All I Can Give - Panda

Panda, aka old friends Callum, Charlie and Benny, are set to release their debut EP on Bondax's JustUs label next month and BOY am I excited. Similar sunny vibes to that of Bondax and Armeria channelling that deep house bass line, soulful vocals and energetic, lively beat. I foresee big things for Panda this year...BIG THINGS.

What You Need - Armeria

Yet another young (and northern) producer on our hands here. Armeria aka Jake Norman first caught my attention with his melodic and soulful track 'While I've Got It Together' - a chilled future garage tune spliced with R&B elements. This led me to listen to his soundcloud on repeat so I was ecstatic when new track 'What You Need' emerged. Definitely worth the wait - chilled sunny vibes.
 

Latch ft. Sam Smith (T.Williams Club Edit) - Disclosure

UK House patron T Williams weaves in some extra garage magic for good measure in this chart hit from South London duo Disclosure.
 

LETS ALL HAVE A DANCE OFF - Bestival Bants

What a BLOODY FANTASTIC four days. Having squeezed every single drop of merriment  possible out of Creamfields last year and Parklife earlier this summer, I didn’t expect  festival life to get any better. But nothing could have prepared me for just how skilfully executed Bestival 2012 was: like the crème de la crème of all the best Christmases, birthdays, new year’s eves, mitzvahs both bar and bat all rolled into one perfect little parcel of musical goodness.

Party shirt? Don't mind if I do...

Four girl friends and I got off to a bit of a panicked start as the car keys were nowhere to be found, but after some manic searching they were located in some obscure drawer and we were on our way. A couple of illegal U-es and some terrifying manoeuvres from designated driver Molly later and BOOM we were there, waiting in the queue, poppin’ bottles and just generally being a group of over-excitable girls.

The first day and night were somewhat chilled compared with the other days and mostly involved putting up our tents (which won me the nickname Bear Grylls...even if I did give it to myself), but we still managed to smash Hot Chip who had absolutely packed out the Big Top to an elated crowd.

However, on Friday shit got real when we went to the Rizlab to see Bondax play some of their most breezy, uplifting and summery tunes mixed in with the likes of Disclosure. Somehow we managed to bump into them before going in and didn’t hesitate to remind them that we were, in fact, the infamous ‘Twitter Girls’. I couldn’t have been more content bopping along to Wet Summer in the sun, Strongbow in hand with fellow blogger and Bondax aficionado Becca at my side – definitely a Bestival highlight.

When their set finished me and Bates, in matching party shirts might I add, sprinted over to catch Julio Bashmore in the Roller Disco (roller skates optional). He’d drawn in a mass of house heads, a large portion of whom seemed to be ginger, at which point I started congratulating them all on being Julio Bashmore’s brother (he is extremely ginger in case you didn’t know). I was obviously finding myself hilarious. I managed to get on someone’s shoulders in time for Julio dropping Au Seve and went completely ape shit mad, but not as mad as the guy who’s shoulders I was on who was leaping around as if I was a bloody rag doll. Without a doubt another of my Bestival highlights.
It was back to the campsite after that to get pumped for The XX who were headlining. And boy did they deliver. I read in a Mixmag review of their album 'Coexist' that 'silence might be their most important instrument' and this really struck me as we listened to them play on Main Stage. The atmosphere was completely electric and you could almost feel everyone holding their breath . Obviously this clip doesn't even nearly do it justice but here's them playing Angels.

The night continued with an extremely energetic set from Florence & The Machine, and then to the Bollywood tent, aka the hottest place on earth, to see Oneman do his thing. I'm not even kidding it was genuinely hotter than the sun in there and combined with the fact that I was not very with it at this point it turns out I spent about half an hour of his set facing the wrong way. Still, I remember thinking that I was having a bloody great time so that's fine...

Woke up on Saturday feeling a liitttlllee bit ropey but we just got on with it because, well, yknow, it's Bestival. And the sun was shining. So we went for a little stroll, a spot of Wagamamas, a photo at the massive Bestival sign (had to be done) and stumbled unwittingly upon a marriage proposal at Skinny Lister's set on main stage at which point I burst into tears because it was just so goddamn romantic ok!
Having been a masssiiivvee Disclosure fan for about a year (I regularly tweet them, but alas no response..yet) I was extremely excited to see them, especially as they absolutely smashed it at Love Saves The Day in Bristol. The mood was crackling with excitement in the Big Top and they played all of my faves, even getting Jessie Ware out for Running.

