Review: The Glitch Mob / Opiuo / Your Niece @ The Forum, Kentish Town, London, 30 May 2014

Mike Wabro (glitchrate) reports on The Glitch Mob's Love Death Immortality Tour from a sweat-soaked Forum. Opiuo and our kid Your Niece in support.

We arrive at The Forum just in time to catch the end of Your Niece’s first opening set of the night. It seemed like he had set a great tone for the night’s events.

London goes mad for Opiuo

Kiwi glitch-hop don, Opiuo was next to hit the stage and was greeted with a huge reception from the crowd. Boasting a new live setup replete with laptop, controller, mixer, fresh drum-pad & his big orange drum-sticks, he began knocking out the beats live over his set - moving swiftly into, and mixing seamlessly between, some of the new corkers like 'Clumpy Cider', 'Snorkle' and 'Misty Digit' from his latest album, Meraki. His staple crowd favourite remixes of Koan Sound and Ray Charles got the, now nearly full, dance-floor vibing, bums shaking to his infectious stage energy. As ever, he kept his set diverse and fun - effortlessly spanning between tempos and styles - yet always with that trademark, cheeky, super funked-up Opiuo sound we have grown to love so much. After a set filled with more funky fun than you can shake a glitchy stick at, the whole place was buzzing with anticipation of The Glitch Mob.

Mike & Donna during Opiuo’s set

Your Niece got his second sneaky 15 minute set of the night on after that, whilst the stage was set for the mighty Mob, starting with Boards Of Canada’s 'Dayvan Cowboy'. The dancefloor started cramming fuller than a sardine can. As I was pressed hard against the front side wall of the live mixing desk area, I realized then that the dancefloor had not actually been full at all until that point. I wondered again why they chose The Forum over Electric at Brixton- as they did on their last tour. Crowd dispersion, sound system, & room acoustics all seemed to suffer somewhat at The Forum.

The lights dimmed. That sudden feeling of being at a massive rock gig- crowd screaming with all hands in the air as Ooah, Boreta & ediT walked onto the stage. As the stunning lazer light show began, the mysterious cover was drawn away, to reveal the massive silhouettes of their awesome new drums- looking like an HR Geiger inspired fusion of a jumbo jet engine and a Kyoto Drum. Each of them had the same setup in front of them, with the massive drum behind them, another electronic kit below that, & a pillar in front with 4 ipad-like screens in each, angled down facing towards the crowd- on which they played most of the riffs live, in divided colour quadrants that lighted up each time they did.

The energy was immense as they began pounding their drums with explosive visuals to the tune of the epic, ‘Drive Like You Stole It’, from their previous album, 'Drink The Sea'. Surrounded by such a diversely eclectic array of people, made for an electrically inclusive atmosphere. Their grueling schedule of almost a show in a different country every alternate day, had clearly done nothing to hamper their energetic spirit and passion for their sound, and the love for their fans.

I must confess that by that stage, the rounds of beer & shots in-between in celebration of my extended birthday, had started taking effect as the specifics of which track was which, became somewhat blurred- especially since they were mixing tracks into one another. All the epic bangers: the old & a lot of the new off their latest seminal album, ‘Love Death Immortality’. I was fully enveloped in their performance. I remembered the contrast of seeing them in their very early days on their first ever UK visit in 2008- in the very shanty surroundings of the Rhythm Factory. That was like sitting on a couch in someone’s over-sized living room, watching a bunch of guys having fun mixing tunes up all-over each other on one controller. This, in contrast, was like an extremely tight and flawless extravaganza of sound and visual orgasm! The Glitch Mob are undeniably a powerful force now, entirely unique with their own take on that infamous big West Coast Lazer Crunk Metal sound- yet always relevant & nodding to the current sound.

twitter.com/theglitchmob

After their last song, it did not take long for them to be screamed back on stage for an encore, dropping one of my favourites, 'We Can Make The World Stop' - which seemed like a climax for the crowd- with extra high crowd jumping & fist pumping action. They ended with the new rework of 'West Coast Rocks' - to huge standing applause and Glitch Mob finger signs. They seemed so happy, taking a moment to take a bunch of selfies against the backdrop of the crowd, while Boreta took to the mic & confessed how much it meant to them to have so much love & appreciation from the UK crowd- as all their influences came from UK.

facebook.com/theglitchmob

This was my third time watching The Glitch Mob preform over the years; and they certainly didn’t disappoint. I had to buy a T-shirt this time- purely on the basis that my T-shirt was utterly sweat-drenched.

