DiS tries to avoid grand proclamations but we can say, officially, that we're more excited about about this year's Great Escape festival than any event in living memory ('cept maybe that time Daft Punk played Wireless or Mars Volta's ATP).

Taking place beside-the-seaside in Brighton from the 12th of May until the 14th (or the earlier hours of the 15th if you wanna be pernickety about it), The Great Escape hosts bands of all shapes, sizes and synthiness. There are big names (Sufjan Stevens, DJ Shadow, Guillemots, John Cooper Clarke), acts who will dominate 2011 (Friendly Fires, Katy B, Gang Gang Dance, Ghostpoet), P4K-championed DiS favourites (Antlers, Twin Shadow), UK acts that we adore (Phantom Band, Factory Floor, Actress, Becoming Real, Villagers), new crushes (Braids, Still Corners, EMA, Seekae, Seams, Christian AIDS, Starslinger), incredible instrumentalists (Max Richter, Hauschka, Luke Abbott) and a few hundred others...

We're excited about most of the Great Escape line-up but we're especially willing time to move faster for the three nights of music we've curated. Have a look at the posters down below by Laura Siragher, and you should understand why we're giddy. This year's hand-picked choices perhaps haven't had the same level of widespread acknowledgement, yet, as the likes of Laura Marling, Blood Red Shoes, Mount Kimbie or Crystal Castles, when they played our stage in previous years. Also, Thursday and Saturday perhaps signals a slight shift towards electronic music that hasn't been as evident in previous years of DiS curated events but probably/hopefully won't shock regular readers of DiS...

Without furtherado, here's our mixtape/Spotify playlist, which may further hinder your process of deciding who to squeeze into your Great Escape schedule...

The Antlers 'Kettering'
Twin Shadow 'Tyrant Destroyed'
Dark Horses 'Alone'
EMA 'The Grey Ship'
Luke Abbott 'Sirens For The Colour'
Worriedaboutsatan 'Heart Monitor' (now known as Ghosting Season)
Becoming Real 'Closer'
Star Slinger 'Longtime'
Seekae 'Yurai'
Actress 'Hubble'
Crystal Fighters 'Follow - D/R/U/G/S/ Inner Galaxy Mix'
Seams 'Nightcycles'
Factory Floor 'A Wooden Box - Stephen Morris'
Planningtorock 'Doorway'
Gang Gang Dance 'First Communion'
Hauschka 'TwoAM'
Sufjan Stevens 'Come on! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition. Part II: Carl Sandburg visits me in a dream'
Braids 'Plath Heart'
The Phantom Band 'O'
Ghostpoet 'I Just Don't Know'
Buck 65 'Le 65isme'
Dels 'Trumpalump - Gwilym Gold's 'Way Below Hell' Remix'
Katy B 'Disappear'
Beat Connection 'Silver Screen'
The Radio Dept. '1995'
Friendly Fires 'Paris'
Holy Ghost! 'Hold On'
Chad Valley 'Anything'
Echo Lake 'Buried At Sea'
Nedry 'Apples & Pears'
The Deer Tracks 'The Puzzled Piece'
Cults 'Go Outside'
Let's Buy Happiness 'Six Wolves'
mechanical bride 'Umbrella'
Dark Dark Dark 'Bright Bright Bright'
Max Richter 'Infra 3'
Guillemots 'I Don't Feel Amazing Now'
Villagers 'On A Sunlit Stage'
James Vincent McMorrow 'This Old Dark Machine'
Benjamin Francis Leftwich 'Pictures'
Fionn Regan 'Put A Penny In The Slot'
Florrie 'Call Of The Wild'
Oh Land 'Wolf & I'
Alpines 'Ice & Arrows'
Big Deal 'Talk'
Grouplove 'Colours'
Mazes 'Bowie Knives'
Dinosaur Pile-Up 'Mona Lisa'
John Cooper Clarke '(I Married A) Monster From Outer Space'
Comanechi 'My Pussy'

Listen: Great Escape 2011

p.s. on the Friday night we'll have a club going on until 4am vs The Recommender blog. More details regarding that coming very soon!

Grab a ticket if you haven't already via the festival's website: EscapeGreat.com