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 DJ Vadim's Russian Percussion Tour, with Yarah Bravo, Mr Thing, Pelding, Task Force, Dark Circle, DJ First Rate & Ollie Teeba (Herbaliser) Ocean, London
This was a bit of a mixed bag this one. First of all I made a fundamental error of judgement and turned up far too late. The venue - The Ocean opposite Hackney Town Hall is the area's premiere night spot, having only opened a couple of years ago after millions were spent on doing it up. Everything is nice and new. The floors - either wooden and polished or thick carpets, the foyer and stairs area are like a posh cinema. It was pissing down outside so I was glad to be able to wallk straight in. The guestlist system worked perfectly, which is a bonus and I was in with no trouble. I had rocked up at about 9:45 thinking that I was in plenty of time to see the shows, a line up that included up and coming female emcee Yarah Bravo, DJ Mr Thing, live band Pelding, the inimitable hip hop duos Task Force & Dark Circle, but this was to not be the case. Moving straight to the bar I noticed I was standing next to Farma who asked if I had just seen them perform (they had just come off stage), and I had to admit that I had just got there. He could have guessed from my still cold hand. He said they had done quite an angry performance, and this seems to be the way their live shows are going - extra rowdy, but this is where Task Force are split, cos they do some emotive, intellegent and thoughtful stuff as well. Possibly it was fuelled this time by their current displeasure with Jazz Fudge and the behind the scenes delings with the Chosen Few Ep which will mean they won't see any money off it. Anyway beer was purchased - £2.10 for a Cobra which isn't too bad, and the ambience embibed.
This was sort of like a bit of a school disco. The show was taking place in Ocean venue 2, a medium sized hall perfect for this sort of thing and the stage was filled with equipment and instruments. The crowd was 90% white and seemed quite young student types. Maybe it was because it was a rainy Wednesday, or because there had been very little publicity for the jam the place was not packed and the vibe was quite down beat and at a contrast from recent gigs I have been to. Shortly, Vadim, Mr Thing, Yarah Bravo and the band made their way to the stage and the main act was on. Vadim and his band the Russian Percussion proceeded to do tracks off his current 'USSR: The Art of Listening' LP. They blended seamlessly, samples, deckwork and the live instrumentation - drums, a bass and keys, which mostly came from a very battered looking Rhodes.
Yarah Bravo was the vocalist and hype man for the set starting off by introducing the band, and then singing and rapping throught the set. The Vadim sound really came over with this mixture of instrumentation. The sound system sounded really nice and the mix was great, all the elements coming over loud and clear. If only everything was engineered this well. The funk oozed, and the band grooved through instrumentals, a couple of played in accapellas in the absence of the guests from Vadim's LP, and the tracks featuring Yarah herself. She did her bit to big up the females pointing out that she was pretty out numbered on stage and the Pacifist track, where she got militant against George W Fu*king Bush, getting the audience to raise their fists etc. She also performed some spoken word peotry and some accapella stuff to mix up the styles totally and show her versatility.
In the Middle of the set DJ Mr Thing took over and showcased a new set which was absolutely blinding. He interveaved James Brown, Gangstarr and chopped and juggled for all he was worth showing why he was once a DMC champion. New drum patterns were created, notes were turned into tones and played, lyrics were cut up to say Mr Thing, and everyone who was in the know knew they were seeing something special. It sounded like you couldn't have done what he did on two decks even if you had five decks. Juggling a new beat, whilst managing to get in snare scartches, and notes, and its funky shouts as well. At certain points he would raise 1 finger to the air whilst he continued scratching one handed to show he is number one and he would turn his finger down to the decks to show when something was to about to drop. There were a few moments of silence when he was working extra hard and was swapping records, but overall he did pretty well and everyone paid great atention to what he was doing, wondering what on earth he could do next.
Everyone took up their places behind their instruments again and the band continued on for a few more tracks. Vadim was a bit dissapointing with reagard to his actual contribution to the show. The majority of what he did was reaching over the decks to a small black box with a red light on it and touching a knob. Not sure what he was doing there. He would cue stuff up on his decks and CD player, but apart from a few simple cuts I couldn't really hear much else from him, but I am probably doing him a disservice. Mr Thing worked throughout laying down scratches, and Yarah Bravo, although I found her American voice a bit annoying and insencere at first sucked me in and won me over. She has a great voice and can work the stage well. With a more enthusiastic audience you can really picure the place rocking and it got up to those heights on a couple of occasions.
One couple in the audience were pissed and were showing off and got on my nerves a bit. They were spinning and jumping around and were quite likely to knock into people. I just moved away, fair enough enjoy yourself, but their actions were a bit out of place. For the last track they did one that started off slow, but gradually got faster and faster in tempo and you could see the Drum & Bass element in the audience really start to get it. A guy creeped onto the stage at the end and took to the mic. I hardly heard / understood a word he said due to the speed, but he ribbie dibbie deeded along with the fast rythm and he certainly could flow. The hypeness of this guy highlighted what had been missing from the show, and whilst Yarah had done a good job, she was overall relaxing and soothing, whereas this MC bounced up and down, waved his arms and pulled the croved into him. For the first time in the evening it really felt like things were going to hot up, but all too soon, it was over. About 11:45 or so and there wasn't even any tunes to wind down to. Sound off, lights on, get out!
So DJ Vadim and the Russian Percussion had put on a great show for music afficionados, the venue had been great, the sound superb, the beer relatively cheap. Minus points were the crowd and myself for missing the first acts. The timing of this show is actually what I would want on a weekday when I have to work, i.e. doors at 7-12, rather than 9-2 or later, that can wait till the weekend, just a shame I didn't anticipate that. If you like Hip Hop, funk, jazz and a melange of sampled sounds make sure you get down to a DJ Vadim show, you shouldn't be dissapointed. Live instrumentation if it is done well like this definately adds something to a live show, if people can get it together I would like to see more of this.
- QED | profile
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