Øya Festival – Oslo, Norway 11th – 14th August 2010

Øya festival’s surroundings are pretty amazing. Set in Oslo’s Medieval Park, they include a mountain, skyscrapers and a lake marking the cities original shoreline. The 16,000 capacity festival, starting with a plethora of Scandinavian bands offsite on Tuesday, has been dubbed the world’s greenest – with its four biggest stages powered by a nearby hydro-electric plant. It’s a close counterpart to Green Man in the UK, and benefits from 5 minute walks between stages and fine organic food – the only downside being the price of the booze in Norway.

Øya, for this writer, begins lavishly on Wednesday lunchtime at the Oslo Opera House, where The National are playing their first ever matinee. Following opener ‘The Runaway’, swelling and glowing in the venue’s perfect acoustics, Matt Berninger quips at the awkward nature of seated shows, with Guitarist Aaron Dessner’s responding playfully “surely you’re used to these opera houses by now?” The Brooklyn band stride through the finest cuts of their last two records, and just as their trademark tension is about to wane they rip through the ever-volatile ‘Abel’.

The National

Onsite, Sleepy Sun are a seemingly psychedelic ritual trying to fight off the rain. ‘New Age’ is a proggy standout with dual guitars streaming into every spare moment left by vocalists Bret Constantino and Rachel Williams, whose bluesy delirious harmonies recall something very ‘60s. The skies have cleared by the time Air take to the Sjøsiden (‘sea-side’) stage, who are mellow and a little underwhelming until they start on the hits – the brilliant/irritating whistling of ‘Alpha Beta Gaga’ is the first perky moment, though the French duo lure the crowd to dance with ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’ and the legendary ‘Sexy Boy’.

Sleepy Sun

Following the relentless ferocity of Iggy & The Stooges, M.I.A. takes to the main stage (Enga) as night hits on day one– though we’re enthralled with locals Serena-Maneesh headlining Sjøsiden. Their strobe-heavy shoegazing is full of industrial undertones modulating beneath feedback and guitar swinging. Singer/guitarist Emil Nikolaisen is frantic whilst sister Hilma Nikolaisen is clearly the coolest bassist of the entire festival. The divine, loud instrumental bits leave the final moments of this sublime twilight caterwaul and are still ringing out as we head into the cleared Oslo night.

Serena-Maneesh

Thursday starts with Panda Bear, aka Noah Lennox, working through 50 refined minutes from forthcoming LP Tomboy. The serene wash of sampled glockenspiel on ‘Surfer’s Hymn’ is one of his highlights beside the sublime ‘Slow Motion’ and the droney wails of ‘Bullseye’. The upbeat moments are nothing short of ace – something that Broken Bells seem to be missing on the sun-soaked Enga. Things are starting to ignite during ‘Give Up The Ghost’, but the supergroup don’t seem to claim the space in the fashion The Shins might have. Miike Snow are working up the crowd on the other side of the festival – after three songs, the white masks are off and they shed the moody tinge of their melodic electro pop at 130bpm.

Panda Bear

Despite claiming to be slightly low on energy following illness, James Murphy’s LCD Soundsystem work up a frenzy. ‘Drunk Girls’ ploughs into feverous ‘Get Innocuous!’ in a set of LCD-classics, with ‘I Can Change’ from This Is Happening bringing Bowie-fused popcorn synths into the mix. Guitarist Tyler Pope provides noisy brilliance to ‘Movement’, sounding more colossal than three years back, and as the ridiculous ‘Yeah’ builds into its slightly-deafening Moog outro, its clear LCD have provided one of the festivals highlights.

LCD Soundsystem

Having tried to catch a glimpse of Yeasayer, who’ve pulled such a huge crowd on Sjøsiden that we can only get wafts of their synths and afrobeat undercurrents, we’re lead to the clash of the festival. Pavement sound immense as they launch into ‘Silence Kit’ and Mark Ibold’s bass roars through ‘In A Mouth, A Desert’. Malkmus seems at total ease, reminiscing on “the 90s”, with Jazzmaster behind his head on sublime ‘Grounded’. Their slacker-vibe seems transformed on a huge stage and the crowd are lapping up the hits. Having dusted off ‘Elevate Me Later’, I leave them launching into ‘Shady Lane’ and make a short dash to find Jónsi in the middle of the cataclysmic elation of ‘Animal Arithmatic’. His flicking between gorgeous quiet and sheer high-tempo-joy is utterly captivating – ‘Around Us’ starting on two pianos and ending in jubilation deconstructed to vocal loops.

