Egyptian Hip-Hop
The Cellar, Oxford
03/07/2010

Arriving on a Saturday night soaked in the last of the day’s sunshine half an hour before Egyptian Hip-Hop are due on, it’s nice to catch the final song of local next-great-hopes Dead Jerichos‘ set. It seems like they’ve played at half the gigs in Oxford over the past few months, and the sparse turn-out at recent shows has suggested that they might burn themselves out through over-exposure, but The Fly is suitably impressed tonight.

Then, coming onstage to a smattering of applause, the headliners start with a proper post-rock intro, complete with false-ending. Comparisons to The Stone Roses may be improper, but in this setting they kind of make sense, as Egyptian Hip-Hop boast the same up-tempo dancefloor experimentalism.

Whilst their influences are apparent, the sheer number and diversity of the acts they draw from makes for a paradoxically original show. One song sounds like Isaac Brock fronting !!!, while another marries art-rock shouts to hip-hop basslines. And throughout their set Alex Hewett, Nick Delap, and Lou Stephenson-Miller swap guitars, bass and keyboards like car-keys at a swingers’ party. At all times, each of them look remarkably confident for a band still in their teens.

As the crowd thickens with Saturday night revellers, people looking in curiously stay for the ride as singles ‘Rad Pitt’ and ‘Wild Human Child’ actually get the crowd - shock, horror! – dancing! Contrary buggers that they are, EH-H’s set ends with an almost Pavement-a-like song, complete with a sudden, angry collapse for an ending. It’s obnoxious and thoroughly un-danceable, but for a band who boast sheer talent and a sense of fun like this lot clearly do, theirs should be an entertaining journey… 

Chris Bennett