Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts at Minimal Hospital

Guillaume & The Coutu Dumonts at Minimal Hospital

02 February, 2009
by: Markspoonfed

You could question the wisdom of naming a night after a subgenre which is in the process of eroding its own boundaries, expanding beyond its margins and rendering itself obsolete. But you don't change a winning brand, and the Sardinian Minimal Hospital team have made a name for themselves with some of the most awesome parties in London over the past year. Tonight, they team up with Zum for a double whammy of electronic sound.

We arrive a bit later than planned, and immediately join the queue for the conveniently located outdoor cloakroom. This freezing ordeal is eased slightly by the fact that a neighbouring venue is blasting out 'Mambo Number 5' – enough to make anyone's blood boil.

Straight onto the dancefloor, and we are treated to some tribal, percussive techno by Luciano Esse. It's rhythmically complex, relentlessly groovy and the samples are exotic and otherworldly. Visuals from Godfrey Reggio's Naqoyqatsi serve to underline the way in which the music seeks to explore intersections of the primordial and the technological. The only problem is that the sound in room 2 isn't quite loud enough, and it becomes hard to differentiate between the vocal samples and the incessant chatter of the coked-up Italians dancing next to me/on top of me.

We join the masses in room 1, just in time to catch the climactic rush towards the end of M+H resident Massimo Licari's housey set. The forceful, pulsating beats are twinned with frenzied soul vocals, and the crowd is really going for it. The stage is set for the night's main attraction, and Guillaume & the Coutu Dumonts does not disappoint. His stage name gives the impression of a band rather than a DJ, which is appropriate seeing as he plays instruments, not records. Darting between his laptop, synth and percussion pad (which he treats as a djembe), his two hour set is nothing short of inspirational. Classically trained Guillaume is a musical pluralist, happily juxtaposing Senegalese Mbalax rhythms with gospel and blues fragments on top of irresistibly funky basslines.

Corsica Studios is absolutely rammed and everyone is on some form of medication – just like any NHS hospital, in other words. But minimal? Not really – and it is all the better for it.


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Markspoonfed