Post by markwj on May 28, 2008 16:03:07 GMT
Public Enemy, Bomb Squad, Kool Keith, Anti Pop Consortium, Edan ft. Dagha
Manchester Academy
26/5/08
Back, caught you lookin’ for the same thing. Well, I was and from my experiences over 3 decades I knew that with PE you could believe the hype and they’d always the deliver one of the best mixes of music and message. Though they have been pushing new product on an incredibly regular basis this time around they are on specific retro mission, not so much resting on their laurels as stating their obvious legendary status. It’s the 20th anniversary of their seismic “It takes a nation of millions to hold us back” album, and they are here to present it in full, any cynicism on cash-in commercialism swept aside by the enduring strength of that material. What a prospect, but also seeing as I’ve see them play for the best part of a 3 hour set before I’m a little curious as to how this is going to work.
I wasn’t aware of the guests until arriving but seeing the stage time list it seems we’re in for a busy evening, though only leaving 1 ¾ hour of Public Enemy set at the end till the midnight curfew. So from around 7 we have Edan on stage to maybe only an initial couple of hundred in the cavernous main Academy. Still, he’s got the balls (that he likes to grab) and self confidence to go for it, though maybe there’s an element of skinny New Yawk white boy rap swagger that seems a bit clichéd. However that’s soon enough dismissed as when he gets into some unbelievably fast and detailed staccato trade-offs with his partner in rhyme Dagha, they’ve definitely got the skills. They do some good work live on effects pedal to distort the sound up a bit and also go off on weird tangents like an “I can Sing a rainbow” ballad, some acoustic guitar interlude (subsequently distorted too) and run through giving props to 60’s and 70’s rock records via their sleeves on stage. It’s certainly different and entertaining for that.
Thought Anti Pop Consortium had remained split up from some 5 years back so was proper chuffed to discover that these erstwhile Techno Animal (Godflesh offshoot) collaborators were back in action. With a veritable smorgasbord table of electronic devices in the middle of the stage the 5 of them come together gradually around it to start building up experimental style noise and beats, huge Moog vibes and Akai drum samples beaten out live amongst it. You can say that there is direct descent from the wall of sound approach to the backing PE themselves were instrumental in developing, and this sonic pushing of the boundaries (also illustrated well by the likes of Dalek) for me helps keep things vital and interesting in contrast to any sanitised (over)production of mainstream rap output, no matter what the vocal talent. With APC’s raps their collective effort comes across well with at least 4 of them interplaying and again running with some diverse styles, with a lot of crazy energy on stage too. A new album is to come, one to look forward to.
What I knew of Kool Keith was pretty much limited to his vocals on the Prodigy’s “Diesel Power” plus a good deal of respect that some of his output has had over the years. To be honest though I found things a bit more conventional for my tastes and in contrast to what had gone before. Sure, Kutmaster Kurt (in his wrestling mask) mixed some fine rolling bass vibes on the decks and his blinged up MC accomplice was full of life on the stage but it was all a bit stripped down in comparison. Speaking of which, distributing signed porn mags into the crowd was not something I’d really considered as a marketing move before but did provide a good intro into his “Sex Style” track. There was no doubting his effortless mastery of vocal flow, and plenty of folks here were beaming and cheering when classic tracks came thick and fast, as he paced the stage in his odd superhero/”Black Elvis” cape. He was demanded back for an encore and ultimately provided yet another angle to the hiphop diversity we were getting tonight.
Next, after a bit of verbal to-ing and fro-ing with the engineer to get the stage lights down low enough, we had the Shocklee brothers AKA the Bomb Squad. As they repeatedly and righteously pointed out, they are “the musical geniuses” behind the PE sound, right from their inception, though they are not part of the usual live experience. As producers they are back behind the table of laptops and mixers on the stage again now, but the starting tracks of roots vocals samples and somewhat ponderous beats is all a bit down. Fortunately this soon turns around as they up the tempo and seemingly the volume to produce colossal, dense bass and beats, almost in the vein of electro. You wouldn’t directly associate this with the PE sound but it is a reverberating wall of sound worthy of its own respect and they know how to hit the spot. One of them keeps bouncing out the front to ride and punch along to the vibes, do some impromptu MC’ing, and hype folks up for PE again. But as fantastic as some of this sonic onslaught is, by the time I’ve heard “it’s the 20th anniversary of “it takes a nation of millions…” for the third time, plus their sampled link to their myspace site, it’s starting to wear on the aching calves, too much of the rave for me. Fair play though, you can now see the venue has really filled.
