One Horris Race

This is a review that went down well. not only did The Fly quote some of it in their review (lazy beggars, they only have about 50 words to fill & they have to borrow some of mine!) but MC Lars himself referred to it, I'm pretty sure, in a later song about his visit ot the UK: "I got mad props from the BBC". MC Lars (he dropped the Horris) used to be ace, but he's not quite so good now. He got all professional and that, how dull. Still, good luck to him.

MC LARS HORRIS/ CHAMFER - Port Mahon, 3/03

Is The Zodiac too noisy for you? The Wheatsheaf a little too dingy? Try spending a evening at The Port Mahon, one of Oxfordshire's most unusual venues. Imagine a cross between a Victoruian parlour and an Irish scouthut, and you might be halfway there. Bands play through a tiny PA in front of an old fireplace, whilst the audience lounges around on old dining chairs. Any musicians that can't produce an intimate, relaxed armosphere in this setting shoud probably start updating their CVs.

No danger of that tonight, though. I had doubts about Chamfer unplugged, Gabbie's joyously silly keyboard lines being my favourite element of thier music heretofore, but I was happily proved wrong. Frontman Nick sat centre stage (centre hearth?) flanked by bassist and percussionist, and proceeded to play a warm semi-acoustic set, revealing far more subtlety than the electric Chamfer show.

True revelation of the gig, however, was the neat tabla work of the man they call The Guru, whose fluent rhythms are normally lost in the full band line-up. "Some Day", a lightly spikier song thatn their usual roster, stole the show, highlighting the slight predictability of the other tunes, but this is a minor quibble. A friendly, enjoyable set.

If you haven't caught MC Lars Horris during his short stay in Oxford you're a) too late, and b) a fool. This is white collegeboy hip-hop of the highest calibre, with consistently hilarious wordplay and overwrought theatrical delivery. Not that it doesn't get quite funky at times, too. Lars has the irrepressible energy and wondrous expression of a six year old in springtime, and his style is the boho wordsmithery of MC 900 Foot Jesus, Earthling, or any laidback rapper from a decade ago, when the term "trip hop" couild be employed without sniggering.

Sometimes Lars comes on like an engaging streetwise teacher, rapping about important issues: "Certified" is about poolside safety, for God's sake. If Mike D had stood in for Robin Williams, Dead Poets' Society could have sounded like this! And it's not hard to imagine "Rapbeth" roped in to educate 7-11 year olds about Shakespeare. Such Legz-Akimbo-Meets-ninja-Tunes antics should, of corse, be an embarrassment, but Lars' work with the crowd is impeccable - I don't recall ever seeing an audience so fired and involved at an Oxford gig - and he more than gets away with it.

MC Lars is a superb performer, strictly from the street. Sesame Street, that is.