Updated September 2009

Pantiero festival, Cannes, August 09.
By Laurent, translation Mère Maquelle

.“4 days in hell”… That’s what all the teenagers over-looked up indigestion should have thought when they saw the line-up of Pantiero show in Cannes. They’ve probably imagined a kind of sniffing, alcohol drinking and unsafe sex party. But it’s not. Actually that’s more 4 days in Nursery… hum, 4 evenings, because the shows start at 8 pm, end at 1 am… surrounded by a tiny-teeny crowd too happy to escape the parental custody!
Anyway, this year, the “eclectic programming” was obviously interesting. Were expected in order of appearance :
Day One : The Chap/Fujiya & Miyagi/ ESG/Ebony Bones
Day Two : Naïve New Beaters/Stuck in the Sound/Kap Bambino/Late of the Pier
Day Three : Kid Acne/Krazy Baldhead feat. Beat Assaillant & Outlines/Yo ! Majesty/Lady Sovereign
Day Four : The Oscillation/Rebotini/Mr Oizo/Erol Alkan
Naturally the duration of each performance between 8 pm and 1 am was too short. That’s the major defect of fests : all sets are too short (45 minutes usually, to 30 for the shortest).

Anyway,
DAY ONE :
The Chap (UK). The best way to begin a fest : with humor ! The 4 UK’s players give pleasure to be seen. If we can be afraid to see “another-boring-UK-indie-pop-band “, it wasn’t! They were 3 boys and a tiny girl on keyboard playing nice rock, period. A kind of crossover between Franck Zappa and Gang of Four. The product is very interesting. The drummer’s grimaces make laugh. The scout-dressing of the bass player and his casual way to introduce tracks and his own way to play are perfect. The singer’s voice is great in combo with keyboard’s one. All of that gives a great funny time. Finally, the band plays quickly his “Mega Breakfast” album, letting the audience in a two-minutes-heroic-pose at the end of the show. Funny, for sure! A good surprise!
On the other hand, Fujiya & Miyagi is not a funny band. A kind of “another-boring-indie-UK-pop-band”, even if they are not from UK, but undoubtedly boring. Journalists were too happy to classify them into the rediscovered “krautrock-influenced-band” because “Krautrock” is the new musical-so-called-intellectual-terminology, overused and synonymous of repetitive atmosphere. But it wasn’t. Just boring soft music where singer whispers “Fujiya & Myiagi” during 2 songs to be sure we won’t forget the name of the band… Not a good one, maybe the clear sky can force us to be in the mood…
But after all, we were patient, and ESG appears! My god! ESG! THE hip-hop ancestors were in Cannes, yes! It’s like seeing the Bronx in the 80’s. ESG were here, 4 meters in front of us, just unbelievable : a really rare moment! For those who don’t know, ESG is an all female band who played in the 80’s before the beginning of hip-hop. The four Scroggins sisters are playing some kind of post-punk-funk-soul, while minimalistic and psychedelic. Not a crossover, they only play what they like. We can say that today, their style has initiated many other bands. Their work had been sampled so often. But the results are great : in live the lead singer has an amazing voice! The erotic dances of the chubby American girl animalizes the crowd! Their smiles show us their happiness to be here and to perform. The hypnotic bass, the bongos, the excellent drums, the backing vocals… All was perfect during this too-short set. They gave us an encore of 3 songs, to finally say goodbye and probably come back to the Bronx. Thank you for coming here!
Finally, the last band of the night appears. Ebony Bones… Ebony is the kind of new sensation, the new NME-hype : all the journalists are unanimous with Ebony Bones. Indeed, that’s the kind of unique band with a particular look, that requires journalists to blindly approve everything she does! It turns Ebony Bones into a “sponsored band” that everybody is happy to see because it’s unique. Consequently refreshing unique. But as a matter of fact, she’s playing a funny kind of psychedelic music. A meeting pot of electro punk soul. The outcome is brilliant, advantage with a great voice… Anyway, Ebony has talent, doubtless!
But this night wasn’t the great night. Even if Ebony sings, jumps, screams in her microphone, and she transmits an energy as beautiful as she is, Unluckily, she was ill and sang with pain because her voice was gone. That’s why the show was outrageously shortcut.
Anyway, we were faced with professionals : overlooked musicians, choreography… But the whole thing was prefab. Ebony Bones may be a future icon of the music… It lacked a little bit of spontaneity, certainly because Ebony seems to be a bully : the band still prostrates itself before Ebony’s extravagances. But it’s a great band!

DAY TWO :
Don’t blame me if I bypass the rock and nu-rave bands here, it‘s not essential. Just I arrived just at the beginning of Kap Bambino, and God, it WAS the Apocalypse. Really! I was completely shocked ahead so much energy. It’s simple, I’ve never seen that before. The singer was accompanied by a discrete “Mr. Machine”. But I was really surprised that a band can give all this power. In detail, songs were not too much hardcore, and the duo played some songs of the new second album (Blacklist), and some of the first, included the beautiful “Save”. During the show, the singer jumps everywhere, she slammed into the crowd, she was standing on the shoulders of the security… as electrocuted she transmits a power I rarely saw in live, even if she is alone on stage. The French combo is a new electro punk sensation. Kap bambino’s show is like driving on the highway, foot down. Khima France (the singer) turned the dancefloor into a giant Moshpit. It was the apocalypse, hell yes!

DAY THREE :
I was happy to see Yo! Majesty after a painful wait with a horrible and failed rap/dj duo between Krazy Baldhead (another Ed Banger record clone) which pretends loving hip-hop… hum, I won’t expatiate on this, and Beat Assailant (a 2 songs radin-rapper), joined by an atrocious French MC (lol). The French specialty : the reached richness rapper… Anyway Yo! Majesty appears, but, not full Yo! Majesty, only Jwl B, Shunda K disappeared we don’t know why, and the shows was cruelly affected. However, I failed to mention that Jwl B screams and the puissance is impressive.
The show was truly strange : Jwl B sang out on stage during one song, she came out, then came back five or six times. Accompanied by an alone DJ, an unused keyboard… Probably a technical problem that forced the show to be as good as possible. Facing a very receptive crowd, Jwl B tried to go on with the show, but she sang an average and unecessary James Brown’s cover (I feel good)… Why? We don’t know. We were disappointed and saddened to have witnessed a bad representation of a band surely not at his best.
Jwl B, before exploding for the final, cried a little bit at the end of “Fucked up”, affected us…
After the not-so-great show was expected a new rap icon Lady Sovereign. You know, the new “Grime sensation” (because Crunk is definitively has-been) as is boasting the journalist of “discovering” new pompous words. But Grime hop is first of all a London rap style, and not a journalistic invention. Anyway, Lady S.O.V. is the new over-produced baby of the new rap generation. Very talented to win in a macho ambience, the little girl of UK has power on stage… theoretically! After a great first album over directed by the Def Jam team, “Jigsaw” released this year is more personal, logically less appreciated by critiques who accused her lack of boom booty shake box.
But Lady Sovereign was in a bad day too. Her DJ was missing, and instead of him, we had some kind of “Daddy Sovereign” who presses on play. Lady Sovereign rapped on, and it was over. Even if she has a great flow and the British humor (burping into the mic, playing football on stage), she wasn’t comfortable. And the songs were not reinterpreted, but guided by the playback.
Lady Sovereign is nice on stage, she has energy, but this night wasn’t the good for the hip-hop movement.

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