Disclaimer: Please bear with my mangled review.
It was about 12:30 and Neotropic took the stage, at least I think it was
because I was in a different part of the club, but I heard a distinctive
opening piece of music that reminded me of a "Ninjaesque" group. I
unfortunately didn't get in until the end of her set but really liked what
I heard; distorted hip hop beats layered with dark pads and random
ethereal sounds. She was fiddling mainly with a mixer while triggerring
loops & various samples from a keyboard that was hooked up to various
sound modules/samplers. I wish I had seen the whole set. I actually talked
with her briefly after the show, asking her about the harsher material and
when the new album would be out. She said the single would be out in July
and the full length in September. Very nice woman.
Next person up was DJ Vadim, who set up amongst four turntables. He
started of with some old school, mixing Ninja Tune stuff here and there.
The really neat thing was the screen they had set up behind the performers
showing their actions closeup via two snaked mini video cameras. During
Vadim's set, Ollie Teeba(The Herbalizer) came on and began a little
tagteam DJing. All I can say is that it was great and the crowd was very
into it, between the chanting close up to the stage, the numerous bodies
grooving, and the circle around the breakdancers behind me. Teeba
scrathing skills were very impresive while Vadim's choice of cuts was on
the money. Finally Chocolate Weasel(T-Power) came on, good selections of
their own music but unimpressive performance, they just stood their like a
couple of dopes basically looking like when the hell was their set was
going to be over. In the middle Vadim came and tried to liven the set up
by scratching over their material, it almost worked but it seemed like the
Weasel's didn't really want him up there. I believe Teeba came up soon
after and got in a little scratching with some success.
Overall not as impressive as last year but still a good show with the
highlight definitely being on Neotropic.
Ya gotta love those Ninjas....
Ross