RL GRIME

A pounding heartbeat and industrial clangs slowly grew louder and louder as a dark figure took its place behind a wall of decks and samplers as the centerpiece act of Saturday’s Tribal Circus at the Red Marquee stage. Sharp blasts of synth and handclaps that were more menacing than joyous hit like thunder, but when the heavy bass started to pound, crowds felt the true force of RL Grime’s signature trap sound.

Never chaining himself down to a certain track, the Los Angeles area producer jumped quickly between ghostly hiccuping samples and skittering distorted low range bass. He impressed a wildly enthusiastic crowd with his ability to take familiar tracks and samples and shift them almost beyond recognition. We caught small tastes of Rae Sremmerd’s “No Type”, Drake’s “10 Bands”, and Rhianna’s “Bitch Better Have My Money” before they quickly disappeared into the smoky haze of squelching beats and heavy bass.

Grime’s sound never seemed formulaic, keeping those rap samples close at hand but working them deftly over an ever changing soundscape. Imagery of huge walls
of water swallowing cities, desert storm tanks, and industrial wastelands on the big screen behind him were as epic as wave after wave of spine tingling bass drops that fell. Also managing to work in a few of his own tracks (“Because of You” a highlight), RL Grime set himself miles apart from other acts on the Tribal Circus bill.