Hot Sugar, Raja, & Lotide @ Spike Hill

Last.fm Live In NYC: August 17th, 2012 w/ Hot Sugar, Raja, Lotide

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Last Friday night, we celebrated a new guard of East Coast beatmakers for our August edition of Live In NYC. Ninja Tune’s Hot Sugar (pictured above) headlined the evening; Raja and Lotide supported with live performances; Jim-E Stack, PT & Cambo of The Kort and Dan Matthews rounded out the eve with DJ sets.

Hot Sugar’s set featured the oddest request we’ve heard yet: “I need a vial of blood for a new song I’m working on. Does someone have any on them? I need to sample it.” Therein lies the odd and addictive charm of HS’ music: recorded everyday (or strange; see above) objects twist into larger, more dynamic sounds than their sources, turning a corkscrew into a club-shattering bass kick.

Raja threw down a 30 minute set of old school hip hop (DOOM, Madlib) and his new school, gnarled and distressed beats, during which he’d jam on a 1/4 drum set he set up last minute. Lotide, a recent migrant from the Other Coast, serenaded the crowd into the early hours of Saturday morning with sounds somewhere in between Teebs and downliners sekt. Beats tunneled through cascading fuzz and whispering melodies, turning Spike Hill into a cavern of fire-dancing ghosts.

For more photos from the night, head to our Facebook page.