Guest Blogger: Tina Hart

East London Grime scene veteran Kano travelled across town to West London’s intimate Bush Hall to showcase his new album Method to the Maadness (that’s not a typo by the way) alongside a few choice favourites from his back catalogue.

We arrived to hear MC Ghetts aka Ghetto warming up the crowd with Sing For Me. After bringing attention to those in the audience not getting involved enough, the crowd went mad for what is a soundtrack to the genre, Grime Daily, prompting aerial gun fingers and brapping all around, creating a buzzing atmosphere for the main man of the night to grace the stage.

Opening with tracks off the new album, 2 Left: Topic of Discussion and Get Wild (which features the Godfather of Grime, Wiley) gave the speakers a battering, as Kano sauntered around the stage kitted out in his Boxfresh garms and delivered that deliberate swagger-laden, steady flow and punchy lyrics that we all know him so well for. 

A signature dubstep sound came through on Chase and Status-produced Spaceship and current single Upside had Michelle Breeze join Kano on stage with her distinctive vocals on the chorus.

Having a chat with his crowd of noticeably dedicated fans (‘Most people in here know Kano from day’) who tirelessly sang back lyrics for most of the night, Kano apologised for taking his time ‘Sorry the new album took so f*ckin long’. I guess good things come to those who wait though, right?!

The place exploded upon the first few notes of P’s and Q’s off Kano’s 2005 record Home Sweet Home and continued to be hyped up, reliving some of his older tracks including Hustler and Typical Me which saw Ghetts return to the stage.

He hung around for his featuring part on Lady Killer, one of two Hot Chip productions on the album and featuring my favourite funny lyric of the night ‘I made her say oh yes like Churchill’. Keeping things up tempo from the new album came courtesy of German producer Boys Noize’s Crazy.

Bringing the pace down for a bit, Michelle Breeze came back on stage for Slaves and K A told us that he’s ‘Stronger than steel they can’t shape or mould me’ on Dark Days.

Ending the night on an energetic note with Shy FX’s nod to old school clubbing, Raver had everyone skanking out with Donae’o bringing his verse to life on stage.

A far cry from 2002’s Boys Love Girls, it is evident that former Nasty crew member Kano has deviated away from his Grime roots on this album, in a good way, mixing up the sound with production lending from multiple genres: Dance – Boys Noize, Urban Pop – Fraser T Smith, Electro – Hot Chip, in addition to Chase and Status, Craigie Dodds and Diplo.

Kano tweeted this morning ‘Bush hall got smashed yesterday’ and I predict that whatever method he has lent to his maadness will mean his album will certainly see him smash the charts this week.

Method to the Maadness is out now