More about: The Great Escape Festival

Dreller

During soundcheck, the band had to endure some pretty puerile heckling from a group of balding 50-something-year-old men. Their gripes, ranging from skinny jeans to the likely odds that the band were privately educated, are soon washed away when the beastie riffs and chunky beats of ‘Signal That Comes Back’ tears through any assumptions that remain in the crowd that they have right of way. The Australian act, now based in London, follows with single ‘One Night Stand’, a kind of Daft Punk decompression cut doubling up on vocals - robotic vocoders paired with angsty delivery - met by crawling machine funk. Suddenly the 50-somethings are loving it, a sentiment that builds throughout after a string of cracking songs, ‘Control’ being one of them and couple of as yet unreleased gems. One well worth keeping tabs on. (Lee Coleman)

Makeness

Rounding off his mini UK tour (including two support slots for Three Trapped Tigers) Scottish producer Makeness treats Brighton to his signature dish of tough techno and live instrumentation. It’s a perfect racket, one that amps everyone up from the off. Thick swabs of sub, warped voice loops and plenty of layered percussion and jangly guitars - think John Hopkins on a funky day, or floating points on a filthy one. The tracks freely flow into one another, ducking and diving in and out of steely Detroit vibes and rogue-ish jazz-funk. And when two brass players are welcomed on stage to close out with new release ‘14 Drops’, the party really starts to climb into wonky, bleepy territory, with the raw power of this live multi-instrumentalist hitting everyone for six. (Lee Coleman)

M.A BEAT!

Clad in orange boiler suits - a get-up they jokingly reveal after the show is “only for the UK” - it soon becomes clear that, despite their uniform, French trio M.A BEAT! do not take any prisoners. After putting music out for three years, including 2015’s excellent debut album, Drowning in Love, the Paris-based band showcase their impressive interplay with marauding post-rock grandeur, blissful Far Eastern textures and spacey electronica. They may as well have ripped Haratio’s Bar from its Brighton Pier pillars and set sail in the choppy midday waters below, such is their captivating sense of adventure.

After tranquil beginnings they explode into action with a barrage of meaty bass grooves, sequenced electronics and pummeling live drums. Their sheer energy and understanding is a delight to behold and there’s not a single person in this place able to resist moving their feet and shuffling their shoulders. Jumping into African rhythms, Gamelan percussion and a whole host of squeaks and bleeps, it all adds up to the sort of direction James Holden might take should he get his hands on the Cinematic Orchestra. They close with ‘Mirage’ and the band remind us of their dynamism: not just an exhilarating, high-energy live act but a stirring one too. (Lee Coleman)

Siska

Siska may hail from Marseille, but it’s South West England that informs her sound. Playing to a lively New Road Stage, she cooks with all the ingredients of a down-tempo trip hop ride, the likes of which mapped Bristol in the early 90s. It’s no tedious rehash however, shaken up and dusted down with modernising touches - post-dubstep sampling, icy synths, programmed beats (along with a live drummer) - but with a storytelling flow reminiscent of classic Winehouse, particularly apparent on closing song and crowd favourite ‘Need You Badly’. Seeing out the track, and the set, she whips the crowd into a mild frenzy, cutting loose from the mic, freestyling moves, feeding off the audience’s energy in what rounds off a thoroughly accessible and entertaining show. (Lee Coleman)

Klyne

Good electronic pop is famously hard to recreate live successfully. Far too many acts rely heavily on backing tracks and triggers, which can often make the live experience feel a bit false. However, this situation only makes the artists who do it well seem even more spectacular, which was definitely the case with Klyne. A dutch two piece that have drawn acclaim from all manner of tastemakers, the duo effortlessly combine emotive, complex lyrical content with meticulously layered instrumentation, culminating in a sound that manages to be both sumptuous and emotionally affecting - two traits gloriously heightened with the addition of more members for their seamless live show. (Elliot Mitchell)

Amber Arcades

Signed to Heavenly Records, Amber Arcades was arguably the most highly anticipated act at The Dutch Impact Showcase in Komedia on Friday - and with good reason. Showcasing cuts from her debut LP which is due out next month, alongside much loved, decidedly more stripped back tracks from the two EP's to her name so far, her set was a perfect combination of introspective lo fi folk and dreamy, reverb laden alternative pop, with sprinklings of techno to boot (seriously, it just works). Put simply, miss this forthcoming album at your peril. (Elliot Mitchell) 

