-tinged ambient techno soundscapes has clearly invigorated Yorke with a newfound compulsion. If the new Radiohead work is half as inspired as the showcase he delivered in Paris, then we're in for a true career high.
4. Battles don't need a frontman to sound 'complete'
Warming up for an icon isn't easy, but it couldn't look any more rudimentary than with a little twisted pop insanity from Battles. A vocalist down they may be, but the countless idiosyncratic quirks and rushes of their sound make them one of the most joyful live acts you could hope to see.
'Ice Cream' is the sound of a batshit crazy mind torn inside out, while the extended mathy intricacies of 'Atlas' prove infectious rather than self-indulgent. In their methods of exploration, Battles worm their ways into each corner of your mind to sound so totally and utterly complete.
5. HEALTH are an absolute mindgasm to behold
Death Magic may well be one of the greatest albums of the year, but the sheer rave-rock abandon with which they perform and their caustic but haunting cacophony of glorious noise makes for an out of body experience to witness. That may sound like too much hyperbole, but they must be seen to be believed.
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The energy, the crazed stabbing rhythms, the seizure inducing light show, the total charge of their sound - it all adds up to one pure mindgasm. Catch them live at all costs.
6. Godspeed You! Black Emperor can hold you like no other
They arrive on stage one by one as a string section take their seats before each band member takes their place o begin their own elementary introductions into the aptly named 'Hope Drone'. It's a sighing ache of a sound, one that's so full and considered in its orchestration and delivery that it fully explains the longevity of this band: with only music, they can conjure up a spectrum of universal feelings of what it is to be human - without a word.
A stunned and hushed silence only breaks for an eruption of applause. Pop music may struggle to travel across all borders, but Godspeed You! Black Emperor speak to us all, and hold you in a way that no other music can.
7. Deerhunter will deafen you
Christ, our ears are still bleeding from this tumbling wall of noise - in the best way possible.
While on record, moments like 'Breaker' may provide blissed out moments of ambient and psych-driven respite, but live tonight they are part of an all the more unhinged puzzle. Bradford Cox stabs at his guitar and howls into the night in the relentless and maniacal punk frenzy of a man with nothing to lose and everything to prove - and does it with applomb.
Highlights come from their incredible new album Fading Frontier, but in nine songs they rush through a rattling rumble of racket that defies genre but bristles with a antagonistic punk energy. They took our hearing away, but left one hell of an impression.
8. Ratatat are the space-dance outfit that Daft Punk can never be
The playful opening of 'Pricks Of Brightness' bristles with that all-too-familiar glow of the more victorious moments of your favourite retro childhood video games. That's because there's a shameless sense of wonder and adventure to Ratatat's sound, and it's ultimately the sound of winning.
'Loud Pipes' sways with a streetwise bounce and the guitar hero mastery of 'Cream On Chrome' is the sound of funk sent from the future. By the time we reach the roaring sass of 'Wildcat' and the overwhelming disco decadence of 'Shempi', we've danced ourselves into oblivion. Daft Punk may be renowned as the kings of futuristic space-dance, but ultimately, they're robots - chopping up the best elements of music and turning them into something new. Ratatat start with a blank canvas and use their fingers and instruments to create a feeling of pure euphoria. They are human after all.
