The first edition of Pitch was the perfect festival debut

Francesca Lombardo, Béton Brut, Saturday: Friday night went by in a haze of excitement at what was to come with sets from Andras, Stimming, Detroit Swindle and Oliver Koletski warming the crowd into the festival and their new surroundings as they filtered in. By midday Saturday, the site was filling out and Francesa Lombardo’s three-hour set was the perfect meeting place. The sun beat down as the Crosstown Rebels regular dished out deep, dark sounds and tech-house rollers. The underlying funk of this one, ‘Altitude,’ by Romanian trio Livio & Roby and George G under their Premiesku alias, growling out of the Funktion-One system had people getting down nice and low, shoes off in the sand. Admittedly, this was one of the first timetabling situations that had us torn so we bailed early to catch Andrés, but one of the festival organisers informed us later that Lombardo was the first to have people absolutely losing it.

Andrés, Electrum, Saturday: Among Detroit’s finest, Andrés turned in one of The Lab’s of the year at the end of last month and it’s one that we’ve had it on repeat since. So, when Humberto Hernández stepped up to the Electrum stage on Saturday afternoon we were front and centre with his broad range of influences and skills as DJ Dez and Andrés fresh in mind. Of course, he did not disappoint, with a genre-spanning set including A Guy Called Gerald’s ‘Vooday Ray’, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ (with some added bass), Eric Robertson’s ‘Don’t Change’, and cuts from Whitest Boy Alive and Moodymann, alongside his own productions, brought together with a deft touch and some sublime scratching. His remix of Detroit project Cool Peepl’s ‘Free’ (Bill Beaver, Sundiata and Amp Fiddler) is a soulful slice of house that shone in this standout set.