Click to download: Pump up the volume

Did you think Reading festival was too quiet? No such problems online, says Chris Salmon


There was much grumbling at last weekend's Reading festival that the main stage speakers weren't turned up loud enough. But there are no such concerns at bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds, where you can literally crank the volume to 11 on extensive video highlights from across the weekend. The Prodigy, Radiohead and Enter Shikari are three main stage bands particularly worthy of a blast through your headphones, with any sound issues during that last act's set clearly not preventing total mayhem breaking out among the crowd. Kings of Leon, meanwhile, seemed convinced it was the Reading audience that wasn't loud enough, moaning about them throughout what actually appears to have been a warmly-received set. Certainly, their crowd look more animated than that of Arctic Monkeys, whose headline set was sprinkled rather too liberally with new songs.

In all, the BBC's site is offering highlights from more than 60 Reading sets until Monday morning. By comparison, filmed highlights from Notting Hill Carnival at bbc.co.uk/1xtra/carnival09 are limited to brief PAs by Bashy, Ms Dynamite and Princess Nyah. In the last two months, the BBC has now offered extensive coverage of three indie-rock festivals (with some acts featuring at all of them). Carnival's enormous range of sound systems and performers are surely overdue a comparable piece of the online action.

Also lacking in web coverage is Oasis's performance at the Weston Park leg of V festival. That, of course, turned out to be the band's final show. But the small army of Oasis bootleggers who congregate at fansite live4ever.us appear to have had their eyes off the ball, probably because Absolute Radio were due to broadcast the following night's Chelmsford show (which was then cancelled). So, while the site offers high-quality live recordings dating from 1994 right up to the band's V warm-up show at Bridlington Spa, there is nothing from Weston Park. You can, though, watch a decent fan's film of I Am the Walrus, the band's closing track, on YouTube at bit.ly/lastoasis.

While Oasis took their final bow as a Beatles covers band, minimal techno act Kids on DSP are set to genuinely push the boundaries of music by releasing their debut album solely in the terrific new RjDj format. You'll only be able play the album's atmospheric electro noodlings on an iPhone or iPod Touch, but the microphone capabilities of those devices allow you to completely shift and shape the music. As the duo explain in a YouTube video at bit.ly/rjdjvid, tracks gets louder in bustling environments and quieter when there's no background noise. Better still, if you talk, clap or whistle, it seamlessly makes your noise part of the track. Music doesn't get much more futuristic, or more fun, than this.

via l4e / theguardian.co.uk

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