Four Tet, SBTRKT & friends played to a packed MoMA PS1 (Saturday's Warm Up in pics & review)

July 11, 2011

photos by Vincent Cornelli, words by Andrew Sacher

SBTRKT
SBTRKT

When I walked into MoMA PS1 on Saturday (7/9) for their second Warm Up of the 2011 season, Bronze were about halfway through their set. I’d never heard the group before but they won me over with their dark, psychedelic atmospheres and pummeling drum patterns, and were an interesting contrast to the dancier acts that followed. After Bronze’s set, NYC DJ FaltyDL delivered a DJ set that set the mood for the rest of day’s event. Though he’s from New York, his beats are well-versed in UK garage and dubstep, and fit in really well with the two UK acts that came after.

The highlight of the day for me was seeing SBTRKT, whose excellent self titled debut LP dropped two weeks ago. He played a live set with guest vocalist Sampha, who contributed vocals to the album. As anticipated, both musicians came out in tiki masks. Like many dubstep producers are starting to do, SBTRKT embraces much more of a pop feel on his album, and many of the tracks are centered pretty heavily around vocals. However, unlike some of his contemporaries, his material still translates well onto the dancefloor. SBTRKT and Sampha would focus on key melodies in the songs, and then dive into extended mixes that got the crowd moving. The majority of the set consisted of the album’s Sampha-fronted cuts, though they did play a chopped up version of the Little Dragon-featured “Wildfire.” Drake didn’t show up to rap over the track like he did in Toronto the night before, but SBTRKT did throw his verse into the mix.

Four Tet

Directly after SBTRKT and Sampha walked off stage, blown out avant-sax lines started spurting out of the PA speakers, which meant hidden behind the massive crowd of dancers, none other than Four Tet just began DJing. After the jazzy opener, Four Tet dropped one of his heavy trademark beats and went off into a killer set that sent the crowd into more of a frenzy than they’d been in all day.

Unfortunately, Matthewdavid, who I had been looking forward to seeing, had to cancel his set. SBTRKT was also scheduled to DJ an afterparty at Coco66, but the Brooklyn venue got shut down before SBTRKT could play. Four Tet did play his afterparty set at Marcy Hotel though.

More pictures and video from the whole day at PS1, below…

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Warm Up at MoMA PS1 7/9/11