The true identity of Fake Blood has been veiled in mystery for the past few months and the blogosphere has been a-buzz with theories and rumours on the man behind the mask, ideas ranging from Hervé to Norman Cooke. Now, however it’s widely accepted that he is DJ Touché and his neo mash-ups are a far cry from the melodic stylings of his work done with The Black Ghosts.
I was disappointed he didn’t keep his enigmatic aura alive and arrive on stage masked but this was a fleeting sentiment as he opened with a remix of La Roux’s “In for the Kill”. The falsetto vocals are so distinctive the crowd react immediately with cacophonous appreciation and all around you can hear synapses snapping to the violently jacking snares. His quick mix style keeps you busy, both guessing to what’s coming next and dancing to what’s present. I’m glad it’s fake blood.
Digital is ram-jammed with a predominantly young student crowd; all fidget-house trendies holding their glow sticks aloft in ritualistic unison as his Hot Chip “Touch Too Much” remix breaks in. And it’s these remixes that Fake Blood keeps churning out that demonstrate he’s a DJ with immensely high production values as well as swift inventiveness.
The homogenous nature of this constantly redefined genre combines elements of almost all electronic music that has existed before. In Fake Blood’s set you can here synths from 90’s acid house, 4×4 beats from UK garage turned glitch, and snatched vocal samples from US hip-hop, intricately cut-up by the master himself, to remind you that you’re listening to “Fa-ke Bl-ood”.
The pitch-bent, wobbling basslines have both form and function and for the few older members of the crowd it’s a serious case of the Stockholm syndrome, as they initially try to resist but soon get sucked into the cyber punk steam house of his signature track “Mars”.
For nu grave amateurs and electro aficionados alike, this Generation Text grindcore is absolutely irresistible and I defy anyone to hear it and not jerk their limbs as if independent of their bodies. I just hope it’s fake blood trickling from my left ear.
Words by Zac Colbert
Photography by Rob Thomas
