Last night The Lyric hosted an up-and-coming trap group, Keys N Krates.
The group has engaged the stage of major festivals such as TomorrowWorld and Coachella, bringing a unique hip-hop infused trance style to the EDM scene and, for the first time ever, to Oxford, for one of the first stops on its winter tour.
Courtesy: kesnkrates.com
The group boasts a unique set up for a live show in the EDM genre. Whereas most DJs look like they are just checking their email during their shows, Keys N Krates gets much more involved with their music.
Adam Tune sits in on an electric drumset, and holds down the beat and rhythms for all the tracks manually. Keyboardist David Matisse covers all the synth portions of the songs, and renowned battle DJ Jr. Flo deals with the sample chopping that the group is known for. Very little is pre-recorded.
The group brings a sense of physicality to the music that no other DJ could. Every keystroke, drumbeat or record scratch must be exact or the whole song is likely fall apart. Through intense practice and a well thought-out set, Keys N Krates is able to deliver such a tightly woven performance with unparalleled precision and energy.
This is exactly what attendees experienced last night at The Lyric as the group delivered a performance worthy of their reputation. The band focused mostly on their newest EP “Every Nite,” playing favorites such as “Are We Faded” and “Hypnotik.”
Each transition was meticulously thought out, often pulling samples from popular hip hop hits such as “Mercy” and “Clique.”
Towards the end of the show, the group treated the audience to a few unreleased tracks. While many of these remained unnamed, one track entitled “You Already Know” was able to get the crowd moving and shows promise for the band’s future releases.
The show was not without its shortcomings, however. For an EDM show, the lighting scheme was certainly not up to par for any dance music group. I have seen bluegrass shows with better lighting and special effects.
Much like the group’s music, some of the tracks played did have a tendency to be a little anticlimactic. Given the band’s reputation as a trap group, however, this is something that could be expected for many within their genre.
For their encore portion of their performance, all three members of the band stepped away from their respective instruments and just played tracks straight off their computer while jumping around like crazy people on the stage. While this was certainly fun to watch, it did seem like a bit of a lazy move to end such a great performance.
The pros certainly outweighed the cons, however, making a show that I would highly recommend to any music lover. To top the show off, Keys N Krates ended with a monstrous performance of “Yes We Faded,” which was easily worth the price of the ticket alone.
