Audio Farm Festival 2018 - Aloona
Many people are saying Audio Farm 2018 was our best yet with unforgettable performances from DJ Sneak, Carl Craig, Lone, Jerome Hill, Special Request, Surgeon and so, so many more
Amongst the highlights and headliners, however, was a wealth of fresh new talent to discover, amongst them was the first of our live sets recorded at Hopton Court this year on the Sundance stage early Saturday afternoon. Aloona.
Brought up with the sounds of reggae, soca and soul, Aloona was inspired by the revolution in dance music in the early 90s and the likes of Unique 3, Rebirth of Cool, Portishead, Omar and the world sounds of Giles Peterson and Nitin Sawnhey.
On the dancefloor, Aloona displays the fevered passion for quirky unique tracks, blending jazz, jungle, trip-hop, house and world sounds and most recently has played Elrow’s festival after-party at Ministry of Sound.
As you’ll hear for yourself, Aloona’s sound is a perfect accompaniment for a hazy summer head, even under these changeable autumnal skies.
Just a little note here, all of our mixes recorded from the event (save for a few) will be put on our forthcoming Patreon page in order to help raise money for the festival and charity.
And if you want to get a warm feeling warm without urinating yourself, you can donate to our Crowdfunder
Enjoy x
AUDIO FARM RESIDENTS 004: ASHER
Fellow Sauce resident (alongside previous resident selector, Bradford Dave), Asher has been a staple underground wall-crawler and DJ for over a decade in the city of Manchester’s sprawling music community, regularly taking to the turntables in venues like The White Hotel and beyond.
Asher has been a huge component in mapping out the sounds of our festival since 2013 as well as our Dug Out stage at the acclaimed Festival Number 6.
This mix has Asher taking you through rugged, bumping rhythms and melodic house sounds all the way to high-end electro-tinged techno.
Enjoy x
AUDIO FARM FESTIVAL RESIDENTS 003: BRADFORD DAVE
Our third in this series of selectors welcomes Bradford Dave to the platform. A permanent fixture at Audio Farm festival since 2013, Dave can be found plying his trade at his Manchester throwdown, 'Sauce' alongside, co-pilot, Asher. You can catch Bradford Dave at this year's Audio Farm festival as part of the Human Shield party for our departed friend, Pete Mangalore.
For those that don’t know who Peter was and why we’re celebrating his life this year, can you give us a little story about him at the festival?
“I remember the first Audio Farm I played at, at the Work House and I was DJing on Friday night. The needles on the decks were fucked and the first 5 or 6 records I played skipped. The room was pretty busy when I started, but soon emptied with the ensuing disaster! To make matters worse, a pissed up lad was continually pestering me to let him have a go, I later found out this was Christian Wood (Il Bosco) of Red Laser fame, who’d been playing earlier. So while the records were skipping and the harassing became more persistent, I asked Pete Mangalore to help out - maybe find someone with better needles, or something, but he wouldn’t because he said it was too funny. He just stood and laughed at me! Typical Peter”.
So, you’ve been with us from the start. What makes you keep coming back?
“Why do I keep coming back? Because I keep getting asked to come back, so why wouldn’t I? It’s a great weekend and it’s testament to you lot for all the hard work you put in that it keeps getting better and better. When I saw the Forest Stage last year, I couldn’t believe how good it looked and I’m really looking forward to finding out what’s in store this year”.
You can catch Dave alongside Asher this coming weekend, instore at Eastern Bloc.
For more info, head here
AUDIO FARM FESTIVAL RESIDENTS: HUGO
The second Audio Farm resident to step up takes the form of energetic party-starter, Hugo, with a voyage through a gloriously anthemic rollercoaster of hand raisers and foot tappers.
So how did you come to be involved in the Audio Farm team?
I met the guys from Audio Farm a few times at forest raves and parties and this one year my nephew Andy asked me to throw him a mega party at his house so we went crazy and decked his whole gaff out with camo by screwing heavy duty hooks all around his house. We even had a slip and slide into a swimming pool outside amongst other crazy fun stuff. Later that night I had a call off Tay Audio Farm asking if they could come round, an hour later they turned up with a rig and before we knew it the place was full on party. We called it ‘Smashed at the Brickhouse’.