Mike & Lizzy after the show

To round things up, Your Niece took back to the decks, keeping the remaining crowd moving to some fresh ghetto bassy trap and dubstep. A brilliant night all-round.

By Mike Wabro (glitchrate) for UK Glitch Hop

Review: The Glitch Mob at Spectrum Bass Bomber, Electric Brixton, 5 November 2011

Comprising three of the most talented early innovators of West Coast glitch hop - Ed Ma (edIT), Josh Mayer (Ooah / Of Porcelin / PANTyRAiD) and Justin Boreta (NastyWays / Slidecamp) - The Glitch Mob have done for their music in the US what Benga and Skream have achieved for dubstep in the UK.

The timeline is fairly similar too. edIT's first release on Planet Mu in 2004, Crying Over Pros For No Reason, is one of the earliest examples of the genre that now not only saturates the West Coast of Canada and America, but has followers across Europe, Australia, South Africa and beyond.

2007 was probably the year that saw the scene begin to consolidate itself, with a second album from edIT, a classic release from Bassnectar, glitch compilations on Muti Music and Interchill, and the first tunes from Ooah and Boreta. In the Bay Area and LA, edIT, Ooah, Boreta and co-founder Kraddy found themselves touring together to promote their sound.

A string of genre-defining remixes as The Glitch Mob followed, freely shared through their website, and collated in 2009's Crush Mode mixtape. The music had all the bounce of the most beat focused hip-hop, all the bombast of rock, and a tendency towards the epic, layered with g-funk synths and guitar crunches. Last year the departure of Kraddy foreshadowed the release of the collective's first self penned album, Drink the Sea.

The album marked a change. It was geared towards live shows rather than record bags, with pounding drums and a stadium feel. As a DJ, I was disappointed an found many of the tracks to be too similar, but Drink the Sea is loved by many and found the Mob a lot of new fans. Although I couldn't make it to their UK album launch at Koko and January 2011 tour, I heard reports of the live show: three guys fiddling with laptops, that didn't fulfill the promise of the epic music.

Which brings us to Spectrum's Bass Bomber at Electric Brixton last night, the second UK date on an epic European Tour for the Mob.

When we arrived, Pete Jordan was playing a banging bass set that just about covered all bases imaginable. In front of him sat three sets of Ableton controllers, touch screens and electric drums, all controls facing towards the audience. Where they going to be turned around? They surely wouldn't play with their backs to us?

As the edIT led the Mob onstage, black shirts, white ties, in a cloud of smoke, crowd chanting, the trio leaned over from behind their kit, still facing the audience, to begin sequencing and playing touch-pad synths and effects in full view. This was going to be a live show.

With the "put your hands in the air" sample of the opening track, things had the instant feeling of a stadium rock concert. As hundreds of live hand claps began to punctuate the beats, I couldn't help but feel a tingle up my spine.

While some might question the virtuosity of playing patterns on pre-programmed touch pads, tracks like 'Fortune Days' soon began to really show off edIT and Oaah's deft finger-work, trained through years of vinyl teasing. Meanwhile Boreta was a quiet presence on the left, like the rhythm guitarist of the group, constantly cuing and tweaking. The drums got a frequent battering from all three, adding a strong dynamic to their movement on stage.

 
The stand out tracks were the classic remixes 'Red Dress On', 'Monday' and 'West Coast Rocks', which really got the whole place popping like it was New Year's Eve. It also gradually became apparent that the 'same sounding' feel of the album tracks actually held the live set together as a thematic progression.

The set culminated in an encore opening with the suitably epic 'Drive it like you stole it' and it was another cover, The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army' dedicated to all the "filthy fucking bass lovers out there" that wrapped things up in triumphant style, to a sea of arm, people sitting on each others shoulders and double-time clapping. The Mob's sound is so warm and all encompassing that I don't think anyone really wanted it to end.

On the basis of last night's performance, The Glitch Mob have successful overcome any criticisms leveled at their live show and are all set to be the melodic stadium-rock pin-ups of the glitch-hop world. The real strength of their achievement for me, though, is that unlike Magnetic Man they've managed to do this without compromising an almost entirely instrumental sound.

Having finally understood the context of the Drink the Sea, I'm now looking forward to seeing where they go with the next album.


Check out this interview with Ooah and The Glitch Mob's latest mixtape here:
  More Voltage by The Glitch Mob


Full props to Pete Jordan and the Spectrum crew for getting the Mob over here (twice now!). I'd love to see more US acts brought over next year (ill.Gates, Love and Light, Mim0Sa Stephan Jacobs) with support from UK talent like Zen Death Squad, KrossBow, Inaudible, Bobby Tank or William Breakspear. If you're with me, like this!