South West Four continues to go from
strength to strength, with increasingly impressive light shows –
and DJ sets -making this wonderful event an audio-visual feast for
dance music fans.
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That is helped significantly by
headliners Luke deadmau5, whose entire schtick is the awesome
marriage of breathtaking incandescent stage decor and whomping
synth-laden aural fodder.
But support acts also pitched in, with
Markus Schulz's terrific Dakota concept bringing visual storytelling
alongside his riff and bass heavy neotrance madness.
On Sunday's headliner – deadmau5 has
maintained a bleeding cool edge in an era of throwaway EDM and a
proliferation of festivals – much like SW4 itself.
His set was a tour de force uptempo
crowd pleasers like Ghosts N Stuff were tempered with euphoric
dreamstates like Phantoms Can't Hang, and some hip-hop and DJ
tool-like samples were thrown in as the Mau5 pitched it up as well as
down.
Deadmau5 makes you work, he won't throw
you euphoric bones track after track and the overall effect is that
he creates a mood, a nose-thumbing meta journey, where occasionally
you're in on the joke and occasionally you're the butt of it – but
you don't mind either way.
His set here was quite simply
fantastic.
I also particularly enjoyed Ferry
Corsten's set in The Gallery tent, where the Dutch maestro appeared
to revel a greater freedom to play his beloved trance to an equally
ecstatic crowd.
Honourable mention must also go to Gareth Emery.
The main stage was also busy throughout
as top talents like Martin Soveig, Example and DJ Wire and Sub Focus veered closer to the
overground.
But is simply too much to list in terms
of the stellar line-up, so I'll concentrate on my overriding
impressions.
South West Four has never felt so sure
of itself to me, it is how an event like this should be – no unnecessary gimmicks, just solid entertainment aimed squarely at the punters.
Long may this jewel in the summer crown
continue. 
