In its third iteration, Pitchfork Festival London was bigger than ever, taking place in 15 venues across the city, from bars with sticky floors to elegant churches and old theatres. The realities of the current political moment hung in the air, which many artists addressed during their concerts: MIKE chanted “Free Congo, free Sudan, free Palestine!” M(h)aol is asking people to donate whatever they can. Yaeji thanks people for taking the time to see her during a weekend of protests. Over six days, the genre-spanning festival showcased music's ability to provide a kind of connective tissue in difficult times. Here are some of the highlights.
Ryoji Ikeda – Barbican Centre, Wednesday 8 November
At times, Japanese frontman Ryoji Ikeda's set felt extremely violent. Taking place fittingly within the Brutalist architecture of the Barbican, it began with a piercing tinnitus-like ring that reached white noise, all backed by sharp black-and-white pixels that scattered behind Ikeda like static television. An audio-visual performance based on the 2022 album, hypertronically, the show moved between an industrial sound and something warmer with texture, sometimes atmospheric and sometimes more clubby. The visuals—map-generated datasets, streams of digits flooding the screen, saturated orange explosions—added to the sense of apocalyptic digital friction.
Fly Anakin – EarthH Hall, Thursday 9 November
The current school of US underground rap can seem at odds with the energetic live show: These are artists who entertain with smears, stoned productions and intricate, introspective flows, not the heavy hooks and beats you associate with a rowdy crowd. Virginia rapper Fly Anakin's set challenged that notion. In between songs, he downed tequila shots and even tried to see how many push-ups he could do in a row (36, in case you were wondering). As the quickfire bars of “Sean Price” ran through him right after that exercise, he started laughing at his own voice control: “I had to hold my breath like a mom! Lung capacity!”
