SOPHIE with Charli XCX – Photo by Daniel Boczarski at SXSW 2016.
Love him or hate him, SOPHIE is one of the more interesting producers to emerge from London in recent years. Drawing influences from disparate genres such as happy hardcore, J-Pop and electro house, SOPHIE’s songs are at once approachable and complex. Many have the infectious, catchy vocals of 90’s pop mixed with experimental, glitchy beats, and enough bass to blow out your subwoofer.
His genre has proved difficult to pin down; labels such as ‘hyper-pop’, ‘bubblegum bass’ and ‘nightcore’ have all been used to describe the sound, but none has really stuck.
Some of SOPHIE’s live appearances have been equally enigmatic; for his 2014 Boiler Room set, he sent out a drag queen to DJ while he posed as a security guard at the side of the stage. These factors combined to create an air of mystery which compelled fans to pack out the Velvet Underground last Thursday.
Support for the night was provided by the Toronto collective Bedroomer, who put up performances by LUM, Kare, and Eytan Tobin. I arrived in time to catch the second half of Kare’s set, and was treated to some classic pop such as Seduction’s ‘Two To Make It Right’. Eytan Tobin took the stage around 11 and brought the pace down momentarily, opening with one of the tracks from his newly released 1990 EP, before launching into a set which incorporated footwork, hip-hop, trap, and enough bass to make the Velvet Underground shake. The instrumental to 50 Cent’s Ayo Technology was a hit, as was his loop of the sassy “why you keep liking my man’s pics on Instagram?” lyric taken from a Cam’ron skit.
Eytan Tobin ended his set by bringing onstage vocalists Kare and Veles to perform All is Light, the opening track to his 1990 EP. The song was somewhat more downtempo than the rest of the set, but was a perfect display of Eytan’s skill as a producer. Kare took over the turntables again momentarily in the leadup to SOPHIE, bring the tempo back up with some Jersey Club style hype. She ended with some oldschool garage by way of DJ Pied Piper’s Do You Really Like It?
SOPHIE came on stage to a wash of lights and launched directly into the bass. The crowd stood transfixed, taking in the androgynous performer momentarily until he let the beat drop and people lost their shit. The set was dominated by bassy, vaguely trap anthems such as last years MSMSMSM, with many exclusives and unreleased gems.
The heavy, instrumental songs were a pleasure to dance to, but it was SOPHIE’s earlier work which really got the crowd psyched. The introduction to So Hard was extended to elevate the excitement in the room, with the eventual drop proving nothing short of elating. Other hits such as VYZEE, Lemonade and BIPP were similarly well appreciated.
SOPHIE’s many recent colab projects were also given space, but not all worked as well in the room. Charli XCX’s Vroom Vroom was a highlight, but the Li1f track Koi fell a little short.
In a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, SOPHIE described his live show as “completely overriding your cognitive process and becoming a directly centered physical thing”. After the encore I found myself surprised it was over so quickly and wondering why my feet hurt. It sounds like there could be no higher accolade.