07 September 2010

20^th September, Dingwalls, London.

Banco de Gaia has been a stalwart of the global dance music scene for nearly two decades now. During that career he's released well over a dozen albums, compilations and singles, plus countless guest remixes and edits of other people's tunes.

His releases are widely diverse in nature, from the floor-shaking club favourites I Love Baby Cheesy or Zeus No Like Techno, through the euphoric Obsidian and melancholy Last Train To Lhasa, to the more mellow, chill tunes like We All Know The Truth or Not In My Name. Alongside writing, recording and performing truly memorable music, he also themes many of these tracks with current issues or topics that he feels strongly about - Last Train To Lhasa, for example, highlights the plight of the Words & Pics: Will JobbinsTibetans under an oppressive Chinese occupation, and Not In My Name was written as a direct protest against Blair's invasion of Iraq which was underway at the time.

Combining pacifism, politics and world dance music is one sure-fire way of guaranteeing a place in this particular journalist's record collection, so I headed to Dingwalls in Camden Town to catch the live performance and launch party of Memories Dreams Reflections, the newly-released compilation featuring twenty years' worth of new tracks, old classics, remixes and rarities from the Banco vaults.

By the time DJ Trippy's chill set had ended and Banco de Gaia took to the stage, the club was reasonably full. This first set was a performance of the slower, more peaceful material suited to live instrumentation and featured a full band of drummer, saxophonist, bassist and Banco himself on guitar (and occasionally hopping over to his MIDI controllers when necessary), whilst vocalist Maya lent her stunningly powerful voice to a few tracks. Musical complexity and a chilled atmosphere were the order of the set here, and the audience swayed to dreamy, relaxed rhythms, downtempo beats and technical, Pink Floyd-esque guitar work set to a sumptuous kaleidoscopic lightshow set up and controlled in real time by Lucynation.

At half time, DJ U-4-IC (standing in for the sadly absent Monkey Pilot) took the decks and started to increase the tempo and the level of excitement in the room through some excellent global house, breaks and even a spot of drum n' bass. The live instruments were shifted to one side and replaced by all manner of complicated rack-mounted electric geekery from which Banco de Gaia would control the second, more

And uptempo it surely was - from beginning to end and seamlessly mixed into one lively performance, all of Banco de Gaia's top catalogue tracks were showcased to a very appreciative, and very active, crowd. A few minor sound hitches were quickly fixed by the Dingwalls tech heads and the headliner reminded us in no uncertain way - as if we needed to be reminded - why he's so widely acclaimed and why he is unquestionably right up there at the very apex of world/dance music fusion.

Memories Dreams Reflections is available
through Disco Gecko recordings on double
CD or on digital download, featuring BDG
covers of other artists (including Pink
Floyd, King Crimson and Hawkwind), as
well as remixes and remasters of original
Banco rarities from the formative years,
and latterly a good helping of live
recordings too. Check out the website for
a gig calendar, online shop and loads
more - www.banco.co.uk