:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Saturday, December 13, 2003 ::

Gig Review: DJ Qbert, Sir Beanz O.B.E., Wordsworth Surgery @ The Thekla, Bristol, 12.12.03

It appeared Bristol’s entire scratch DJ population turned up for this one. And a few non-DJs who just appreciate scratching, like myself.

I wasn’t too sure about Beanz to start with but as the evening went on his set, and his scratching, got better, and by the end I was converted. He’s pretty good. Wordsworth Surgery we’re similar. To start with I dismissed them as two country hicks from rural Dorset putting on bad boy London accents and saying “yo-yo-yo-yo-yo” a lot. But by the end of there second set I could see that they we’re actually two country hicks from rural Dorset putting on bad boy London accents who had a couple o decent tracks. These guys could improve a lot over time so I wouldn’t rule out ever seeing them again. Just give them some time.

DJ Qbert took to the stage and sat in the edge of a small table in front of what he called his new invention; the mixer and turntable in one. Apparently “you can take it with you anywhere, on a bike, to the bathroom, anywhere.” The thing looked heavy duty; it had a very deep base, was almost round, had faders mounted on each corner (except the one the tone arm was mounted on) and pots around the edges. He used some sort of remote control to play a backing track of beats which he scratched over and mixed with. The first track was a great show of force, warning of what was to come, with scratch trick after scratch trick, the crowd practically collectively wetting themselves at some points. Unfortunately, the more impressive the trick performed, the louder the roar of the crowd, and so the less it could be heard. After two pretty similar tracks, both building breaking down, building and them ending in the same way, it was time for something different. A whole track played without any use of the faders, just one record scratching back and forth. This really was quite an impressive number. The pace was slacked a little next with a slower funkier number, but still equally capable of whipping the crowd into a frenzy every now and again. We were also treated to some 80’s style acid house tracks (like the stuff he did for the Scratch soundtrack) and some killer Drum and Bass (although not enough of the latter in my opinion). The vinyl was used to scratch out known tunes, bass lines, as well as just the normal cuts you’d expect to hear. One of the real highlights was the use of a drum fill to pick out individual percussion sounds to create a new drum loop, which would then change every four bars or so. Impressive. The crowd didn’t want to let him go, so at the point when he seemed to have used all of his prepared material Beanz joined him for a little scratch battle. (Beanz sounded much better than he had earlier in the evening, I think his style isn’t as fluid as it could be so he benefits from the battle style of taking turns so he can set up his next move.) Finally the beat boxing of monkey boy (can’t remember his name, but it had monkey in it somewhere) was fantastic and didn’t really even need any starching to complement it.

In all, Qbert played for an hour, all on his custom deck, then retired to sign autographs(!) It was a stunning show, and I’m sure there will be even more wannabe scratch DJs in Bristol after this show than there was before. Anyone got some decks I can borrow?

:: Dan 13.12.03 [Arc]    ::
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