Ben Westbeech @ Orange Rooms

If you’re an assiduous reader of this blog, the name Ben Westbeech will sound familiar, or at least his music. As soon as his single “So good today” went out on Brownswood, it was on my player. A winner track introduced by Gilles Peterson, the kind of track that would pop up in my mind at any time “I feel so good today even though I can’t find my way…”, putting back a smile on my face, relativizing temporary anger. A myriad of remixes followed the release of this single, from artists such as Osunlade and the greatest DJs played that track, you’ve probably heard it on some dancefloor (Kenny Dope, Gilles Peterson, Grant Nelson, me …). A few months after the album “Welcome to the best years of your life” came out. Ben Westbeech has his own sound, it’s a bit hard to say exactly in which genre he is, it is a mix of funk, drum ‘n bass, jazz. It’s a bit like Mike Skinner from The Streets, having this drum ;n bass background and doing something else with it but you can still feel this in the beat. Sometimes it sounds like Jamiroquai at its best, very dancy, upbeat. And the album also contains more relaxed songs such as Beauty, Nothing else, Taken away from. Check his myspace or some video clips on youtube.The concert took place at Orange Rooms. I knew I would like that place even before I cam to Southampton, just knowing that Gilles Peterson had player there. And Naturally Ben Westbeech played that as well. That’s a nice place to check if you’re in Soton. And the great thing about this place (or concerts in England in general) is the entrance fee, only £ 3 !! Amazing, when you think that such a concert would at least be £ 12 in Copenhagen, they do have a music culture here.I don’t know if the concert would have been longer in CPH but it was a bit short to me, or time ran fast, I don’t know. Ben Westbeech is definitely worth seeing live, try to catch him at some festival next time, especially if he’s back with a more “dance” album. The disappointment of the concert was the absence of encore**, for some reasons the musicians didn’t show up again, they just left and so did the audience. Despite a woman trying to cheer the crowd to ask the band back, nothing happened .. I wanted more.Stay tuned, interview coming soon.**encore: comes from the French word encore = again. Funnily enough this word is not used in that sense in French, they would use bis, rappel but certainly not encore. Strange how languages evolve.