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  • Sonar Festival

  • By Patrick Welch

    Posted: Tue May 9 2006

  • Next month 90,000 of the great and good of electronica will descend on Barcelona, for what promises, unsurprisingly, to be another stonkingly eclectic and original festival. A truly international three days from top to tail, which is surely what keeps it so fresh, Sónar‘s been all over the place, from Tokyo to Buenos Aires, and continues to build on its reputation as the world‘s most important electronic music festival

    Sonar Festival

    DJ Krush will play this year's festival

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    Like its host city, the festival is innovative, hedonistic and, above all, stylish (even the website’s a creative’s net-dream). And the fact that Barcelona blends together the old and new with such flair is reflected in the line-up, which, while focusing firmly on the future, also pays homage to dance music’s history and influences. This year the festival concentrates on black music and the Japanese dance scene, and ranges from respected, well-known names (Satoshi Tomiie, Rahzel, DJ Krush) to the newest of the new – there’s much excitement about DJ Shadow’s showcasing of new West Coast rap sound ‘Hyphy'.

    A certain professionalism does permeate the festival; for some, Sónarday is as much an industry schmooze as the awesome multimedia forum it’s supposed to be. But, let’s be fair, any networking is balanced out, if not slightly put to shame, by Sónarnight – the most almighty rave. Small label parties in clubs like Moog and Loft are a fun alternative if the festival proper gets a little overwhelming. Or if in doubt, you can always hit the beach.

    See www.sonar.es for more. Barcelona, Spain June 15-17

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