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clubland’s fiercest live shows
RÜFÜS DU SOL @ FONDA THEATER, LOS ANG ELES It looks like word has got out since Rüfüs Du Sol’s Los Angeles appearance a year ago, bringing an extra 500 fans to a sold-out Fonda Theater this time around. A blend of off-season Coachella-goers and Hollywood club-kids text and bob about impatiently to opener Cassian, awaiting the return of the indie house golden boys. When the lighting rig is cued and the Aussie trio finally take the stage, the room is filled with loud affirmations of summertime band crushes coming to fruition. The set is packed with new material from their forthcoming sophomore album ‘Bloom’, offering a new arc to the Rüfüs story as they depart from the strictly sun-swept styles of their breakthrough tracks. Writing music amid a Berlin winter seems to have granted the band a new depth, shown in the emotive synth work of the most well received of their new tracks, ‘Innerbloom’. And as the show tosses them into the US run of their World Tour, it’s impossible to ignore the progress of a band set for big things in 2016. CARRÉ ORENSTEIN
TIGA @ KOKO, LONDON
Let’s go dancing LONDON’S GRAND KOKO theatre is hosting a special one tonight. It’s Bugged Out!, and the prospect of Tiga’s debut live show has spirited limbs swinging to the housey acid squelch of muchloved warm-up artists Paranoid London. It’s a huge venue to sell out: a beautiful theatre, with multiple red and gold layers, creating a 3D dancefloor that’s packed to the rafters. On stage, Tiga, the Turbo Recordings head honcho who’s signed to Ninja Tune rock imprint Counter for the release of his new album, stands amid all sorts of mixers, mics and effects gizmos. He’s
LIVE BITES
MASSIVE ATTACK
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pop star debonair in a white shirt, singing over wave after wave of catchy riffs and infectious basslines, the crowd lapping up everything from opener ‘808Iraq’ through ‘Bugatti’, ‘Let’s Go Dancing’, ‘Mind Dimension’, ‘Shoes’, ‘Sunglasses At Night’ and the deep echo bass of new single ‘Don’t Break My Heart’, as Vice City-style visuals from design collective Pfadfinderai suck everyone into an 8 bit arcade machine. When Tiga stepped out of the DJ booth and into the live arena, he said he wanted to create “something that entertains for an hour rather than just
They’ll be releasing new music later this year, but first Massive Attack will embark on a huge European tour kicking off at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin on January 19 and closing at
Zenith, Paris on February 26 with Ninja Tune’s Young Fathers supporting all dates ... It’s a busy month for Shackleton, playing live at Paris’s Concrete on January 22 then alongside Scuba at London’s XOYO on January
smashes people over the head with lights”. He’s achieved that. And he’s the first to admit that it’s a team effort. Next to him stands longterm partner in crime Jori Hulkkonen, who as Tiga says, “plays synths, adds basslines, does percussion, back-up vocals and crucially tells me I look good before we go on stage.” As good, perhaps, as the three mannequin backing singers that were wheeled out earlier, which, for Tiga, tick all the right boxes: “They’re perfect: don’t have to eat. Don’t talk back. Stay on key. And look dynamite.” Model employees – in every sense. PHIL DUDMAN
23 ... Childhood friends Richard Roberts and Andy Harber aka Letherette play live in support of Com Truise’s headline show at London’s Koko on January 23 ... Kompakt favourites Saschienne (Sascha Funke and Julienne), deliver
live techno vibes to Berlin’s Kosmonaut on February 12 ... Leftfield get set to blast Calais Estate in Rothbury, Australia on February 20 ... Don’t miss Paranoid London live at Fabric, London on the same night.
DAVID AUGUST @ MOVEMENT TORINO, ITALY Deep in the core of a five-room, four storey former Fiat factory, David August is at work. He made waves last year combining shivering basslines with Alfred Hitchcock scenes. Here the visuals are far more stripped back, but that doesn’t alter the sense of vertigo. The man appears as a silhouette in a blaze of white LEDs made misty by the sweat of several thousand Italians. There’s a haunting series of Eastern strings, a signature slow, almost reluctant build, then eventually a chirpy, clicking brand of kick. Heavily sidechained chords seem to come up from the floor, prompting inadvertent shoulder rolls and heads to drop down. David August is now in that zone he seeks, hunched over the mixer with a challenging, almost confrontational look, every twist, every movement bringing in yet another layer, another band of EQs floating out across what must be one of the biggest spaces in Europe. ALLY BYERS
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RYAN DINHAM, LOUIS KANG
Tiga’s live debut delivers a model performance