Live Review: Urthboy, EV Jones, Jane Tyrell, Ngaiire, Rapaport, MC Rival, Joyride

The art of the mixtape: a true expression of one’s feelings and emotions set at a point in time usually given to someone as a gift.

In tonight’s example, we receive the gift of experiencing a set of 12 songs that Urthboy aka Tim Levinson chose to represent a pivotal period of his life. Narcissistic? Not when he’s sharing the songs with the brilliant talent invited to The Basement.

EV Jones’ lent his silky vocal and excitable dancing to Broken Bells’ The High Road and we were away on a retrospective tour of a chapter of Urthboy’s life, diary and photos in tow.

The evening was expertly curated by Levinson. The inclusion of his long-time musical cohort Jane Tyrrell was magical. Her beautiful rendition of Massive Attack’s Teardrop brought goosebumps to The Basement. Ngaiire won over new fans with her outstanding original track, Around, which flowed smoothly into The Pharcyde’s 1995 classic, Runnin’.

The musical styles were eclectic, which may have surprised some, but the inclusion of Iggy Pop’s The Passenger, sung by surprise guest Rapaport, and Ken Boothe’s Everything I Own, performed by MC Rival, were inspired selections.

Levinson’s rapport with the audience kept the show flowing. His engagingly-told travel story, to which many can relate, gave us a chance to view his formative years as a songwriter as he read out a segment of his diary written on Khao San Road. His hazardous travels through Vietnam become the basis of EV Jones’ second song and highlight of the evening, Frank Ocean’s Lost.

The man mountain with the voice from God, Joyride, guided us to the end of the journey with Mark Morrison’s Return Of The Mack, before most of the guests returned to the stage for a crowd participative rendition of an unusual finale choice in Corinne West’s Hell Yes.

Unusual choices are acceptable when making mixtapes, even when there are sometimes tenuous links between songs and events. After all, they’re your personal tastes and experiences, which in tonight’s show we were all happy to share.