Last night I went to see some of my personal all-time-favourite musicians, THE HERBALISER. When I started to listen to and buy electronic dance music in the late 90s, their "Remedies" album was one of the first in my collection. At that time, Ninja Tune (together with Wall Of Sound, MoWax and Pussyfoot) was the ne plus ultra among the TripHop/Downbeat labels coming from the UK. Coldcut, DJ Food or Fink released killer tunes one by one. And so did THE HERBALISER.
With "Session I", released in 2000, THE HERBALISER transfered their sample based music into a live context. They put together a band that performed their instrumental HipHop tracks in the studio and on stage. Now, 9 years and 4 longplayers later, THE HERBALISER brought out "Session II" on the Berlin based !K7 label. Reason enough to come over for the first gig in Germany for a long time.
Drums, Saxophone, Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Bass Guitar, C Flute, Keyboards and of course: Ollie Teeba on the wheels of steel. Vocalist Jessica Darling and MC ICON backed up the band. THE HERBALISER played a solid show, didn't leave out any of the classics from "Who's the Realest" to "Missing Suitcase", but in some parts I found it a bit too gratuitous. I mean, since that Amy Winehouse Soul revival I can't really tell all these tracks from Mark Ronson, Adele, Joss Stone, etc. apart. Yesterday night it's been merely the songs with Jessica Darling that didn't cast a spell over me. ICON, an MC from New York did a good job on his two appearances on stage and handed out the most hilarious flyers after the show. Ollie "Scratchy Noise" Teeba showed his incredible skills on the decks and the rest of the band, well...they are great musicians. Enough said.
The Herbaliser (.com)
The Herbaliser (myspace)
The Herbaliser Band The Sensual Woman (DL)
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