Live: Egyptian Hip Hop

8th March 2013

Gorilla

5/10

We get in late, brimming with the sort of tarmac cider that tastes as though bottled directly from the River Medlock. You’d be forgiven, then, for perhaps starting to suppose that tonight might be a night of youthful abandon, and that is probably the most suitable vantage point from which to talk about Egyptian Hip Hop. Few bands have garnered the sort of attention that these lads lapped up with their new-rave-pop-schtick as 17 year-olds back in 2009, earning favourable comparisons with Late of the Pier and Klaxons. Even fewer have come into any serious regard in their future trappings, but having disappeared from the face of urban Britain, the band resurfaced last year to release a very, very astute debut in Good Don’t Sleep, disregarding their former pop for dwellings of a deeper, more mature nature.

Does this mean to say that Egyptian Hip Hop have grown up, then? The band still look gangling youths – draped in, presumably, Affleck’s finest – and the songs translate well from the album, but overall the sense of fun seems to have been lost. Unlike the ace support Great Waves, who appear genuinely happy to play tonight, Egyptian Hip Hop play it far too cool. Or perhaps too moody. Either way, the snaking melody of ‘Strange Vale’ instead drags, whilst the arpeggio on entrance ‘Tobago’ lacks its usual mystery and playfulness.

There are many cries for yesteryear’s ‘Middle Name Period’, ‘Wild Human Child’, and especially ‘Rad Pitt’, but though seemingly an ideal move, given that the band fail to whip up the haze of the record and that the crowd clearly want to dance, they are never aired. Credit to the rhythm section, however, who are, frankly, tight-as-fuck, playing in semiquavers that relations Dutch Uncles would be proud of, but overall, tonight Egyptian Hip Hop just don’t feel much fun.