Review: History of House at The Rechabite
History of House at The Rechabite
w/ DJ Groove Terminator and Soweto Gospel Choir
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
A title with “history” in it could cause flashbacks to boring history lectures, but no! This is not a boring show, and the only flashbacks are of lots of classic songs presented in a fun and fresh way by DJ Groove Terminator (Simone Lewicki, GT) in a fantastic collaboration with the beautiful and bold, world-famous Soweto Gospel Choir at The Rechabite as part of Fringe World 2024.
An initial set of snippets from a range of classics (Aretha’s Pride, Armand’s You Don’t Know Me, Black Box’s Ride on Time, Robin S’ Show Me Love, Salif Keita vs. Martin Solveig’s Madan, Stardust’s Music Sounds Better with You and Crystal Water’s Gypsy Woman) got the crowd warmed up before really getting down to the history business with three sets arranged in decades: the 70s, 80s, and then 90s.
There were far too many songs to list, but Chic, Sylvester, Bronski Beat and Byron Stingily solidly represented the 70s, and Prince, New Order, Dead or Alive, Eurythmics, and Whtiney held the 80s fort, causing all the party people to get down and get funky!
Purists among you will note that many of these tracks and artists aren’t technically ‘house’ by either genre or date, but these clever choices by Simon, with the choir’s ability to bring a fresh representation of tracks we all know so well, took us on a beautiful journey along the evolutionary pathways that did indeed lead to house, with influences from slave songs, spiritual and gospel, disco and pop, all put to drum machines and sampling.
The Church of House music preaches love, equality, freedom, and unity on the dancefloor, and at The Rechabite, there was lots of dancing and plenty of hallelujahs from an appreciative crowd who, in true Fringe style, were evenly spread across ages and genders. After Simon gave a little shout out to Frankie Knuckles and other DJs from the Detroit and Chicago house movements whose novel music reached him all the way in Adelaide all those years ago, the night moved into true house.
GT introduced each member of the choir (made up of eight women and eight men) and gave props to the musical director, Diniloxolo Ndlakuse, who has managed to translate Simon’s wild DJ ideas into something singable by a choir. And boy, could they sing! Individually and together, they were sublime.
While the men and women were dressed identically in white choir-branded tees, featuring a love heart on the front, over blue jeans, many of the women wore beautiful multicoloured head scarves. With some fun dancing—Mary Mulovehedzi could teach Beyonce a thing or two—and crowd involvement, and with Simon, in fabulous white glasses, preaching from his alter-like decks at the back centre stage, with a visuals screen overhead to transport us right back to the 90s, it was entertaining to watch. The real joy, though, was in listening to the songs—their choice, mix, interpretation, and powerful performance.
The 90s started with classics like Promised Land and I’ll House You, but having just started off on Good Life, they abruptly stopped! Simon asked the audience if we wanted to hear the choir’s own arrangement of the song in Zulu instead, and the answer was a resounding “Yes!” Yothu Yindi’s Treaty got a look in, as did The Specials’ Nelson Mandela, with some wisdom from MLK and then Ultra Nate’s Free.
These songs tied together another strong theme of house music: freedom and personal agency matter for everyone, no matter their skin colour. So powerful, as was Boris Duglosch’s muscular Keep Pushin’.
A quick encore of Dr. Alban’s Sing Hallelujah, and suddenly, 90 minutes of non-stop waving hands in air gloriousness was over, with Simon and the choir taking a well-deserved double bow to lots of applause.
Unbelievably, there are still tickets to this show available. Go see it before they finish in Perth this coming Sunday, January 28. You know the imperatives: run, don’t walk! Hustle, don’t shuffle! Go immediately, if not sooner! Go see, listen, and dance to this wonderfully fun and moving show.
EMMA SIMPER