Live Review: MJ Cole Celebrates ‘Sincere’ In Style At KOKO

In the 25^th year since the release of the now canonized Sincere and amongst speed garage’s current transnational success for artists like Interplanetary Criminal and Sammy Virji, MJ Cole reminds us of how it all started.

Skala opened with some scorching dubstep and 140, dropping remixes of ‘Lyrics’ by Skepta and ‘Topper Top’ by Sir Spyro and company, alongside some classic grime instrumentals, a highlight of which was a blistering ‘Like a G6’ X ‘Rhythm ‘n’ Gash’ mashup. MJ then entered the stage by himself, perched atop a riser in the midst of various keyboards, samplers, and mixers. He opened with a reworked version of Sincere’s ‘Introduction’ with those iconic piano runs interwoven between polished synth pads. He then went into the chronically underrated ‘Serotonin’; simultaneously evoking ethereality and playfulness as the synth riff bounced around the room.

Long-time collaborator Elisabeth Troy then appeared for the first time, donning an elaborate cocaine-white outfit reminiscent of garage culture’s early sheen. Her voice, fearless and striking, dominated sequenced harp parts, before a pensive, fragmented piano solo from MJ led into trade-offs with Mike Lesirge’s scalic saxophone flurries.

Hak Baker was the next vocalist to offer his services. His part was a real solidification of the central tenet of the show; fusing the classic with the new. Hak offered verses over the eerie ‘Bandelero Desperado’ instrumental from Sincere (originally featuring Danny Vicious) and then spat his typical verging-on-spoken-word profundity over an instrumental with the weightiest bass so far. MJ extremified the low-end in the proceeding track as it warped and distorted – paralleling garage’s trajectory as it became darker and darker going into the new millennium. 

We were next treated to further star quality, with Becky Hill doing a vulnerable rendition of her track ‘Stanger’ as MJ highlighted the pondering piano line that is more buried in the mix on the record. West-London legend AJ Tracey then stepped up to perform ‘The Rumble’, an early AJT grime-heater, which brought to mind MJ’s undernoted contribution to UK garage’s stylistic son, which is including, but not-limited to, his production of Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Bassline Junkie’. After a baroque-tinged solo from MJ, Elisabeth Troy then returned to close us out, with by far the two biggest singalongs of the night – ‘Crazy Love’, before ‘Sincere’ for the encore. These two went down just as you would have imagined; gun-fingers in the air, each person belting the lyrics that helped pull UK garage into the charts in 2000.

Apart from raucousness of these last two-hits, the shining light of MJ’s show was his wonderous and meandering semi-improvised piano playing. He clearly has always had a knack for melodic material, and to see him cook up these lines live was remarkable. It did feel, though, that the dynamism and nuance of his live playing was slightly undermined by the staleness of the sequenced beats. A live drummer would have helped the human and robotic aspects gel.

Apart from that minor criticism though, it was a great night with some apt, but still surprising guests. 25 years on, there is no doubt MJ still has it. Whatever happens with UK garage over the next quarter-century, MJ Cole and Sincere will forever stand as bastions of its artistry and roots. Speed garage may the latest popular assemblage, but, as Todd Edwards’ t-shirt famously said, Jesus loves UK garage, and so does London, still.

Words by Charlie Edmondson