Babe Rainbow

Hunching at an uncomfortable-looking angle over the banquet table that held his laptop and MIDI controller, Babe Rainbow showcased a unique mix of chopped and screwed rap a cappellas, thunder claps and side-chained microtonal washes that you might hear in a Kubrick-selected Ligeti composition. Despite some audio issues in the opening, he bobbed along to slow, spooky beats for a slowly filling room. It was probably a better soundtrack for star-gazing or getting leaned on cough syrup than it was a concert spectacle, but this is the reality of any down-tempo, sample-based producer doing a live PA with a laptop; it's hard for the audience to understand what's actually happening on stage. This may have been the case for some newcomers to his music, but sonically, Babe Rainbow is memorable and lives up to the legacy of his labelmates over at Warp.