Mush Tour DVD

As a tour documentary, the Mush Tour DVD is good, but it's even better as an advertisement for hats, a variety of which are displayed by Radioinactive, Why? and Dose One. The best is the white American ninja mask Dose sports for "[ ]" at the opening of his set. Reaching Quiet and cLOUDDEAD, two groups that haven't been easy to digest on record, impress with some great performances that include a live band and electronics for the former, and plenty of electronic manipulation by the latter. Boom Bip & Dose One's mid-show set is the highlight, while Radioinactive and his band fit into the whole experimental vibe. Labtekwon's one-man show is out of place, even if his two songs are strong contributions. The concert footage is made up of a selection of the best songs by each artist from their shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles in June of 2002. Each song is an isolated live video with psychedelic visual effects that suit the sounds. Between sets are montages of the offstage antics of the Mush Tour artists and "friends"; footage that is neither necessary or enlightening. But, it doesn't matter because you're buying this DVD for the live performances of exceptional experimental hip hop, right? And isn't that enough? (Mush, www.dirtyloop.com)