17 March 2010

GONJASUFI album release party


GONJA SUFI with guests
EchoPlex: Los Angeles, CA
March 15, 2010

Walked in and ran into FLYLO and GLK, posing for the lens with the Warp rep. I was hoping flying lotus would show up, wishing he might play an impromptu set. I snagged ‘Kobwebz/ Speaketh’ the new GonjaSufi 7”. But bad news bears, they didn’t have the LP, because, said WARP Rep Josh, the label hadn’t anticipated the demand. There were plenty of CDs though, and in addition to the seven inches there were FREE GonjaSufi buttons and cheap GonjaSufi praybooks. GLK took to the stage, as the defacto MC of the night, Silhouetted against blue and looking more Side Show Bob than ever.

I grabbed a glass of ice water and tipped the black-tank-top clad bartender for not charging me three dollars. Dark corners are easy to find at the ECHOPLEX, so I grabbed one for myself and added to my ice water a healthy drop of whiskey from my flask. DJ PWC was on the decks, and a home girl with a fro bigger than Gaslamp’s was getting down on the dance floor like it was ‘85. From my dark corner I could see GLK behind the merch table fussing about with a dozen oddly sized plastic bags. Why does GLK need so many plastic bags?

For over an hour, DJ PWC spun wax (mostly) while Gaslamp occasionally hopped on the mic to name drop: Dublab, Brainfeeder, Warp, Flylo, Daedelus, he did this all night. The set was nothing to blog about. PWC played one really hot track off a CD, then crapped the flow with some lame Spanish record. For the most part, the set was a little boring and I couldn’t fathom why the show didn’t have any projections, but forty five minutes into PWC's set, he finally caught a stride and started to connect with the ever increasing crowd, now up to almost a hundred. I went to buy a drink and spotted GLK picking the spinach off his TWO BOOTS, though clearly he didn’t need a Popeye style boost as moments latter he was back on stage playing the AR game hard.

MAIN FRAME followed PWC and took to the decks with ‘Holidays’, one of his contributions to 'a Sufi and a Killer'. His mostly laptop based set consisted mostly of his music, and it wasn’t until a half an hour into it that he dropped the first memorable track, following it up with a smash of a track, a Flylo vocal with BLU on the rhymes.

A short set of psychedelia from GLK, as the projector finally gets turned on, the headliner, emerges from backstage, the king, adorned with a crown. When I first heard about this show I was really disappointed that GonjaSufi would only be performing a DJ set, but my disappointed was for naught. GonjaSufi didn’t actually touch the decks once. His hand was firmly wrapped around the mic the whole set, as he paced the stage, sometime freestyling, sometime performing segments from his album, non-stop holding down to a crowd which had reached 300. 300 heads bobbing back and forth to ‘Kowboyz and Indians’.

I gotta hand it to him GLK is a great hype man. It was sort of his night, he picked the DJ, he mc'd the night and DJ'd the main event. but what most will remember is A gigantic smile on the face of Flying lotus, Chillin’ stage left, moments before GLK confirms what we’ve all been waiting for; a surprise performance from Flying Lotus.

Flying Lotus takes to the stage, Apple laptop lit, controller connected, and seconds latter, his bass had my face in puddles. The Brainfeeder emperor is previewing that illogical bass that is Cosmogramma. I can't even take a leak without that kick drum cracking the porcelain. Flylo played a lengthy set of new and old material. Unfortunately, I had to duck before the stutter-step preacher finished his proclamation, but to be honest, I’m already in the choir. The night was amazing, your jealously is definitely warranted.

2 comments:

soulprophits said...
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soulprophits said...

DJ PWC - "GOOD MUSIC FOR YOU" http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z1VQH0MQ