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Concert reviews Music

Kingdom came, and conquered

KINGDOM with DUBBEL DUTCH and YES YES YALL DJs at Dim Sum King. Friday, February 24. Rating: NNNN


It might’ve been the top billing of Fade to Mind honcho Kingdom and Texan selector Dubbel Dutch that caused a crush at the ground-floor entrance of Chinatown’s Dim Sum King last night.

Or maybe it was the coming together of party squads Yes Yes Y’all and Happy Endings for the joint jam.

Either way, things were just as frenzied, three floors up, as over 700 people danced into the corners of the resto-turned-rave.

Kingdom came out to the dregs of dancehall and Mya’s Case of the Ex that closed Dubbel Dutch’s set. It was a good primer for what the rising club DJ/producer is good at: blending the accessible (like new Beyonce and old Ciara) with the weirder, more niche end of club music.

It’s important to note that Kingdom rinses 90s/00s pop cultural ephemera in a completely non-ironic way. Those familiar swatches serve to mentally anchor dancers submitting to his tastefully strange, sometimes dissonant soundscape of grime, gay house, transcendent rave and drummy UK funky.

One moment you’ll hear The Wire’s Omar growling “You come at the king, you best not miss,” over aggressive hard style.

Ten minutes later he’ll go from the ethereal dance of Fatima Al Qadiri into Kelly Rowland’s Motivation. And later still, he’ll step back and bob to Rick Ross and Three Six Mafia and his own songs, which, like his sets, sound familiar yet different.

Read an interview with Kingdom here.

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