Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip + Itch + Sarah Williams White @ Birmingham Institute – 25th January 2014
Midway through their touring cycle for their much talked about 2013 release ‘Repent Replenish Repeat’, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip bring their eclectic mix of electronic beats and rapped/spoken-word lyrics to a packed Institute on this bitterly cold January evening.
First up on tonight’s roster was the south London based singer and producer Sarah Williams White, or SWW for short. Though the room is barely half full at this stage I can see lots of nodding along and I get the idea that people are enjoying her self-produced and written music, as she fuses together syncopated rhythms, off key melodies and her softly sung vocals to really create something quite original. She has had consistently good things said about her during the years, being compared to Bat For Lashes and called a ‘raw, funky-rootsy slice of entertainment’ which really shined through on songs such as her latest single, ‘Your Silence Is Killing Me’. Personally I think the vocals should have been a lot louder, which I think is down to the people on the desk more than SWW herself. Other than that she played a very accomplished set and her vocals were spot on in terms of sound, really showing off a nice range.
Next up tonight is another London-based musician, Itch; formerly of the genre spanning punk/folk band The King Blues. Since going solo it is clear by tonight’s set that he is focusing on the rap side of his music which, frankly, is a shame as The King Blues were a band whose music was wrought with catchy music and pop-tinged hooks. On tonight’s performance it seems that all of that has gone and he is now just writing generic urban rap music. The lyrics that I could actually understand, which were few and far between, just came across as meaningless, shallow and unoriginal. Lyrics about ’making it’ on ‘Best Shot’ have been done hundreds of times. One thing that does deserve a mention was the DJ who just happened to be wearing a giant baby head as a mask, which was odd and somewhat creepy. It says something when this was the most interesting thing about Itch’s set. It would seem that he is destined to blend into the pool of dozens of London based rappers that all pretty much sound the same.
By the time Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip waltzed on stage the room was full and there was obvious electricity in the atmosphere. Their entrance was met with a rousing applause as they belted into ‘Stunner’, the main single off their most recent album, beginning with Scroobius stating “I do want you to look back on this and smile but… I kinda want that smile to be through tears” before glitchy, hard hitting electronic beats kick in, rousing the crowd up and quickly helping to turn their anticipation into a ravey, fist-pumping mass of bodies. Scroobius’ obvious vocal abilities quickly become apparent in lines such as ‘Talk is cheap when you speak the weak prose you’re throwing, you’re just a sheep in a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing’s clothing’.
The constant attack on the senses by Le Sac’s electronic beats never let up, with ‘The Beat That My Heart Skipped’ and ‘Sick Tonight’ doing nothing other than get the crowd going into even more of a frenzy. Next up ‘Look For The Woman’ found Le Sac on vocal duties, only to then be drowned out by the whole crowd singing along. During the set breaks between the songs both Scroobius and Le Sac prove that they had a sense of humour. One particular conversation ending with a reveller on the balcony throwing his t-shirt onto the stage, only to then end up getting it passed back up from the stage as ‘he looked a bit chilly’.
With a set filled with obvious fan favourites such as ‘Get Better’ and ‘A Letter From God To Man’ there was also time for slower “bedtime stories” as Scroobius Pip referred to them, Showing off the spoken word side to Scroobius’ vocals, which he was originally known for. Sat in an armchair on the stage, reading from a book he would then go on to tell the story of the day he met a girl and had a drug fuelled day in central London only to then watch as she jumped off a bridge into the Thames and never surfaced. It was a hauntingly beautiful rendition of the song ‘Terminal’ off their latest album. The set finished with arguably their best known hit ‘Thou Shall Always Kill’. This involved Scroobius stating his own set of commandments in the style of Moses as if the audience were his followers. This Angry yet humorous song is a massive swipe at modern culture, music culture in particular; the crowd’s response really shows how much it is loved, with the loudest singing along all night. It’s worth a mention that the sound tonight is completely spot-on; at no point during the set were either the beats or the vocals drowning the other one out, with a perfect balance struck between both. Also the general volume of the gig was just right. I find that more often than not the volume at gigs would become far too loud to fully enjoy the artist as your ears would just be in pain by the end of the night.
If tonight’s show proved nothing else, it’s that there is good hip-hop music in the UK. Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip really showed off why they are talked about so much in certain circles. With clever lyrics and music that is not only original but challenging. As well as the fact that these guys know how to put on a show, with constant back and forth between not only themselves but with crowd members, they sure know how to have a good time and make us feel appreciated.
Review – Francis Sebestjanowicz
Photos – Katja Ogrin