Festival season is well under way and this weekend it’s Body&Soul. We chose some acts to look out for at Ballinlough Castle in Co.Westmeath,
The humble music festival has become something much more (or less) than just the music; side events often attract more interest than what’s happening on actual stages and Body&Soul, which takes place this weekend in the verdant setting of Westmeath’s Ballinlough Castle, is no exception.
As part of their ethos (yup, ethos) the three-day event states, "Body&Soul does not subscribe to the typical festival model, our festival is an entire experience for the body and mind rather than a series of concerts."
So for the music purists out there who don’t fancy leaping around a forest in full Indian headdress while eating tofu burgers and then dunking themselves in an outdoor spa (not that there’s anything wrong with that), here are our top five acts to see at Body&Soul.
Metronomy
Anybody looking for the ultimate in haunted seaside fairground meets post-ironic dance music, this is your band. The Devon band make a very English kind of electro soul that recalls the world-weary but funny cynicism of The Pet Shops Boys and the pointed lyrical barbs of The Kinks and The Smiths. Led by Joe Mount, their debut album, 2008’s The English Riviera, is a modern classic.
Sleaford Mods
How good will scabrous punk onslaughts about pound shops, food banks and your basic urban decay sound in a beautiful setting like Ballinlough? Very good indeed we reckon. This strictly NSFW duo from Nottingham deliver blackly hilarious songs with a deadly serious message over stark and skeletal beats. Bring your favourite "hello flowers, hello trees" hipster along.
Jink Lennon
Not a million miles from the splenetic but funny Sleaford Mods, Dundalk agit-popper Lennon is a punk poet in the John Cooper Clarke mould and one of the few performers in Ireland who is actually engaging with, well, reality. Shot through with a particularly Irish wit, his songs describe oft neglected strata of society but he never forgets that sardonic humour.
Songhoy Blues
This electrifying north Malian guitar act has quite a story. They were driven out of their homeland by Islamist jihadi hardliners but joined forced as refugees to forge a truly hypnotic, funky and very lively sound. Songhoy Blues are likely to be one of the big attractions of the whole Body&Soul weekend.
Bonobo
Another act that pretty much defines the whole Body&Soul ethos, Bonobo aka Simon Green makes incredibly beautiful electronic music that is both mind and feet-expanding, Hearing Bonobo amid the beauty of Ballinlough may well prove a festival highlight.
If you do want to leap around a forest in full Indian headdress while eating tofu burgers and then dunking yourself in an outdoor spa, click here for the manifold non-music attractions at Body&Soul this year.
Alan Corr @corralan
