O2 Love Music Column: Action Bronson | Skrillex | Picante

Action Bronson

O2 Academy, Tue 3 Apr, 7pm, £10 advance

Action Bronson is one of those rap stars who arrives seemingly from nowhere already fully formed and a part of the hip hop landscape. The giant white American, with his shaven head and large ginger beard, exudes a different quality to most rappers. The former chef from Queens has a technically impressive delivery and possesses a wealth of lyrical flair that has transcended any questions about his place at the hip hop table.

Initially likened to Ghostface Killah, Action Bronson has more in common with another New York rapper, the late Big Pun whose Puerto Rican background and lethal multi-syllabic rhyme schemes also made him stand out from the pack. Similarly, Action Bronson’s lyrical style has flows perpetually cascading from his mouth without a hint of breathlessness as he paints imagery with rapid fire speed. His lyrics are concerned with having a good time but with his appreciation of culinary delights he manages to describe New York as if it was a literal melting pot of different cultures and people.

Support includes local rap groups Gasp & Depths (The Being), United Front’s One Oz, Sean El, Silvertongue with DJ Sokol as well as one of the best hip-hop DJs in the country, DJ Bunty.

 Skrillex - ‘The Skrillex Cell’: Grey Daze Tour

O2 Academy, Thur 19 April, Tickets at the door, £TBC

You can tell the point that a crossover becomes a phenomenon when the front cover of Kerrang! is plastered with the face of a dubstep DJ. Not since 1997 when The Prodigy desecrated the idea that samplers and computers could only make tinny beats has an artist managed to straddle the world of electronic and rock music so completely.

Opinions abound on Skrillex’s (aka Sonny Moore) mash up of noise and bass but having racked up 71 million YouTube plays of just one song he has achieved an incredible feat in bringing so many people to a sound that a few years ago would only have been found in clubs at 2 am. With a juggernaut of support behind him, Skrillex was always going to put on an impressive show and the new ‘The Skrillex Cell’ is exactly that: huge 3D projections of massive robots and monsters that are live motion captured to Skrillex himself and a stage set that seems to morph and mutate to the music. It’s going to be next to impossible not to be blown away.

Picante

Polar Bar, O2 ABC, Sat 7 April, 11pm - 3am, £7 (£5 advance)

Picante makes its return and gets back to its roots in the Polar Bar on the first Saturday of every month playing music from the worlds of rock 'n' roll, garage, trash pop, punk, new wave, rockabilly, hillbilly and country. Along with Love Music and Nowt But Northern, El Rancho Records DJ Jnr. C draws upon the twisted roots of rock 'n' roll and country for tunes that go from cow bells to hell's bells and beyond.