Music
PANTHA DU PRINCE
Ignoring the irritating (but in their own way, charming) flailing teenagers blinded by excitement, the stage was set for a seriously geeked out production with a mixer you would probably associate with the Kid606 studio. The rest of us (read: old people) looked fairly pensive and wouldn't so much as dare venture within touching distance of the security rail. Instead everyone adopted the obligatry kinked knee for an evening of head nodding and waited for Pantha Do Prince to venture down the lamp lit stage entrance to the left. After the normal wait consisting of moderate beer sipping (apart from me being on painkillers) and listening to interesting openers D/R/U/G/S completing their fairly enchanting session, the suited and hooded DJ / Producer entered the stage looking prepped dapper wizard style for his set.
The first and most endearing part of the set was the use of live recordings which immediatley took the experience a step away from watching some nerds twiddling some knobs for a few hours and instead became an original piece of composition for that night only. Starting by dropping and stirring a few hefty chunks of ice into a classic mic'd up beer glass, the sound was immediatley recognisable from the most recent album 'Black Noise'. Noise elevated by the dots and beams of light bent over the wonky low ceiling from the six staggered projectors placed at the back of the room was controlled by a man in the dark, purely lit up by the normal sight of screen glare and an Apple logo.
The re-use of samples and ocasional error was warming. Audible human elements made the experience far more enjoyable than an onslaught of machine controlled beat perfection. After the crowd settled in and moved a solid step forward and even occasionally threw out a few waves in the air, the hood was dropped and a smile transferred to the crowd that brought more cheers and whistles. Unlike those drummers with a hundred toms who never venture past the snare Hendrik Weber (that's his name. I didn't know it, but Google did) seemed to make good use of all his equipment not leaving a buzz, beep and bass piece of kit redunatant. Often jumping back and forth between intrument and machine.
Keeping the crowd happy without venturing too far into his art sound pieces of only a few years ago, the show finale was again a culmination of water, ice, glass, synth, samples and mixing which had everyone cheering for an encore that never materialised. The show won't go down as one of my favourites of all time but definintely held off the usual boredom twitch or mobile check. Well worth a listen and a watch.
Christopher Gray
Thank you to Ciaran Cullen / WOTGODFORGOT promotions
