were beyond dreadful. i didn't see rosie red rash but from what others said, it would be a close run thing for worst band of the weekend

but the GZA was the best thing all day on saturday. Props to the guy in front of me and Joey who looked like Ben Warn and spent half the set shouting WU WU WU and making a W sign with his hands.

Best thing of the weekend for me was probably Boris, the aforementioned rapper or Fuck Buttons, who were absolutely stupendous.

Sunn O))) were either the best thing I've ever seen, or the worst. I really don't know. Plus they had a fight on stage apparently.

Julian Cope is quite clearly completely insane based on his 10 minute monologue where he claimed to have spoken with DH Lawrence and then offered everyone "amphetamine pessaries up the pyschic jacksie" before leaving the stage by saying "gentlemen, if you have a lady on your arm, take her home and give her a good seeing to....and think of me while you do". I dread the idea of anyone actually doing that.

Oh and Jamie did a vom during aphex twin.

Highs

Fuck Buttons (Friday set)
Oneida
Autolux
OM
Earth
Team Brick

Lows

Jerry Sadowitz
Rosie Red Rash
Malakai

highlights:

Portishead
Boris
Oneida
Autolux
Om
Earth
John Cooper Clarke
Hawk And Hacksaw
Gza
Thurston
Sunn OOOOOOOOOOOOO))))
Fuck Buttons (on sunday, best time i've seen em)

lows:
aphex twin fan sporting a beard warmer and cornrows.
combination of alcohol + om + aphex causing me to go vomit. commendable rock action.

tired.

did Portishead play?

And did Oneida play Sheets of Easter?

Fuck Buttons
Boris
Portishead (I shouldn't like them but I did)
Aphex Twin
Paranoid Critical Revolution (after Glenn Branca left the stage)
GZA

Disappointing -

Autolux
Om
Oneida

anymore. tinnitus is bad.

that's what I get for seeing Boris, Earth, Sunn O))), atavist, blood island raiders and aphex twin in a row I suppose......

Good:
Julian Cope's deranged monologue
Sunn O)))
Jerry Sadowitz was the best thing all weekend. I don't understand all the haterz ie on the notes board and in the audience - humourless twats. The man is a true legend. Should have done more magic though.
John Cooper Clarke
Jah Shaka Soundsystem. I never thought there would be a day when I would enjoy reggae and shuffle my feet to it/
OM
Crippled Black Phoenix, forgiving the odd foray into cheese territory.

Bad:
Most of Julian Cope's set when he was actually doing music. Shockingly shit
I enjoyed Aphex Twin it didn't exactly live up to the billing. And those stupid crusty dancers he had up on stage can fuck off.
Boris was pretty disappointing I thought. Didn't really get going and just felt a bit half-hearted.
My bank balance.

All in all it was a big improvement on last year's NBC. Much more variety in the acts which made it feel the way it should.

highs:

Oneida
GZA !
Boris
Earth
The Horrors (though we only saw part of their set)
Portishead
Fuck Buttons

Lows:

Julian Cope and his 'cock-rock'

Not the best ATP ever but awesome none the less.

Amazing bands:

Chrome Hoof
GZA
OM
Oren Ambarchi

Bad bits:

Aphex Twin alot of middling to fair tunes and alot of wank d'n'b.

Madlib, he was embarrassingly wasted and put fuck all effort in. His rapping was slurred and all over the place and he did fuck all when it came to the live shit section.

My only major criticism is that i didn't really discover any new bands, all of the ones I hadn't heard of turned out to be pretty shit/dull.

Note to self, book a coach to get to Taunton next time. Worst journey ever. :(

Highlights:
GZA
Chrome Hoof
Sivler Apples (80 year old dude surrounded by synths = winner)
Malcolm Middleton
Black Mountain
Dancing for 2 and a half hours to Aphex Twin in my coat.
Oneida
John Cooper Clarke
Some other things

Disappointments:
Sparklehorse
Madlib being boring and sloppy
The cold
Forgetting my earplugs
Being mistaken for one of The Horrors

The End.

That was ace, much better than last Christmas though I didn't really discover any new bands.

The good

Aphex Twin on Saturday
Oneida
Autolux
Chrome Hoof
Portishead (Friday)
Boris
Fuck Buttons last night
The chalet party that went on till 9 this morning
John Copper Clark

The Bad

Sparklehorse being so dull :(
The Horrors
Earth boring me shitless
Missing Crippled Black Phoenix and Team Brick because I needed a nap
Taking dodgy drugs
The journey home (I've just got in having left my chalet at 10am)

award for being everywhere all the time goes to Damo Suzuki.

also, Kasabian were there. looking angry that no one wanted their autographs/sex.

its hit me the sleepness. i can barely hear and im drunk from the train journey back... fuck that was SUCH a good ATP. one of the best ones i have been to.
highlights:
aphex on sunday
portishead on friday
getting refused entry to reds by admitting to being drunk
colin greenwood spotting
sunn 0)))s comedy show
glenn branca on friday

and now i feel like i am going to die... or drink more...

