The tuba is an instrument of some magnificence. Warm bellied and low-rumbling, it’s been the bedrock of orchestras for quite some time, but is perhaps not what you might think of as a centre-stage star. As part of lauded London group Sons of Kemet (and a collaborator with Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia), Theon Cross is making it his mission to rehabilitate its image. At the overlap between R&B, hip-hop and jazz, his second album Intra-I adopts a cinematic approach to brass beat-making, vibrating with contemporary cool.
On headphones, Intra-I invites main character syndrome: it’s like an imaginary soundtrack for an enthralling inner city crime drama. In a venue as intimate as this, it’s a different kind of arresting; the kind of intense communal experience that makes you wonder how it can happen so casually on an otherwise regular Tuesday night. In a world of samplers and loop pedals, it’s remarkable how little he relies on tape; whether establishing a beat, texture, or buzzing-bee melody, Cross’s pause for breath is so imperceptible that you suspect he must have gills to generate his astonishingly full sound.
