DJ Format @ Bongo Club

Those funk-lovin’ beat meisters down at Headspin promotions were understandably delighted to bring the one-and-only DJ Format into town to ‘blow the roof off the bongo club’. Format has garnered widespread appeal for his back-in-the-day production and fun-filled beat-fiddling, and has been known to rock a party. However, tonight was not to be the banging hip-hop retrospective that this reviewer, and I expect many others, had hoped for.

A lot has changed since 2003, when the fairly unknown Format performed as the warm up act for Jurassic 5. His album Music for the Mature B-boy, released that year, was essential listening at the time and he followed it successfully with A Right Earful Vol.1 (2005) and If You Can’t Join ‘em… Beat ‘em (2005). Fusing his own beats with vintage samples and the verbal stylings of fast-tongued sesame street MCs like Abdominal, he created a sensation that bounced along well before the recent obsession with 80s nostalgia.

Lately, however, Format has delved even further back into Hip-Hop’s past, digging up the dusty roots of the funky grooves that were key influences for any number of originators. His recent additions to the FabricLive and Funia series demonstrate a more grown-up, soulful vibe that neglects the body-popping beats of his earlier work.

It was this mature Format that we were presented with on Saturday, and he was, frankly, extremely dull, certainly never threatening Bongo’s roof tiles. After an excellent warm up by the residents, we were treated to what amounted to a set of 70s car-chase music by a DJ who no longer seemed to suit his bright green b-boy jacket. Indeed, there were moments when it would not have been surprising to see a Dodge Challenger come careening through the club pursued by police cars and disheveled cardboard boxes.

Playing NWA’s Express Yourself is considered ‘old school’, but Format played the original Charles Wright sample, which just seemed old-fashioned. Nostalgia is all-pervasive these days, particularly in music. But as the recent 80s obsession looks forward into the 90s, it seems there is little place for an artist who seems intent on moving in the other direction.