All condensed in some very intense 15 minutes, filmed with a flip camera.

If you are looking for the official all concerts of Melt professional high quality documentations, you can find it at 3min.de

This year, Goldie again was part of a legendary show: Skream, Lowqui and the godfather of DnB rocked the Dubstep floor massively on saturday. Watch Skream crowdsurfing in a video below. And with this year sunday being the last day of the festival, the big honour to close Melt 08 laid in the hands of Berlin Battery who had several last records until finally the gates had to close and everybody had to go home, to sleep, or to rock on at the Sleepless floor outside. Despite all the criticism coming down to Melt! this year, with such a frenetic finishing, it cannot have been such a bad festival..

by Jesus Presley

It has been the biggest Melt! festival so far with more than 20 000 visitors and three days of packed stages from rock to techno from bands to Djs. And things that grow hurt sometimes. It’s not easy to maintain the magic of a small festival with special bands if more and more people want to come and see it. It’s a big tease and a big challenge to let it grow, organize three days instead of two and produce a big show like the one Björk did on the last day, sunday.

by Jesus PresleyAnd it is a big responsibility not to spoil it over the ambition. So, many people were dissapointed by the organization, by the fact of having to wait so long to finally get in, to miss bands because venues were full or because schedules were changed or bands cancelled their gigs. And the heavy rain on the first day did not help at all either. But, there were so many great concerts! Like the dubstep parties with Caspah, Skream and, yes, Goldie (see picture above..), like cool and beautiful gigs by GusGus and Björk or the Battles (such crude music and such a warm audience) and over all to see so many beautiful and nice people from all over Europe having so much fun together.

So, before I want to tell my own story, here are some links so you can read for yourself what people blogged about the festival:
Mainstage , Rrrauschenlauschen: melt-2008-samstag-190708-fazit, Mocca-couture: Melt-2008, Fortschritt TV: Melt 2008 Review, Extrablau: Drei Tage krwach – wir feiern, Indiestreber: melt-2008-tut-mir-leid-wenn-ich-sage-fruher-war-alles-besser-aber-fruher-war-alles-besser/, Direkteingabe: Melt Erfahrungsbericht, Xdev: Melt 08 Festival, Plaiboi Melt Rückblick, Sonett 77, Sander S: Melt in Retrospect, Topfives: Besser schmelzen, Torsun: Die Stirn, Jetzt.de: Wir wollten unser letztes Melt.., Parkplatz Rave aufm Melt.

Especially in the Melt-Forum you can read a wide discussion about what went wrong and what should change next year. The nice thing about it is that many fans utter their discontent very openly but that the discussion never gets out of hands. If criticism is too harsh or exaggerated, there will instantly be discussion members who would soften things up to a serious level.

by Jesus PresleySo, getting to my own story: Actually, one of the dissapointments I could have prevented myself: Hercules and Love Affair were present on the festival, only the crew was still on their way from Berlin and would not have made it in time. But none of us had the idea to let the band play accoustic or in any other way to with the help of th festival crew! Why? I don’t know. And things got so hectic that I did not get on stage to tell the audience that Alter Ego were going to play instead. Afterwards I did, but that was definitely too late. Bugger. I had not expected this and was not sharpminded enough to make the right decisions. Apart from that, “my” stage, the Gemini stage was great. Mr Oizo rocked, distorted massively but he and the crowd had a good time. Feadz lost a Flat Eric toy but got it back, thanks to the note we printed out which you can see here. the whole Get physical crew (Booka Shade and M.A.N.D.Y.) did a good job and people danced on the wooden floor. That thing, by the way was tricky: If you just stood still, it swung so hard, it made you dance automatically!

Sunday I was also responsible for the Gemini stage which organized itself more or less: Berlin Battery rocked several hours and did a great closing show for this years Melt! I’ll post a video later in which you can see that despite all the justified criticism this year’s Melt cannot have been so bad!

