Review — Akala at Camden Jazz Cafe

29 April 2015, Camden Jazz Cafe, London

A new venue, a new artist and a new genre of music— this is what Gig Club is all about.

Far away from the ‘safe’ world of live indie guitar music I’ve known for the past decade, I entered the Camden Jazz Cafe with an open mind, not knowing what to expect. The venue’s layout — with a significantly large area close to the entrance mostly redundant during a performance as it has no line of sight to the stage — packs the crowd in tight with little to no room to move. It felt hot and a little tense. We positioned ourselves close to the bar with easy access to refreshments.

In the week leading up to the gig I’d dipped in and out of some singles and Akala’s most recent album ‘Knowledge is Power, Vol 2’. I liked what I’d heard. ‘The Thieves Banquet’, my first Akala experience, is superb. Lyrical storytelling with emotion and purpose that is too often lacking in much of the music I consume. And despite his Hip-Hop label, the music wasn’t, as I’d (ignorantly) expected, all synth and drum machines either. Guitars, strings, and piano were all in there too.

I was curious of how this would translate live. Would there be a band? Would he be stood alone with a just prerecorded backing track? Glancing at the stage as we waited for Akala’s arrival, the drum kit in the corner was a familiar friend.

Once the wait was over, Akala’s set was full of energy and humour. The tracks I recognised, although very few, were fantastic — ‘Mr. Fire in the Booth’ and ‘Sun Tzu’ were stand out for me. The long list of special guests, who jumped on and off stage throughout the set, helped to punctuate the performance, adding a variety and rapport a solo artist’s set can often need, but lack.

But I left Camden that night with a familiar frustration.

A reoccurring annoyance I experience at live music events is with poor sound mixing, often resulting drowned vocals and indistinguishable instruments. Akala was by no means the worst example of this, but whereas rock music will have vocals and music in equal stead, the focus of his music is in the lyrics. At times the music track took over, and during songs I didn’t recognise I found myself lost and unable to distinguish the vocals.

In fairness this isn’t a unique problem, it happens time after time. What I think left me frustrated most of all — much more than usual — was that I really wanted to hear the lyrics, which I guess is a testament to Akala’s writing.

Despite the downsides, I did really enjoy this gig. I’d jump at the chance to see Akala live again, especially if he was to perform a stripped back (perhaps spoken-word) set. But until then, I’ll busy myself by listening to his studio work, and swat up on the lyrics.