Tin Ear

Local record company Do Right Music was celebrating their 10th year anniversary at The Great Hall Friday night. A bevy of live acts and DJs was scheduled to perform. There weren't any Halloween costumes seen, except on the excitable teens at the All-Ages party in the adjacent underground space.

The second half of the evening had the reunited Movement Collective (a crew of local DJs) and legendary English DJ Gilles Peterson spinning tracks for the masses. But in the first half, two Do Right artists took to the stage.

First up was fresh-faced The Slakadeliqs, a quartet in salmon-coloured sweater vests and bow-ties. As befitting their attire, they played harmony-rich 50s/60s pop mixed with sing-rap 2012 hip-hop. But their vocals were thin and underwhelming and the odd chord changes seemed a poor fit. It wasn't until their final number, a new song closer to the driving psychedelic rock of The Who or Led Zeppelin, that they were in their best element.

The live "head-liner" was Maylee Todd, looking North African in animal prints and an orange wrap. With her full band, she laid down the groove from the melancholic "Did Everything I Could" to the shake-your-ass "Hieroglyphics". Maylee kept the energy high throughout her set: singing amid the crowd, falling down in supplication, jiving across the stage. Tonight, she even had back-up dancers on several songs. This funky singer always had the moves, but watching her doing actual choreography was another level of fun. Could we be witnessing the birth of "May-donna" (especially on 80s-sounding "Break Your Back")?