Pablo Contraband

Despite the name of the act, Motor City Drum Ensemble is in fact a solo house music pioneer, Danilo Plessow. It’s evident from his performance that he’s been playing music for many years, and his work on the electronic drum machine was done with such ease, that immediately I knew it was going to be a fantastic show full of talent. His fusion of house, soul, funk, and jazz made for a relatively chilled out, yet high energy show. There was no moshing, or shoving, but everyone was dancing and having a great time, it was the perfect fusion of genres for the atmosphere.
He opened the show with an original track where he played both pre-recorded and live elements, using his synth and drum machine to build on the work he’d previously recorded, creating some great layers of music. He then went on to play through his EP Send A Prayer, which had everyone dancing along from the start. Although I wasn’t too familiar with the tracks, it was catchy and I went away and bough it straight after.
As well as being a talented musician, he’s a great performer and had his arms in the air, encouraging everyone to dance along, and he also had a microphone that he was calling out to the audience from. It was great to see that he was really concentrated on making sure that the audience were having a good time, a true sign of a crowd pleaser.