Actually, the sidebar is in the next post (stupid tag limit).
Or perhaps there is no brand. The festival as a whole is more about being open-minded and open-eared than any specific group of styles and genres, meaning that not every act is challenging. Société Étrange use bass, drums and electronics to create dubby burbling which is like To Rococo Rot with the krautrock froideur replaced by a cheery warmth: this is friendly music that would invite you in for tea and ensure you had the last piece of cake (Kick out the jam sponges! Release the battenburgs!). Also liable to become your sonic best friends are Dean Rodney Jr & The Cowboys, whose summery grooves and golden stetson could enliven any shindig, whilst Shovel Dance Collective are a brilliant British folk outfit who could inspire jigs and singalongs in any village hall, whilst reminding us just how many of our nation’s traditional songs are about celebrating the downtrodden and oppressed. Possibly most enjoyable of all are Dischi, an urban pop duo from Manchester who bring unbounded fun to their light bouncy backing tracks in a style that might recall Althea & Donna, Daphne & Celeste, and Fun Boy Three all at once. But if that sounds too mainstream, the little Queef Qult stage reliably delivers a diet of queer cabaret and DJs playing absolute certified bangers all weekend, or you can make some masks with a proxy Lord Summerisle ready for a midnight screening of The Wicker Man.
Perhaps as a result of the non-hierarchical nature of Supernormal, where performers become audience members, and punters become collaborators, the crowds seem to naturally intuit the right response to any set. So, Thomas Stone’s refined contrabassoon pieces are met by a quiet contemplative audience (excluding a dragonfly who is buzzing madly against the Barn’s window, and that somehow merges wonderfully with the automated rattling snare sounds); people laugh at Feghoot’s preposterous performance (one person tries to play keyboard, the other tries to fuck it up, genius simplicity); they dance to the wry literate indie funk of Comfort which merges Sultans of Ping FC with LCD Soundsystem; and go batshit bonkers to the industrial techno of Samuel Kerridge. Then they do all of these at once for Pink Siifu & The NEGRO ALIVE’! Experience (sic), because they’re a Jameson-guzzling collision between Funkadelic, Public Enemy, and Rage Against The Machine, with a little Snoop Dogg snakiness to the vocals to keep big grins present, on- and offstage.
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