So, I’ll be there next year, too, with more whit and preparation and so will everybody else who organizes this, in my eyes, still Germany’s greatest festival.

I don’t know which artists I am going to take care of this time, I’ll post it as soon as I know. But everything about the line up, maps, tickets, pics and videos you can find in the Melt! (blog me) SITE below. Repost it at your blog (just click “blog me”), Myspace or Facebook and take the chance to win tickets!

The Melt! (blog me) SITE is a product by PANORAMA3000 for Melt!

So it’s all about concerts and which band is able to really give the people a good time and makes them tell their friends and come back the next time. Music is a service, more than ever.

A band who is able to rock it every time are Mike Skinner aka the Streets and his musicians. Wednesday evening, a sponsored concert brought about 1500 people to an open air venue and after a little chilly start everybody got into a great mood and danced and hugged each other to get a little warmer. Thumbs up for Mike Skinner!

Yesterday, I missed Polarkreis18 AGAIN! Damn, but these boys play and play and actually here is a little concert (again, by Sli-Fi, these people have a LOT of stuff on the net..)

So what’s the program? Tonight: Trentemöller at Maria and Sonar Kollektiv, at Tape and saturday Pokerflat night at Watergate and Sunday, well, if the weather stays as great as it did these days, there will be some open air after hour like the Stadtfest or the Karneval for sure..

Nice footage, nice streaming and a nice player, I must say.

Picture by LotteLenya

It’s interesting: Two years ago, I was one of a few people who wrote about the Melt! festival and one a few people who posted their festival pictures on Flickr. YouTube didn’t exist back then. Last year, there were tons of pictures and videos. And this year, there are even many, many blog posts about this amazing festival on an extraordinary site, not to forget the Melt-forum which has an impressive way of self organization – one half of the people bitches about prices, the growing size, quality of the music and the other half defends their favorite festival with enthusiasm. So I watched many many videos on YouTube, scanned Flickr and the blogosphere just to get you the best and most relevant material on this year’s issue of one of the greatest festivals on the planet.

“…ein unerwarteter Schub von rechts und schon liege ich. Alle großen Momente meines Lebens (Fummeln bevor Anatomie in Bio drankam, der erste Jägermeister, Pilzragout auf’m Dorffest) ziehen nochmal vor meinem Auge entlang. Doch dann zieht mich die Hand, deren Anhängsel gerade für mein Fallen verantwortlich war, mit einem Lächeln wieder hoch. I can feel the community!”
Read the whole hilarious review at Wertaufholer [via Andreas]

So how was Melt X, the 10th issue of this tasty in-between indie and electronic music festival on a peninsula surrounded by gigantic machines? Overwhelming and amazing again I must say. I worked most of the time but it would be a lie to say that my job is not a great one. Taking care of the musicians as they come and wander around with their mouths open to see the venue and then get blown away by the audience. Few don’t get excited by that. Unfortunately Kelis was one of them. Let herself drive to the stage (20 meters..) and then sing like a man and move like a crash test dummy. Biggest disappointment.

And I felt a little bad for Snap! who had to play six o’clock in the morning after Deichkind had totally rocked out the energy of the crowd. So when “Rhythm is a dancer” set in, everybody just had to leave. Too bad, really. Opinions to Deichkind differ – some thought it was a little boring, the same show in the third year but thousands of enthusiastic people can’t lie and actually the band put more effort in the costumes and the show than ever. They always start many hours before stagetime and handicraft themselves into madness. I very much enjoyed the show this year again (which might also be connected to the many vodkas I had to drink in a very short time – boss’ order, what can you say).

