Ital @ The Shipping Forecast – Reviewed
With a fresh take on events promotion, Matt Longworth finds deep house and high-times easy to come by…
Music inspired events company Deep Hedonia’s first venture at the Kazimier was a hard act to follow. Watching Laurel Halo gyrate to an enthusiastic crowd lapping up her synth-pop beats conveyed a strong message from DH: we are here and we are doing things a little differently.
Setting the bar high, Deep Hedonia’s second event, in the basement of the Shipping Forecast, promised excellent performances from expressive electronic artist Isocore and the immensely interesting former member of Discord Records – Ital.
Hive DJs kick the night off with some dirty beats; music your body can’t help but move to. Shapes and colours are projected over the low ceiling and walls transforming the room. Isocore steps up, slightly hunching over his equipment moving with the beat. His loud warped sound fills the basement. Tense and rhythmic, his set seems to make the room shake; the exposed bricks bounce in time with his electronic music. It is experimental yet dependable and the crowd love it.
Forest Swords provides some half time fun in the form of a DJ set. The one-man Wirral/Liverpool-based artist, who has been getting progressively more and more popular with his own take on electronic music, fills the basement with R’n’B and hip-hop influenced grooves. Ambient, with elements of dub, the almost haunting music has a dream-like hazy feel to it.
“Come to me baby”, Ital playfully suggests down the microphone, beckoning the crowd towards the stage. His strong American accent must have some kind of an effect as the audience, includes a lot of faces we recognise (everybody seems to be somebody here tonight). Artists, musicians and other creative socialites rush forward as Ital begins with a cover of the1993 hit ‘Rhythm of the night’. It starts slow before bursting in to aggressive house. Ital moves wildly in his red jumper and skinny jeans, looking like an American Apparel model. Stylish and clean, he’s ridiculously entertaining, stopping only to take swigs from a wine bottle.
After his work with Black Eyes, Mi Ami, through to solo project Sex Worker and now as Ital, this boy is not afraid to mix things up. His music is uncontrolled, insanely addictive; and his deconstructed, almost jarring experimentation of the house music genre has a real uniqueness to it.
Illuminated by Hive’s beautiful visuals, Daniel Martin-McCormick aka Ital moves in an energetic disjointed way to his own distinctive sound. Like the music is the puppet master and he is the puppet. The crowd must be hooked-up to the same puppet strings as the basement is filled with bodies busting out some adventurous dance moves – shoulders popping, booties shaking, faces smiling.
The whole night has a really personal feel to it. Like it will never happen again. This is how Deep Hedonia are doing things differently, creating personalised events that manage to feel artistically high-class, while retaining that underground and almost seedy feel to them. Don’t miss their next one!
Matt Longworth
Image courtesy Hannah Bitowski
