Losers (Tom from Cooper Temple Clause, singer friend, Eddy TM)
Last night I went to the Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip warmup show, and mighty fine it was too…not been to the Borderline before, squirrelled secretly down a side street I’d passed through many times without knowing it was there, quite small so I got quite a close view of proceedings.
First on wass Losers…I’m ashamed I didn’t spot who this was, I’d heard the name but friends on Twitter reminded me this was Eddy Temple Morris’s band with a former Cooper Temple Clause and a drummer…what proceeded was a mashup/glitch/dance/indie crossover, kind of a mix of DJ set including samples of the likes of Gossip, Passion Pit (?), Candi Staton and many others I didn’t recognise – and a few live numbers – I thought the live numbers such as debut single ‘No Man is an Island’ (available free at that link) with a cheeky ‘Losers – Just a band’ drop in the middle – see video clip) were best, but liked the controllerism mashupglitchsampletronica DJ set meets heavy bass and real drums approach. After a quiet start really began to rock the crowd they finished on a cool version of You Got The Love with Candi on vocals…I do think a later slot would do them more justice.
Also blowing my mind was their VJ – rocking some cool animations/video live in sync, seemed to be using a MacBook with what looked like Ableton for video, loads of faders on screen with a small central video panel – any ideas what that was? ME WANT.
So after the warm up Dan Le Sac came onstage with a cheery wave and fired up a wonderfully stuttery ‘The Beat that My Heart Skipped’ and Scroobius Pip arrived, bottle of rose in tow. After some shenanigans involving a too-low keyboard and Scroobius admitted he was bloated and a bit slow due to ‘too much Venison pie’! they then launched into the first of the new songs, ‘Sick Tonight’, which with rapid fire rapping and evil dub/drum and bass bassline and skittery snares it’s a definite progression from Angles.
After that was a mix of oldies and newies – stand outs for me of the new tracks were ‘GB’ a ranty political track that should stoke some revolutionary flames and of course a triumphant ‘Get Better’ (which they reminded us is released as a single March 1st) which I have in full here: (most of the time out of respect for Dan & Dave I decided not to record whole bits, and anyone I hate those cunts who hold cameras and mobile phones aloft for hours at a time getting in the way – I was lucky where I was a pillar was behind me so I wasn’t blocking anyone’s view…I was dancing as well at parts hence the rather shakycam…well if you have a problem with that then you should’ve been there, you lazy fuckers 😉
Oh and GB apparently went wrong providing unintentional humour as Dan said to the soundman straight-faced ‘Great Britain is broken!!!’ – also Dan had a new toy in the shape of a controller and was having fun stuttering, looping and swooping everything so apparently a few technical issues but I didn’t hear any! 😉 Loads of intentional humour too – Pip’s on-stage manner is less hiphop braggadacio and more music hall and very dry and arch – you can see why he likes Tommy Cooper.
Another good one was ‘Stake A Claim’ which I can’t remember much more of apart from the fact it was indeed, good and like all the new tracks very uptempo and bloopy (that’s the technical term)…less so was The Beat which as they say in ‘Fixed’ (which they also played) ‘I’m not dissing Dizzee Rascal’ but sounded more closer to a cynical ‘Bonkers’ cash-in ploy than it should coming from those two, rhyming the beat with the feet, just seemed a bit lazy dancefloor filler (in the other sense). They also played ‘Last Train Home’ which was a story about – surprisingly – the last train home to Essex and the slightly dodgy people that you meet, which was OK, could be a grower.
Of the old stuff as well as Fixed they played Angles with costume changes, and a great version of Thou Shalt Always Kill which I have in full on video, and
humorously someone kept requesting Tommy C but they weren’t going to play it so the last track ‘Letter From God to Man’ became ‘Letter from Tommy C to man’! That ended with a total Dan Le Sac knob-twiddling wig out, where it turned into a dance stormer – by then everyone was dancing like crazy.
Overall the new songs sound great – social commentary and conscience but with an uptempo danceable backing…the production seems less mid-range and rock/indie and more deeper, with subbass and rave basses coming to the fore (at least one track was totally a dirty MOAR WOBBUL bassline stomper that would make the likes of Jack Beats and AC Slater happy), sort of a more politically conscious ‘Bonkers’, with skittery beats and glitchy chopping. If there is any justice and going by the reaction to ‘Tongue in Cheek’ it should be massive…
It bodes well for the album ‘Logic Of Chance’ which drops on March 14th, and the tour a week or so later….rilly they should pay me for this promo, but I shall declare my interests in this matter – I think they are a fucking brilliant group who deserve far better exposure. That is all. 😉
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