
Warming up for Yoda is a little like the adverts before a movie begins - no one really pays attention, hence why most are
hogging the bar as a very loud Dan Greenpeace does his best to deafen them with chunky hip hop tunes.
Next up is human beatbox Beardyman who is a little more successful and entertaining as he loops his
voice and belts out his unique versions of 'Get Up (I Feel Like A Sex Machine)' by James Brown, Nina Simone's
'Feeling Good' and 'Popcorn' before wooing the crowd forward with: "Come closer...I said come closer!"
The obliging bunch probably wish they hadn't bothered as he explodes into a dull and indulgent mixture of his own sampled
voice that’s rarely splattered with any memorable vocals.
Hidden away at the side of the stage in one of
Koko's many crannies is DJ Skream, who is pumping out a rather nonchalant disco set that (apart
from Cerrone's 'Supernature') is more likely to be misplaced along with the rest of your Disco Hits of ’76
CD. Still the crowd sway obligatorily and in a simmering excitement for the main attraction.
DJ Yoda's decks are set up to the left of the stage with a massive projection screen filling
the remainder of the space. With a cheeky smile the meek mixologist who taught us all how to cut and paste nips out from
the side of the stage and takes to the turntables to show us how it’s possible to not only scratch CDs, but scratch
them at the same time as scratching DVDs. He opens with customised rolling credits of Star Wars that explain how it's
the first time this has been done, though others with a better memory may remember him debuting something very similar at
Bestival in 2006.
He drags the film clips that appear on the screen as he would a piece of vinyl: scratching the
voices, rewinding sections and dragging on-screen characters in time to the beat. 'So You Want To Be A Boxer' from
Bugsy Malone proves popular with an added breakbeat and swirling the Jackson 5 around as if he's using the 80's graphics
from Top Of The Pops gets a cheer, but mainly it's stop and start as the audience have to wait for film snippets to finish
before another danceable beat comes in.
The Count and Siden's highly irritating garage number 'Get Me On
My Beeper' gets an airing, before Wiley's massive rave-grime hybrid 'Wearing My Rolex' is dubbed over
clips of the recent McCartney-Mills divorce, lining up the words "I love you," with Mills mouth and flashes
of McCartney's watch coinciding with "Rolex," lyric. Another highlight is a big beat version of
Super Mario which sees the computer character complete a few early levels of the Nintendo classic, before Yoda uses his Star
Wars namesake onscreen for a little breakdancing - but the best bits seem few and far between.
Admirers of Yoda
will see this as the next progressive step for the DJ, while purists probably wish he remain as a DJ et al. At points
he still throws in a party tune, but when mixing with films it does feel like a rather stuttering set, especially for the
dancers in the crowd. The blend between audio and visual has been achieved much more successfully in
the past, notably during his series of festivals dates last year and with his full film scores to the The Goonies and
Ferris Bueller previously. When it works it's truly staggering but sadly there's nothing particularly
magic about this cinema show. If you want a similar experience, take a compass to your DVDs, whack them in the player and
stick on an Ultimate Party CD. Done.