Deichkind – Bon voyage:

“Melt Festival… OMG! What an amazing location for a rave/dance party, out in the middle of nowhere, amongst a heap of gigantic, massive, old, rusting, industrial, mining, digging, steal processing machines, all lit up with fantastic lighting, excellent sound and lighting everywhere, market stalls, diverse music line-up, lots of food and snacks, and cheap drinks.”
Read about a whole tour involving Melt, Tresor, Maria am Ufer, Berghain/Panorama Bar AND Knut in only three days at decoded_

Ok, but who was the best on the festival? Goose definitely rocked so unbelievably hard that I thought the roof was coming of. Such a perfect mix of rock and electro that blew everybody away. Best sound award goes to Trentemöller. He just put out a gigantic blanket of bass and melody over the crowd and everybody who expected club madness was surprised and delighted to be carried away by such a dubby experience. Polarkreis18 surely lived up to the expectations being one of the most interesting young German bands. I just hope they don’t get tired of all the playing and always delivering such an emotional performance.
Best entertainer: Dendemann. Even for those who don’t like Hiphop he did a good show with lots of head nodding and booty shaking.

Polarkreis18:

Goose – Ultimate Heavy Electro-Rock Alarm:

Trentemöller Dubby Drum club experience:

Two bands I did not see but listened to because I had to work, were Black Rebel Motorcycle Club who had a bright and fat sound but somewhat seemed to be a little fed up and overplayed. And then there were the Shout Out Louds who sounded like The Cure – great! Hot Chip surprised not only me but a lot of people. Disco-popping into the sunset. I personally very much liked Werle & Stankowski with their very unique mix of singer-songrwriter tunes, electro background and bluesy attitude. But there were so many great bands, impossible to mention them all. I subscribe to Tonspion’s view when they say:

“Wenn ihr wissen wollt wie der Jan Delay, der Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Shitdisco und Tocotronic waren, müsst ihr eure Freunde fragen. Sorry. Man kann nicht alles sehen, denn das Melt hat ein Luxusproblem: zuviel des Guten.”

But the unofficial, secret star of this festival certainly was Jake the Rapper. He played a live set and a DJ set one day later, he was always around, connecting and small talking and without him, I guess I had become target of a severe thunderstorm: Goldie in a bad mood.

The records and CDs of the charismatic entertainer, DJ, manager, writer and most of all godfather of Drum’n'Bass had been accidently transferred to London instead of Berlin (actually that happens quite often I must say). A DJ without music is a sad figure – what were we supposed to do? Thanks to Senuti and Jake’s Mac, Goldie could transfer many files from his iPod to Jake’s computer and burn seven cds. These he used for his three hour set and definitely made the people very, very happy. He was very happy himself, not to say enthusiastic: “You know when things go wrong like this and you have to improvise, that’s the best. Nothing new ever happens if you never have to improvise!” Said it, hugged me so hard I hardly could breathe and then ran off to meet Richie Hawtin (who he hadn’t met before). Climbed right on stage and hugged him as well. Very intense person, very charming and interesting. It was a pleasure to meet him, really.

Goldie and MC Lowqui begin:

and deliver:

Coming slowly to an end, I just want to pay credit to all the people who share their memory on the web, especially those who really made the effort to edit little movies about their Melt experience. There are many many interesting and cute documentaries out there.

While Justice/Simian Mobile Disco’s song “We are your friends” was the unofficial hit of the festival last year, this time it was Soulwax’s edit of the Klaxon’s song “Gravity’s rainbow“. I heard it over ten times in different locations, here, some people are dancing to it on the camping site:

Not everybody was so lucky:

“es kam was kommen mußte: Ich rutsche auf dem Arsch die Böschung hinunter bis ich im Schilf des Sees zum Stehen kam. Was für eine groteske Situation: 500 Meter hinter mir spielte gerade unüberhörbar Dizzie Rascal sein Set auf der Mainstage, während ich auf einmal in der Uferzone des Gremminer Sees eine Fangopackung genoß.” from Reality on the rocks

Here’s a short video about Red Bull’s music academy activities, very interesting and ambitious approach, still:

And I would like to finish the longest blog entry I have ever written with this video that shows Magda on the Big Wheel floor which was pure electro all the time. Out of the Minus crew, I like her best:

Here are some more links: Really good pictures have Tranzland and Sint@Flickr but you’ll find great pictures by other photographers all over. And here’s a list of not to be missed blog entries about Melt 07 aka Melt X.

