Words Zoe Hodge

Shlomo at Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre

(31 Oct 2010)

The unassuming Shlomo leads a troupe of top beatboxers, musicians and spoken wordsmiths to the stage this weekend with a highly anticipated performance, saturated with spontaneous, innovative and raw sounds, culminating in an exceptional sensory overload.

Beatboxing, a bizarre but extraordinary technique of making drum beats and rhythm using your mouth dates back thousands of years to India, China and Africa. Vocal percussion, as it was formerly known, obtained its name from mimicking sounds of the first generation of drum machines called beatboxes.

Simon Shlomo Kahn aka Shlomo recently contended in the World Loopstation Championships, smashing all other competition and grabbing title of UK Champion; a great accolade to his talents. A true human phenomenon he has been creating improvised sounds from a young age and believes we are all capable of beatboxing:
“I've been making noises since I was tiny … I got a drumkit for my 8th birthday, and after several complaints I was banned from practicing after 6pm. But Top Of The Pops was on at 7! I always wanted to be able to play the drum beat of whatever was number 1, so I had to come up with different ways to practice my rhythms”

Since then Shlomo has collaborated with some incredible artists such as Bjork, on her mainly A capella album Medulla and Imogen Heap from Frou Frou in an outstanding duet this year at Glastonbury. Using his memorised palette of inhuman sounds his impulsive performances are full of rhythmical propulsion, the energy of an atomic bomb and are polished like a brilliant cut diamond.

This guy is firing on all pistons and next appears at the Bristol Old Vic in BOXED his theatre production, which he describes as “beatboxing's answer to Stomp”. Catch him now before he heads to LA to battle it out with the best loopers and beatboxers in the world. He's also included on The Milk Maids Spotify playlist click here to listen and here to see more about Shlomo on the Southbank Centre website.