Rapidly approaching this weekend, one of the UKs most beloved festivals is back in 2023 with potentially its best line up ever? Of course I'm talking about Manchester's own Parklife festival. Catering to all sorts of music listeners with some of the best artists across all genres from indie to hip-hop to DnB, with a lineup as stacked as this is there are fantastic artists on all day cuts so here is my recommendations for top 5 essential artists that you can't miss this weekend.
1. Knucks
One of London's fastest rising MCs over the last few years and now a comfortable veteran of the scene Knucks has also proved himself to be one of the best, bringing unique flows and excellent focused, topical pen game. His 2022 album Alpha Place was a fantastic showing and one of my favourite grime records for a while. Even calling it a grime album is boiling it down to much though as it brings elements of all sorts of hip-hop sub-genres all executed with finesse. Not to mentioned its fantastic feature list with names like Stormy, Venna, SL and Lex Amor.
2. DJ Seinfeld
The master of lo-fi house himself, DJ Seinfeld will be gracing the Sunday of Parklife with his presence for an all too rare appearance. Sadly I've never managed to catch him myself but I am a big fan of his groovy, smooth, chilled out take on house which reached a creative peak with his 2021 project Mirrors which received a remix treatment earlier this year. Expect perfect, mid-afternoon, sunny summer jams to get you grooving earlier in the day.
3. JPEGMAFIA
One of the highest energy performers I've ever been in the presence of, I'm blessed enough to have witnessed his live show not once, but twice. JPEGMAFIA is unlike any other artist whether it's in his music or his live show. On the music front he's fresh off his killer collab album with Danny Brown entitled Scaring The Hoes featuring some of the craziest instrumentals and production paired with equally hilarious and thought provoking pen game. There really is no artist like him and the only way to truly experience his music is to get down to a live show and I promise you will not be disappointed.
4. Skin on Skin
One of the worlds best tech-house artists, last years "Burn Dem Bridges" rework of the drill track "Violent Siblings" by Sav'o and Horrid1 thrust him from the underground into the limelight overnight with the tune appearing at raves across the country for the remainder of the year. Now with a banging jungle edit by the one and only Nia Archives the tune is pretty much a classic only a year on. Obviously Skin on Skin ain't no one hit wonder either with fantastic breadth across his discography with techie tunes like "Don't Fuck Around" all the way to the lo-fi house of "Way Ur Touchin Me". Check out his Boiler Room set featuring exclusively unreleased originals for a taste of what you'll be getting into.
5. Oppidan
Finally I had to have some UK garage on the list and in 2023 that means a shout out to Oppidan, my favourite garage artist out right now. Fresh off her killer double A-Side "Follow me / Okay" she will blow your socks off. Fantastic manipulation of vocal samples is a staple of her work and she puts out some of the most dense, layered and beautiful garage out right now. This ones for the two steppers, Oppidan hits the stage at 6:30 on Saturday and you'd be an idiot to miss.
Parklife is a festival that doesn't get enough praise for consistently bringing some of the best, most unique lineups around to the festival season. Top to bottom I'm sure you could turn up to any set and have a boogie but these are my picks for some artists I can't wait for. Tickets are still available here and I'll see you there.
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