Live Review: BIGSOUND Live: DD Dumbo

After a short delay due to apparent technical difficulties, humble troubadour D.D. Dumbo takes to the Alhambra Lounge's stage in front of a heaving mass of interested parties, from industry bigwigs to curious bystanders.

He offers a quick apology, and then it only takes a minute or so for the reasons why the room feels so close to capacity to become starkly clear - aside from seeming like God opened a human and filled it with nothing but talent before sending it out into the world, Dumbo is more than just a good musician; he's an undeniably innovative one, an expert in the arts of restrained beauty and stillness as well as hip-enthralling grooves and impassioned vocals.

The complexities of rhythm and absence thereof that intertwine as he flits between guitar, drums, sampled and live vocals, and other miscellaneous instrumentation he's picked up in his travels deserve comparison with a live loop/sample master and genre transcendentalist such as Japan's Cornelius, albeit with a distinctly more structured feel overall. With a knack for one-man theatrics like Dumbo's, who even needs a band?