DJ Yoda @ Hare & Hounds, Birmingham – 26th September 2014
The Hare And Hounds in Birmingham is one of the most well-known venues in Birmingham, which really says a lot, the Small pub/music venue lies in the small suburb of Kings Heath just south of the city centre; the two upstairs rooms provide an intimate, welcoming and great space for a gig. By midnight tonight the second room is suitably filled to welcome tonight’s headline act, DJ Yoda.
A lot has been said about his fantastic audio visuals, that he brings to his live shows, and after watching numerous videos on YouTube, my excitement levels were pretty high going into the show.
Watching videos of how he would create strange videos that go perfectly in sync with his music I thought seeing him tonight would be an experience I haven’t seen before. Well, consider my disappointment, as I walk in to find, no screens and just a set of turntables. It’s a good job that DJ Yoda is such a talented guy that my disappointment is short lived.
Having forged a career on a type of DJing known as Cutting and pasting, DJ Yoda mixes such a range of music, varying from Run DMC style old school Hip-Hop to classic 80’s new wave like Tears For Fears to TV theme songs such as The IT Crowd, all the while, interlacing various random samples from films, TV shows and various sound effects. His mixing is a nice mix of decade spanning, underground stuff and an unashamed amount of cheesy stuff.
It’s easy to see why Q Magazine to declare him “one of the top ten DJs to see before you die” His mixing is fantastic throughout, mixing songs that would never usually be heard together. And frankly it’s refreshing, in this ‘press play’ culture where DJ’s such a David Guetta and Calvin Harris are global superstars, to see someone going back to basics with Turntables, spinning actual records, scratching and using other DJ tricks to captivate the audience and most of all, make sure they have a good time, let go and even have a dance. Maybe it’s just the musical hipster in me, but I would rather see people like DJ Yoda, a DJ who is quite obviously loves what he does and is in the music business for all the right reasons.
Review: Francis Sebestjanowicz