Review: RBMA presents Lords of the Manor

They could have called it Lords of Misrule. A night overturning the social order, this highlight of Red Bull Music Academy‘s tour sees inner city Detroit and South London take over a 17th Century mansion on the outskirts of Bristol. While the roulette tables suit the fantasy setting – all grand fireplaces, chandeliers and portraits of dead kings – the music speaks of hard-bitten reality, as grime and hip-hop rasp from punchy soundsystems.

Livin’ Proof bookend the acts in the main room with anthems from Dr. Dre to Kendrick Lamar, while the second room enjoys a forward-thinking blend of rap, grime and R&B from Siobhan Bell. Both are laid-back for the most part, though Bell’s selection – which includes Skepta’s That’s Not Me and Shabba by A$AP Ferg – gives a little more warning of the rudeness to come.

It’s the arrival of The Square that really blows the dust off this leafy bolthole. Boasting eight MCs and a pair of DJs, the Lewisham collective barely fit onstage. Aged from 16 and 20 years old they’re still rough around the edges, but their set is proof that’s there’s more to grime in 2015 than nostalgically reheated Wiley beats. 18-year old Novelist is clearly the leader here, although MCs like Faultsz, Streema and DeeJillz could well join him as names in their own right, and there’s enough going on production-wise to make this lot well worth keeping an eye on. Listen to their 2014 mixtape for more evidence.

Novelist’s biggest success so far has been his collaboration with Mumdance, whose set begins as The Square spit their last. Real name Jack Adams, Mumdance’s productions range from leftfield bangers to “weightless” studies in ambient tension. Tonight’s set is built from the ravier end of his output, including a few tracks from Proto, his album with Boxed resident Logos. While the shattered-glass grime beats, ominous techstep basslines and ’91-era synth stabs are far from relaxing, thirty minutes of instrumentals does provide a bit of a mental breather. When Novelist returns to join Mumdance for a short set of futuristic, minimal grime bangers the place quite properly goes ballistic. Recent single 1 Sec is a rewind waiting to happen.    

Everything about Danny Brown is cartoonish, from his wild hair and gap-toothed leer to that gearbox whine of a voice. Steeped in drugs, sex, booze and more drugs, the Detroit rapper’s lyrics combine with bullish, ghettotech-flavoured beats to summon an atmosphere of doomed oblivion. It’s one that Brown’s stage persona – a horn-throwing, air-licking, head-banging avatar of infinite pleasure – inhabits like a native, and if 25 Bucks suggests there’s a sensitive soul underneath it’s only glimpsed in moments. Tonight’s set leans hard on the second half of 2013 album Old, and it’s narcotic football chants like Dip and Smokin’ & Drinkin’ that get the biggest reaction from the audience.  

Three quarters male and visibly fired up, the crowd cram forward to be near their hero, while others queue to enter a space too small for a cult star like Brown. Perhaps the genteel venue makes a difference – it’s seen more cucumber sandwiches over the years than molly or kush – but there’s no repeat of the drink-chucking that brought an early end to the Glasgow show. Danny Brown’s music – heavy, foul-mouthed and with the abrasive qualities of an industrial sander – isn’t for everyone, but he’s a true original, and one of the most infectious showmen in hip-hop. By the end of his set Kings Weston House feels transformed forever. The tables have turned.

 Red Bull Music Academy presents Lords of the Manor was at Kings Weston House on Friday, April 3. Photography by SteveStills and AthenaAnastasiou