"They packed all the hip-hop artists into one night."
‘The most trusted voice in music’ at last arrived in London in the form of a music festival - one which took over a plethora of bestowed music venues across the capital for no more than a handful of days. Showcasing the regularly-cited and beloved likes of Faye Webster and Cate Le Bon, and the electronic visionaries of DJ Cryalot and Danny L Harle, Pitchfork Music Festival London relished a smorgasbord of genres and sounds of our current landscape.
Plunging into the latter, the vaporwave/80’s nostalgia of electronic trio (performing as a duo with James Webster and Tech Honors), Death’s Dynamic Shroud, carried the initial support for George Clanton in London’s venue, Fabric. Sound levels proved sketchy in places, yet the duo's electronic looping, bolstered by a variety of sequenced pads and effects, as well as live instrumentation, deemed enticing over the packed crowd to a highly-anticipated night.
Bounding across the city, one caught “all of the hip-hop artists in one night” at Shoreditch’s Village Underground, according to its first credible act, Billy Woods. Striding away from his eclectic duo within Armand Hammer, Woods’ series of double albums of this year proved abrasive, a slick wordmaster spitting well-crafted rhymes and bars on personal trials and tribulations. Partaking in the popularised concoction of softened samplings of jazz against such hard-hitting bars undoubtedly elevated the night in showcasing one of the more talented rappers currently holding the experimental scene.
Yet Injury Reserve’s frenzied mania would showcase another level of unfettered chaos, a whirlwind of emotions spurred by the insatiable production of Parker Corey and vociferous vocals from rapper Richie with a T. Following the passing of their beloved member Stepa J. Groggs, the group unleashed a myriad of strobe lighting effects paired with glitched sampling, condensed into an boundless cauldron of energy as an homage to their comrade took place. By the Time I Get To Phoenix played its part in elevating the night yet something went amiss here, perhaps a true integrity and consistency in the performance - something which their lineup’s predecessor, Billy Woods, controlled and held with ease with a more convincing legacy as the “hip-hop night” made its conclusion.
Whilst many of the acts of Pitchfork’s Music Festival in London went amiss across my radar, this one night proved why many should still learn to trust much of what comes from the monolith of such an outlet, supporting and championing enticing acts at all levels of recognition. Undoubtedly, the festival provoked a hungry crowd searching to feast on a litany of genres and musicians, particularly those who push such boundaries and draw us in to their unique world for the night.
Check out Pitchfork Music Festival's website, where all of the acts seen above can be found and heard here.
Photos are courtesy of Sam Huddleston and Ishai Gun whose work can be found at their respective links.
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