Four Tet meets Open Field Church, live

June 10th, 2007 Posted by Dougal

Studio SP, in Sao Paulo’s cool (or legal, as they say here) Villa Madalena district, is packed with exuberant Paulistas (and probably a few Paulistanos too). It’s barely even standing room only as Open Field Church start the ceremony, bawdy renditions of indie classics filling the room. It’s a daft idea but a great one. Eduardo, CSS’s manager and with his brother Bruno the man behind Slag Records, and Dago, from Trama Records and editor in cheif of the Trama Virtual website, came up with the idea to sing indie songs a capella, badly. It’s very funny and infectuously engaging. The crowd in Studio SP certainly agree.

When Four Tet takes to the stage the crowd goes wild. Keiran Hebden seems to have quite a following here. This is his third visit to Sao Paulo and he’s loved his stay here. He loves the city, the food, the people and they love his music. I’m watching from beside the sound desk trying to shield my recording equipment from excited audience members jumping up and down to Four Tet’s fractured beats. I’ve been a fan of his music for many years and seen him live lots and I can comfortably say that this is the best set I’ve ever seen him do!

When Open Field Church return to the stage the crowd practically take the roof off. Keiran mixes out of his beleiza Everything Ecstatic tune into the collaboration’s cover of Can’s Mushroom Head. Pretty funny, pretty silly and very entertaining. Then a cover of the Os Mutantes classic Minha a Minha gets the crowd singing along with gusto. Me gusto. Next the cover of the LFO acid techno classic Freak. Keiran brings in hard beats, the bass voices sing the bassline, the sopranos and trebles (I’m being too technical here, this choir isn’t nearly as regimented as that) sings the bleepy 303 lines and, er, the altos and barritones chant that familiar refrain “this is going to make you freak”. Nuts. But brilliant.

To finish the choir lend their vivacious voices to a new rendition of Four Tet’s beautiful Slow Jam number. The smiles on stage and in the crowd confirm that this exchange has been a tearaway success. It’s mashed together music from several cultures and brought a lot of people together in the process. We could all go home happy. But this being Sao Paulo we hang out until 4, enjoying a few Brahmas and humming those tunes late into the night.

Listen to Four Tet and Open Field Church’s versionof Slow Jam at our MySpace profile.

Entry Filed under: Exchanges