Run Toto Run kicked off tonight's "Be@Proud" to a swelling crowd, a member short and recovering from a bout of (possibly pig-related) flu. As well as ably showcasing their Plastic Gold EP, including new single "Catch My Breath", there's a couple of new tracks being debuted here and they're pretty damn good.
The new tracks, both newly arranged around the loss of a member, continue where the strength previous material left off, combinining the avant-garde electronica of the criminally underrated Metronomy with the toytronica sounds of Psapp. The only trouble comes from the venue itself giving the Manchester band a taste of support-band-itis - tonight's symptoms involving the synthesised bass sounds bottoming out, making the PA sound like the abused speakers from an eighteen year old's Vauxhall Nova. While the vocals are thankfully unaffected, this time.
Although clearly unsettled by the internal problems they've faced in the last couple of months, the band are soon in full swing before the set is cut off all too soon, only to be revived with an unintentional encore of their cover of Passion Pit track "Sleepyhead" after the DJ cut them off early. But overall, a solid set from a band who can only get better and better. I even enjoyed "Full Stop".
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Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs head to the stage next. Or rather, one guy in a boiler suit with a laptop. The beats start out cheesy, and not in a post-modern knowing sort of Chromeo way, but in a "Back 2 The 90s" "Ministry of Sound Anthems" kind of way. But dwelling on the modernity of the music is clearly not the intention, this is music that you can't do anything but dance too.
The set continues to improve and impress, throwing in the odd remix into his oddball mix of SMD electro and summertime house. Ultimately though, I can't help but feel that an album of this, as demonstrated by Diplo, is a little too tough to handle entirely sober and will not break anyones pre-conceptions just yet. Not that he is pretending to.
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