For all the build-up there’s still a re-organisation break in between that allows me to turn my nose up at some proffered coke before the briefest of shout-out intro’s from one of their crew before the air-raid sirens wail and we are straight into the “Countdown to Armageddon”. And when you know that that leads into “Bring the noise” (so often saved as an encore at previous shows) we are going to get exactly what it says on the tin tonight. As they soon point out themselves, there usually tendency is to often medley various tracks together to keep the flow but this time around each of the song is left to stand and be savoured in its own right. “Cold Lampin” sees a clock passed up from the crowd so that Chuck D can also become a clocker rocker like Flav once more, “for the first time in 20 years”. That also gets the provider pulled up to the stage and a backstage pass for the evening. The two main men of them freestyle extra raps onto the end of tracks sometimes, some of the endings are also drawn out with repetitions of classic lines but largely it’s straight to the originals, even the instrumental pieces like “Mind terrorist” and “Show ‘em what you got”. “Terminator X to the edge of panic” is done with respect by their current incumbent DJ Lord, though throwing up cross-armed x’s seems a bit spoilt by x-factor influence. Another unfortunate absentee is Professor Griff who due to his house burning down had lost his passport and for some all too well known reasons the government is not providing him with another at the moment. The post show party across the road at Jabez Clegg is being done as a fund raiser for him.
It’s an excellent reason and reward for tonight when it’s revealed that the back to back performance of two of my personal favourites, “Louder than a bomb” and “Caught, can I get a witness?” have never been played live before. Chuck stumbles on a lyric but gamely admits that they don’t write them that fast with lyrics like a twister now. Another interesting revelation is that on completion of that first half of the album that the actual running order of sides was going to be the reverse (side 2 = side 1 and vice versa), until one of the Shocklees said to switch because of the impact of the tracks they were going to build up to. It’s hit after hit though, punch after punch, with the thrash of “Channel zero” enhanced with extra guitar solos (the live band are in action throughout the set) to the relentless nod of “black steel in the hour of chaos”, Chuck seated at the front as some one comes up to hand him THE “letter from the government…”. He jokes disbelief that someone once accused him of using the prop to read the lyrics from, “like I don’t know them!” The set finishes like a runaway train, before Chuck and Flav go back to back for the closer “Party for your right to fight” and massive applause at the conclusion.
And though they have strung this set till about 11:45, they aren’t done and fly through the tracks and the curfew with another collected “best of…” encores from all periods of their back catalogue, each one received with happy roars. They even roll out a new unreleased track that can’t be faulted in comparison before it all breaks down to Flav rabbiting on for ages to the crowd about what they are all about, even after the lights are up. It’s not like he needs to check but has everyone get their money’s worth? Yeah boy!
Manchester Academy
26/5/08
Back, caught you lookin’ for the same thing. Well, I was and from my experiences over 3 decades I knew that with PE you could believe the hype and they’d always the deliver one of the best mixes of music and message. Though they have been pushing new product on an incredibly regular basis this time around they are on specific retro mission, not so much resting on their laurels as stating their obvious legendary status. It’s the 20th anniversary of their seismic “It takes a nation of millions to hold us back” album, and they are here to present it in full, any cynicism on cash-in commercialism swept aside by the enduring strength of that material. What a prospect, but also seeing as I’ve see them play for the best part of a 3 hour set before I’m a little curious as to how this is going to work.
I wasn’t aware of the guests until arriving but seeing the stage time list it seems we’re in for a busy evening, though only leaving 1 ¾ hour of Public Enemy set at the end till the midnight curfew. So from around 7 we have Edan on stage to maybe only an initial couple of hundred in the cavernous main Academy. Still, he’s got the balls (that he likes to grab) and self confidence to go for it, though maybe there’s an element of skinny New Yawk white boy rap swagger that seems a bit clichéd. However that’s soon enough dismissed as when he gets into some unbelievably fast and detailed staccato trade-offs with his partner in rhyme Dagha, they’ve definitely got the skills. They do some good work live on effects pedal to distort the sound up a bit and also go off on weird tangents like an “I can Sing a rainbow” ballad, some acoustic guitar interlude (subsequently distorted too) and run through giving props to 60’s and 70’s rock records via their sleeves on stage. It’s certainly different and entertaining for that.
Thought Anti Pop Consortium had remained split up from some 5 years back so was proper chuffed to discover that these erstwhile Techno Animal (Godflesh offshoot) collaborators were back in action. With a veritable smorgasbord table of electronic devices in the middle of the stage the 5 of them come together gradually around it to start building up experimental style noise and beats, huge Moog vibes and Akai drum samples beaten out live amongst it. You can say that there is direct descent from the wall of sound approach to the backing PE themselves were instrumental in developing, and this sonic pushing of the boundaries (also illustrated well by the likes of Dalek) for me helps keep things vital and interesting in contrast to any sanitised (over)production of mainstream rap output, no matter what the vocal talent. With APC’s raps their collective effort comes across well with at least 4 of them interplaying and again running with some diverse styles, with a lot of crazy energy on stage too. A new album is to come, one to look forward to.
