Joe Clay
Attend an evening with Andre Agassi

It was a brave decision by Maps’ main man James Chapman to eschew the songs of his 2007 Mercury prize-nominated debut We Can Create in favour of offerings from Turning the Mind (his second album due in September), and one that didn’t quite pay off. The bulk of his 45-minute set was new to the audience, showcasing a stripped-back, darker electronic sound with echoes of the acid-house pioneers the Beloved and big on 4/4 techno beats and the portentous key changes of classic trance.
Vocally, Chapman channelled New Order’s Bernard Sumner, but reduced to a duo (with his rave-kid partner in crime, August), he neglected his duties as a frontman to focus on playing synths and drums, and thus missed making that vital connection with the crowd.
The Antibes-native Anthony Gonzalez of M83 had the perfect opportunity to demonstrate how it should be done, and did so. He opened with a blissfully indulgent elongated ambient synth odyssey that recalled Jean Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream crossed with the reverbed drones of Spiritualized, nurturing a palpable atmosphere of anticipation within a crowd that was by now primed and ready to go off. The presence on stage of a drum kit and additional keyboard and microphone suggested that a full band experience was imminent, and when Gonzalez strapped on his guitar to be joined by his bandmates (the ethereal vocalist Morgan Kibby and drummer Loïc Maurin), the night entered a completely new dimension.
The gothic and dreamy Graveyard Girl was incredible, followed by a billowing, majestic We Own the Sky. Kim and Jessie was pure celestial pop — like a Cocteau Twins soundtrack to a John Hughes film, and the first real sign that Gonzalez should have cracked the Top 20 by now.
But if ever a band saved the best for last it was M83 — Couleurs was a 3am Balearic classic in waiting, reminiscent of a François Kevorkian remix of a Depeche Mode track, perfect for closing an epic seven-hour DJ set in a sweaty Ibiza nightclub, and a fitting end to an impeccable set.
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