Live Review: Cosmo's Midnight, Genesis Owusu, Mookhi

16 July 2018 | 5:10 pm | Calogero Algeri

"The brothers continued to churn through album cuts, grabbing the talented singer-songwriter Asta to assist on 'Talk To Me'."

More Cosmo's Midnight More Cosmo's Midnight

Amid the release of their debut album What Comes Next, news of a Cosmo's Midnight Australian headline tour was music to the ears of their fanbase.

The Sydney duo — made up of twins Patrick and Cosmo Liney — have been labouring at their inaugural project for three years, managing to charm the likes of Pharrell Williams and Eminem affiliate Boogie along the way. Saturday night saw Perth get a taste of the action as the pair hit Jack Rabbit Slim's for the first of two shows.

Entering the venue, moody electronic pop production filled the space courtesy of Sydney producer and previous triple j feature artist Mookhi. Her spacey, obscure beats were soon followed by Canberra-based Genesis Owusu. Owusu impressed with an energetic hip hop set complete with Outkast-inspired hooks, confidently delivered rhymes and dance moves from his DJ, who deserved to be on centre stage. At the tender age of just 18, Owusu showed plenty of promise with his voice sitting most comfortable on low-fi flows reminiscent of Mick Jenkins and Rejjie Snow.

While the heavy downpour outside had seemed to stall the crowd arriving up to this point, by the time Cosmo Midnight's slot had landed, the sold-out crowd seemed to appear from thin air and an excited murmur fell over the venue. After a short wait the dynamic duo hit the stage, turning loud murmurs into even louder shrieks of excitement, before fittingly opening with the album-starter Confidence. With the smooth transition into one of the pair's biggest songs to date, Get To Know, the crowd was converted into a collective bopping unit. The song also saw the introduction of a live trumpet to complement the live guitar and percussion from Cosmo and Patrick respectively.

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People on shoulders and smooth transitions littered the following stages of the night, as the brothers continued to churn through album cuts, grabbing the talented singer-songwriter Asta to assist on Talk To Me. The crowd were then privy to what felt like a couple of live Like A Version performances, with Cosmo's Midnight performing groove-packed renditions of the Calvin Harris smash hit Slide and Tyler, The Creator's 911 / Mr Lonely. The latter of these was a moment of collaborative brilliance, which saw Owusu, Asta and Mookhi return to the stage to help deliver an impressive layered cover.

Asta again returned to the stage to round off the night, nailing the vocals on the album highlight History and further proving that Cosmo's Midnight's strongest live songs come in the form of singalong chorus jams.

The young producers' set reflected a shift from traditional DJ set-ups to live instrumentation, a move that not only gave the audience something more interesting to watch than the two producers press buttons, but also added interesting elements to tracks like Lowkey.