ALLAN RAYMAN at the Ballet, Friday, November 1. Rating: NN
On Friday night, the small stage in the upstairs Ossington club Ballet was set with a sole chair and a velvet-curtain backdrop – a good opportunity for the singer Allan Rayman to showcase the moody tunes off his mixtape Hell Or High Water in an intimate venue.
Unfortunately, those songs sounded like they were coming through a tinny PA system, and despite the efforts of his DJ, not much of the moody production audible on the album translated. Rayman’s voice didn’t project at all, which could have been the way he was holding the mic directly at his lips.
Rayman’s alt-R&B blend of slow-burning and midtempo hip-hop-rock needs a completely engrossed, high-energy performer to make it pop live. But Rayman, except for a forced “left side, right side” shout-out and obligatory turn-the-mic-on-the-audience moments, often appeared like a deer in headlights. Even promising single H.O.H.W. felt lost among numerous low-energy tunes.
There was a solid group of fans who knew the words to his songs, and Rayman seemed much more natural and at ease when he rapped. When rhyming, he had an effortless flow and gained momentum verse by verse.
So it’s not that Rayman featuring Rayman is a bad idea, but it might work better as a rapper singing his own hooks, rather than a singer rapping his own features.
