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Coldcut - Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire
Coldcut - Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire
28th February 2006
Even before Coldcut take the stage they have a message for the audience. The wall above the assembled decks and laptops is covered with two gigantic video screens imploring punters to get creative and video the performance with their mobiles. Such audience collaboration emphasises the cut and paste theatrics that the duo of Matt Black and Jonathan More have become renowned for. From running famed experimental label Ninja Tunes to inventing a real time DJ video manipulation software, Moore and Black have relentlessly pushed the D.I.Y. ethic Watching Coldcut live is like witnessing a compressed history of electronic music in the space of one performance.
Trip-hop, house, drum and bass, club, jungle and ambient are all added to the mix along with crazy samples conveying a charm and personality that few electronic outfits can attain. The giant video screens themselves almost cause sensory overload with rapid epilepsy inducing collages illustrating cartoon Ninjas shooting spinning records to George Bush and Tony Blair mouthing pithy sound bites. All of course edited and paced to the tune and chop of the duo's laptop twiddlings.
The multimedia cornucopia comes to a synthesis when the duo tackle famed 1997 track Timber. The shriek of tiny 2-cycle chainsaw engine and the rasp of a spinning chain forms a solid and immensely catchy aural base. Who else could work this into a unique and powerful statement against the destruction of forests with accompanying visuals?
At this level of creativity and excellence Coldcut carry the crowd. The chants, the chainsaws, the fat bass and the spazzy drums, all seem to be on the verge of causing the audience to break out the glow sticks.
Unfortunately the impetus from Timber soon diffuses as the various names on Coldcut's guest list make an appearance. Jon Spencer, Roots Manuva, ...John Mattias and Robert Owens are all here, reflecting the collaborative nature of Coldcut's most recent album, Sound Mirrors.
Robert Owens saunters onstage with his guitar to sing Walk a Mile in My Shoes. Roots Manuva, who appears one moment on the giant video screen before disappearing in loss of signal static, suddenly materializes on stage to provide vocals for True Skool. The sedate change in tempo seems to confuse some of the audience as Coldcut ditch the experimental grooves for a more melodic contemplative sound.
This is compounded during the encore of the anthem like Everything is Under Control. Multiple drum tracks and synths are augmented by guitars and a screamy chorus vocal from Jon Spencer (missing the rest of the Blues Explosion). The subject matter and the presence of Spenser's buzz saw guitar bring home the punk fuelled, politically aware nature of London's elder statesmen of dance. This may not sit easily with the hedonistic crowd but shows that Coldcut are brave enough to challenge both themselves and their audience.
R. Sullivan
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