Gonjasufi, live at the Button Factory
Intense genre-straddling performance from Warp's mystery man.
Maeve Heslin, 15 Jun 2012
Raspy-voiced Californian Gonjasufi wisely chose to push back his Button Factory gig by a couple of hours to allow Irish fans sufficient time to openly weep in the streets.
But enough of that! A loyal (if downtrodden) fanbase made their way to the venue despite both football failure and godawful weather to see this mysterious figure perform live.
Having released the excellent, genre-defying, Flying Lotus-assisted A Sufi & A Killer in 2010, the dreadlocked yoga teacher offered up MU.ZZ.LE earlier this year, another collection of hazy, Eastern-influenced trip hop tunes. Tonight, he gives both albums an outing, assisted by two excellent beatmakers... and one Bez-style interpretive dancer. In short, the Gonjasufi live experience is as bonkers as you might expect.
An intriguing figure and an engaging performer, Sumach Ecks veers from the self-assured rap swagger of Lil Wayne to the intense, husky flow of Tricky without missing a beat. Chit-chat is kept to a minimum, and tracks blur and flow into each other, with the bass shaking the Button Factory (and all my internal organs) to its very foundations.
Highlights include A Sufi & A Killer's 'Ancestors', 'Sheep', 'She's Gone', and brilliant newbie 'Nickels & Dimes'. As difficult to categorise as ever, tonight's show proves Gonjasufi is both an enigma wrapped in a puzzle inside a riddle, and a man who defiantly marches to his own beat. Great stuff.
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