What I knew of Kool Keith was pretty much limited to his vocals on the Prodigy’s “Diesel Power” plus a good deal of respect that some of his output has had over the years. To be honest though I found things a bit more conventional for my tastes and in contrast to what had gone before. Sure, Kutmaster Kurt (in his wrestling mask) mixed some fine rolling bass vibes on the decks and his blinged up MC accomplice was full of life on the stage but it was all a bit stripped down in comparison. Speaking of which, distributing signed porn mags into the crowd was not something I’d really considered as a marketing move before but did provide a good intro into his “Sex Style” track. There was no doubting his effortless mastery of vocal flow, and plenty of folks here were beaming and cheering when classic tracks came thick and fast, as he paced the stage in his odd superhero/”Black Elvis” cape. He was demanded back for an encore and ultimately provided yet another angle to the hiphop diversity we were getting tonight.
Next, after a bit of verbal to-ing and fro-ing with the engineer to get the stage lights down low enough, we had the Shocklee brothers AKA the Bomb Squad. As they repeatedly and righteously pointed out, they are “the musical geniuses” behind the PE sound, right from their inception, though they are not part of the usual live experience. As producers they are back behind the table of laptops and mixers on the stage again now, but the starting tracks of roots vocals samples and somewhat ponderous beats is all a bit down. Fortunately this soon turns around as they up the tempo and seemingly the volume to produce colossal, dense bass and beats, almost in the vein of electro. You wouldn’t directly associate this with the PE sound but it is a reverberating wall of sound worthy of its own respect and they know how to hit the spot. One of them keeps bouncing out the front to ride and punch along to the vibes, do some impromptu MC’ing, and hype folks up for PE again. But as fantastic as some of this sonic onslaught is, by the time I’ve heard “it’s the 20th anniversary of “it takes a nation of millions…” for the third time, plus their sampled link to their myspace site, it’s starting to wear on the aching calves, too much of the rave for me. Fair play though, you can now see the venue has really filled.
For all the build-up there’s still a re-organisation break in between that allows me to turn my nose up at some proffered coke before the briefest of shout-out intro’s from one of their crew before the air-raid sirens wail and we are straight into the “Countdown to Armageddon”. And when you know that that leads into “Bring the noise” (so often saved as an encore at previous shows) we are going to get exactly what it says on the tin tonight. As they soon point out themselves, there usually tendency is to often medley various tracks together to keep the flow but this time around each of the song is left to stand and be savoured in its own right. “Cold Lampin” sees a clock passed up from the crowd so that Chuck D can also become a clocker rocker like Flav once more, “for the first time in 20 years”. That also gets the provider pulled up to the stage and a backstage pass for the evening. The two main men of them freestyle extra raps onto the end of tracks sometimes, some of the endings are also drawn out with repetitions of classic lines but largely it’s straight to the originals, even the instrumental pieces like “Mind terrorist” and “Show ‘em what you got”. “Terminator X to the edge of panic” is done with respect by their current incumbent DJ Lord, though throwing up cross-armed x’s seems a bit spoilt by x-factor influence. Another unfortunate absentee is Professor Griff who due to his house burning down had lost his passport and for some all too well known reasons the government is not providing him with another at the moment. The post show party across the road at Jabez Clegg is being done as a fund raiser for him.
It’s an excellent reason and reward for tonight when it’s revealed that the back to back performance of two of my personal favourites, “Louder than a bomb” and “Caught, can I get a witness?” have never been played live before. Chuck stumbles on a lyric but gamely admits that they don’t write them that fast with lyrics like a twister now. Another interesting revelation is that on completion of that first half of the album that the actual running order of sides was going to be the reverse (side 2 = side 1 and vice versa), until one of the Shocklees said to switch because of the impact of the tracks they were going to build up to. It’s hit after hit though, punch after punch, with the thrash of “Channel zero” enhanced with extra guitar solos (the live band are in action throughout the set) to the relentless nod of “black steel in the hour of chaos”, Chuck seated at the front as some one comes up to hand him THE “letter from the government…”. He jokes disbelief that someone once accused him of using the prop to read the lyrics from, “like I don’t know them!” The set finishes like a runaway train, before Chuck and Flav go back to back for the closer “Party for your right to fight” and massive applause at the conclusion.
And though they have strung this set till about 11:45, they aren’t done and fly through the tracks and the curfew with another collected “best of…” encores from all periods of their back catalogue, each one received with happy roars. They even roll out a new unreleased track that can’t be faulted in comparison before it all breaks down to Flav rabbiting on for ages to the crowd about what they are all about, even after the lights are up. It’s not like he needs to check but has everyone get their money’s worth? Yeah boy!