Music review: Mad Professor brought earth-shaking dub bass to the Chan Centre
The British producer was joined by Vancouver visual artist Saghi Ehteshamzadeh for a show that went beyond the expected Massive Attack hits
Mad Professor (left) and Saghi Ehteshamzadeh
VIFF Live presented Mad Professor at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on October 5
MAD PROFESSOR’S RECENT SHOW at the Chan Centre was heavily promoted as a celebration of the 30th anniversary of No Protection, the British dub producer’s cpochal album of Massive Attack remixes. And that it certainly was, but anyone who attended in hopes of hearing that LP in its entirety would have walked away with a better appreciation of the full scope of Neil “Mad Professor” Fraser’s career.
The Massive Attack songs were certainly plentiful; Fraser started his set with “Eternal Feedback”, his reworking of “Sly”, the track that kicked off his association with the Bristol trip-hop pioneers. Working with a setup that included a mixer and effects that included copiously applied delay and reverb, he also peppered the show with other No Protection cuts, notably “Trinity Dub” (based on “Three”), “Bumper Ball Dub” (“Karmacoma”), and, of course, “Radiation Ruling the Nation” (“Protection”).
For good measure, Fraser also threw in “Teardrop”, taken from Massive Attack’s 1998 masterpiece, Mezzanine. With Elizabeth Fraser’s powerfully ethereal vocals filling the Chan, Mad Professor brought the song’s signature harpsichord motif in and out of the mix, at one point changing the song’s key entirely with a melodramatic wave of synthesizer before bringing things full circle.
This wasn’t a Massive Attack concert, however, and the proceedings arguably got even more interesting when Mad Professor returned to his roots. Early in the show, he gave us Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Jamming”, morphing the song’s laid-back ’70s reggae vibe into a spiralling drum ’n’ bass maelstrom. Fraser didn’t go quite as far out when he dropped his Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam”, emphasizing earth-shaking dub bass (my ears are still ringing) and the song’s infectious hook.
Mad Professor’s only slight misstep was trotting out “Stayin’ Alive”, which effectively proved that dub production and uptempo disco were never meant to meet. It did, however, give Fraser the opportunity to do a record giveaway, with the prize going to the first person who could identify the Bee Gees’ 1977 hit from the beat alone.
As a presentation of the Vancouver International Film Festival’s VIFF Live series, visuals naturally played a role in the show. Local video artist Saghi Ehteshamzadeh provided projected imagery that was often mesmerizing, abstract whorls of colour occasionally coalescing into something recognizable, like a bobbing school of jellyfish. While none of it seemed directly related to the music that Fraser was playing, it provided a broader palette of visual stimulation than just looking at a guy tinkering with buttons and sliders. 
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