The resurgence of the brass band is quite common these days. You can often find yourself stood in front of an eight-piece brass band giving you the nightclub tunes you’re craving for, playing anything from Beyonce to Björk, but Dutty Moonshine Big Band offer more than pop tunes, it offers an incredible new sound presenting a wild collective of musicians creating an aural experience of “Big Band and Bass”.
Michael Rack aka Dutty Moonshine has DJ’ed around the world, and Dutty Moonshine Big Band is an extension of his interest in jazz and growing up in the' rave warehouse scene'.
My friend and I arrived at Gorilla, Whitworth Street to be greeted by the warm-up act, 'Funke And The Two-Tone Baby', a one man loop-pedal acoustic guitar experimental extraordinaire! We caught him “peak pigeon” - the energy of this guy was incredible. Funke started by looping an upbeat folk funk dance guitar riff and then subsequently adding harmonies. His adjoining vocals were uplifting and scatty, and open for us to join in! He’s an incredible performer. Very friendly to the audience.
20 minutes later the band entered the stage, the crowd gathered to the front, but we consciously distanced ourselves from each other. No, not because of Coco V (Covid-19), it’d be too late for that anyway, but because we’ll need the space to dance, and dance we did!
The usual 14 piece band was trimmed down to 11. With drums, electric drums, decks, keys, and the brass section consisting of saxophone, trumpets, trombones and the old reliable sousaphone.
The band lead you through an introduction of bass, brass and MCing, followed by their tracks of their album Most Wanted: 'Distillin', 'Gangsters', 'Bang Bang' and their new track 'Fever', featuring Maria Laveau, in an explosion of Electro Swing and feminism. The song explores what it’s like for a woman to go to a nightclub, which is most of the time awful, but she’s managed to capture the experience and imbue it into an elegant, sensual, gracious track. A feel-good song perfect to enter the charts with!
The star of the show is Maria Laveau. With the stage physically dominated by 10 white men, this rapper, vocalist and MC absolutely slays every song with quick-witted lyrics superbly punctuating the rhythm effortlessly. Her flow is epic. She is in a league of her own. She also managed to squeeze in 3 costume changes, how, where, when, who knows, but she’s a star!
This gig is a mecca for Diiirty bass beats, Jazz, Brass Band, Grime, Drum and Bass, Dub, Carnival, Garage, New Orleans, Swing, Electro, Techno, Hip Hop, Rap, Samba and Reggae, every drop is out of this world, explosive and most importantly loud!
The whole band looked like they were really enjoying themselves too which gives the impression they like the music they play. This pure enjoyment resonates to the audience and so we all went crackers at every drop.
Dutty Moonshine Big Band are far from anything you’ll ever experience at a gig or at a festival. The show is unstoppable, song after song, drop after drop, I didn’t want it to end! You’re kept on your toes and you will wear the floor out dancing.
If you like it 'dutty' and you like it jazzy, pack a towel and some Red Stripe, because this is the band for you!
Reviewer - Susanna Amato
on - 13/3/20
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