French DJ/Producer JC Le Saout aka Wax Tailor recently hit the West Coast in support of his excellent third album, In the Mood for Life, and I was lucky enough to catch him at Slim's in San Francisco on a warm Friday evening.

About five hundred people showed up for the show, a combination of hip hop heads, French expats, hipsters, and DJs looking to do some trainspotting. L.A. rapper Abstract Rude opened, and did an excellent job warming up the crowd with his positive, upbeat hip hop. I'm always skeptical of seeing rappers live — too often it sounds like a dude yelling over a guy playing records — but the sound at Slim's was great and Abstract Rude and his DJ worked together perfectly.

Wax Tailor went on around 10:30. He came out in a black shirt and white tie, looking like a Gallic Moby. He was accompanied by a cellist and flautist. This may seem unusual for a hip hop show, but given Wax Tailor's brooding and cinematic music, it made perfect sense. Anyone who doesn't think flutes belong in hip hop hasn't heard the Beastie Boys' "Flute Loop" or Gil-Scott Heron's "The Revolution Won't Be Televised."

Wax Tailor had a video playing in synch with his music, which is essential for any DJ act. If you are basically a guy playing with your Mac on stage, you better supply some visuals. Some of the visuals were graphics, some were clips from Wax Tailor's own videos, and others were clips from videos of music he was sampling.

Speaking of sampling, his music was dense with samples and references to other songs and artists. My skills as a trainspotter are not all that well honed, but I still caught snippets of Wu-Tang songs, Tribe Called Quest, and other classic NY hip hop acts.

It was Wax Tailor's way of paying homage to hip hop's history, while at the same time making it clear that he was carrying on the tradition of real hip hop pioneered by rappers in the early nineties. The two obvious reference points I got from Wax Tailor were DJ Shadow and DJ Premier — he has the sampled trip hop of the former, and the heavy boom bap of the latter.

Article Author: Patrick Taylor

I've written for the now-defunct Clamor Magazine, and am a current contributor to RapReviews.com. The first album I bought was Herbie Hancock's "Future Shock." I listen to too much music.

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