Deconstructing Coldcut
Usually a group celebrating their 20th year are jaded and washed up creatively. However, just the opposite is true of Coldcut, the British cut-and-paste masters Matt Black and Jonathon More, who landed on Front Street in 1987 with back-to-back hits, their sample-fueled "Say Kids What Time Is It?" and extended remix of Eric B & Rakim's "Paid In Full" (featuring Ofra Haza). Since then, the collage-happy duo has consistently evolved as artists, pioneering new technology and gaining respect along the way for their sporadic (but always inspired) releases, their long-running "Solid Steel" UK radio show and their revered record label Ninja Tune (Kid Koala, DJ Vadim) and its brother Big Dada (Roots Manuva, Spank Rock). Yet most praiseworthy is Coldcut's exploration in the art of video-deconstruction with their Vjamm technology (more on that later).
In concert, Coldcut are a full-sensory experience. Their sound-sources are visually sampled and manipulated from VJamm3 on screen via a MIDI triggered drum pad-all in true hip-hop DJ/producer, deconstruction-production style.
"The fact that they have developed all the technical aspects of their shows as well as pull off their artistic vision in live performance is wildly impressive," raves cut-and-paste pioneer Steinski, who the duo count as a huge influences and who will be the opener for this week's performance.
While Coldcut has always been drawn to video production, they weren't always allowed to pursue their vision. "When we were signed with major labels, we couldn't get control over the videos," relays Jonathon More via phone from London, referring to hits like "People Hold On" (featuring Lisa Stansfield). When they did a video for Warner Brothers, it was rejected.
Chuckling, More recalls, "We did a video for this really dreadful movie called 'Christmas Vacation' with Chevy Chase which was originally going to be the theme tune. But we used loads of samples from different Christmas records and they got cold feet about it, so we put it out ourselves and made a computer animated video to go with it."
Expanding into visuals was a natural step for Coldcut. While DJing at ambient clubs like The Big Chill, More picked up on a precious pattern. "Sometimes a visual image on screen would match the music in perfect synchronicity," he explains. "It just seemed sensible to try and forge those things together."
Judging by previous Coldcut concerts though, let's assume they won't be making too much sense.