by Showtrotta

Sebastien Tellier @ Hiro Ballroom - July 30, 2008 (CRED)

Last week in dance was pretty crazy. The French invaded in the form of Sebastien Tellier on Wednesday and the Institubes crew on Thursday. Both were pretty awesome.

Sebastien's set at Hiro really showed how (all hype aside) truly talented he is. His songs are really finely crafted, electronic, pop songs that should be grouped somewhere closer to artists like Air rather than some of the fly by night electro nobody's going to remember in a few years time. The setlist from Wednesday is below. There's a full review of the show over at my blog.

Thursday night (July 31), Institubers Jean Nipon and Bobmo had everyone losing it at Santos along with the French label's only US artist, Curses! Jean Nipon opened the night with a mix that was a bit of everything - kind of like his Freedom Fries mix, but way more banging. Curses followed up with a great set, showcasing his signature, heavily UK-influenced sound and flawless live vocals. Afterward France took over with Bobmo deejaying into the wee hours with the great, 90's, housey sound that artists like he and Surkin are excellently reinventing and bringing back. Overall it was a really fun night of good, super danceable tunes. This was my second time at Santos - still loving the soundsystem and the fact that people shamelessly get down.

Jamie Lidell @ Summerstage - August 3, 2008 (Lucas Blue)

I rounded out the crazy week by hanging out at Summerstage on Sunday. The weather was great and it was a nice, mellow way to spend the day (despite not being into that much of the music). Jose James is a good jazz vocalist, but not my cup of tea. Little Jackie managed to fuse pop with a throwback soul sound pretty successfully. By far the largest turnout at Summerstage was for Janelle Monae. The instruments were very loud and it was hard to hear her at times, but what I did hear of her was not that impressive. It made me realize how much I can't wait to see Sharon Jones (who is playing Summerstage in a couple of weeks, on August 17th). I did like Janelle's energy though - she was dancing around like a maniac despite the park being quite hot under the blazing sun, and I liked her nods to Fritz Lang's Metropolis (which is also the title of her suite, check her myspace for an explanation). Gilles Peterson played some upbeat, soulful, dancey jams that had everyone moving, but he wasn't mixing them together! Hopefully that won't be the case at Cielo on Thursday (more on that later)....

Jamie Lidell, Soulwax and more below....

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