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Silicone Fish Review Funkdub Live Presents… Pama International
@ Telfords Warehouse / 27th April 2006

Funkdub has become something of an institution in Chester’s music scene, promoting a self styled, crisp image of sleek monkey mayhem. Glued together by protagonist 3DJ and his able ally Gentleman Kush this collective utilise their extensive musical knowledge to host events, list gigs and generally usher people towards some decent musical tastes. Make no mistake your not going to get a West life ticket or review from their web zine.

Wearing their favourite tastes on their sleeves, namely funk dub, soul grooves, ska, reggae, this event was actually the pairs first sojourn away from City Bar residency and first Live band promotion. So for this gig Funkdub brought out Big Guns Pama International who according to reggaenews.co.uk “Play an effortlessly slick set and are cementing their reputation as one of the tightest bands in town”. This comes as no great surprise when we consider that the line up contains luminaries from The Specials, Galliano, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Steel Pulse, Style Council and Pop Will Eat Itself. True heavyweight contenders that don’t let themselves down in any way shape or form.

From the very beginning of their set they had this audience eating from the palm of their hands. Telford’s stage is a bit like a lower league football ground in that its ‘pitch’ lies forebodingly within reach of the ‘stands’. For some artists this can be slightly intimidating, but Pama International took it in their stride, callously dominating their area and openly enjoying the circumstances. This led to electricity amongst the elastic limbed hoards who bounced around like kids on space hoppers from the moment the opening track ‘I love you too much to ever stop lying’ kicked off. A slyly named track hinting at a mischievous sense of humour grounded by cynical relationships had us at the fish in kinks of laughter, as this track induces a Cheshire cat grin. Next in the set came perhaps their most recognisable track ‘Truly Madly Deeply’, famous for its use in Brit gangster flick Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. We experienced the band in full flow as a well rehearsed number came into its own sounding melodic and smooth as the drums rolled, trumpet blared and people pogoed. This track kind of summarised the night really and done what Funkdub had set out to do, namely host a quality reggae, ska, bebop, hip hop flavoured event which they kindly topped off with a sleek session behind the turntables. Although, all the above reads like an accomplished set of well masterminded events true thanks should be diverted to the sound engineer Nick Manasseh. The man in the background really makes accomplished sound as his mixing skills hoist Pama’s music up onto a higher plane.

All in all, the first Funkdub Presents… was a grand success that should guarantee Chester finds itself with a regular night of music that actually has some dignity. Watch out for the next one…

Silicone Fish Review http://www.siliconefish.co.uk/

Funkdub ~ View topic - Pama International @ Telfords 27 April 06

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Live Reviews, Press Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.