Other Voices Festival

Other Voices Festival

St James’ Church, Dingle
01-04/12/2011

For 51 weeks of the year, the Dingle peninsula in the far south west of Ireland is one of the quietest spots of an already heavily rural country. The town of Dingle itself, tucked between rolling, saturated hills and invariably spattered with the full force of the Atlantic, is best known for the dolphin that’s taken up residence in its harbour, and charms visitors with pubs that double as clothes shops or hardware stores, and imaginative ice cream flavours such as sea salt and brown bread. For four days every December, though, it becomes the very heart of the vibrant Irish music scene.

Tickets to Other Voices are like wide-mouthed frogs. 2011’s the tenth anniversary, and having given up on the very idea of selling tickets due to the internet rampage it induces, the festival’s instead decided to distribute the eighty nightly tickets to the four-night St James’ Church event by competition only. Look at the line ups over the past years – Bjork, The National, Snow Patrol, Florence And The Machine and Amy Winehouse (whose performance in Dingle is currently being made into a documentary by the BBC) to name just a few – and it’s impossible to miss the appeal of such intimacy.

As usual, this year’s line-up is a generous mix of well-established acts and intelligently plucked up and comers. When we roll up on the Saturday, it’s Edwyn Collins who’s setting the standard, offering a sensational set of Orange Juice classics like ‘Rip It Up’ melded with solo pieces old and new, not least ‘Never Met A Girl Like You Before’. Collins suffered a stroke six years ago, and while his recovery hasn’t allowed him to return to the guitar, some exceptionally moving vocals and a pair of backing guitarists totally in tune with his style earn him a monster standing ovation. Frank Turner seems to take the reverential side of church gigs seriously, toning down his style to take in ode to his granny ‘Peggy Sang The Blues’ and his hometown ‘Wessex Boy’, while a collaborative combo of Doves’ Jimi Goodwin and Mancunian rising stars Cherry Ghost is eclectic but invariably serene, organically-fused and emotive.

Outside St James’, the entire event is streamed to crammed pubs, where plenty who’ve completed the five-hour drive from Dublin soak up the atmosphere, and hope they’ve picked the right rustic corner to catch an impromptu late night show over a pint of the local brew, Creans. Earlier in the day, some of Ireland’s rising stars invade the pubs as part of the ‘Other Voices Music Trail’, a surreal ‘through the looking glass’ experience that sees electro-pop belted out from beneath local Gaelic sports flags and 19^th century banjos. Buzz-band two-piece We Cut Corners particularly impress with a set that focuses more on their Loudon Wainwright side than their White Stripes-inspired angst, while local lads Toy Soldier are vocally exceptional and the brilliantly-named Ham Sandwich put on a lovable flirtation with Placebo’s more intense corners.

It’s Sunday, though, that we suspect will still be talked about in a few years’ time. Wild Beasts go on the rampage with sensationally stark, involved performances of tracks from third and newest album ‘Smother’, which see dual vocalists Hayden and Tom brilliantly engaged in a performance that’s tight, melodic and wonderfully intricate. Spiritualized have a tough time following the ‘Beasts, especially given the hefty focus on their up and coming seventh album, but do add a charming layering through the backing gospel section, and occasionally reach twiddly, psychedelic high points that almost belong on another plain. It’s a shame the more finicky corners don’t always reach such highs.

There’s plenty of depth, too: dubstep stars SBTRKT are not the kind of band you’d expect to shine in a church, but the masked maestros layer their beats perfectly, evading that knob-twiddling cliché by adding some thumping live drums. Sampha’s vocals are exceptional, while the clever backing track mixing of Little Dragon’s part of ‘Wildfire’ is subtly and memorably mashed. Ben Howard’s not being doing badly for himself of late, either, and cut down to a one-man acoustic show for the church, he focuses on lush, dingy atmospherics.

The intimacy is stunning, of course – St James’ is so small that you could almost have stumbled upon these bands’ practice rooms – but so is the adaption; the consideration put into the environment by each act, and toned down, enticing simplicity of the majority of the tracks, broken only by the occasional pew-rave offered up by the likes of SBTRKT. There’s another purpose, of course, Other Voices is primarily for Irish television, and is gaining ever-increasing international acclaim, too. For those who sneak in, though, it might well be one of the most unique, special festival experiences there is.

James Hendicott