Glam rock legends, saviours of UK grime and commercial house scenes and Francophonic purveyors of aphrodisiac ambience don't often squeeze onto the first couple of lines of many festival bills. But then most festivals don't snuggle up in the warm bosom of Barcelona's Gaudí spires and sprawling parks. And then, to be pedantic, only Sónar 2010 can claim to pertain to Ryoji Ikeda light spectacles blinding Catalan skies. Long since regarded as one of Europe's most revered and renowned electronic festivals, this year's edition spans genre, decade and decadence; Bryan Ferry's reformed Roxy Music are sandwiched amidst born-again Boy In Da Corner Dizzee Rascal and Salmon Dance extraordinaires The Chemical Brothers. And that's not all for Saturday alone, with Bristolian toy molesters Fuck Buttons and Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi also jetting off to the messy sights and sounds of the city of Messi. Friday's line up includes the return of in-form Drunk Girl obsessive James Murphy and his LCD Soundsystem, sublime intimacy soundtrackers Air, Alexis Taylor's frazzling Hot Chip and a live outing from Booka Shade. Then to cap all that laid back electronic brilliance, Mary Anne Hobbs has cobbled together a rather special little evening round-up, roping in the glorious post-dub step of Joy Orbison and Californian beat demon Flying Lotus. Barça's never burned so bright. Or at least not at night...
The full line up thus far for this year's Barcelona Sonar Festival goes a little something like this:
The Chemical Brothers * Roxy Music * Air * LCD Soundsystem * Plastikman * Jónsi * Dizzee Rascal * 2manydjs * Booka Shade * Hot Chip * Fuck Buttons * Aeroplane * King Midas Sound * Broadcast * The Sugarhill Gang * Matthew Herbert's One Club * Flying Lotus * Pete Tong * Joy Orbison * Zomby * New Young Pony Club * Roska * Necro Deathmort * Ryoji Ikeda * Mary Anne Hobbs * David M * John Talabot, Bradien * Speech Debelle * Emilio José * Uffie * Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu * Hudson Mohawke * Carte Blanche (DJ Mehdi & Riton) * Nosaj Thing Visual Show * DJ Hell * Delorean * The Pinker Tones * Noaipre * Sandwell District * bRUNA * Bomba Estéreo * Cora Novoa * Cluster * Mike Slott * Aufgang * bcn216 + Tristan Perich * Bflecha * The Slew featuring Kid Koala * Caspa feat. MC Rod Azlan * Professor Green * 2020Soundsystem * Eclair Fifi & John Computer * La Chambre des Machines * Machinedrum * Cabo San Roque & Orquestra Mecànica de la França Xica * American Men * The Blessings * Elektro Guzzi * Zigmat * dp-S * Lesley Flanigan * Post War Years * bcn216 + Cristian Vogel * Ricard Marxer & Oscar Sol: Japó * Robot Koch * Larytta * Round Table Knights * Goldielocks * Tim and Puma Mimi
Ticket combos for this year's event are somewhat enigmatic. But looking above at the likes of Roxy Music, Air and Joy Orbison it's most certainly getting to work on resolving such mystery. Crack the codes here through Sonar's official site.