Can you call a DJ set an actual performance? Does pumping out music from a laptop, tapping a board, fiddling with knobs and tweaking nipple-like buttons warrant an audience’s attention?
Well, amazingly enough, fresh-faced electronica project Dualist Inquiry (birthname: Sahej Bakshi) is a rarity among DJs, bringing a boyish charm and a truly positive vibration to his set at Blue Frog on November 10th.
The gig was opened by Imaad Shah aka Madboy, who put together a decent electro-funk set, with a very ’90s synth aesthetic, using simple guitar and bass samples as overlays. However, a half-full and preoccupied Blue Frog wasn’t remotely interested in this mod-disco DJ, and he was pretty unsuccessful at setting up a club atmosphere. On top of that he was an amateur singer, with no pitch control. He should have stuck to a shorter set, and kept his singing synthesised (the way he started).
At last, Dualist Inquiry took the stage, and compared to Madboy, he was unassuming and chipper, you just wanted to hear and see more from him. He kicked open his first beat, strapped on his guitar to break out into a rhythm guitar riff. About 80% of his songs saw him playing the guitar over his DJ tunes, instead of just fingering with knobs. Everyone gets animated with a good ol’ guitar solo.
Dualist Inquiry mainly deejays upbeat, uplifting, down-tempo, club, dance, house electronica. His sound in the first half would veer towards Morcheeba, and Massive Attack-esque lush, and then towards the latter half, the more techno sound of the likes of Paul Oakenfold and BT took hold, with a sprinkle of dubstep ditties in there too.
He even weaved in his latest two songs from his debut EP Dualism (brought out in June 2011) – ‘Gravitat‘, which has a great inviting tingling melody that instantly draws you in, while ‘Qualia’ came in as a mellower cohort. Check out our review of Dualism here.
Some standout moments:
- He remixed a ‘Woo’ – you had to see it to believe it.
- His use of samples in the set – from The Killers and Coldplay, to Etta James’s ‘Something’s Got a Hold on Me’ (also sampled by Flo Rida in ‘Good Feeling’), and the more obscure Scroobius Pip tune, ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ (that truly clinched it for me, renewed respect for young Bakshi).
- He smiles. Every now and again, he would look up at the Blue Frog peeps vibrating on the dance floor and crack a smile at everyone as though he just told us all a secret only we knew. Yes, this was significantly refreshing and a rarity in the standard DJ decorum.
Bakshi did invariably get people to shake and shimmy on the floor with the charm of his music. However, he should have ended his set when he was on a high, as post 1pm, enthusiasm started to wane. Which is not to say he wasn’t good, but he is still a bit of a rookie when it comes to feeling the vibe of the room.
All-in-all, the verdict is that you can’t help but fall in love with the wholesome boy-next-door feel of Sahej Bakshi. You want him to succeed and you are cheering for his buoyant and spirit-raising approach to music.
Indiecision: B
Dualist Inquiry will play the Eristoff Wolves Den on Friday, 18 November at the Bacardi NH7 Weekender. Get your hot hot tickets here.
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