From
The Guardian:
The Big Chill
Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire
Carrie O'Grady
Tuesday August 9, 2005
The Guardian
The Church of Chill is a broad one. What began as an electro-lounge hybrid today encompasses everything from cello duets to Turkish knees-ups to drum'n'bass. The Big Chill festival, now in its 10th year, aims to please everyone all of the time, and offers all the above. This makes for some jarring juxtapositions: the old-school funk of the Fatback Band, for instance, followed by the Asian breakbeats of Bobby Friction and Nihal.
The weekend was more conducive to chatting and sunbathing than serious musical appreciation. The polished, breezy pop of St Etienne and Roisin Murphy was well received, but new material had less of a buzz than old favourites. The same was true of DJ Gilles Peterson, who played an excellent set of complex, intelligent multicultural mash-ups on the main stage, but it was when he played the Specials' A Message to You, Rudy that the crowd roared. The ambient noodlings of acts like Lunz and the Necks also got lost in the shuffle.
Similarly, one of the most intriguing-sounding acts played to an almost empty field. Transit Kings brought together the KLF's Jimmy Cauty and the Orb's Alex Paterson, backed by Pink Floyd session musician Guy Pratt and soundtrack man Dom Beken. Their four-laptop collaboration produced a rich wash of surprisingly melodic electro, punctuated by Paterson's trademark echoey samples and even the occasional chord change. But it was the wrong place, wrong time. More popular was the tuxedo-clad Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, who brought the house (field, rather) down the following afternoon with their medley of I Will Survive, Autumn Leaves, Fly Me to the Moon and Hotel California.
DJ Sean Rowley hit the button with his oldies-drenched set, and he wasn't the only one: I must have heard John Paul Young's 1978 hit Love Is in the Air at least three times in as many days. But Rowley couldn't match the peerless Rob da Bank, warming up for his own Bestival next month with a lively set, and masters of kitsch, Hexstatic. Their closing dedication - "Richard Whiteley: 1943-2005" - touched a chord with a nostalgic crowd.