Pavement

Øya also holds a number of night time fringe events across the city, Thursday’s including Owen Pallett. Canadian Basia Bulet proceeds him at the intimate John Dee club with some rather fine country tones and superb musicianship – seeming most comfortable on the auto, though her finger-picked 12-string mandolin tunes are luscious. Pallett, with Tom Gill joining him on guitar during ever delicately-sublime ‘That’s When The Audience Died’, loops through chunks of Heartland with some rather danceable new songs thrown in. The complex polyphony of his violin and keyboards is confident and near-flawless, and after the harrowing ‘This Lamb Sells Condos’ launches into some pop covers.

Basia Bulat

Friday’s line-up is pop heavy with Robyn and La Roux, although Major Lazer and The Specials are on too. The rain’s dawdled as Sunderland’s Field Music deliver a tight set of four songs at a time. David and Peter Brewis swap harmonies, guitar and drum duties; their angular 70s-influence tunes are sharp, ‘Each Time Is A New Time’ drips with hooks; ‘A Gap Has Appeared’ is two fluttering minutes and ‘Share The Words’ collides with the gritty bass of ‘Tell Me Keep Me’. Hopefully some travel will help them sell some records.

Flaming Lips

The Flaming Lips’ confetti-heavy stage show is unprecedented. They tear through colossal, psychedelic selections from Embryonic after Wayne Coyne’s met the audience via his giant bubble. His smoking megaphone is particularly awesome, unleashed with the huge riff of ‘The W.A.N.D.’; things get a little silly during ‘The Motorcycle Song’ (where we’re encouraged to make animal and vehicle sounds) but Coyne’s repeating, sincere appeals to the crowd finally turn magic with an acoustic sing-along ‘Yoshimi…’ and, as ‘Do You Realise??’ erupts, its evident that despite the odd song dragging, the f’lips are a truly brilliant rock band and endlessly-positive festival favourites.

Our final dose for Friday is lo-fi heroine tUne YarDs – Merrill Garbus confidently ploughs through some new material, full of choppy, danceable drums and her unique yelling. The vibrant, infantile vocals of ‘Hatari’ a highlight.

Cymbals Eat Guitars

Saturday starts with Pow Pow’s electro-pop tones resonating as we wonder onto the site – their melodic synths over solid proggy basslines sounding a bit like the Pet Shop Boys vs. Tron. NYC’s Cymbals Eat Guitars dive into sweaty 45 minutes, helter-skelter song structures scaling some fine noisy moments – a clear nod to At The Drive In. It’s frantic, refreshing and deserving of the hype – something that I can’t agree with about Local Natives, whose pop-sensibilities are received rapturously by their sun-kissed crowd. Their harmonies on their cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Warning Sign’ seem a little dry, but credit to vocalist Taylor Rice’s absurd moustache.

The XX

We catch a quick bit of Lucy Swann before The XX close Sjøsiden – Swann shares similar audio palettes to Bat For Lashes, producing some phantasmic, airy moments and even plays a tribute to Motorpsycho (who are headlining Enga). The XX’s minimalism transfers into something considerably ace live, the sharp guitars opening ‘Crystalised’ and ‘Islands’ pulling deserving loud cheers. The teenagers draped across the barrier hang onto every lyric swapped by Romy Croft and Oliver Sim. The trio air their debut LP in full, a delirious ‘Fantasy’s low-frequencies are extensively epic and ‘Infinity’ is backed with fireworks – going off somewhere near Oslo’s bay. It’s an intimate moment to wrap up a well-paced festival – ideal if you fancy visiting the city.

Field Music

Flaming Lips

Iggy Pop

M.I.A