Despite the best efforts of perennial clock-botherer Flava Flav, Public Enemy were once one of the most dangerous bands in the world.
Through thrash metal collaborations and Spike Lee soundtracks, the band’s in house production team the Bomb Squad delivered dense, threatening, and daring beats. As much an aural assault as anything Napalm Death ever managed, Chuck D’s complex rhymes clashed against Flava Flav’s hypeman antics. Few other bands feature a Minister of Information and a DJ on the same stage. They juxtaposed considered political thinking against blaring airhorn beats, defining themselves by their differences. Against the system, against the industry, and occasionally against the other, they were definitely a band all about the contrast.
That’s probably why they’re headlining such a diverse show on June 27 at London’s Roundhouse. While they might be the headline act, attention will surely be drawn to the support acts: Ben Frost and Tim Hecker. By beginning the evening with two of the music industry’s best exponents of noise/drone/ambient/whateverthehellitis, Public Enemy have perhaps found the perfect introduction to their bombastic live act.
Ben Frost has been releasing music since the turn of the century. In the last few years, however, he has finally begun to turn heads. His 2014 album Aurora was his best received yet, adding an ever-more-aggressive edge to his alienated, heavy approach to creating new tunes.
Tim Hecker shares a similar aesthetic. His live shows typically involve one dim purple light illuminating nothing other than a disembodied set of hands scratching over a sea of synths. His albums Virgins and Ravedeath, 1972 have delivered critically acclaimed slithers of the noise spectrum, bottled static-hissing sinews of a sinister sound that treats the ears of the audience with utter contempt. These attacks occasionally give way to quiet moments, before plunging back into the noisy abyss.
Neither artist is what you might describe as party music. Well, not a good party, but putting them together with Public Enemy is a fantastic means of creating a hostile, honed introduction. Through the two support acts, the audience will be drenched in the dense sound of a world gone wrong.
The gritty soundtrack to everything going very badly in the best way possible. The crowd will be drowned in sound before emerging into the new dawn of Chuck D and co.’s greatest hits.
Few bands boast a range of songs as floor stomping and as eminently shoutable as Public Enemy. By emerging out of the droney darkness into a fresh new light, they finally have the platform their message has always deserved.
This was, you can cleanse yourself in the sea of sound before jumping into the hour of chaos itself. Bringing order as they see fit, this is the perfect way of hearing one of hip hops most important acts of all time.
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