Montreux Jazz Festival to the rescue! With the release of their bumper crop of free gigs at the Montreux Jazz Cafe, the venerable festival has just saved a previously pretty dull 2012 Swiss summer festival season – a round of well-deserved applause, if you please. You can check out the full free programme here, but these are my picks of the free gigs:
Best free gigs:
Poliça – One of my favourite albums of 2012. Channy Leaneagh’s auto-tuned vocals are particularly striking.
Alt-J – Electro-rock from the UK, current buzz band.
Django Django – Ditto.
First Aid Kit – One of the best live acts I’ve seen this year. The Swedish sisters have glorious voices, and their moving, intimate indie folk is a joy.
Active Child – Gentle American dream/indie pop.
Niki and the Dove – Dramatic Swedish electro pop/rock.
Other Lives – I’ve been trying to see them for what seems like years. Now’s my chance!
Best paid gigs:
Alabama Shakes – Brittany Howard’s voice is an earth-shaking wonder.
Kimbra – Yes, yes, we know that she is the girl from the Gotye song, but did you know she is rather brilliant in her own right? And she’s a Kiwi, too (that gives her bonus brownie points in my book!
Janelle Monae – Aside from her vertiginous hair, her polished, professional R&B/soul is a prime example of the genre.
Bastian Baker – Saw only a brief glimpse of his set at m4music this year, very likeable pop music.
Lana Del Ray – ‘Video Games’, anyone?
Woodkid - did a pretty awesome theme song for Assassin’s Creed last year, has been touring with Lana Del Ray all year.
Check out the full free programme of the Montreux Jazz Cafe here, and the full paid programme here.
The Montreux Jazz Festival 2012 runs between 29 June – 14th July 2012. Tix here.