I have been involved with the Audio Farm crew and their parties from pretty much the beginning. I was lucky enough to be asked by Ste Chesters to develop the first website, which has been redeveloped over the years and which I still look after today.
I’m also hands on when the festival build is on and help out as much as I can, as anyone who’s involved in running big events knows how much work there is behind the scenes to make these events happen so anything I can do I know goes a long way.
You’ve been playing for the event for a few years now, can you talk us through how you prepare to play at the festival?
One of my passions is finding decent music and not necessarily new music but great tracks that become almost archived, these are the tracks I love to find and add to my ever-growing collection. I have been collecting music now for over 20 years so organising my library is important to me so I can easily find the sound I am looking for when playing at any party or event. Most of my collection is digital now and I am currently migrating to Rekordbox as it just makes sense to do this as Pioneers’ industry standard kit uses this.
For each planned set I will collate a digital crate of tracks on usb and make sure I have enough tracks to play depending on the present crowd. From experience having a planned set from one track to the next never seems to go how you want it to, so by having a more diverse selection on hand gives you the freedom to change the mood and get more in tune with the crowd.
Could you give us a few of your favourite memories at the festival and are there any special tracks reserved for your Audio Farm set?
There are so many memories but my all time favourite was last year’s Audio Farm Festival at Cholmondley Castle. Mobius Loop were performing in The Nest, and up until that point the whole of the weekend was dry, we had a short down poor and soon we had mud. My daughter, Verity Mae who was 11 at the time decided to cover herself in mud from head to toe and join in the dancing at the front of the stage, it wasn’t long before she had an entourage of mud dancing tribal warriors joining in the fun. That pretty much made my weekend.
Regarding special tracks I do have a few, and I’ll definitely be playing a track by ‘Riva Starr’ called ‘The Loft’ which is a remix by ‘Emanual Satie’. I love the energy this track gives and the video below shows this energy and how raw parties used to be back in those days.
The track pretty much sums up what my set is going to sound like. If I have a fraction of that crowd dancing I’ll be happy.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIiTqyjo2F8[/embedyt]
Do you think working for the festival has had an impact on your everyday life?
Not really although I am constantly tinkering away on the backend of the site. I have met and continue to meet the best people and for this I’m grateful. There are so many corporate festivals that are just money making machines and they can attract the wrong crowd, that’s pretty much the opposite for Audio Farm Audio Farm Festival as everyone there is there not only for the music and healing but to meet like-minded souls of a kindred spirit. One Love One Tribe X
IMPORTANT: SITE RULES
Audio Farm Festival Site Rules
Hello everybody,
The Audio Farm Festival build crew are on site and are very excited to be welcoming you from this Thursday.
All types of tickets will be available on the door and online at www.onetribefestival.org.
Please take the time to read all of the following important information as it could potentially affect your enjoyment and safety for the weekend if you have a ticket.
Audio Farm presents Audio Farm Festival is a collective who all share the ethos of wanting to make positive change by creating an open minded environment, where performers, artists, musicians and creatives can thrive.
We have put together some rules and guidelines to keep everything running smoothly and to make sure everyone is comfortable. Please respect these as it will make things much harder for the organisers, venue and stewards if people don’t.
The Festival is set in the beautiful grounds of the Cholmondely Castle Estate. Please respect that there are living and working residents at this site before, after and during the gathering.
TICKETS:
· Please ensure you have printed off or downloaded your ticket on to your phone prior to arrival. The tickets QR code will need to be scanned for you to gain entry to the festival site.
ACCESS:
· Please review the site map for access, site entrance and car park information.
· The Festival site address and postcode for main entrance is:
Cholmondeley Castle, Beeston Road, Malpas, Cheshire, SY14 8HD.
· Car Parking is available on site. It’s only a 5-10 Minute walk to the campsite.
· Accreditation will be located at the entrance car park.
TRAVEL:
· One Tribe encourages the use of coaches / minibus tickets, or lift share programmes.
· The nearest train stations are Nantwich, Wrenbury and Whitchurch.
