James Blake’s last two sets in Manchester – a pair of Saturday matinee shows at Band on the Wall, on the 26th of February and March respectively – were extraordinary for their proof of the extent to which a venue can shape a performance.
As a producer so prolific, it’s difficult to predict an Aphex Twin live set. Considering his claims to have recorded hundreds of hours of audio – many of which remain unreleased – covering every division of the electronic spectrum, two hours from Richard James could go anywhere.
Jamie Smith’s mixes are some of the best around. Take, for example, his half-hour live set for Benji B on the DJ’s Radio 1 show last year. Eclectisism is the man’s strong point; no genre goes left unturned, no sound left unsampled. While this approach works tidily for the casual listener – perfect for radio, for example – in the live environment (and certainly given the crowd the XX producer has now achieved), it makes for somewhat of a frustrating experience.
Backed by the support of Gilles Peterson and his label Brownswood, Ghostpoet’s work has been the subject of much critical acclaim, with support slots for the likes of Metronomy and Jamie Woon, a Mercury nomination and an appearance on Jools Holland cementing his reputation as one of the country’s most exciting up and coming artists.
Will Orchard caught up with the man behind the ghost to talk lyrics, Mercury nominations and why he’ll always remain true to the music that he loves.
Hearing Rustie is a difficult experience to compare to much else. Where describing other producers’ work as ‘eclectic’ or ‘boundary-breaking’ often hides the weakness and superficiality that comes with trying to straddle multiple genres, Russell Whyte manages to create something that’s part hip-hop, part funk, part dubstep, carving out a niche of his own only defined by his (as-yet limitless) vision.
