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Music

Pulse

Rating: NNNNN


LAPTOP DANCE

The Clong party last Saturday at the Mockingbird was a welcome change from the dance-club norm.

On paper, the concept sounds a bit unlikely – two German laptop techno artists collaborating with a Dominican-born dub reggae vocalist. In person, though, the combination worked quite well. Tikiman proved to be an engaging frontman, and his presence gave Scion’s performance a focus and personality – attributes that are all too often lacking in the world of live laptop techno.

At time the rhythms cam closest to roots reggae, but house and techno influences were quite audible as well.

Scion sometimes used overly aggressive effect processing of Tikiman’s vocals, but the gargantuan waves of echo suited the overall vibe of the party nicely.

Very refreshing to see a good-sized crowd actually get down to a fairly adventurous set of forward-thinking techno-dub.

RANDALL DELIVERS

Many partiers are still undecided about the ethics of corporate-sponsored events, but there’s no denying that the tobacco-funded Goldclub events are consistently a good bet for affordable, big-production parties.

Their presentation of UK drum ‘n’ bass hero DJ Randall last Sunday at Madbar was rammed way beyond capacity, suggesting that the rumours of the genre’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Warming up the night was DJ Marcus, who spun a typically impeccable set of the appreciative crowd. He ended with a mind-blowing track that started off as a straight jazz song with female vocals and gradually morphed into a full-on d ‘n’ b stomper.

The crowd was there for Randall, though, and when he stepped up to the decks you realized why. For one thing, he can actually mix, unlike too many big-name UK producers.

He’s also not as infatuated with playing unreleased acetates as some of his contemporaries are. He’s more concerned with simply rocking the party – which, after all, is the job of the DJ. The MC for the night, Flipside, showed refreshing restraint for a change.

ODDITIES AWESOME

The Circle Research crew celebrated four years of late-night hiphop radio last Friday at the Reverb with a well-attended throwdown featuring local artists the Oddities, DJ Fase and MC Abdominal, DJ Hangman and live funk band the Quartertones as well as the Circle Research boys themselves.

While all the performers are talented, it was the Oddities who stole the show with their ridiculously tight four-MC assault. Imagine that – a well-rehearsed hiphop group.

Most of the lyrical content is consistent with the usual “true” hiphop themes, but their raunchy Club Sluts number compromised the more conscious aspects of their set.

To suggest that girls who dress sexy when they go out deserve to get hassled doesn’t sit very well with the rest of the Oddities’ aesthetic, especially when more than a few women in the audience might have felt that they could have been the subjects of the piece.

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