What a great weekend. Sunn o))) were great (in spite, of the fire alarms and inter-band punch up), as were Kling Klang who no-one seems to have mentioned, and of course who can not like Chrome Hoof? Portishead were good but as these things tend to go, the new material is hard to judge live and it was the old stuff that got everyone cheering. JCC delivered a great performance, and we enjoyed The Heads too... far out, will have to pick up their album. Most of the bands we saw on the main Pavillion stage had awful sound: was it any better nearer the front?

The only real downside of the weekend were our neighbours who decided to stay up playing loud music til 5am this morning... twats... I must be getting old.

Had a long drive back to London (must...stay...awake...) but at least we didn't get stuck in traffic like we did on the way down, and by the sounds of it, we were still home before some people made it to Taunton!

Finally, did anyone pick up a "The Resonance Association" promo CDs? We pinned a load to the message wall and they kept disappearing, which was good (or shows that anyone will take free stuff), the rest we gave away Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and some before Atavist and Chrome Hoof. One guy who I gave a CD too looked as though no-one had ever given him anything for free his whole life, bless him. I was just glad no-on told us to fuck off hahahahaha

Autolux, Julian Cope, Earth, John Cooper Clarke, Om and Jerry Sadowitz were the highlights. Sadowitz in particular was unbelievably funny.

The Horrors reached cringe-inducing levels of lameness, and that's coming from someone who thought they were alright when I'd seen them before. Impressively, Rosie Red Rash were even worse. Boris and Sunn O))) were dissapointing. Aphex Twin sucked a big one.

GZA! More Hip Hop at ATP please. Clipse or Three Six Mafia would be very welcome indeed.

Sunn O))) - Amazing, as ever. Does anyone know what happened at the end? Was it staged or real?

John Cooper Clarke - Cutting through the bullshit of everything from Haikus to Transvestites, and absolutely hilarious with it. Should be a fixture at every ATP from now on.

Glenn Branca/Paranoid Critical Revolution - Reg Bloor is my new hero. Breathtaking.

Honorary mentions to Boris, Om, Earth, Fuck Buttons, Oren Ambarchi and Julian Copes ending monologue.

Disappointments:
Portishead - I enjoyed their set, but not as much as i'd hoped.

Aphex Twin - See above. Lots of white people with dreadlocks dancing badly didn't help either.

Silver Apples - At times amazing (especially "Program"), at others embarrassing. Reminded me a little of John Shuttleworth at points.

The scheduling was pretty poor, especially on sunday. Missed Damo, Madlib, Thurston and Jerry Sadowitz because of it.

The shitty weather really inhibited the party vibe, far too cold to go hunting for chalet parties.

Considering the cinema is programmed in conjuntion with the ICA, the selection of films on offer were pretty uninspired.

Worst of all, we had no ATP TV guide, and really bad reception! I've wanted to see "Little Dieter Needs To Fly" for ages now, managed to miss the first half :(

kept spotting Greenwood, C?

Easily my favourite band of the weekend, I really wasn't expecting it either.

Portishead and Madlib were disappointments, Playing on House of the Dead 3 seemed more interesting than Portishead, so I went for that instead.

Madlib had moments of greatness, but he's such an average MC... and the Quasimoto stuff really didn't work well without the pitch shifting on the vocals. Seriously ace drummer though.

Seasick Steve was really great, enjoyed that so much.

Portishead, natch.
Aphex Twin - broad range of different styles mixed together well and thankfully the crowd got properly into it after about half an hour too. I got the impression some people were expecting 2 hrs of 'intelligent' stuff and beats you can't dance to. Which would have been fucking awful. No idea what it was like on Saturday
GZA - Would have taken away my prize for 'most overrated Wu Tang member' comfortably before that but that was a storming set.
Chrome Hoof - just great fun really.
Jerry Sadowitz - utterly fucking hilarious. Not at all offensiveness replacing jokes like I feared it might be and if my ultra-liberal-PC-feminist girlfriend can see that its all an act then no ones really got an excuse. The wanking onstage finale may have been a bit much though I admit.
Still being drunk - we had a lot of beer left over and I didn't want to carry it home from the station. It was a matter of practicality really.

Honourable mentions to Jah Shaka, Boris, Thurston Moore and Sunn O)))

Disappointments

Silver Apples - was glad to see what I did but after a while it all got a bit samey.

Earth - really dull.

Madlib - woeful performance. It was better when the DJ was on his own just doing his thing scratching and mixing up loads of jazz stuff. And what was with them constantly quizzing us on what hip hop we know? At least I realised quickly that it wasn't going to get any better and got to catch the last 20 minutes of Sunn O)))

Ricky Hatton losing.

Weather - couldn't the wind, just once, have blown in the direction I was going and not in my face?

Train delays - self explanatory really. Stung a fair bit too when they said that all seat reservations had been cancelled so I ended up having to hunch up against the toilet until some seats freed up.

First ATP I've been to and yer damn right I want to go back.

But am i the only one in the thinking the line up was pretty shit?