Panorama 2017
Festival guide
Head to Randall's Island Park in NYC from July 28th to 30th to catch a line-up that truly offers a "panorama" of what's going on in contemporary music, be that hip hop from Tribe and Vince Staples, or heritage indie like Belle & Sebastian and Spoon. Here's our pick of the bill.
Frank Ocean
Though once simply a little-known ghostwriter, Californian Frank Ocean has become nothing short of an R&B superstar - if a very enigmatic, elusive one. And that's precisely why you need to see him: prone to cancelling shows, it's worth seizing the opportunity to catch Ocean and his brand of quiet, strange dream pop. The sets that he's played this year are reported to have been beautiful from both a sonic and visual perspective, drawing heavily from last year's gorgeous Blonde. Needless to say, we reckon this performance should be quite magical.
Spoon
One of Austin's finest exports, four-piece Spoon have - through a variety of line-up changes - consistently made exquisite, twinkly indie rock since the early 90s. Their most recent album, Hot Thoughts, was as acclaimed as ever, but saw a slight change to the formula: namely, the addition of spiralling electronic textures , lending their sound a strange new downbeat modernity and bluesy lushness. Topped with front man Britt Daniels' gravelly, imploring vocals, this show is likely to reaffirm just why Spoon's music is as fresh as ever.
Vince Staples
The self-professed "Norf Norf soldier" (he's from North Long Beach), Vince Staples has just released his glorious second album. Following up from highly-acclaimed Summertime 06, as well as mixtape Prima Donna, Big Fish Theory sees him continuing his streak of searing, politically-charged lyrics over exquisite production - this time around with an especially UK garage-style sound that feels perfect for a humid dance floor. If you're interested in catching one of the most fascinating and intelligent hip hop artists that 2017 has to offer, you'll want to get to this.