Indie legend Jarvis Cocker opens up tonight’s proceedings at Cargo with an eclectic mix of hip hop, soul, funk and world music. Leaving most of the audience looking a little bit bamboozled, the hour ‘DJ’ set from Jarvis is mostly spent with Steve Mackey (bassist from Pulp) having a little dance, changing the CDs and asking Jarvis to put the CDs or 7inches back in their cases. Never mind, it’s Jarvis Cocker after all, even if he does look a little bit confused by the whole affair.

However this is all forgotten as he chirps up and steps into the role of compère to introduce world champion beatboxer, Bellatrix, and her vocal group The Boxettes.

Then, with the whole crowd fixated on one lonely Boxette, delivering a hauntingly beautiful vocal solo, the unexpected occurs. Out of nowhere about a thousand megatonnes of Bellatrix-driven drums and bass kick the crowd into a frenzy and Cargo starts jumping. The diversity of the sounds and the complexity of the tracks is astonishing, and your eyes are darting between the members of Bellatrix’s quintet to try and figure out who’s doing what and how.

When you go to see an a capella group or watch a beatboxer you expect to be amazed: they are going to make music without instruments. If you weren’t mesmerised by them you’d be disappointed. However The Boxettes go way beyond this and make something else happen; you forget to be mesmerised and you want to DANCE. The crowd reaction is incredible and the front rows seem to be made up of Boxette-Wannabes singing along to every word, but it’s refreshing to see beatboxing being taken beyond the circus sideshow and being used to create a genuinely respectable and powerful sound.

Next up, The Stig and Syntax show. With the big man himself proclaiming “If you liked that then you probably won’t like this…” to an already vastly diminished crowd. The boys then tear into “A Dose Of Godzilla Slang” making it somehow twice as aggressive and scary as the album version. No more dumbstruck faces here any more though. The crowd, now only about 40 strong, know why they’re here and go accordingly nuts. We’re then treated to a couple more Syntax album tracks and some large helpings of humour from Stig.

It’s this self deprecatioin that forms the backbone of the Stig and Syntax set: they don’t take themselves too seriously (not many rappers would walk out on stage and introduce themselves as “Stevie Dickhead” and “errr… the librarian”) and they know they look funny (for reference Stig is a huge arrogant Geordie, and Syntax looks like the sort of bookish type who’d be happier at home playing World Of Warcraft and drinking lentil soup).

But most importantly they kill it live. These guys seriously are two of the biggest talents in UK hip hop at the minute. We should be proud of acts like this. In fact these guys should have their own TV show – they’d be a lot more entertaining than Ant and Dec

Boxettes and Jarvis Cocker Review Courtesy of Sarah-Rose Cockcroft

Photos Courtesy of MikeMike.co.uk