Live Review: Peanut Butter Wolf & Jonti

While Perth's hip-hop scene seems to be growing exponentially, this isolated city of ours seems to be starved for the international gigs hip-hop fiends crave. Thankfully in the last couple of years, Perth has been treated to the likes of Das EFX & Black Sheep, Kendrick Lamar and of course Wu-Tang Clan. To welcome the arrival of 2013, Peanut Butter Wolf came back our shores whilst giving a leg-up to a few dj's and artists that deserve some to attention.

Migsee brought some old-school beats to the burgeoning crowd. Busting out some classics – House of Pain, Wreckx-N-Effect and more of the sort. His drops were smooth, and he was scratching wax and knob fondling like nobody's business. It's hard to believe that Benny P only made his performance debut in 2011. It seemed as if the hip-hop/breaks/funk turntablist was put on this earth to master a MacBook and decks. Benny P brought the crunk with some attitude fueled stoner rap, pumping the crowd right up before his set abruptly finished.

Jonti changed the vibe immensely, his style of abstract prog-techno was wholly unpredictable, a curious affair to say the least. The multi-instrumentalist ran around his desk of exotic gadgets like a kid on a sugar high. Jonti's tunes were heavily layered and subject to unanticipated melodic metamorphoses which rendered the crowd somewhat astounded and unable to dance in a coherent manner. It's hard to define what genre Jonti's sound belongs to. His tracks floated in and out of something between futuristic junglist and experimental noise livetronica; the sort of sound you'd play to get an alien in the mood.

It is safe to say that Chris Manak aka. Peanut Butter Wolf (main man of Stones Throw Records, who manage the likes of Aloe Blacc and J Dilla) knows his shit! Spinning some M.O.P., Sugarhill Gang, KRS-One and Wu-Tang Clan, PBW had the crowd waving their hands like they just didn't care. Each meticulously chosen track was played with corresponding footage that was flawlessly harmonized with PBW's superb scratch techniques. Just so we didn't forget what PBW did for old-school hip hop, we were indulged with some unreleased footage from Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest. It's hard to say too much about a 90 minute 'golden-age' hip-hop revivalist set except for no one could nail it better than PBW. If Perth saw more shows like this one, it would be a happier place.