The Gaslamp Killer - The HiFi Club, Leeds - 09/05/13

The Gaslamp Killer is a man known for his work with Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder label as well as his residency at LA's Low End Theory club night, leading to Thom Yorke's recent appraisal on Gaslamp Killer being his 'favourite DJ'. Named after the visceral nature of his sets and having worked with Gonjasufi aside from his labelmates, there exists an intrigue about the man. He released his debut album, Breakthrough, last year and while I wasn't completely sold on it, I enjoyed it for the most part, particularly tracks such as Flange Face and Seven Years of Bad Luck for Fun. I always expect a solid show with a good crowd from The HiFi Club as a minimum requirement, and was looking forward to seeing what havoc Gaslamp Killer and his overwhelming head of hair could wreak in the place.

Support came from the local beatmaker Bambooman. His set of crisp and clean bass and breaks was amicable to the ear but not especially engaging. As Gaslamp Killer stepped up to the decks enshrouded in a scarf and got his performance underway, I realised the oppose would apply to the headliner. He announced himself as "happy to be in this cold shithole" after spending time in "sunny Switzerland and sunny France" much to the approval of the crowd. We thought we were ready to hear what he had to play. We weren't.

It started with the sort of regal, middle-Eastern, perhaps Persian chords that flavoured his album, along with classic Bollywood style vocals which left us dazzled and dumbstruck - next thing we knew we were bouncing violently to A Milli, which was perhaps one of the few vanilla versions of 'well-known' tracks played. The Gaslamp Killer is a generous man, who treated us to exclusive cuts from Hudson Mohawke and Thundercat - the latter of which transformed into a glitch version of Dirt Off Your Shoulder. Jay-Z unexpectedly led into a similar take on Radiohead's The National Anthem and onto a crowd sing-a-long of Ridin' Dirty.

I was appreciative of how he brought the sounds from the States to us in his sets - tracks from Eprom, such as California Shit and his Niggas In Paris remix went down really well as did DJ Rashad's CCP. The common theme throughout was that the music had to be beat-driven, be it experimental hip-hop or juke, 8-bit style music or more jazzy and soulful Brainfeeder clips. Gaslamp Killer's presence behind the turntables went hand in hand with the nature of the music, and he was prone to fizzing off like a firework across the stage. The first time he did it took the audience by surprise, causing him to declare, "If you touch me I will fuck you!" We cheered and applauded.

His antics on the decks themselves weren't lacking at all. One highlight was when he began scratching over one of the more prominent tracks on Breakthrough, Nissim. Turntablist values were plain to see in his style, yet the start-stop nature became slightly frustrating at times. This wasn't his fault, however, as he was forced to explain: "I'm gonna smash this instrument with a sledgehammer... HiFi I love you but I've been DJing on like one turntable this whole time!" He also utilised a sampler to take tracks up to a whole new level of crazy, hopping along the stage furiously bashing the pad.

Staple classics in pretty much every hip-hop set in the UK didn't fail to make an appearance as Roots Manuva's Witness Dub and Dead Prez's Hip-Hop fed into the maelstrom. We were granted another unreleased Thundercat track from his forthcoming album as well as some Flying Lotus. Even Tame Impala weren't safe from the relentless, uncompromising romp with Solitude dropped alongside Snoop Dogg. As he closed the set on some soul music, The Gaslamp Killer dedicated the occasion to the late Austin Peralta, a very talented jazz musician from the label.

The Gaslamp Killer bemoaned his date in London the day after his Leeds performance, proclaiming the North is "more chilled" than the South, much to the HiFi Club's delight. His date is with Rustie, whose gig at Canal Mills drew parallels with this one in that his outrageous, maverick set stirred an absolute storm and was simply ridiculously fun. The enigmatic stage presence and active, entertaining participation with the audience helped The Gaslamp Killer make his mark - by the end of his set he was pondering the hopeless future of humanity, jokingly saluting Hitler and talking about how the audience's cheers were loud enough to shake his desk as well as his unmentionables.

When his set was over, he announced hoya:hoya stalwart Jonny Dub as a special guest who appeared from nowhere and swung straight into things dropping the Darq E Freaker and Danny Brown collaboration within minutes. I was disappointed to have to leave and miss most of his set, which I don't doubt continued the legacy of sheer psychedelic intensity Gaslamp Killer laid the foundations of in a mere hour and a half.

Photo by me