A night of snappy Aussie hip-hop kicked off at the Rosemount last Friday night beginning with a performance by Perth group The Typhoons.
Normally a ten-piece outfit, the group made do without their flu-struck flugelhorn, trombone and guitar players, luring a tentative crowd from the bar until the floor before them was slippery with puddles of spilt beer and peppered with bouncing bodies.
The bait was a soundtrack of soulful keys, horns and tight bass grooves which backed Natalie Alley’s impressive vocal runs and Lewis Galaga and Emcee Able’s precise vocal rhythms. Despite his scornful Orlando Bloom-styled facial hair and scruffy faded hoodie, Able dominated the set performing numbers he’d written outside the band – Brains, Pizza, Booze and Animal . The latter was powered by an intense violin riff that chugged in dramatic semitones, rivalled only by the group’s last tune Bad News featuring a slow, intricate sax solo, the trumpet melody of a good old Western movie and a backing riff reminiscent of Led Zepplin’s Kashmir.
Next was solo act Nick Sweepah a skilled ex-Victorian rapper, whose intensity was undermined by a pre-recorded backing track highlighting the partial absence of live performance. While the crowd nodded energetically with each of his tunes, this was symptomatic of one engaging with alcohol rather than the energy of a confident performer. One flannel-clad fan waddled on the spot and mimed lyrics incorrectly at the front of the stage.
Someone who did engage the crowd was Aussie hip-hop vet Hunter (Syllaboliks Crew) who pulled the crowd into action, yelling pink-faced into the microphone with his tunes East Perth and Yokine (Drugs + Crime) off his 2006 LP. The duo’s chaotic chants and plain rowdiness were enough for the crowd to flail their heads back and forth.
As one might expect from the sheer quality of their latest album, And Then Tomorrow Came , Muph and Plutonic championed the night. It was the last gig of a two-week tour, and their excitement shone in a set mainly consisting of new tunes. What made them stand out as an act (besides DJ Bonez’ cruisey turntable embellishments and Plutonic Lab’s massive kick drum and rim-shot beats) was the optimistic energy volleyed back and forth between Muphin (vocalist) and the dancing audience. Smiling and shaking hands with those closest to the stage he showed the traits of a performer grateful for his fans’ appreciation. This stood out against the lyrics of Balloon Heads a reggae-tinged song criticising those with inflated egos; “Let’s pop those balloons one by one / They got a head full of helium floating to the sun.” As the set surged on, the crowd ignored growing foot pain, and pogoed with up-stretched arms to The Day Off, and helped out with vocal duties on So Beautiful, So Ugly.
Within a minute of leaving the stage, the group were pulled back again by a crowd greedy for more. Performing three encores the stand out was Heaps Good from the album, Hunger Pains. There’s often a tendency for people to leave before encores finish, but on Friday the thought didn’t seem to cross anybody’s mind.
