Review: Kele @ London Electric Ballroom

Reviewed by: Alan Ashton-Smith

Anyone who didn’t recognise Kele from his erstwhile role as frontman for Bloc Party might have had a hard time connecting his old band with his current incarnation as a soloist, based on his performance at this London show at the Electric Ballroom.

However, the fact that almost the whole crowd was familiar with his musical past was apparent from the cheer of recognition that erupted, a few songs into the set, when he said that he used to be in another band.

The medley of Bloc Party songs that followed revealed the extent of his change in style; gone are the spiky guitars and frantic basslines, replaced by big beats and bright-sounding synths.

Kele’s evolution as an artist is fascinating, and his current setlist, a mixture of Bloc Party covers and tracks from his solo album The Boxer, showcases this perfectly. The recent material shows not only a new musical direction, influenced by rave and electronic textures, but also a change in attitude.

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Appropriately, many of the lyrics focus on reinvention and growth, as we see in ‘Walk Tall’ and ‘Rise’. His stage presence illustrates the same change: his confidence as a performer seems to have increased dramatically. Backed by a colourful trio who look rather like children’s TV presenters – albeit children’s TV presenters on holiday in Ibiza – he bounced around, smiled constantly and bantered with the audience. A blue neon sign that flashed his name intermittently hung over the stage, completing the vibe.

Kele’s new material sounds more assured live than it does on record, and is well received. Recent singles ‘On The Lam’ and ‘Tenderoni’ came across well, with levels of volume and energy both turned up high, as did the more slow-paced ‘Everything You Wanted’ and punkier ‘Unholy Thoughts’.

As for the Bloc Party tracks, the likes of ‘Flux’ and ‘One More Chance’, which already showed a shift towards a more electronic direction, translate fluidly to Kele’s new style. But the songs which require a more creative reworking are perhaps even stronger.  He closes the show with a version of ‘This Modern Love’, in which the quiet guitar parts are translated to xylophone and huge sounding beats articulate a crescendo that was originally fuelled by distortion.

Such original reworking of old material is admirable, but it’s the fact that Kele is now so clearly in his element that ensures his success.

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