Issue 74 / February 2017

14
Bido Lito! February 2017
While the borders were still open, Christopher Torpey
enjoyed the hospitality of our nearest continental
cousins by dropping in at the deceptively vast
TRANS MUSICALES festival in northern France. But could he
draw himself away from the VIP bar for long enough to listen
to some music?
Rennes, FRANCE: I’m having a minor existential crisis on the
drive from the airport, as I grope about inside my head for the
last vestiges of my A Level French vocab. Rennes, my home for
the next few days, unfolds before me, unaware that I’m armed
only with d’accord and bien sur. On first impression, Rennes isn’t
very big, and nor is it that different from the majority of northern
French cities: wide streets painted in concrete magnolia,
brutalist egg crate residential apartment blocks towering over
the inner city, plenty of graffiti. The charm of Brittany’s capital
city doesn’t reveal itself until a few days later, however, when
I’ve become accustomed to the Old Town’s knot of medieval
streets, bustling markets and buildings leaning on one another
like they’ve drunk a little too much chouchen.
The reason I’m here is the 38 th RENCONTRES TRANS
MUSICALES, a festival of some stature on the European circuit,
and something of a honeypot for festival bookers and agents
looking to find the latest hot property. In its format, Trans
Musicales isn’t too dissimilar to Primavera: the daytime action
centred around a handful of well-appointed venues in the
city centre, with the main
a venue complex outside
rather raucous 25-minute
its vast aircraft hangars
live action taking place in
of the city, accessed by a
bus journey. Parc Expo,
shrouded in fog, is
where all the night time shenanigans
take place. It’s here that the pilgrims
congregate on three successive nights at the start of December,
10,000-strong at least, and not all of them native Rennais. The
city’s large student population turn out in force alongside locals
of all ages for their annual highlight, well-oiled and ready to
party with whoever and whatever appears in front of them. Trans
Musicales is well and truly on.
Thursday, the traditional
easing-in day, gives me a chance
to get used to the scale of the
operation at Parc Expo. The
festival takes up five of the
site’s 10 hangars, or Halls,
Anna Meredith
each one
big enough on its
own to hold 10,000
people. The scale
is staggering –
especially given
the relative
obscurity of the
line-up. Scottish composer
and polymath ANNA MEREDITH is
nominally this year’s headliner, which seems a bit of a comedown
from previous years. London Grammar and Benjamin Clementine
headlined in 2013, with M.I.A. playing in 2010, and Rodriguez
appearing alongside Major Lazer and Fever Ray in 2009. In fact,
a potted history of Trans Musicales’ past acolytes is displayed
around the walls of the entrance hall in the form of interviews
published by French indie media royalty Les Inrocks. And the
legacy here speaks for itself: The Fugees (2005), Beastie Boys
(2004), Fatboy Slim and Basement Jaxx (1998), Daft Punk (1996),
Portishead and Massive Attack (1994), Nirvana (1992), and even
The La’s in 1990. Though it may
not be the first festival on the lips
of UK musos, this is a festival that
flamboyant director Jean-Louis Brossard
and his team have worked hard on for more
than three decades, and it comes with a pedigree
that lots of UK festivals would kill for.
If the rumours are to be believed, old Jean-
Louis was so taken by this year’s star turn
Meredith when he saw her performing at
The Great Escape that he booked her there
and then. As the huge whomp of the tuba
ramps up for the storming intro to Nautilus –
taken from Meredith’s brilliant leftfield album Varmints
– everything from my temples down to my shins begins to
shake; and Monsieur Brossard looks like he’s pulled another
rabbit out of the hat. The satisfyingly loud classical/techno
mashup occasionally threatens to break out into a full-on rave,
and has no trouble in filling up the vast auditorium. It also has
me grinning inanely. Turbo-powered by this huge production,
Meredith, tuba et al will be a festival fixture for a while, and
you daren’t miss it.
Sowetan band BCUC (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness)
are undoubtedly the hardest working band on show at this
year’s Trans, playing three shows in vastly different situations.
The explosive nature of their indigenous funky soul has them
owning Hall 8, as Jovi Nkosi stalks across the stage and exhorts
Fishbach
TRANS MU
Words: Christopher Torpey / @CATorp
Photography: Nicolas Joubard and Marion Bornaz