Getintothis’ Jon Davies gets seriously distressed by denim and disc jockey dude D/R/U/G/S.
Getintothis keeps sending me to bizarre situations: last time was bedroom love-fest Olaf Arnalds, this time round is a guessie for a Diesel exclusives night featuring upcoming trance meets dubstep DJ D/R/U/G/S.
While I’m fully grateful for the free Kopparbergs I can’t help but think I’m once again stuck somewhere I wasn’t invited to.
On display on tonight’s dancefloor is a spectrum of denim designs with too many zips, fake hair-metal t-shirts and, well, just a bit too much glam for my eyes. Still, it’s all about the music, right?
Well, tonight, I can’t say it is, not that it’s the fault of the music, but the atmosphere doesn’t exactly play into D/R/U/G/S, aka Callum Wright‘s, favour.
While the majority of the audience here are more about schmoozing and telling each other how lovely their denim zips are, Wright is relegated to merely background music for such schmoozing.
He hardly helps the cause though – if you’re going to sign up for a tour arranged more or less for the promotion of denim zips then you’re not going to be prioritised over said zips, but on top of that, while producing some of the finest dance music in the UK currently, Wright is one boring live artist.
Armed with nothing more than a sampler, D/R/U/G/S live is in actual fact nothing more than a man pressing buttons on a sampler in time.
As a reviewer predominantly reviewing guitar based music, I did begin to wonder how dance music, something exhilarating on your stereo could get so dull when in the flesh.
No doubt Wright’s blend of Orbital and Underworld, Mount Kimbie and Burial is great, almost like an aquatic blend of Hyperdub and those Ministry of Sound Ibiza Chillout comps from the early 2000s.
But if you’re going to play live, then put simply: play live. You see this with Ghosting Season, Beat Connection and Mi Ami, just add a bit of real time input, or else there is simply no point in you playing.
Unless you managed to kit yourself out in Diesel denim zipped garb, then… er, power to you?
More D/R/U/G/S here.
