NNothing at any British festival can compare to the setting of the main stage at Green Man: the kind of ridge that characters from Lord of the Rings stare anxiously at. The downside is often Welsh rain, but this year, with sunshine – and a line-up full of smart, warm and confident artists – it can rightly claim to be Britain’s best festival, full stop.
The highlight is Big Thief, who subvert the laws of festival headlining sets by filling two-thirds of their sets with previously unheard new material. From muscular country rock to pristine ballads and – as with the all-consuming groove of Hand Through Table – head-nodding post-rock, the sonic palette of the new songs is vast. They are all received like old classics; closing song Incomprehensible is sung along to loudly even though no one has heard it before. The band recently replaced a bassist who left and added a percussionist, a doubling of the rhythm section that gives tracks like Simulation Swarm more weight than before, but Adrianne Lenker still dominates up front, whether playing loud solos or singing with quiet reverence over acoustic guitar.
They cap off a stellar Saturday, opened by electro-popper Lynks, who apologized to the numerous children in the crowd before rapping, “I’m on the DLR and on my way to fuck a stranger.” Tinariwen and Devendra Banhart both bob along on undulating grooves, the latter bringing in covers of Aaliyah and Madonna, while US rockers Wednesday outdo even Lenker, while Karly Hartzman lets out cathartic screams in Bull Believer (here dedicating their anger to the US supplying weapons to Israel). Lonnie Holley has an equally astonishing voice, whether singing over ambient blues and choppier, funkier numbers or dispensing wisdom when confronting the biggest existential mysteries: “We don’t know what makes us human… But what holds us humans?”
Throughout the weekend, the large Far Out tent will be hosting some ecstatically received crowd favourites – disco funk from Ibibio Sound Machine, traditional Irish reels from the Mary Wallopers – as well as an astonishing set from Blonde Redhead, where just three people create a massive art-rock sound built on a dark, powerful surge of rhythm. Joy Orbison’s DJ set is also full of offbeat funk – although he rightly indulges in a megamix of versions of the year’s defining underground hit, his own Flight FM.
In the Walled Garden, Porridge Radio play a typically passionate secret set, Jess Williamson stages a melancholy Dolly Parton, and Fabiana Palladino’s wonderfully sophisticated 80s pop makes the place feel more like a wine bar than a country paddock. Over in the leafy valley of the Rising stage, four-piece The New Eves sing about the elements and duly summon a little rain shower: no Venn diagram can contain their mix of English folk with expressive dance, Raincoats-style vocals and a curious arsenal of instruments from squeezebox to flute. Another all-female quartet, breezy-fun garage rockers Loose Articles, sum up the festival’s priorities with a song “about having a beer with your mates rather than having a fucking fuck”.
On Friday, the main stage features a string of stinkers: avant-garde dance-rock ensemble Mount Kimbie play a completely inconsequential set of vibes-overcontent, their mechanical vocals and feeble chatter made all the more apparent by guest star King Krule, who suddenly elevates the whole endeavour with his distinctive, pensive voice. Headlining is Jon Hopkins, who brings his talent for high-quality sound design, with bass notes like air balls being hurled at your chest. But he plays techno as if he learned it in a classroom, rather than because he’s embedded in the culture itself: all the funk is overwrought and artificial, while the electro-symphony is terribly lofty and self-indulgent, as if he’s deigned to bring it down from the mountain behind him.
Thankfully, Sherelle’s typically fast-paced DJ set that follows, with jungle, footwork, hardcore and more, is the exact opposite: even when playing ghetto house at its most relentless, it is deeply danceable and generous. The latter feeling is what defines Green Man. During his sensational final headlining set, whose rhythmically daring tracks are infused with a kind of secular gospel benediction, Sampha tells the crowd, “You feel so open”: indeed, this festival is full of artists giving everything they have to an audience that receives them in the same spirit.