· We advise you book local taxi services in advance as they have a limited number of cars.
GATE TIMES:
· Audio Farm Festival is open to the public from 10am Thursday 3rd August, until 2pm Tuesday 8th August.
· Each night the site will close at 12 midnight. On Sunday night the gate will finally close at 12 midnight.
VEHICLES ON SITE:
· Vehicle on site can only enter using the designated entrance gates.
· Vehicles must drive on and off site marked on the map, and nowhere else on site.
· If damage is caused to the site by person or vehicle on site, Audio Farm Festival is not liable, and the person who causes is liable for costs incurred.
· Car Parking ticket holders can utilise the car park facilities. Please note that no sleeping, camping or fires are allowed in the car parks.
· Campervan parking pass holders can utilise the campervan facilities.
SITE RULES:
· No leaving site or festival boundaries once you have been through accreditation.
· Respect the neighbours and residents of the estate. Do not trespass on to their property.
· No Smoking in tents both in the arena and campsite.
· No candles are to be used inside or near tents. Please use a torch.
· No BBQ’s, campfires or gas stoves are to be used on the campsite.
· No glass on site. Any glass brought on site will be confiscated.
· NO animals (except registered guide dogs), sound systems, generators, sky lanterns or kites, unauthorised fireworks, or wax flares. Persons using fireworks will be evicted from site and materials confiscated.
· No unauthorised tape recorders, professional film or video equipment are allowed on-site. Cameras for personal use are welcome.
· No gazebos on site.
· You may bring your own alcohol on to the campsite. Any amount deemed to be excessive for reasonable personal use will be confiscated at the gates. We would ask that you do not bring glass on site and that you use our recycling points when you’re finished.
· No alcohol may be brought in to the Arena. At the bars, anyone who looks under 25 will be asked for ID. Underage drinking is not permitted. If you are asked for ID and you do not have any, you will not be served alcohol.
· We highly recommend ankle supporting and protective footwear whilst on site.
· We highly recommend you bring water storage containers for your campsite.
· You may be searched at the entrance for any items that may be used in an illegal or offensive manner – which will be confiscated. Persons suspected of carrying out illegal and/or offensive activities on-site may also be searched and face eviction.
RECYCLING ETHOS:
· Recycling and sustainability are a cornerstone of One Tribes principles. One Tribe always aims to reduce One Tribes impact on the environment.
· Please use the recycling bins dotted around the site to contribute to keeping the castle grounds in pristine condition, hence leaving no trace.
· Reusable ‘eco cups’ and ‘eco bottles’ are used to cut down on plastic waste at the bars and in the arena and campsite areas. The festival is using a ‘eco cup’ deposit scheme to encourage this and festival goers can also purchase ‘eco bottles’ to store water.
· We will be providing rubbish bags to festival goers. If a full bag of rubbish is collected, it can be exchanged for 1 drinks token.
· Please only bring biodegradable glitter on site. Biodegradable glitter will also be available for purchase on site.
SITE FACILITIES:
· There is a cash machine on the festival site.
· There is a Kids Area, and family camping area.
· Showers and toilets are available in the camping area.
· There are bars and ethical & vegan food vendors available in the arena.
CAMPING TIPS:
• Stewards located in the camping field and arena. They can direct and advise you, and are your first port of call in an emergency, be it a medical or security issue.
• Please do not take up too much space when setting up camp. Please do not bring a gazebo. They needlessly take up valuable camping space (and there are plenty of more interesting places to sit at the Festival than just outside your tent).
• Please do not leave any kit or rubbish behind when you leave the festival and castle estate.
DON'T SAY IT, SPRAY IT: VISUAL ART AT ONE TRIBE FESTIVAL.
There's much more to one tribe than the hypnotic rhythms and rising tones on our world class talent packed stages.
Over the course of the weekend, you'll see the festival grow and morph in front of your eyes thanks to a fantastic array of sculptors, designers and spray artists, that are lending their expertise to give One Tribe festival its own, unique fingerprint.
Just two of these artists that will be on hand to help achieve this goal are the Six Foot Clan Tag, a duo that applies acrylic to concrete in projects across Manchester and beyond.
