'Pioneers' & 'Seminal' are just some of the accolades that Coldcut has been referred as.
Many Musicians agreed that when Coldcut released their first single "Say Kids, What Time Is It?" in 1987, they
deserved to be hailed as "Cut & Paste" pioneers which virtually created the phenomenon what we called today as 'Mash-Ups',
when they layered Ofra Haza's Im Nin'alu over Erick B & Rakim's Paid In Full.
So before I continue further, as a strong believer of giving respect when it is due, I have to say
that I was quite dissapointed that the organizers of Gurten Festival printed Coldcut's name among the
rest and putting acts like Billy Idol and James Blunt as headliners. I totally understand about the
whole marketing mechanics by putting names which could sell more tickets up at the top but Gods should be
among Gods and Coldcut, as many purist would agree, Jonathan Black and Mark Moore are Gods in the world
of dance music. They deserve better and especially that R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
Anyway, back to my review.
Wanting to achor myself right in the front of the East Stage, I left James Blunt's gig 45 minutes early. Upon arriving at
the East Stage, I was pleased to see that it's already been filled by a handful of people grouping themselves in few
clusters which scatters all over in the huge tent. I was very surprised to see a strong number of more than 30 people
have already anchored themselves before the safety barrier which .
To past time, I chatted with a guy named Nicola. During our plesantries, he shared his opinion about Coldcut and
claimed that only a handful of the Swiss population really know who Coldcut are, and that his knowledge of the
dynamic duo only spans for about 6 years when he was 14 years old. With such statement from a person who is
studying to be a music producer, I can't really blamed the organizers for not printing Coldcut's name as big as
James Blunt but as my conversation with Nicola went deeper, the concert area in the East Stage tent slowly began to
filled with human bodies.
At exactly 00:30, Johnathan More and Matt Black, together with with Raj Pannu (Beats + Scratches) and Mike Stirling
(Visuals) came on stage. Their entrance were met with thunderous applause and loud screams and at that very moment,
I began to have doubts about Nicola's theory and gave him that "Your theory is wrong, mate!" look. He replied with
a shrug and a short smile.
And so the Cut & Paste mayhem begins with fat beats with several layers of sample marmite. While everyone standing
in the front row went mental, 2 bloke dressed in cheap "Hip Hop" threads and were standing right behind me started
to hurl abuses and bitched about the music. Shouting some Swiss-German jibberish mixed with couple of English word
like "f#@k-off" and "suck". Nicola and me looked at them with foul taste. Luckily it didn't take too long for them
to realize that their verbal abuse won't change the music and off they went.
At the end of the second song, Matt Black introduces another member of the Colcut entourage to the crowd. Juice Aleem (MC),
armed with a mic in his hand, starts spitting the word "Drums" which is followed by "Bass" and at the top of
my lungs, I shouted "Junglist Massive!". And another dancing frenzy is ensured.
To describe the whole concert in words is a very difficult task escpecially when the musical plethora is
so diverse and the journey is very electic. Coldcut managed to churn out almost every musical genre that is ever know to
man, from "Leftfield" to "Breaks" to "4 to Floor" to "Old School" to "Drum & Bass" and with almost every song that is being
dished out, it either contained a few added samples or is totally stripped down and reconstructed again with a new and
improvised arrangement without being a 'Kitchen Sink'. Even with songs which I have heard a million times over such as
Eric B and Rakim's "Paid In Full" there are a noticable elements such as voice samples, synth stabs and riffs that don't
exist on my 12".
What you see is exactly you hear
What is marvelous about the whole concert is the VJAMM-generated visuals, something for our eyes to feast upon other
than the four maestros on stage. The visuals in question are not just video playbacks, their audios are actually the
actual samples that were being layer over the beats and riffs. Each time when either Matt or Raj stabs, scratches or back-spins
on the Pioneer DVJ-X1, it creates an awesome ming-boggling eye-candy on the three huge screen situated behind them.
Prominent samples which I could remember are speeches from George W. Bush, King Louie & Baloo
(characters from Jungle Book) and yes, Britney Spears. I really wonder how did they do it back then, without
the awesome Pioneer DVJ-X1.
As a big fan of Coldcut and not Marmite, I found it sad to see the crowd thins after every song because the gig,
itself, rocks. How could it not be with tracks like Walk A Mile In My Shoes, True Skool, Everything Is Out Of
Control, Say Kids, What Time Is it?, Beats & Pieces and Paid In Full. I was in the front row jumping like a monkey
on steriod. (No, I didn't drink any Absinthe this year!!!!)
What got me flabbergastered was, when it the time for an encore performance the shouts that were given
by the the crowd leaned towards the lackluster end of a spectrum. Albeit all that, Coldcut did come out for
an encore and went "Freestyle!!".
Sadly, the encore ended after just one song. And even before the song ends, the East Stage tent was already half
full!! Shame on You, Switzerland. I guessed the organizers know what they are doing when they finalized
the festival's poster and putting Coldcut's name below James Blunt and kudos to them for bringing in Coldcut.
Looking very forward for Basement Jaxx at next year's Gurten Festival.
