DJ SHADOW + FUTURE UTOPIA – BRIGHTON DOME 17.9.21
Whilst the streets bustle outside, inside Brighton Dome there is a party going on like no other. Tonight the Dome welcomes two colossal heavy weights within dance music.
The first thing you need to know about Future Utopia is that the person behind the project is Grammy and Ivor Novello winning artist, songwriter and producer Fraser T Smith. A very well known Grime producer who’s debut album ‘12 Questions After Dark’ saw him collaborate with such artists as Dave and Kojey Radical.
What we experience tonight is a concoction of heavy beats, familiar samples, poetry and drawn out synth passages that intertwine to form something that is highly alluring.
In all Future Utopia serves as the ideal opening act as there’s a lot of parallels with DJ Shadow’s own work.
DJ Shadow, is an American DJ, songwriter and record producer who has a personal collection of more than 60,000 records. He was born in California in 1972 and his real name is Joshua Paul Davis.
DJ Shadow is set to drop the Abbey Road half-speed master vinyl album of his first platter ‘Endtroducing’ on 24th September – Grab yours HERE. This is in celebration of its 25th anniversary. The double 12″ vinyl features totally remastered audio taken from the original studio tape and cut at half-speed; a technical, specialized process that results in significantly more detailed and nuanced sound.
‘Endtroducing’ would go on to make the Guinness World Records book for “First Completely Sampled Album” in 2001. The only pieces of equipment Shadow used to produce the album were the AKAI MPC60 12-bit sampling drum machine, a pair of turntables and a borrowed-by-visiting Pro Tools setup from an early adopter of the technology, Dan “The Automator” Nakamura. In November 2006 Time magazine named it one of its “All-Time” 100 best albums. In November 2014, Chevrolet used a sample “Building Steam with a Grain of Salt” in a Chevy commercial.
Tonight’s headliner has had a long and illustrious career that now spans across four decades. His set tonight spans trip hop rooted material from his 1996 debut ‘Endtroducing’ through to his recent sixth album ‘Our Pathetic Age’.
His performance tonight is part of his highly interrupted tour. It is only the second gig he had played in the last 18 months, and is one of only 3 gigs this year.
During tonight’s set, he informs that he can’t play back home in the States currently and did not fully know if he was going to be able to play this date until 5 days prior. Though this must be a frustrating scenario for both artist and those within his team, it does highlight just how lucky we are to be able to once again experience live music.
Tonight he is in a very talkative mood, and informs us of his fondness for our city, and one that he recalls first playing in 1994. His set winds through his back catalogue taking in such gems as ‘Six Days’ and the ‘Run The Jewels’ featuring ‘Nobody Speak’.
Older material such as the U.N.K.L.E featuring Richard Ashcroft ‘Lonely Soul’ gets reworked and given a new lease of life. Another example in which we can also hear this in the repetitive and haunting piano sequence that forms the beginning of ‘Blood On The Motorway’ from his album ‘The Private Press’.
Another vital ingredient to the DJ Shadow live experience is the presentation and tonight we are treated to an arresting visual and light show that has been carefully and elegantly constructed to enhance the overall experience.
Tonight’s encore sees airings of his recent De La Soul collaboration ‘Rocket Fuel’, as well as the ‘Endtroducing’ classic ‘Organ Grinder’ and leaves us with the feeling that tonight was more than special.
DJ Shadow continues to be as vital today, as he’s ever been.
