Gorillaz triumphs with their shining 'in memoriam' at Primavera Sound

BarcelonaAlthough the britpop war with Oasis has condemned Damon Albarn to always be the-singer-of-Blur in the collective imagination, the fact is that his parallel project Gorillaz has much more following, or at least that's what the 40.8 million monthly followers on Spotify suggest, compared to Blur's 14.4 million. The main stage of this Saturday's Primavera Sound made it clear that this experiment of creating a musical collective with a lowered ego and that visually expresses itself with Jamie Hewlett's drawings has been successful: the esplanade known as Mordor overflowed with an audience that wanted to join Albarn's particular proposal.

Gorillaz also came to present a peculiar album. The mountain is the result of a spiritual journey to India after both Albarn and Hewlett lost close members of their families. What makes it special, beyond the use of traditional Indian instrumentation, are the multiple collaborations of deceased people who had collaborated with the project at some point. From discarded scraps, new songs have been made that were showcased on Saturday. This is how, for example, Mark E. Smith, the leader of The Fall, was heard again at Primavera Sound with the song Delirium. Singer Asha Bhosle was able to record her participation while alive, but she passed away last month at the age of 92, so when they performed the luminous The shadowy light with her recorded part, an emotional tribute was paid to her.

Despite this backdrop of death, neither the album nor its live incarnation had any funereal tone, but rather the vibrant notes of acceptance and celebration. Surprisingly, this latest collection of songs, more reflective and meditative, combined well with the more festive, danceable, and singalong wardrobe staples. Rhinestone eyes, Stylo or Clint Eastwood even ignited the furthest spectators from the stage. Little Simz, who had performed her concert a while earlier, took the opportunity to join the party and sing Garage Palace, which the band had not yet debuted live.

With this show, Damon Albarn is definitely growing up. This is a mature show, although from time to time you can guess that mischievous look from when he was confined to English indie with Blur and jumped around like crazy in the video for Song 2Last year, the Irish played in front of a sparse crowd of a thousand people at Sala ApoloFeel Good Inc. If anyone saw a Mr. Scrooge leaving in a hurry, know that it was only professional duty.

Because at three o'clock Kneecap started on the other side of the venue. The Irish played last year in front of a scarce thousand people at Sala Apolo, as they recalled, so they experienced it as a success to have decupled their audience in such a short time. The responsible party is the second studio album from this trio, which once again combines strong political messages with techno beats full of tension and threat. The title of the work, Fenian, is a pejorative term that unionists used to refer to Catholics, but the band reclaims it precisely to reverse its negative connotation and recover the original meaning of the word, which designated a legendary warrior from national mythology.

Irish complicity

With all this context, it's not hard to understand that Kneecap opened the concert with an unequivocal “Visca Catalunya!” on stages where most of the time it hasn't gone beyond some Houla Españia!”. And, in case it wasn't clear enough, the traditional balaclava with the colors of the Irish flag that DJ Próvaí usually wears when he drops his beats during the first few minutes had the yellow and red of the Catalan flag. Towards the end of the performance, they even let out a “Puta Espanya”, but immediately said it was a joke, that they didn't want trouble, as they'd had enough: Mo Chara, one of the singers, was accused of glorifying terrorism for having displayed a Hizbollah flag at a concert in London. He was acquitted and the experience was captured in the song Carnival, which was not played on Saturday. There is no record of the Court having taken any action, in any case, for outraging something.

Just as happened with Gorillaz, there was also a courtesy visit here: that of Grian Chatten, from compatriots Fontains DC, to sing Better way to live together. And that of the son of Marwan Barghouti were some of the most celebrated topics.

Get your brits out, H.O.O.D, or Smuggles & Scholars were some of the most celebrated.

The warm coldness of The xx

In a very different, zero hysterical and much more chill register, The xx sounded clean and crystalline again on the marine platform. The merit of the band of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim and Jamie Smith is to use a very limited palette of colors and sounds, but nevertheless to keep growing a catalog of these delicate miniatures with prominent bass. Despite the minimalism, the velvety voices, both hers and his, transmit a very particular warmth. Crystalised, Say something loving, Islands and Angels opened the recital and set a very grateful tone to degrease before and after other much denser musical proposals. A glass of iced still water, that someone puts in your hands just when you need that cool sip.