TZU, Hermitude, Polo Club @The Prince, Melbourne(27/03/2009)

Fri 3rd Apr, 2009 in Gig Reviews

I guess most of us have noticed the outbreak of Aussie hip hop taking root lately. The style itself is by no means a recent discovery, but I wouldn’t hesitate in saying our sea-girt home seems to have taken its sweet time in developing a taste for the spoken word. With the inception of the musical title – œskip-hop’ (brilliant) to mark a new era for the form, we are lucky enough to witness a unique fusion of sounds surfacing from the likes of Polo Club, Hermitude and TZU.

Opening on the Prince stage was Urban Monk (Dylan Truscio) and Camelot the Cameleon (Cameron Chapman) working under the alias Polo Club. Sampling, manipulating and transforming so many other varieties of sound means this breed of hip-hop will always demand a high level of originality from its creators. This said, it’s no wonder Polo Club have turned so many heads during their short time working together. Armed only with mic, mac and mixer, these guys produce such a considerably full sound. Although there were initially some technical problems – the curse of the opening act – making much of the lyrical content unclear, what I managed to decipher was so enjoyable. Dare I say, fresh.

What really had me grinning about Polo Club was their beat making, weaving a foundation of meaty beats from artists like Missy, DIPLO, The Presets (most impressive was a regenerated A New Sky) almost seamlessly. There was nothing repetitive or predictable about this set, which is always a welcome surprise! While the finer details of the performance were a little raw, they really have an ace handle on this unique sound. I plan to keep my ear to the ground for a polished Polo Club in the future.

Striding across a lit stage with their arms suspended in the air like local heroes, Hermitude entered to the sound of an audibly dedicated following. Hermitude is brought to you by Luke Dubs and El Gusto, who appear to have found a winning combination with the two piece act. Opening with what may have been mistaken for a bit of a DJ set, the duo were quick to throw in their single Your Call featuring Urthboy and Alana Stone. Putting aside for a moment that this is a great song, according to my humble (and accurate…) opinion, this introduction by no means set the tone for the rest of their set.

The majority of what I heard was a surprisingly complex composition of sounds branching from downbeat, jazz and earlier hip-hop origins. For this reason the decision to come in, fists swinging, with the popular title seemed like their way of clearing the air for a deeper round of music. Smart move. This stuff is pretty dense, often using completely infectious reggae overtones to highlight their hip-hop beats. Between stretches of wonderfully grimy bass, we absorbed some hugely engaging down tempo electronic creations including a personal highlight, Frayed and an impressive cover of Björk’s Joga. Both parties doubtlessly offered exceptional energy to their live act, but I have to say I feel personally obligated to express my awe at Dubs’ performance on the keys. Dude’s got skills.

A relaxed entry from TZU was nothing if not misleading. Despite the tangle of arms that shot into the air as the boys took their places on stage, there was a generally casual demeanor on show from the band. I found myself pretty disappointed as I found myself anticipating a comfortable stroll through the TZU catalogue of music for their final performance for 2009. Happily, I was wrong.

We enjoyed a few solid-but-far-from-exciting performances of earlier material including Who? and Recoil, before the group left the stage no more than fifteen minutes into the set, leaving us to our confused murmurings. Hilariously, a quick costume change was to reveal the band displayed in a cheesy row of personalised white suits, tails and all. It’s so fantastic to see the TZU humour hasn’t faded with time, although their revised entry may have roused more energy from the get-go…

Broad smiles were cemented on each face through the storm of hits these guys had to push out – their grins were almost as blinding as their white suits. Summerdays, Get Up, Computer Love, Mondays, In Front Of Me, Number One – a heated energy bouncing around the venue seemed to warn, ‘We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started.’ What was great about their reflective set was our ability to see the development of the group’s shift from grittier funk to a lighter hip-hop bounce. While TZU execute both ventures in sound with some serious talent, it has to be said that they funk pretty damn well. It would have been ace to indulge us in a little more of this! In any case their brand of hip-hop really is bred for live performance. Most noteworthy was a fantastic down-beat bridge in She Gets Up which completely took me by surprise.

It’s a shame to see this team take their leave from the live scene for the next year, but if we have to wave goodbye this was certainly a memorable way to do it!

CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GIG HERE