KXP

Seeing a band clad in massive, foreboding hoods on the black and white screen in Sticky Mikes as you prepare to go downstairs to the basement venue is a somewhat questionable experience, though one of KXP's most resonant traits is the way they push you out of your comfort zone. Crafting intense electronic soundscapes, their live performance is one of the most intense and immersive in their field, bringing together seemingly the darkest elements from a wealth of genres to craft something that simply demands your attention and remains fluid throughout, as each new style joins the fold, creating an immense wall of sound. Needless to say, we were floored. (Elliot Mitchell)

Jambinai

Pushing traditional East Asian sounds and crossing over into metal, folk and electronic, South Korean trio Jambinai proved a stunning live spectacle. Fusing post-rock bass and guitars with traditional Korean instruments (geomungos, haegeums and piris all feature) Jambinai’s mesmeric compositions cut through to the most visceral states of the human condition. Sallis Benney Theatre, a fittingly spacious yet intimate venue, is awash with 30 minutes of intense combinations of light and dark; love and pain. The wailing cries of Bomi Kim’s haegeum, the bagpipe-like discordance of Ilwoo Lee’s piri, from hellish panic to peaceful quietism, Jambinai create a reservoir of transmuting emotion - a force barely believable. And after playing out with ‘Connection’ - taken from their 2012 debut album, Differance - the audience is left completely speechless. (Lee Coleman)

The Big Moon

"Welcome to the matinee" laughs The Big Moon's Jules Jackson, as the band kick off a 12:30pm set in Komedia on Saturday to a room full of sore heads. Any remnants of a hangover are soon blown away though as the band start with sheer ferocity, which doesn't let up throughout the entire performance. Tracks from their long-awaited debut album The Road sound unashamedly massive in the tiny venue, the band working in perfect harmony and seamlessly proving why so many have gushed over them in the last year. Notable highlights include new single 'Cupid' and a raucous cover of Madonna's 'Beautiful Stranger', which has become a staple at their live shows of late. (Elliot Mitchell)

Aisha Devi

Now releasing from her own sanctuary-label Danse Noire, alongside left field artists like Vaghe Stelle, Swiss-born Devi explores the spaces between spirituality and abstracted techno. She claims that her debut album, last year’s Of Matter And Spirit on Houndstooth - much of which is featured this evening - is intended to “trigger a social and spiritual awareness through music.”

Playing in St George’s Church, in front of the pulpit, there is no denying the fanaticism with which she pours herself into her live performance. Hunched over twiddling knobs and cueing in industrial beats and bass one moment, singing and swaying theatrically up to the skies the next, all before a backdrop of trippy Nepalese-Tibetan projections wrapping and jilting around the surrounding walls and ceiling. The audience, sat scattered throughout the benches, are quietly taken. Devi never stops asking uncomfortable questions. The music, visuals and setting combine for a sensory feast of injustice, hope and mysticism. (Lee Coleman)

The Magic Gang

Shows at 2:45am on the final night of a festival are always going to be a bit rowdy, but The Magic Gang's performance was next level raucous. Crowdsurfing galore, beer flying everywhere and a fiercely dedicated crowd culminated in one of the finest shows of the whole weekend. Building a notable following over the last year or so, the Brighton band's debut EP is arguably one of the year's best releases so far, finding that perfect mix between indie optimism and cathartic expression, a trait which carried into their simply perfect live set. You'd be making a huge mistake not to catch these guys at the festivals this summer. (Elliot Mitchell)

TELEMAN

After enjoying critical acclaim for their 2014 debut album, Breakfast, and touring extensively with the likes of Metronomy, 2015 sees the London 4-piece take their follow-up, Brilliant Sanity, on the road. While a band can’t be all things to all men, they can be a balmy mix of different things to different men. Depending on what frequency your tastes are set to you may hear Kraftwerk, you may hear Blur, via folk rhythms and classic storytelling - and tonight is no exception. The party vibe is strong, with everyone well aware we’re entering the twilight phase of the festival. Thomas Sanders’ vocals are truly wonderful, no more so than the spine-tingling ‘Fall In Time’, a clear highlight not just of the show, but of this year’s TGE as a whole. (Lee Coleman)

Tim Vantol

It's perhaps fair to say that the idea of one man with a guitar strikes fear into a lot of people in a live environment, in the wake of blander acts taking over the charts, but when you watch someone like Tim Vantol, an artist who has honed his craft so perfectly, any worries about seeing another act that may be "influenced by Ed Sheeran" completely dissipate. Vantol has been on the scene for quite some time, and clearly has a dedicated following in attendance at Komedia, with his soul-stirring set seeing an incredibly rare lunchtime singalong, with Vantol regularly going off mic to get closer to the crowd. Needless to say, it was quite the debut at The Great Escape. (Elliot Mitchell)

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More about: The Great Escape Festival