Nosaj Thing AKA Jason Chung the Audio Visual whizz kid was back in London for a sell out show on July 7th. Playing for experienced promoters, Black Atlantic @ XOYO along side some up-coming and established talent in the UK Underground Hip-Hop scene.
The queue for this event was round the block with everyone seemingly turning up early for fear of not getting a good view of the A/V feast planned for the night. After an over running sound check and other delays the doors finally opened about 45 minutes late, without many people minding or noticing due to the shared excitement of the crowd.
Patchwork Pirates were first to play as the room filled up and everybody hit the bar in the downstairs room. Having heard mixed reviews about the club and it’s sound system I felt I would reserve judgement till the end of the night, but the dark minimal feel of the place seemed to fit well with the soundtrack being played so far.
Taking to the stage was Becoming Real, looking like a mix between a Hoxton hipster and a Hood-rat he introduced himself to the crowd before launching into a set which contained Electro tinged synth loops, syncopated beats swinging from grime to hip-hop via a bit of tech-house and bass lines which couldn’t be appreciated to the fullest as the sound system was either struggling or just too damn quiet. The crowd swayed along but didn’t quite seem to get in the vibe yet. We were left with a feeling that something was missing, maybe accompanying visuals to really tie the crowd into what Becoming Real was trying to do and engage the audience a bit more? It seemed a shame that they weren’t taking advantage of the screen and projector that were already set up.
Playing an interlude set again were Patchwork Pirates who got the venue pumping with some cut up hip-hop mixing, maybe the beers had flowed a bit by now but there was definitely more people feeling the music.
The act everyone had been waiting for, Nosaj Thing, who came on around 23:00 with house lights dimming and the projector kicking in to huge applause from the crowd.
If you ever get a chance to see Nosaj Thing live, don’t ever turn it down. Capturing your eyes and ears attention from start to finish with his unique style of live beats, loops, effects, filters and samples mashed up with his own remixes of other peoples tracks such as Flying Lotus and the XX . The show is tied together with what appear to be very basic visuals at first glance, but it’s all about the colours, shapes and beautiful choreography that make Nosaj Thing one of the kings of the live A/V scene at the moment.
The sound quality seemed to have improved for this final set, although far from perfect (and that was even after moving around the club to check how it sounded from all round the room) this did nothing to dampen the impact Nosaj Thing was having on everyone watching. Playing two encores with his remix of ‘Where I Wanna Be’ by Shade Sheist finishing the night off with a huge bang.
One comment voiced by a few in the crowd after the show was that the size of the screen was not big enough to feel totally immersed but to counter that with experience. It is very difficult to arrange these A/V shows in clubs and get the balance between screen size, ceiling height and projection distance, so big props go to the Black Atlantic crew for making this event possible, it was a triumphant, sell out Thursday night success!
The next show from Black Atlantic is on 25th July at Scala where the live act will be Apparat, with support from Ghosting Season. It looks set to be another great show. Tickets are £15, Doors 7.30pm – 11pm. Tickets are available from Scala Box Office, Ticketweb, Resident Advisor or the Black Atlantic website. Please see below for more info.
MORE INFO:
Black Atlantic
Nosaj Thing
XOYO
Patchwork Pirates
Apparat @ Scala Tickets: Black Atlantic
