By: Matt Stevens
Shobaleader One | facebook | twitter |
Support: Lafawndah | website
Islington Assembly Hall, London | May 8, 2016
Shobaleader One is the live project of the legendary bassist and electronic musician Squarepusher (AKA Tom Jenkinson) in full on jazz/rock mode and the audience is made up of excited and beardy enthusiasts. Only Aphex Twin rivals him for Drill N Bass fan loyalty and they seem open minded to Jenkinson’s new direction.
Warp signing Lafawndah opens proceedings playing some interesting dub and R&B material with excellent vocals. Steve Davis is next with a DJ set of interesting tunes that are progressive, but not always prog including a lovely tune from North Sea Radio Orchestra. Steve has deep music knowledge and knows how to put together a set of music that is both remarkable and that keeps the crowd’s interest. He often DJ’s in the London area and his sets are always worth a listen, as is his weekly radio show on Phoenix FM (you can listen online).
Shobaleader One sounds closer to Weather Report and the Mahavishnu Orchestra than most Warp artists, Squarepusher leads a 4 piece bass/keys/drums/guitar line up of incredible players including one of the most remarkable drummers I’ve ever seen live. Lots of the flash playing from all of them, the drummer brings to mind Billy Cobham. The band perform in LED masks that have drawn comparisons from some with Daft Punk, but the lighting in these masks is well beyond that and actually provides most of the illumination on the dark stage. Words and different pattens flash across each individual player’s mask for each different song in the set, they must be incredibly hot to play in. I’ve no idea who the players are beneath the masks, but they are remarkable musicians, not cheesy session hired guns. They get their fair share of solos and play some really clever and interesting parts.
The crowd responds best when they play old tunes from Jenkinson’s past and the live arrangements often bring to mind his Hello Everything album. This is very much a Zappa/prog/jazz type band, but very much what Zappa and the Mahavishnu Orchestra would be doing now with a band rather than the retro pastiche that is most contemporary prog and jazz rock. A lot of that stuff sounds like people demonstrating instruments, Shobaleader One sound like they are genuinely inspired and are taking the music forward. It’s really good to hear the chemistry between these players and Squarepusher has taken quite a brave and interesting move presenting his catalogue in this way live.
By the last tune the audience are totally behind the band, people seem really into it. I look forward to seeing where Shobaleader One’s music goes in the future, this is progressive rock for 2016.
