Champagne Champagne

Seattle has its share of what the haters might call "gallery rap"—acts like Team Gina, Mad Rad, and the like, acts for whom the Saturday Knights, with their equal parts hipster tongue-in-cheek and hiphop bona fides, could be seen as elders of a sort. After the Knights, Champagne Champagne might be the next to escape the hipster-hop ghetto. Ex–Blood Brother drummer Mark Gajadhar (aka DJ Gajamagic) brings years of beat-blasting experience to his production, and MC Pearl Dragon delivers his '80s references and raunchy punch lines with an easy flow.

As something of a techno-dork, I'm always prone to give the producer some, but Thursday night's Champagne Champagne set at Club Pop definitely calls for an acknowledgment of Gajadhar's production prowess. Rather than merely queue tracks, Gajadhar played live synths, effects, and even melodica; he sang the vocal hooks, shook a tambourine, and twisted knobs throughout. His synthesized bass lines sometimes reached Modeselektor levels of subwoof, especially on "Soda and Pop Rocks," with its mad, low-frequency wobble. His singing was a nice touch, even—no, especially—when it drifted off-key for a moment (he was nursing that cold that's been going around). His melodica and digital delays lent, respectively, some sunny dub drift and echoing whale-song spaciousness to his beats. MC Pearl Dragon and hypeman Thomas Gray delivered as well—Gray is equal parts gruff and affable; Pearl is alternately crazily wild-eyed and smiling, not pulling showy tongue twisters but hitting his rhymes right and swerving into the occasional little freestyle. But Gajamagic's journey above and beyond the typical live-DJ role was most impressive. - The Stranger

Seattle has its share of what the haters might call gallery rap going on these days with acts like Team Gina, Mad Rad, and the like, to whom the Saturday Knights, with their equal parts hipster tongue-in-cheek and hip hop bona fides, could be seen as the elders of a sort, were they not so singularly hard to pin down. After them, Champagne Champagne might be the next most likely to escape the hipster hop ghetto. Ex-Blood Bro Mark Gajadhar (aka DJ Gajamagic) brings years of beat-blasting experience to the decks, and MC Pearl Dragon delivers his ’80s references and raunch punchlines with better flow than a lot of jokers.

Not only that, but Larry Mizell’s given the group a good look in this week’s My Philosophy, which of course means mad cred:

“The Pain” make some sweet music together, an arty, ass-shaking house-party-friendly cocktail of MC Pearl Dragon and DJ Gajamagic (formerly of a li’l band called the Blood Brothers) that makes all the hipster ladies dance. This is a very fine line to walk, as you know, but Champagne do it right for my money, with a basis in real skill; Pearl is a deeply talented MC, and has been since his days in the Prophetics waay back. Their MySpace has a new jam, “Cali Bud,” that features Jewel B from NYC’s Fader-favorites Yo Majesty—I’ve been bumping it all morning. All rainy, gray-ass morning. Sigh. - The Stranger

s something of a techno-dork, I'm always prone to give the producer some, but last night's Champagne Champagne set at Club Pop definitely calls for an acknowledgment of Gajamagic (aka Mark Gajadhar)'s production prowess. Rather than just queue and play tracks, Gajadhar played live synths, effects, and motherfucking melodica, singing the vocal hooks, shaking a tambourine, and twisting knobs. His synthesized bass lines reached Modeselektor levels of subwoof at times, his singing was a nice touch even—no, especially—when it drifted off key for a moment, and his digital delays lent some echoing whale song spaciousness to his beats. Make no mistake, MC Pearl Dragon and hypeman Thomas Gray delivered as well—Gray is equal parts gruff and affable, Pearl is alternately wild-eyed and smiling, not pulling showy tongue-twisters but hitting his rhymes right and diverging into the odd little freestyle—but what was most impressive was Gajamagic going above and beyond the typical DJ role.
by Eric Grandy on June 13 at 1:20 PM
- The Stranger