Shapeshifter's vocalist P. Digsss. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Opinion
Who: Shapeshifter supported by Ladi 6, Parks, Julien Dyne & Sunshine Sound System
Where: Mangawhai Tavern
When: Last night
The Mangawhai Tavern is a slightly rickety colonial building which looks almost accidentally dropped at the end of a beautifully overgrown road leading to an estuary.
Deposited as you are in a kind of Deadwood saloon it's surprising how much sense the futuristic and modern music of Ladi 6
and Shapeshifter make in this setting. The common theme to both, although in ways magnanimously different, is their unique possession of the soulful in their sound.
Ladi 6, back from recording her new album The Liberation Of... in Berlin with German beat auteur Sepalot, has a voice which carries above all other instruments to deliver her signature spirited wit at a perfect pitch to dance and muse to.
Burn With Me, a track from her new album, possesses a broken down arrhythmic beat that conjures a marionette with cut strings and is a pleasure to dance to. Accompanied by Parks and Julien Dyne, the tracks with pronounced Ska overtones are particularly moving, both in the sense of ones feet and in an emotional reverence type of way.
After a well-received set of both new and old tracks Ladi 6 hand delivers Sunshine Sound System to the crowd with the promise of Shapeshifter as bait. The drunken and dedicated masses happily digest their upbeat dance hall charm but it's the main act of antipodean heroes Shapeshifter that really charges the night air.
Shapeshifter, highly regarded both locally and internationally for their live stage performances of genre-bending electronica, perform a strange alchemy when they finally take the stage. The relationship between the masterfully smooth vocals of P. Digsss, the earth-shaking depth of the darkened bass and the lightening like spikes of electronic peaks obliterates everything else.
A sort of musical black hole, Shapeshifter's sound is completely enthralling, it envelops you so that even the most bleary-eyed youths become a little overwhelmed. With a set that lasted more than two hours and an encore that included the recognisably eloquent Twin Galaxies, Shapeshifter lent away from their more heavy metal potential and swayed soulfully towards their earthy, almost transcendental, drum and bass roots.
The day before the concert I'd bumped into an acquaintance who mentioned that she too was on her way up north for Shapeshifter. After a pause she turned to me, looking a little bemused, and added that some of her friends were intending to follow the tour from Mangawhai to Mt Maunganui and everywhere in between. At the time I think we both thought this was sheer madness, though having witnessed last night's spellbinding performance I'm inclined to think their plan is a bit more brilliant than crazy.
Shapeshifter and Ladi 6 on tour:
29 December, Opononi Hotel, Hokianga
2 January, Riwaka Hotel, Riwaka
3 January, Butler's Reef, Oakura, Taranaki
7 January, Brewer's Field, Mount Maunganui
8 January, Waihi Beach Hotel, Waihi Beach