Another highlight has got to be making it onto the big screen though. After having forced one of my mates to put me on their shoulders for What's In Your Head, I was just boppin' about, havin' a great time when I spied what I thought was some bint copying my moves on screen and was outraged before I realised it was actually me and so started waving my arms about like a loon to the expense of my poor friend who had kindly offered up his shoulders. Was definitely worth it though. SBTRKT absolutely went off in the Big Top a bit later on and I was horrified when my friends tried to drag me away to go to Bonobo, especially as Redlight was due on soon. And as much as I adore my beloved Redlight, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by how sick Bonobo actually was. He has such an original, contemporary sound and its complexity makes it so gratifying to listen to his jazzy, bassy, electro beats, particularly Kiara.
So Sunday came around horribly quickly but we were keen to make our last day on the Isle of Wight one to remember. But that was always going to be the case as the one and only Stevie Wonder was headlining that night. It was literally all anyone spoke about all day...and for ages afterwards. He was absolutely unreal, I don't think any of us could quite believe what we were witnessing. Ladies and gentlemen, he's still got it. He even managed to make us all have a little cry when he covered Eva Cassidy's 'Imagine'. And what better way to top off the night than an absurdly eccentric fireworks display. We then headed off to watch one of my favourite duos of the moment AlunaGeorge at the Replay tent who were cracking live and then back to the hottest place on earth to see Jaguar Skills spin. He was definitely another highlight and completely tore it up just like he did at Parklife. Although at one point he had us all shaken with some chat about a police raid which all turned out to be a joke as he dropped WOOP WOOP ITS THE SOUND OF THE POLICCEE. Definitely saw a couple of people peg it out of the tent at this point though...
So that concludes most of what I can remember of my Bestival experience. Safe to say I am DEFINITELY getting a ticket for next year as soon as they go on sale, and so should you. See you there...

Forgetting & Learning Again ft. Kerry Leatham - Lapalux

Listening to this song is like being on an emotional rollercoaster - an absolutely beautifully crafted and layered experimental tune with so many ebbs and flows that build up to one hell of a drop. Completely captivating. I salute you Lapalux.
 

"The Twitter Girls" see Bondax at Pulse

After a brilliant week down by the seaside in Brighton, I had resigned myself to all of us splitting up and returning to our respective ends of the country. Little did I know, Laura’s incessant tweeting would finally prove to be a worthwhile use of her time, which I was soon to benefit from in a big way!
Having been hooked on the melancholic, romantic electronic sound of Bondax since I first stumbled across “You’re So” in January, I was jumping for joy when I got the call from Laura saying she’d won two tickets to a night they were playing, via a Twitter competition. The event was a Troupe night at Pulse Warehouse in Southwark, with Loefah as headliner. On arriving at the club, we coincidently found ourselves directly next to Bondax on the pavement (see photo..), and after a rather over-excited introduction and a quick explanation that we were in fact “the twitter girls”, we cheekily managed to tag along with the men themselves and bypass the long queue that had formed outside the club (with a suave nod of reassurance to the bouncers from their agent Dan).
After enjoying a summery, sunny set by Croz, it was onto what was – at least for us – the main event. Perhaps unsurprisingly Room 1 had emptied out somewhat as there was something of an exodus into Room 2 to hear Bondax’s set. This being the first time I had finally managed to see a set by the producers that had pretty much been the soundtrack to my summer, I was extremely excited. The characteristic sultry, ambient, bass driven sound ran through the whole set with the entire crowd going nuts when they dropped ‘Baby I Got That’. Other than hearing all the infectious vocals of their own songs - particularly 'It's You' and 'All Inside' - another personal highlight was hearing their remix of AlunaGeorge’s ‘I Know You Like It’ which I am yet to get even vaguely bored off, despite playing it before any night out. It was an incredible set; made even better by the energetic, happy crowd who were all clearly loving Bondax as much as I was.
My night finished with a set by Seedy Sonics – who I had not come across previously – DJs hailing from Birmingham. Although I was on my ones by this point, the familiar sounds of Disclosure, Bashmore and Hot Since 82, made this a very enjoyable end to a very special night.