I will be working again as artist host which means I am the first person to talk to and take care of all the special needs of the musicians and their party. I had the chance to meet some really interesting people in the last two years, like Aphex Twin, Roni Size, Bloc Party, Hot Chip or Laid Back. This year I am honoured to be the host for Dizzie Rascal, Goldie, Trentemöller, Goose, Ladytron and Snap. Oh and Deickind again, haha. Probably, I’ll figure that out when I am there on friday.

Read all about Stylewalker’s experience at Melt! of the last two years.

Deichkind Photo by Substrat@Flickr

Yes, I am totally excited about Melt!, not only because I had a great time and met so many interesting people; it’s just this feeling to be part of something special and to share moments to remember. And thanks to YouTube and Flickr I can document all those exciting moments with (moving) images. One year ago, that was not possible.

Mediengruppe Telekommander Photo by BBY@FlickrFirst, I took care of Hot Chip who were really annoyed by one sound technician who started argueing with them in quite an arrogant way, still, in the end, there were flashed by the audience and had a really nice gig. Also, I was surprised by DJ Hells massive set and very amused by the typical munich party gang he was accompanied by (highheels galore!)..

Before, Mediengruppe Telekommander, another “protégés” of mine rocked the stage with their straight-forward electro-punk. Very nice guys, as well.

But the big bang was yet to come, and again, it were one of “my artists”, Deichkind, that in the early saturday morning performed a show which is already called “concert of the century” on YouTube. After their energized and highly psychedelic beginning with a bouncy castle, pyramid hats, pogo sticks and a trampoline they decided to let the crowd enter the stage. Watch this moment of collective ecstasy which caused concern beyond the securities, quite some damage on stage but that feeds Melt!’s myth as an extraordinary place to be..

The second day on a festival always is a special one. People get to know each other, some kind of “common vibe” starts growing and everything seems to be even more fluid and smooth. “My” bands that day were Peter Licht who gave out text sheets so that the people could sing along, and two of the most influentious electronic musicians of the last decade: Aphex Twin and Roni Size. The first one involved wheel chair basketballers on stage who danced and moved and played some ball. Again, a really special moment on the festival, I was especially surprised that so many people (many, many more than for the Pet Shop Boys a day before, I have to say) stayed concentrated and listened to Aphex’ difficult and cumbersome music. Here’s a little video:

My personal highlight was to meet Roni Size and DJ Dynamite. They arrived late, ordered some brandy, Sprite and ice and got on stage. Somewhat stressed they seemed to be, yet very professional, there were some problems with the turntables and they had to start with quite a delay. DJ Dynamite was so annoyed, he even asked me, if they could stop earlier. “Wait for the sunrise, man”, I told him, and I was right. In the end, they played one hour more than they were supposed to, really amazed by the euphoric audience and the sunrise. “It’s been so long, I didn’t play in the sun..!”, Roni Size said afterwards and drove home to Brighton, a little ill, but definetely with some good memories of Melt! Here’s a video.

Roni Size:

So, my work was done, 7h on sunday morning, but the party was about to begin. With all the Intro-crew and festival organizers we celebrated a successful festival and took a final bath in the lake after having danced “Krawall und Remmi Demmi” one last time.

One great festival, one great people, thank you all for being there!

Last but not least, a video in good quality (it’s just a matter of time until every internetvideo looks like this) from the Dominik Eulberg set:

On Flickr there’s thousands of fotos, try the Melt-Cluster and on YouTube you will find many Melt!06-videos.

Since Flickr only hosts 200 photos publicly, my Melt fotos are a little hidden in Flickr.