Sunday 3 September 2017

VIDEOS: South West Four 2017 Review and Pictures

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.