Ape presents… Beatdown with Mary Anne Hobbs / The Scratch Perverts / The Gaslamp Killer / DJ Yoda

Disappointed as I was that Flying Lotus was to miss his spot at The Warehouse Project, on Saturday 22nd of November, I resolved to go along and not let this cancellation diminish any enjoyment I could squeeze out of the other acts. Unfortunately the night, apart from one set earlier on, was not much more than a string of disappointments; each delivering a blow of cumulative potency until by the end of the night the thought of going home seemed to offer a definite and consistent pleasure that The Warehouse Project had failed to deliver all night.



Admittedly the night did start out fairly well. Arriving in time for the beginning of DJ Yoda's set, and having been somewhat underwhelmed by him on other occasions, I pressed into the crowd expecting nothing. Perhaps this lack of expectation is what made his set initially enjoyable to me. Playing a medley of pop songs with rough beats underlying, he made an atmosphere of light heartedness that gave the crowd the energy, and looking around I saw people enjoying the freedom of not having to take themselves seriously.

The silliness peaked when I found myself dancing to the 'Indianna Jones' Theme', singing along in a series of embarrassingly loud Baaaah bah baah baaaaaah's. After a while, though, DJ Yoda's style became wearing. He seems to play a song for just long enough for you to recognise what it is, and then promptly change it. His show seems to revolve around getting that reaction of 'oh yeah', but then nothing more. He doesn't develop the track or leave it on long enough for you to enjoy it thoroughly, and as a result it began to feel more annoying than anything; like an Ipod DJ at a party who's so intent on everyone hearing all the songs they like, they don't bother letting each track finish. The initial recognition is enough for DJ Yoda, and obviously to all his fans; but not for me.

After I'd decided Yoda's abilities were far less than his name implies I ventured into the second room to catch The Gaslamp Killer (GLK). A pang of sadness overcame me momentarily as I looked at the name 'The Gaslamp Killer' flashing round the screen, remembering that on the original line-up it had said 'Flying Lotus & The Gaslamp Killer'. I quickly composed myself, though, and witnessed what would turn out to be one of the few highlights of the week.

At first you would be forgiven for thinking that GLK was not the best at mixing. Songs seem to begin suddenly and given the variety of styles he plays it can seem jarring. But give it a few minutes and you realise that this isn't like a drum and bass set where the DJ may, in the most part, try to achieve a seamless transition between songs.

What he did do was play music of such brevity that the contrast between the songs became enjoyable. I'll give an example: One hip hop track (that I didn't recognise) began to thin out as the heavy drumming of Nirvana's Scentless Apprentice (yes that's right, grunge at the Warehouse). The song kicked in and the crowd loved it, but it only lasted the span of one verse, GLK choosing to end it on one of Kurt's guttural screeches, which transformed into a whirl of distortion, washing away to reveal another hip hop track already underway.

What was impressive was his ability to switch from hip hop, to grunge, back to hip hop again, not in a seamless way, but rather in an interesting way that highlighted, nay celebrated the diversity in sound. Other highlights were the bollywood/hip hop crossover 'Darmatma Theme', originally by Kalyanji Anandji, and the collaboration between GLK and Flying Lotus 'GNG BNG', which went far in appeasing the distress of Flying Lotus' absence. What's more is that while all this great music was being played GLK was going, for lack of a better word, 'mental', waving his semi-afro hair wildly around, clearly enjoying himself as much as I did and I'm sure everyone else there did.



Back to the main room to catch Scratch Perverts who, as always, disappointed. From the very fact that there are three of them you expect something extraordinary, but it turns out they just play a rather average set; one that a singular DJ could easily do. They played a lot more Dubstep than usual, no doubt responding to its apparent huge increase in popularity.

For Dubstep Mary Anne Hobbs never disappoints, playing her finest selection of new and classic tunes, usually very dark in nature. But, alas the capacity for the second room had been filled and a barrier was put up preventing me from seeing her. While Mary Anne Hobbs drew a too-big-for-the-room crowd the main room had only a thin wisp of onlookers for Hospital's Commix and Logistics. Forced to watch them, I can say they played some nice songs, Commix's 'Satelite Type 2' sounding particularly good on such a huge system. That's all I can say, though. It was 'nice' to listen to. There weren't enough people for the atmosphere to really pick up and all the while, in the back of my mind, and I'm sure in many others, I knew that Mary Anne Hobbs was tearing the second room to pieces.



So that's it then. Six hours and only one truly good set to speak of. The bad organisation with respect to Mary Anne Hobbs’ show was what really got to me. I said it about the last Warehouse I went to and I'll say it again: they should get rid of the second room and restore the unity of 2007's Warehouse. Overall not a good night and definitely not worth twenty five pounds.

FUTURE GIGS

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