In returning to Womad 2024 there’s an echo of that joy felt in childhood, of revisiting a favourite place where all will be well. You’ll have a blast and feel safe knowing you’re in good hands. I’d have snorted at this as a teenager but these days the arrangement suits me fine. The global sweep of the music is full of surprise and delight and I also love the impeccable manners of everyone, the small but idyllic layout of the site, the dependable food (this year, I lived almost entirely on South Indian fare at the superb Madras Cafe) and the tasty ales. No Tuborg junta here.
WOMAD 2024
One stand-out for me this year was actually British, the duo O, on Saturday night. Baritone saxophonist Joseph Henwood and drummer Tash Keary quickly get down to it, kicking up a noise of improvised jazz-rock – or rock-jazz – folding both genres in on each other and all helped along with dark electronic treatments. Unable to make Friday’s Young Fathers headline set, this twisted treat made up for it.
I was expecting similar thrills from indie rockers Deerhoof earlier in the day. The band are darlings Radio 6 Music and turn 30 this year, but their overwhelming cleverness left me underwhelmed. The virtuoso display of genre melding, time and key changes felt centreless to me. The Observer describe Deerhoof as “the best prog-rock, post-punk, Afro-Oriental, art-pop, folk-jazz band in the world”. Quite.
Brittany Davis / 79ers Gang
I had a better time that afternoon over in the Siam Tent with songwriter Brittany Davis, who self describes as blind, and heads a tough little band who dole out hard funk, back Brittany’s soulful rapping and deeply felt, electro-blues noodling on her keyboard. Another act taking hip hop somewhere interesting is New Orleans’ 79ers Gang, who feature two “big chiefs” of rival Mardi Gras tribes. Using local rhythms to create superb, percussive, low-end grooves one takes in one’s stride, they received a lot of love on Sunday afternoon on the Open Air stage.
Taste The World
Over in the Arboretum, the mellow wooded area where one retires to chill (not that the festival is exactly hectic), it’s always interesting to check in at the Taste The World stage, where the bigger artists prepare home cooking and also perform. Minh, lead singer of Vietnamese band Saigon Soul Revival, does both simultaneously as she sings a traditional song and makes the street food nem (fried spring rolls). A busy day for Minh, as this followed a well-received show from her band who revive the influence that imported American music had on 60s-70s Saigon.
Pat Thomas / Bixiga 70
Another serious Saturday draw was the great Pat Thomas, who formed part of Ghana Special for Womad. Along with his Kwashibu Area Band, he was joined on the Open Air stage by Charles Amoah, best known for creating a discofied version of highlife in the 80s called “burger”. Beefed out with Afro-beat, this was expert stuff – seamless polyrhythmic funk that kept a big crowd grooving. West African sounds met those of Brazil the following afternoon in Bixiga 70 who hail from Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city. Featuring two drummers, they come at you like train, a hurtling force of brass and rhythm, like a derailed Duke Ellington big band. And you need to get up close to catch their sinuously complex percussion.
Alison Goldfrapp / Tarta Relena
After so much sweat and grit, Alison Goldfrapp – now solo, and offering up some lean, club-friendly synth-pop – felt a bit sterile. She was warmly received but didn’t quite ignite the Siam Tent on Saturday night. However, Strict Machine and Ooh La La, two hits from her former band, did raise a cheer. Wandering over to the Charlie Gillett stage, my late Saturday night show was Catalan duo Tarta Relena. These two young female vocalists “exhume the ancient folk songs from around the Mediterranean basin”, especially those of Corsica, Crete and the Balearic islands, and they filled the cooling Wiltshire night with their ethereal voices, accompanied only by a laptop with its swatch of beats and pulses. While impossible to understand, their performance carried a deep sense of yearning and loss.
Gong
I rounded off the weekend in the company of French legends Gong. Formed in 1967, the band could be described as a founder of progressive rock, and are now led by the irrepressible Kavus Torabi on lead guitar, who also deejays with former snooker world champ Steve Davis. Their distinctive way with a tune often gives way to flat-out space-rock jamming, sometimes with jazzy elements or bizarre goblin-like voices thrown in, and while perhaps not as intense now as in their early 70s heyday, they were still satisfyingly mad.
Thank you, Womad. See you next year.
Main image: Nana Benz du Togo at WOMAD 2024, credit Ryley Morton. WOMAD 2024 was from 25 to 28 July. Details of Womad 2025 will appear here.
