Grouper

That was refreshing.

Each year we seem to have an ambient artist on Sunday afternoon just when I'm starting to lose it from music overload and need the mental equivalent of a long soak in the tub.

This year, Grouper played the role admirably. Unlike most ambient/noise artists, vocals play a large role in Grouper's sound. She combines delicate unearthly singing into the warm wash of reverberant guitar and noise that forms the basis of so much of this type of music. The result sounds just a hint like something from the Twin Peaks soundtrack, like Angelo Badalmenti and Julee Cruise dunked into a bath of static.

Now we've got Mattress. I thought he was going to be starting imminently, but now he's crawling around the stage whispering "the music is lost" into the microphone. I think that's a sign of technical difficulties rather that the actual start of his set, but I can't be totally sure. I'll have to go in for a closer look to confirm...