Täpp Collective debut energises the Elgar Room

On 27 November, attendees of Täpp Collective’s debut gig found their way around Royal Albert Hall to the Elgar Room, saturated in cool lights and a warm, cocooning sound system.

Producer, songwriter, and singer ELIXIR opened the night. Her timeless, surreal set was an elemental meditation. Atmospheric visuals designed by video artist Charis Boon and futuristic cyborgs by ELIXIR were projected on-screen behind the band, who dressed in gold and white while creating sounds rooted in ancient healing practices.

ELIXIR (below - photo by Christine Hannigan) began by striking crystal singing bowls with tones aligned to the heart chakra. Enoch Mukasa (keys), Alex Bishop (guitar), and Jonathan Moko (bass) patiently wove grounding strains together into vast, shimmering soundscapes, into which Amirah De Bourg (viola) carved its features with swirling emotive strains and Ayo Salawu (drums) gave its shifting sense of time.

Alex Adetiba (trumpet) joined for ‘Aura,’ playing a solo that pierced like a brassy beam through a prism. Next, ELIXIR sang a mesmerising cover of 'Unspoken Words’ by South African acapella group The Soil with haunting harmonies over Ayo's sparse, stripped-down beat.

Amarnah Ufuoma Cleopatra danced improvised responses to the music in ‘Dawn,’ drawing from her contemporary training and traditional West African (specifically Senegal) dance styles. She emerged from the audience, approaching the stage through the crowd and giving physical shape to the wavy ambience.

‘Clouds,’ written in honour of a relative, an entreaty and encouragement in lilting vocals to hang on when you’re feeling low. If the previous tracks were intended to heal, 'Opia’ was the culmination, setting the listener upright and restored. Amarnah Ufuoma Cleopatra returned to the stage, matching her energy to the uplift.

Rebekah Reid, violinist, composer, loop pedalist, and frontwoman of Täpp Collective was the charismatic constant on stage as various musicians rotated through the performance. Nine members (including sound engineer Fi Roberts), spent the week leading up to the gig in an intensive 6-day retreat in Frome, where Cooper Hall provided two cottages and a hall to rehearse. The preparation showed, the performers visibly enthusiastic and excited to be on stage together as they played through tracks from Täpp’s album (independently released earlier this year) i do what i like//i like what i do.

Vocalist And Is Phi and spoken word artists Delali and Gabriella Chantelle Jazz joined hands and sang an acapella incantation for ‘Chasing the Sun.’ The opening track (and Täpp’s debut single) gave a taste of both classical and contemporary influences Täpp braids together – the band’s first single starts off with a brighter fugue-type style before morphing into a synthy, disorienting fury.

 We first heard Alex Hill’s crystalline improvisations on keys in ‘Fly My Way,’ after which he remained a constant co-pilot alongside Rebekah’s strings. Ayo Salawu returned to the stage and played the first half of the set. His heavy, deep drum fills in ‘Concrete Skyline,’ which he wrote with Rebekah. Illustrator Wumi Olaosebikan, who sketched the musicians throughout the show, looked up from his ipad to yell, “want more of that.” Although we weren’t treated to an extended version, Ayo kept us engaged with a kinetic solo while Rebekah got her equipment set for the next tune.   

Rebekah is an engaging bandleader and deft loop pedalist- it was easy to overlook that she was doing the work of a full string section given how tightly she timed her loops. Fortunately the audience was granted a closer window into her solo work on ‘Viology,’ her homage to classical music for which she credited Vivaldi, Max Richter, and the birds outside her window for inspiration. Her sublime reimagining of classical structures and melodies had the vocalists off to the side of the stage swaying in unison. She moved between two violins (one about 30 years old, the other ten times that) layering and looping ebullient strains before peeling them back, leaving a single note like a trembling leaf.

The most exhilarating song performed was ‘Never Knew Why.’ The vocalists took the stage for what Rebekah described as orchestral grime and jazz drill. Bassist Isobella Burnham pulled extra duty on synths and backing vocals. Rebekah’s strings played a furious siren song for Delali and Gabriella to powerfully eviscerate structural racism and performative allyship.

Manchester-based producer Contours joined Rebekah for ‘Orun.’ The patient, percussive track was built from balafon, TR8 drum machine and the metallophone (an invention of Seth Sutton, which sounded like an oversized calimba). Rebekah first plucked runs of scales like raindrops before bowing longer tones that travelled like rays. 

Drummer Harry Ling, who covered the ambient/jazz quartet numbers, set the cool, bewitching rhythm for ‘Aquaria’  to close the night, a celebratory and catchy track Rebekah wrote (and Mike Delinquent remixed) in honour of the drag queen of the same name who won RuPaul’s Drag Race.  The track is about changing your reality to pursue your dreams and was a fitting retrospective for the band to jam out to.