April 26 at Cosmic Charlie’s
By Nick Kidd
The crowd that showed up to Cosmic Charlie’s for the Monday night Headtronics show was much more sparse than I’d anticipated. Perhaps the pedigree of Headtronics, formed only last summer and having played collectively just a handful of shows before this Lexington date, failed to draw any particular contingent of fans, or maybe it was just a Monday night and people were staying in because of the stormy late-April weather. Either way, I had no idea what I was in store for, though I hoped for a Monday night diamond in the rough performance from a band hungry to establish itself.
Headtronics is comprised of DJ Logic, a producer/turntablist/DJ who specializes in sitting in with jam bands and spinning jazzy, soulful hip-hop; Freekbass, who plays spacey funk inspired by his mentor Bootsy Collins; and jam band keyboardist Jason Molitz of Particle and Phil Lesh & Friends.
I was there because I’d caught the tail end of Freekbass’s set a couple months back at Charlie’s and wanted to see more of him. Molitz and Logic were blank slates to me, though I was willing to give this new supergroup a chance on the merit of Freekbass alone.
The set started uneventfully when Logic dropped a 16-beat hip-hop sample for Freekbass and Molitz to groove overtop of, but Freekbass just repeated a rhythmic ostinato while Molitz made pensive, high-pitched synthesizer stabs. The music showed little direction or promise and after 5 minutes of standing in the front row I thought about leaving. Instead I bought a beer and sat down toward the back of the venue, waiting for the band to get warmed up.
Headtronics makes completely improvised music, so starting their set is probably difficult because somebody has to take charge and hope the other guys follow along. The duty of kicking things off this night fell on the rhythm section, which in Headtronics’ case is DJ Logic. This makes sense because Molitz and Freekbass can adjust to his sampled beats more easily than vice versa. While Molitz and Freekbass have total control over their instruments, Logic has to track down records, adjust pitch, and file through his digital sample bank for every adjustment he makes. He’s dealing with records, mixer, crossfader, and computer constantly.
Twenty minutes into the show, Headtronics was getting interesting. They were creating something I’ve never experienced at a live concert before: proto hip-hop. I’m talking the music of Afrika Bambaataa, Whodini, and Curtis Mantronix, the old school producers who’ve inspired virtually every hip-hop producer ever since. These producers arguably have more to do with electro than hip-hop, but it’s rare that a live band recreates the sound of hip-hop’s birth.
I found myself presented with electronic music of a bygone era and I felt like somebody should’ve been on the dance floor spinning on their head.
When Logic dropped in a funky backbeat (think “Got to Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye), I was getting excited about where things were headed—that “What’s going to happen next?” feeling that makes live music much more exhilarating than just listening to records at home.
Next thing I knew there were hi-hats coming from the back of the stage. Tyler Little (Sexual Disaster Quartet, Shemale Feista, et al) had crept onstage and took to a drum set I hadn’t noticed previously. His rapid-fire hi-hat accents moved things into disco territory and Molitz responded by switching the tone of his synthesizer to what sounded like a guitar going through a wah-pedal and playing some killer melody.
Freekbass was riffing on a metallic bass pattern akin to “Higher Ground” from RHCP while leading a chant of “bow-wow-wow yippee-o-yippee aye.” Now everyone was looser: people were dancing and the band locked into a groove and kept it going for a good 20 minutes. I was beginning to think that Tyler had rendered DJ Logic unnecessary and I think Logic might’ve felt the same way…all he could do was scratch over the beat now and then while intermittently digging through his records looking for something that would fit with the vibe. He finally returned with a record but couldn’t get it to match Tyler’s tempo, so he pulled it and went back to his laptop.
Judging by the crowd’s reaction, this was the climax of the show, but I felt like things were getting boring. Instead of the exciting changes that had dictated the set earlier, it felt like the band got stuck in a groove with nobody brave enough to change tempo. The music, being improvised, is based more on “feel” than anything, but I was feeling like the band was stuck in one place and knew it.
Finally Logic dropped in a 4/4 techno beat that pushed Tyler back to more bass drum/hi-hat accompaniment instead of the fierce full-kit workout he had been firing off. Molitz responded by making his synthesizer sound very trancey, in the style of DJ Tiesto, and playing lead solo lines. He used a phaser effect and lots of reverb to make things sound more atmospheric and the effect was impressive, as was his dexterity in pitch manipulation.
Shortly thereafter, the band closed out their jam and took to thanking the crowd and Tyler, who’d snuck offstage as quietly as he’d snuck on, and then DJ Logic dropped an Eric B. type backbeat to recommence the hip-hop vibe from earlier. A couple of jams later the band had resorted to spinning its wheels: all the energy and spontaneity from earlier in the set was MIA. Logic’s beats shifted to the downtempo house variety, effectively killing the band’s mojo.
I wouldn’t go see Headtronics again, but I will definitely go see Freekbass again and I recommend you do the same. His basswork was the highlight of the show, consistently shifting between lead and rhythm duties, utilizing a bevy of pedals to alter the instrument’s tone, always playing something appropriate. Calling him a great bassist demeans his talents because Freekbass is truly a great musician.
Molitz is a good entertainer who gets a lot out of his keyboard tones; he could be great with the right band (read: not a jam band). I can’t say one way or another about DJ Logic because he didn’t really leave an impression, which is pretty sad for playing in a trio.
When the encore ended, I left Charlie’s with mixed feelings. With improvised music, you take the good with the bad, but you put faith in the musicians to make it good. While the trio of Headtronics might be great at what they do separately, that didn’t translate into a great set as a group.
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