Make it clean and make it quick. Prowling and slinking with brutually pent up energy, the Portugese have declared Fuji rock open with a blazing set...

They had us in the palm of their hands. To talk about the music of Chemical Brothers would be to belittle the whole experience they provide, for music is but one of the weapons in their arsenal...

A crackle of treble, a wheeze of synth and snap, three drummers start to lay down a shimmering rythmn. Facing each other in a four person square, the band is slowly harnessing its latent powers. Motionless, the audience watches as layer upon layer of percussion builds into an ethereal but grounded swirl of sound...

Driving through the desert around Palm Springs several summers, I was always aware of a dark menace hiding just behind the jagged ridges and across the dusty expanses. I hadn't heard Kyuss, but I knew they were out there, lost in the wastes much like the earlier Meat Puppets. And today I came face to face with one form of their present incarnation, Queens of the Stone Age...

In a smaller space close listening would be rewarded with a pay-off of complex musical foundations, but on the White Stage, what came across was the more visceral side of Dillinger Escape Plan. This is uncomfortable music that is an acquired taste or simply instantly likeable for those in a serious rage...

As the Green Stage closed on a blazing performance by Muse, a thronging mass of the innocent and not-so-innocent bolted for the Red Marquee. Compelled to follow the crowd, I found myself being pulled in by the eerie red fog of the stage which held Black Rebel Motorcycle...

You can't take your eyes of the joyous figure of Fidel Nadel as he cavorts around the stage flopping his feet and jerking his body to the beat of his masterful back-up band. Infectious grooves transformed a empty field into a throbbing mass of rejoicing...

Am I in Hawaii? What is this ska? A happy mixture of something Pacific and something Caribbean have crossed in the Ska Flames. With a groove so catchy, from the start the audience is one motion of knee bobbing-abandon...

A subdued audienced greeted me as I entered the Red Marquee. Curious what could settle what is usually a packed venue, I surveyed it quietly. On stage was a spare arrangement of accoustic guitar, bass and drums. Yet this stripped down Japanese trio produces a full bodied sound reminiscent of the US' Silos or Samples...

Stepping into the Field of Dreams the first thing that I noticed was the stillness of the crowd. And then rising above came the melodic strains of an unearthly voice. Was this Bjork? Had I found the secret surprise of FRF...