Initial thoughts on the preliminary 2011 Roskilde line up.

Arctic Monkeys.

So, one of the most interesting press conferences of the year for me came and went, with me cursing my internet connection for bailing on me constantly - what a joy!


Anyway, roll the drums - I must say I am a bit disappointed with the poster so far this year, but I concede that there are a lot of names that might be interesting when they're explored a bit more. I guess it can't always be as easy as it was last year, where the line-up more or less looked like had I myself been booking. But then again, 2010 was fucking ace, and won't be beaten until Sigur Rós, Jamiroquai, The Knife, Daft Punk and Manu Chao all show up at the same time.


First of all though, I'm extremely pleased to see Arctic Monkeys and The Strokes included among the headliners. I regretfully missed out on the former in 2007, queuing for Muse (I don't regret queuing for Muse though), and I just hope their new album, Suck It And See, will be on par with their three former ones. In any case, there's a good chance Arctic Monkeys will be way atop my list this summer, they are after all one of my favorite bands, and although I don't have the same relationship to them, The Strokes won't be far off. Did you lot by the way check out Arctic Monkeys' new single, which surfaced yesterday? Be sure to do, it's called 'Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair'!


Regarding the other headliners, M.I.A. is the one that excites me the most - it's gonna be very interesting to see what she'll pull off on (presumably) Orange.


Otherwise, the tendency that strikes me the most this year is the startling abundance of world music acts. Now, I am totally in favor of Roskilde embracing almost every genre known to man, and it is easily one of my key arguments when defending Roskilde in a discussion. But still, I do think the number of African and Latin American acts is just a wee bit over the top this year - I mean, we are still predominantly a rock music festival, aren't we? Whether or not I'll check any of it out will totally depend on the band schedule. An interesting part of the African field though is Dane Frisk Frugt, who garnered bloody rave reviews for his album last year.


On the other hand, the emphasis on hip-hop and heavy metal this year doesn't bother me much. Both the hip-hop and especially the metal enthusiasts are big cohorts of the audience in its entirety, and given that they had to live with last year's indie overload, I guess it's probably deserved that these genres each get a pretty fair share of the program this time around. I must admit though, it narrows my field of potential concerts somewhat.

Deadmau5.

The electronic scene, after a bit of an off year in 2010, is also back strong, and here are a few names I am very delighted to see. First and foremost, I missed out on Deadmau5 two years ago, and although I'm surprised he's back so soon, I'm gonna make it my business getting to see him this time around. Magnetic Man, although a bit toward the mainstream for the dubstep-connoisseur, is also a welcome addition, and will surely be the bomb. There are also a number of acts I'm gonna have to do some more research on, chiefly Gold Panda, DJ/Rupture and Matthew Dear.


A few of the past year's big hype names from each side of the Atlantic, James Blake and How To Dress Well, are also announced. I'm not really big into either of them, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna check out Blake anyway.


Then there's a lot of this these days pretty omnipresent Scandinavian pop. It's very amiable, but god do I miss some bite sometimes! I am however looking very much forward to The Tallest Man On Earth, whereas Lykke Li and Oh Land are slightly middle-of-the-road in my books, although I might check one or both of them out. Some other interesting names to check out from this corner include One Little Indian product Ólöf Arnalds, who seems very pleasant at first listen, and Swedish duo Little Marbles (Pavilion Jr.), although the latter might be disproportionately advantaged by the innate Danish desire to screw everything with two X-chromosomes that speaks Swedish...

Battles at Roskilde 2008.

So, what isn't there a lot of? Well, you guessed it - indie rock. This is where I'm slightly disappointed. I'm not gonna start to namedrop the plethora of acts that could have improved the line-up in this direction (OK, I will mention Arcade Fire), but there is indeed room for improvement. Luckily, this is one of the genres that often benefits from the drip-drop releases that are going to continue through the next few months. Still, Foals and Battles are gonna be very high on my list this year. I've seen both before, and especially Battles are gonna have a hard time topping their epic show in 2008 - it all depends on how their new album, Gloss Drop, pans out though. Foals is just one of the bands I've been digging most consistently through the winter, and I'm happy to see them included. Other than that, I've just ordered The Walkmen's well-acclaimed album from last year, Lisbon. I'm not big into neither Tame Impala nor Surfer Blood, and beyond them, the cupboard really is pretty bare. Room for improvement here, Roskilde!