Atmosphere @ Komedia, Brighton
Since we first posted up the album ‘Strictly Leakage’ a few months back, I have kept my eyes and ears open for any new Atmosphere related ish. Those of you that have copped ‘When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold’ (long title!), will have some idea how good this gig was. I was fortunate enough to get a guestlist spot and took full advantage. Now, truth be told I’m jumping on the bandwagon a bit. I heard ‘God Loves Ugly’ on an old Desk & Ohms mixtape from back in the day, since then I haven’t really checked any of their stuff… until now.
I got there early on in time to catch Kidz In The Hall. They gave a solid performance with Double-0 doing crazy things on the drum pads! It was proper hot in there so I had taken to sitting in the corner with my pint taking in my surroundings.
Then Atmosphere and Brother Ali took to the stage. By this point the Komedia was rammed and I was pleased to see the rumours were true, Atmosphere seems to pull in a lot of fine ladies - always a good look.
Before long I found myself near the front of the stage, bobbing my head to the beats. Slug and Brother Ali complemented each other well and had a couple of solo pieces too. I was well impressed with the whole show – you can tell Slug’s been doing shows for years, and still maintains that infectious enthusiam, the bare love of his art. This feeling translated to a hot, hyped crowd.
The beats and lyrics were spot on, quote of the night – the line “land of beef, home of slaves”, you can guess which country he was on about. My ears immediately pricked up when ‘Summertime’ and ‘God Loves Ugly’ were played as they were most familiar to me but I’m now ready to dig deeper into the Atmosphere back cat as well as making sure I check them if I get the chance in the future.
Atmosphere’s new album ‘When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold’ is out now on Rhymesayers Records.
If you ‘d like to hear a full interview with Slug then go visit our friends at DeLarge for the full audio download.
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