Backing one of New Zealand's loudest live acts was never going to be easy. Shapeshifter are used to cranking heavy breaks in dimly lit clubs; the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra usually performs to a civilised, seated crowd.
Not this time. Thanks to Soulstice, Shapeshifter's most commercial release yet, the sell-out crowd
did anything but exercise restraint. That made for a surreal sight: the band at their instruments; behind them, the conductor elegantly keeping his minions in line, and below, the jostling of fans on the dancefloor. With the help of a backdrop flashing images of landscapes and the extra faces on stage, the room felt twice the size.
Unfortunately, the sound was so unbalanced at the beginning, all you could hear was Shapeshifter. That's a real shame because arranger Victoria Kelly had spent weeks writing the orchestral score, fleshing out a selection of Shapeshifter's melodic tunes from their three-album repertoire.
If you strained you could just make out the wall of cinematic strings, the sublime blast of bassoon or trombone and the rumbling of percussion. The rest got lost.
Shapeshifter's lush, synths are synonymous with strings anyway, so arrangements of songs like When I Return felt like a natural extension of their sound. But the atmospherics didn't really come to life until Long White Cloud, where Kelly's arrangements gave Shapeshifter an earthiness and depth they lack otherwise. By then the balance had improved, but you had to wonder if an orchestra could ever compete with a well-miked electronic act. Let's hope they do it justice by releasing this on CD.
Kelly also had some fun on tracks like Tapestry, adding climbing strings to build momentum with more style than a synthesiser could manage, as vocalist P Digsss proved himself one of the best improvising singers in the country.
When the APO left the stage, it was as though Mum and Dad had gone out and left the kids to party. It was then Shapeshifter cemented their reputation as the most danceable act in the country, with bold new tracks like New Day Come and Electric Dream making up for the cheesy, Roots-style medley - and the orchestral accompaniment that could have been so much louder.
