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| Kode9 on the decks – Photo credit: Regal D |
Hyperdub head honcho Kode9 played to a very eager and crowded Los Globos on September 16th for SMOG's monthly Sunday Night Sessions. The man responsible for the success of many artists (i.e. Zomby and Burial) came out to LA to play out a very eclectic selection of bass music across a wide variety of bass music genres/subgenres and tempos.
When I walked into Los Globos, Kuma was nearing the end of his set, which really set the mood for the evening. The bass tunes Kuma was dropping seemed to be very experimental and eclectic, yet still very clean and very deep sounding through the Funktion One speakers. Kuma ended his set with some jungle tunes as Kode9 walked onto the decks.
Usually, most headliner DJs I've seen would either fade out the last track of the opener or do some kind of spin back or something. And like I said at the beginning, Kode9 had a very eclectic selection of tunes, so instead of just cutting out the last tunes that Kuma dropped, Kode9 decided to mix into it – with more jungle!
After a few jungle tunes, Kode9 fades out the jungle and the crowd gets silent – and that's when he brings in a Burial dub ("Lambeth," see YouTube video above). The crowd picked up momentum as "Lambeth" played out, and the rest of Kode9's set moved upward from there. Throughout Kode9's set, he pushed the tempo (and variety) of tunes. He played a good block of UK funky/garage type of tunes (i.e. Mosca's "You Done Me Wrong") and began pushing it into dubstep territory.
As soon as Kode9 started going into the 140 BPM range, he started slipping in a few trap tunes in between some of the dubstep tunes, and the crowd seemed to be reacting really well to the little bits of trap being slipped in. (On a side note/quick digression, the crowd really seemed divided between hardcore Kode9 and dubstep fans and people who wanted to hear trap music and were probably there to see Salva)
Of course, Kode9 played "9 Samurai." I would have been extremely disappointed if he didn't play that classic tune. (Another small digression – I would have been disappointed with Kode9 in a way kind of like how I've been disappointed the last 2 times I saw Rusko this year and not once did he drop "Jahova") Kode9 also played a few tracks that I recognized, like the instrumental of Joker's "On My Mind," Zomby's "Kaliko" (another classic off Zomby's Zomby EP on Hyperdub), and Mala's "Alicia." Even though Kode9's really known for dubstep music, he didn't stop there.
Kode9 pushed the tempo even further up into the 150-160 BPM with more trap music interlaced with juke/footwork music. While I personally enjoy juke/footwork music, I'm pretty sure a lot of people in the crowd were confused as to how to move or even how to bob their heads. But that's okay with me, at least – it's Kode9 and if you've ever listened to most of the Hypderdub catalog, you'll see that it's not just strictly dubstep or funky music.
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| (L-R) Kode9 & Kuma – Photo credit: Regal D |
The beautiful thing about Kode9's set was, as eclectic and experimental as it was, that his set literally went full circle. Towards the end of his set, he managed to get out of the footwork/juke and trap vibe and into jungle once again to close out his set. Many of the elite bassheads in the crowd were able to pick out the jungle tunes that Kode9 closed out his set and got the rest of the crowd hyped and jumping up and down. Salva came on after him to close out the evening with a trap music set.
While the Facebook event page was still active well over a month after the show ended, many discussed what they liked (and didn't like) about the show and Kode9's set. And while some wanted deeper vibes and others wanted more trap, I personally felt that his set was strong and I really enjoyed how he had his set come full circle.
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