BADBADNOTGOOD: Albert Hall, Manchester – live review

BADBADNOTGOOD l Lil Silva l Dar Disku
Albert Hall, Manchester
10 December 2022

Leading the current wave of new Jazz, BADBADNOTGOOD bring the heat to a freezing Manchester and Del Pike is down at the front soaking up the rays of brilliance.

Manchester’s Albert Hall is cold tonight. Visible breath rises from the early crowd who soak up the wonderful world of Dar Disku, a Bahrain / UK DJ outfit who bring an international flavour to an audience that would love to be somewhere warmer. Their hour long set brings much needed sunshine with an eclectic selection of mellow dance tunes and soft beats. As more filter into the room, the atmosphere improves and it becomes clear that the duo know how to start things up.

Next up is Lil Silva, a funky soul-driven producer/artist who in his career has worked alongside Damon Albarn, Lady Gaga and Adele, but is probably recognised more for his collaborations with Sampha. A short set is marred by some skewed sound, making his voice almost inaudible for the first couple of songs but once sorted this becomes a euphoric experience. Backed by a brilliant sole drummer, the set is laden with heavy beats which are at once incredible and heart stopping, very different to the much more laid-back, restrained sound of Silva’s recent album, Yesterday is Heavy.

Silva has also collaborated with BADBADNOTGOOD who arrive shortly after and completely blow the roof off the Albert Hall.

For a sound so big and beautiful, this somehow feels low-key in the best of ways. After the unlikely opening tape of Black Sabbath’s War Pigs, bassist Chester Hansen takes to the dimly lit stage alone, the backdrop an enormous white sheet draped across the venues famous pipe organ. Playing an unrecognisable tune that morphs into the intro of Signal from the Noise, the lead track from the epic Talk Meaning album, the rest of the band casually stroll on, take their places and we are away.

Stark images of desert landscapes and abstract shapes are projected onto the screen, in mesmeric loops. The music veers somewhere between jazz and Prog, and alongside the visuals, it soon starts to feel like an arts lab project from 1970. You would half expect to see oily slide images from Boyle and Hills from a Floyd love-in.

The Toronto-based instrumentalists are equally at home with their unique brand of experimental symphonies as they are with straight up jazz workouts, and all bases are covered tonight.

The set doesn’t stray too far from their much-celebrated 2021 album, Talk Meaning with highlights being the aforementioned lead track, alongside City of Mirrors, Love Proceeding and Beside April.  Unfolding (Momentum 73) gets an extensive outing, having recently been unleashed from the album in a remixed version by Chicago DJ, Ron Trent. Brief dips into past albums satisfy the die-hards.

New Jazz is taking hold massively at the moment, and Manchester is certainly embracing that with killer gigs this last year from the likes of Nubya Garcia, Brian Jackson and Lady Blackbird to name but a few. Tonight’s gig is not crowded with your average jazz heads either. This is a largely young crowd drawn to the genre by cool players like Alfa Mist, Kokoroko and Ezra Collective, often fusing hip-hop sensibilities with more traditional jazz roots, and BADBADNOTGOOD are at the forefront of this movement.

Also impressive tonight is the band’s recognition of the video artists who have provided the visuals with drummer, Alex Sowinski, providing artist names and context to the images – kids playing in a Toronto street and a lone baseball player (whom the crowd are invited to shout “Whoaaaah!” with whenever he hits the ball).

BADBADNOTGOOD are phenomenal, there is no argument. Whether following standard jazz structures (intro – solos – outro), or full-on cacophonies of sound, they hold their audience and don’t let them go. Leland Whitty’s tenor sax solos are heaven-sent as the night leads to its end, as are Felix Fox’s outrageous journeys across the keyboards. Chocolate Conquistadors is a climatic highlight. They may not be re-inventing jazz, but they are certainly spearheading a new era, with their many collaborators and contemporaries. As this evening showed, we are amid a new jazz era that is there to be wholly embraced.

BADBADNOTGOOD can be found at their website
Lil Silva can be found at Instagram
Dar Disku can be found at his website

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All words by Del Pike, you can find more at his Author profile
Photos kindly provided by Kitty Handley – Instagram

Source: louderthanwar.com