Ever since signing with the esteemed electronica-label Warp Records in 2001, Anti-Pop Consortium has been the media darlings of the geek-hop scene. Their latest opus “Arrythmia” has had the press wide open, but tonight it was time to see if they were hype or hustle. I saw APC perform with two Roland drum machines and a synth on Pier 63 with Mr. Lif in New York 2 years ago. I remember it as being a weird experience, since I didn’t know them at the time. This Friday I had more of a preconception of what was in store.
Sure enough, on stage was M.Sayid with an Akai MPC, High Priest behind a laptop and Beans fondling a synthesizer. “Twisted!”, exclaimed M.Sayyid in one of the several electronic jam-outs the trio ventured into during the show. And it was indeed twisted to see them create spontaneous beats on stage, bringing to it that element of improvisation that too many hiphop-shows are devoid of. The drawback of the setup was the inconsistent volume of the beats, and to top it off, the mics sounded like shit as well.

Once the soundbwoy slowly got to grips with the sound, multi-syllabic words and quirky sentences started flying back and forth. Beans was a chameleon of flows and Priest sported his usual monotone, mumbling style. M.Sayyid had the most articulate delivery and was also the hypest, switching mics constantly and doing most of the crowd routines.

The material was predominantly from the recent years, tracks like “Ping Pong”, “Dead In Motion” and “Silver Heat”. Only a few of the tracks originated from their first longplayer, “Tragic Epilogue”. A killer acapella introduction led into the new single “Ghostlawns”, one of the strongest cuts on the latest album, and a high point of this evening as well.

On the lyrical side, APC fed the crowd with braniac dum-dums galore, but the music as a whole was too introverted and strange just for the sake of being strange, resulting in a waning interest from the audience. From the get-go they scared off all the ladies looking for a singalong chorus and jiggy funkbeats. Fans of the traditional dusty vinyl-samples were also having a hard time dealing with the digital aesthetics of the APC universe. In my opinion it’s all good, but the problem with this kind of hiphop is the very low level of real communication with the crowd, aside from the occasional “say hooo”. I often had the feeling of being a fly on the wall at a weekly rehearsal, which is probably of more interest to the group itself than to the audience. This isn’t exactly the kind of music that invites you to work up a sweat on the dancefloor, and the crowd responded accordingly, by headbobbing rather than bootyshaking.

The playful atmosphere was a strength as well as a weakness, as it’s very necessary to be on point as a musician in order to jam on a stage and create something that transcends mere noodling. APC didn’t always succeed in this task, but they seemed to have a genuine love for what they were doing and they were evidently very happy to be at the festival. Kudos to The Anti-Pop Consortium for going against the grain, but they need to get more down-to-earth elements in their music and stage appearance to seriously get my attention. Should we believe the hype? I’m still not completely convinced.

Fotos af Klaus Heinecke © RapSpot.dk

Syntax era. Anti-Pop Consortium @ The Blue Tent, Roskilde Festival, June 29th, 2002
performance:	Lots of enthusiasm, but too esoteric to grab a hold.	OnPoint faktor: APC might be non-linear, but when will they return from Jupiter?
underholdningsværdi:	I can’t front on the skills and the jamming had its moments.
spillested:	One of the smaller stages, suitable for this kind of act.
stemning:	Positive in an academic sort of way.
street cred.:	Homeboys scratching their goatee and artyfarty ravers.	set af: Martin Dejean

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 m_dejean 29.06.2002 arkiveret under LiveSpot |