Live Review: Total Freedom, Sleepyhead, Leon Os-Borne

Often noted by most underground sources as the best DJ in Los Angeles, Ashland Mines, better known by stage name Total Freedom thrives on unexpectedly appealing pairings of sounds. Mines curates three notorious club nights in LA: Mustache Mondays, GROWN and WILDNESS; their captivating and unique environments reportedly attracting faithful followers from all corners of the city. One of the homegrown supports tonight was our very own Leon Osborne, one of our most striking local beatmakers we're only too proud to flaunt for the evening. Osborne played an eclectic set of bouncy R&B sorts, before stripping things down to their bare bones with some slower baby-making jams. Sleepyhead began with a fairly hostile merging of trap and rap, before taking things into his customary party hip hop direction, with subtle house edits of Outkast and Missy Elliot. “I make environments for humans – fish tanks where fishes can be happy and well fed. Usually this translates into club environments,” Mines commented in Interview magazine earlier this year.

Whether it's his intention or otherwise, Total Freedom truly conjures up soundscapes built for the – albeit very left-field – dancefloor. It's really no wonder the enigmatic LA producer hails from the critically acclaimed and notoriously forward-thinking record label and DJ collective Fade To Mind, whose roster includes the likes of Nguzunguzu, Kingdom and P Morris. The mezzo-soprano vocals of Rihanna met with the drums of Slipknot's Joey Jordison to foreshadow what was to be an inexplicable and unforgettable performance. His instantly recognisable female scream watermark that features sporadically in his tracks were plentiful, serving as a generous indicator of his production on some of his unreleased goodies. The first half of the set focused predominately around the revitalised grime genre, with a definitive focus on harsh bass lines and disjointed clap and snare patterns. Total Freedom chose to switch things up significantly at the halfway point, with a chilling edit of Lil Jon's party anthem, Get Low, which was followed by a sound that could be likened to a distorted version of Samba. Freedom finished the set off with his own typically odd and superfluously titled A Picture Of TF With His Head In A Lion's Mouth, a send-off that resonated with the odd Latin theme of the second half as well as the immensity of a very memorable performance.