our true intent

Despite the fact that I have way too much work to do, I hopped across the road to Pure Groove (thankfully, I only live round the corner) tonight for a screening of the newish ATP (All Tomorrow's Parties or the uninitiated) documentary. I didn't think I'd be that crazy for it as it's just a bunch of random clips from a music festival. I know of the festival, obviously, but I've never been so I didn't know if I'd connect with the film or if it would only really work for those who've been to ATP. Thankfully, it was a fabulous film - it succeeded in completely pumping me up about the experience and as soon as I got home I started looking for tickets.

The doc is composed of basically three different types of clips: footage from holiday camps in the 50s and 60s (the festival is held in an out-of-season holiday camps), band performances, and random happenings around the festival. The music is amazing, with so many good bands making brief cameos: Les Savy Fav / Mogwai / Gossip / Octopus Project / GZA / The Dirty Three / Battles / Portishead / Daniel Johnston / Nick CAve / Seasick Steve. Apart from the performances, the best bits of the film were the random clips of spontaneous jam sessions breaking out in a room or on the beach or in the street, people falling down and just being generally ridiculous - a picture of this super chilled out atmosphere emerges where it seems like everyone attending is REALLY into their music.

Bit of a shame that the trailer doesn't give more away - you can't really get a sense of how good the docu is, but I suppose you get a sense of the fun.

If you're in London, you can check it out on the 4th of December at Bocking Street Warehouse.