Living ‘Girls & Boys Presents Benga’
by Vijth Assar
What London’s second-fav proto-dubstep producer lacks in sophistication, he makes up for with repetition. Can you spot the problem there? Burping bassline filters are often the closest thing to a point, buried beneath likewise simplistic song structures. All of this remains interesting for, at most, half the usual running time, except when topped with bursts of uncharacteristically intricate percussion or jazz-fusion electric piano. When he decides to go there, it’s spy-movie tension of the highest order—but, inexplicably, he usually doesn’t. With Caspa and Hudson Mohawke.
Fri., March 26, 10 p.m., 2010