Originally the brainchild of illustration student, Huw Jones (AKA Pij) and Matty Altman (AKA Shoguns Reach) the tag team have been working together for over 5 years and have diversified beyond the streets through programmes, commissions and clothing.
Be sure to check these as well as many other fascinating sculptors, environmental artist and top-notch craftsmen, including our own hyper-talented build crews creations, many of whom build the world renowned Greenpeace area at Glastonbury festival.
All this and more will be waiting and ready to help to stimulate your senses at Audio Farm Festival.
HOME OF THE DRUM - BY NIGHT (SPOTIFY PLAYLIST)
Pulsing through the night, powered by a fusion core of molten Detroit soul, underpinned German engineering, 'Home Of The Drum - By Night', will be piloted by some of the most legendary figures the global techno scene has to offer.
To help get acquainted with the talent we've got on offer, we've decided to put together a very special 'Home Of The Drum - After Dark' Spotify Playlist, to give your ears a bit of a rub down.
This playlist takes a tour round a few highlights of our guest's prolific careers, taking in the likes of Juan Atkins' seminal 1982 record as Cybotron - Clear, as well as fellow Detroit resident, DJ Bone's 'It's All About'.
Scottish legends, Slam, have painted their way through seven shades of techno textures over the years, as you can see from their first release on their own Soma Recordings, 'Eterna'.
And we have XDB and his fist pumping, 'Indywa' whereas Fellow Freerotator, DJ October on the list with tracks like, 'Drama Queen'.
You can catch these guys alongside residents of some of the area's most respected party platforms. Manchester vinyl monolith, Eastern Bloc will be represented by Kerrie, *Means&3rd and Akram and front-running techno party, Meat Free will be in control of Saturday, with their residents: Blasha & Allatt Alice Woods and Lucy Ironmonger.
Liverpool's leaders in the underground and hosts of Friday's party, 303, take over with their residents: Kenny Muir Stuart Hodson and Gemma Muir. Not to mention our residents: Leon Mittenacht, Gary Sloan and Tom Houghton.
For more playlists from us and our guests, you can subscribe to our Spotify page. You can just cloick It's right there. It'd be rude not to.
You can also check out exclusive mixes and more music on our SoundCloud page.
HOME OF THE DRUM - DAYTIME
Edging closer and closer, like a stampede of colour, rhythm and sound, One Tribe is well and truly over the horizon and heading towards us at what seems like breakneck speed.
With all the music on offer, we're sure there's not a person here that's heading down to Cholmondeley Castle that hasn't got their highlights in the lineup. But just to help you out in discovering some new sounds to get your head around, we've put together a series of Spotify playlists with sounds of the artists that will be pumping out of the speakers.
We began by examining The Forest Stage's wealth of musical acumen with tracks by the likes of Boddika, Lone, Move D, Psychmagik and Roberto.
Next, under the melodic microscope, we have The Home Of The Drum during the daytime.
While seven shades of techno pulse through The Home of The Drum by night, the day belongs to a procession of eclectic sounds from all over the world.
Highlights include Stadium electro titans, The Egg, that will be taking us back to transforming car adverts in 2007 with their Radio One strangling 'Walking Away'. Wild Marmalade blend primal didgeridoo sounds with swingy chords in 'Redbelly'. Afriquoi lay down original uplifting and contemporary African influenced house. The Turbans give you a taste of traveller rave before the industrial revolution through their Balkan Beats, whereas the John Fairhurst's mountainous voice strides over a punchy, stripped back, Mississippi Delta groove on 'Hungry Blues'.
With only one track per artist on this playlist, these tracks are needles in the harmonic haystack, so a bit of extra research might advisable (with a great many artists not actually being on Spotify). And be sure to subscribe for future exclusive playlists from Lone, Move D, DJ October and Roberto and many more artists.
For more music and downloads you can head to our SoundCloud page for exclusive mixes by Luv*Jam, Duckett and live recordings from One Tribe itself.
