Pelding is best known in hip-hop circles as the live-instrumentation project with Peder of the Prunes, who formerly hosted a fantastic hip-hop show with DJ Nut on P3. The Pelding sound is a mix of jazz, funk and hip-hop played live on drums and keyboard backed by DJ’s and vocalists and MC’s. They’re currently signed to Jazz Fudge, the label owned by British-Russian Vadim, whose avant garde, minimalistic hip-hop varies from boring to genius. Last year’s self-titled album by Pelding gained some critical acclaim, so as a band in a genre where Denmark doesn’t usually receive international attention the band was a natural choice for a Roskilde performance.

Unfortunately they suffered by the time and placing of the show, as their hip club music didn’t really fit the sunny afternoon and the muddy surroundings at Blue stage. Never the less Pelding began their show in style with numerous guests and ready to set the party off. The music did get the audience going, but as the show carried on it became more and more a case of people using it as pleasant background music than actually getting involved in the stage antics.

On the stage the singer Camile Jones and rhyming aparatus Kuku filled the tent with vocals to match the instrumentation. Between Miss Jones’ vocal range and K-Dub’s freestyling abilities there’s no question they have what it takes to complement the music, this afternoon guested by the ever-present Tue Track on scratch and Abdullah S. on bass, who between them must have played 6 different shows at Roskilde.

The band played excellent and there were particularly good solos on
bass and drum, that were reminiscent of the best funk and jazz of the 70’s. Improvisation seemed to be the key, and as a hip-hopper the most entertaining part of the concert were the freestyles by Kuku, who’s guested Pelding’s products since 1997’s “The Skunk”, as well as Tue and Peder going at it on the wheels, where they’ve become masters at adding turntable-gymnastics to the sound-scape without overshadowing the rest of the band.

Seeing Pelding live is quite different from the album, since the live show seems much more unrestrained than the almost nerdish minimalism of the recorded version. However, live they do lack the fabulous guest lyricism from North-American rappers such as Moka Only and Moshun Man, and even though this doesn’t make or break a live-appearence, the solely instrumental music, makes it hard for the concert-goer to know what to focus on, especially with unknown material.

This style of music is clearly mood music, demanding that the concert-goer vibes with the orchestra, so it might be a case of genre working better on CD or in a night club, but I felt as if the talent was slighty wasted by the location. If I were to book the Festival I would have rather seen them late night on the Ballroom stage, but as is the case with most hip-hop and urban orientated music we often have to settle for less spots. Pelding is an event, because it fuses intelligent breakbeat music with streetwise funk and hip-hop vocals, and seeing them at Roskilde was entertaining yet not quite the experience it could have been.

Pictures: Klaus Heinecke © RapSpot.dk

Pelding @ Blue Tent, Roskilde Festival, June 29th, 2002
performance:	talented musicians playing clever music	OnPoint faktor: Malplaced but digable Pelding
underholdningsværdi:	while sounding good the mood went over most heads
spillested:	the beer-tent vibe didn’t fit the band
stemning:	easy and friendly, but not really attentive
street cred.:	Kuku Agony	set af: ptas

sådan læser du karaktergivning: 7 x = On Point! 3 x = Nice Shot

6 x = Almost Bulls Eye 2 x = Target Practice

5 x = Heavy Hitter 1 x = Not Even Close

4 x = Hit Potential 1 x = Greatest Miss

Skrevet af ptas 29.06.2002 arkiveret under LiveSpot |