Live Review: HERMITUDE

Elefant Traks must currently be wearing one serious smile as they seem to have a lot of impressive fresh goods at the moment. Enter first, Sietta – one man, one woman, and a whole lot of electronica. Snaring drums, live mixing and soulful vocals struck a chord in Silence with vox recorded and loop-played live. A cover of Marcy Playground's Sex & Candy circa 1997 tore it up and What Am I Supposed To Do saw some serious arse-shaking as Caiti B boldly popped and locked her way across the stage without any hang-ups. The best producers are horrifically pale from spending their time mixing away in the darkness, so it's no surprise Dubs and Elgusto of Hermitude are both super white. Unbelievably talented and viscerally live for a predominantly electronic album, Engage dropped to begin and was immediately recognisable with its echo. All Of You had the throaty jazz vocals with horn-like synth, while Sloucho Darx was romper-stomper galore with delicious grime. The keyboard solos from Dubs were melodic and samples from Elgusto were crafty and quick, and were recorded live by a camera and projected in black and white to watch, intermittent with fluoro budgies and psychedelic animals. HyperParadise was mashed with In The Jungle amid wildcat roars, slowly snowballing into the recognisable steel drum and multi-dimensional safari sound of the album's title track. Hand-pumping and jumping was taken to galactic extremes in Tales Of The Drift and a Michael Jackson tribute medley. An explanation from Elgusto on how “We try to keep our shit as live as possible for you guys” built more appreciation for their live combo of keys, turntables and samples. They whirled some unreleased tracks and provided a mellow interlude with Let You Go, before Speak Of The Devil and The Villain took over, the floor threatening to cave in. There is no doubt that Hermitude are “the best shit, the real shit,” and love a good scratch sesh.