Thunderbird Gerard
Contact
If indeed the hype is true (which it never is) Berlin is "the new New York". And so by this logic the city has every right to stake it's claim in birthing fresh new voices in Hip Hop. THUNDERBIRD GERARD is one such voice. The American expat's debut mix-tape '...when ur down & out in Paris and London. brims with the flourishes of a bygone era. Essentially a one-man effort, Gerard wrote, recorded, and produced the record in his Berlin home studio.
With a fetish for obscure 70's analogue synthesizers, the tracks exist almost as an antithesis to current radio trends. Featuring warm bass heavy productions that call to mind DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and even The Fugees, the record is a charming mixture of southern gospel, boogie, soul, eastern european choral music, p-funk and disco.
Strengthened by a live show which features 6' tall, Black Panther-esque London femme MC MAMA and German Hip Hop heavyweight DJ STICKLE on turntables, it is the kind of record that quietly announces itself and by the end refuses to let go. A scattershot picture of a foreigner in a strange land, it is a testament to the eternal "struggle" that modern hip hop so often exalts subtly reinterpreted for the post-Obama generation.
| 17 May 12 | XoYo | London, UK | |
| 19 May 12 | Sound City | Liverpool, UK |