Cex @ The Ottobar

Last night I got to see Tigerbeat6 recording artist Cex play at the Ottobar in his hometown of Baltimore. Having been to many the show in my brief days, I can safely say this was the most singular performance I’ve yet seen. Cex gets intimate with the audience; so intimate, in fact, that he’s talking with the audience about how intimate he gets with them without the whole affair dripping in irony and production. Unlike his largely instrumental electronic discography, a Cex show is essentially a hip-hop affair: he talks for a few minutes, then plays his own pre-recorded beats from an iBook and raps along. His rhymes are amusing and his music is decent, but the really enjoyable parts of his performance are the self-analytical impromptu conversations with the audience. I encourage you to seek first a live Cex show, then perhaps look up his catalog if you like either whiteboy hip-hop or melodic IDM ala Warp Records. The Cex mystique really can’t be explained – you need a demonstration.