RADIO ONE TRIBE - THE MANGO CLUB
The big cities have always been the places you go to find new music and listen to talented, bubbling under talent before the inevitable explosion of popularity. The Mango Club in Chester buck this trend, playing host to some of contemporary underground's breaking talents to packed out, fever pitch crowds every time they open their doors.
We tried to get inside the heads of founders and promoters, Alan and Benito, in order to get to know a little bit about their monstering Cestrian success story.
So I’m sure you get this a lot, but could you tell us a bit about how you both (and Benito) came up with the name?
Sure. The name 'the mango club' comes as at the time a couple of our mates used to call each other mango "hey mango". As the party started purposely to bring friends together through music we decided the name, worked quite well and we went with it.
I’ve got to say I’m a fan of the event page/flyer art too. Can you tell us a bit more about the inspiration behind these works?
Yes this is a massive part of us as a party and showcasing talent of people from our area is very important. Each year we give an art creative freedom to design the flyers for the events, The inspiration for this there are a lot of talented people from Chester and we want them to be part of the Mango club. We like to incorporate aspects of the city in the design to give representation.
For a club night outside of a major city, you’ve managed to make a success of booking some of the freshest underground artists and DJs over the years without any cynical ploys or resorting to booking more obvious names. My question is; How all of that?
Alan: It's a great scenario for us to be honest and one we appreciate. We have a blank canvas And just want to bring our favourite artists to the party and by doing this have gained a trust from the community who come. We used to dream of bribing some of the people we have been able to into Chester. It's a nice thing to do for our community.
Benito: I think a lot of credit also lies with the team we built around us and have continued to develop. Because there never was much of a scene in the city, like Alan said - we have, and do still have a blank canvas. Accompany the fact that the crowds are relatively young and willing to be educated or so to speak, along with the fact that we have a really hard working team encouraging people to come to the parties - we are kinda on to a winning recipe. They come, they enjoy it and then they keep coming and they haven’t had their heads turned by boring and obvious tech-house artists because nobody is really doing that around here, they’ve gone straight into the good stuff which allows us to continue to book genuinely exciting up and coming artists rather than having to compromise our ethos.
Sticking with some of the names you’ve booked over the 4 years, are there any highlights or DJ’s that have surprised you that come to mind?
Alan: Christopher Rau was a bit difficult (crowd-wise). Apart from that everyone else has been first class. We've witnessed outstanding performances night after night.
Benito: I will have to echo what Alan said, almost every single one of the artists has been impeccable, both behind the decks and as a person. We actually became such good friends with Jordon (Mall Grab) he’s just moved in over the road and I'm currently tour managing for him as some work on the side. He would be an obvious highlight for me and is the perfect example of us booking somebody on the cusp of their big break. Willow would have to be another highlight, I've never seen (vinyl only) mixing as smooth as that before in my life and the crowd were on point as always. HNNY as well, I think that was our first ever sell out if I remember rightly. He was unbelievable and it’s such a shame he is no longer playing out anymore. I guess that makes it all the more special that we had him. He was such a nice guy and we wish you all the best Johan!
Mango Club Resident, Nick Jones provided us with an eloquently sourced mix to give a glimpse of what to expect from their take over with himself, Alex Wilson and Benedikt Webber and special guest, Luv*Jam on a Friday that also includes 12 hours of Freerotation as well as appearances from DJ Bone XDB,
RADIO ONE TRIBE: FURTHUR PROGRESSIONS - ONE TRIBE SPECIAL
With less than a month to go before we take to the Cheshire countryside to envelop ourselves in a weekend whirlpool of musical talent and we’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s in store at the festival.
So it came as something of a godsend when the hosts of Audio Farm Festival's Psychedelic Stage, Furthur Progressions Records dropped this special Audio Farm Festival podcast into our laps.
Hosted by the label head honcho, Hamish the mix steers its way through some of the finest highlights and snapshots of what to expect at the festival, including guest interviews and anecdotes from two of our headliners in the form of underground superstars, Cimi and Bedouin.
This transcendentally talented trio will be appearing in a weekend of bleeps, creeps and sweeps with melodic mayhem, alongside some of the genre's top underground talents that include: Fabio & Moon, Gaudi and Sonic Species.
You can check the podcast right here: