The Laundry, London
This Lex Records showcase brings the return of an exciting star, intriguing soundscapes and an emerging collaboration that suggests there is much to look forward to from the label
His 24-karat grill glinting under the spotlights, Eric Biddines promises the audience at Hackney’s spartan Laundry some more “authentic old-school shit”; the south Florida MC must be a graduate of Outkast College then, as his Golden Rules project owes much to the Dirty South pioneers. Beatmaker Paul White, meanwhile, hails from Lewisham, though his deftly funky productions pass any authenticity test. And if the amiable, drawling Biddines is not yet showman enough to make this stripped-back show feel anything more than a warmed-over PA, the elastic funk of Aunt Pearl’s House and sumptuous melancholy of Never Die flag their debut album Golden Ticket (released by Lex Records, the adventurous London label hosting this leftfield hip-hop soiree) as one of the year’s best.
Edan, on the other hand, has star power to spare. MIA since 2005’s sublime Beauty and the Beat, he arrives on stage tonight in Travis Bickle army jacket looking like he’s spent the last decade panhandling, but his wild, wilful performance is proof of uncommon genius. Straight-faced Velvet Underground covers and kazoo-driven ditties owing more to Leon Redbone than Redman might puzzle, but he dazzles with bouts of simultaneous MCing and scratching, sparring in superhuman sync with rhyme-partner Paten Locke. It’s not just his showmanship that impresses: running mics and turntables through a phalanx of FX-pedals, he rearranges hip-hop’s atomised elements with psychedelic vision. Rock and Roll and a blistering Emcees Smoke Crack are immense; a handful of new tracks with Locke, meanwhile, tease that the self-described “Humble Magnificent” might end his recording hiatus sooner rather than later.
Continue reading...by Stevie Chick via Electronic music | The Guardian
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