DJ Jaguar Skills and His Amazing Friends live at the Forum

DJ Jaguar Skills lit up the HMV Forum in his usual juvenile, excitable manner last night. With his “amazing friends” – Calverton, B. Traits, DJ @War and Hadouken! supporting him to get the crowd hyped, it still wasn’t enough to prepare you for what comes across as a kid brought up and absorbed by a combination of too much Dragon Ball Z and his father’s hip-hop vinyl collection.

With an intermission of hip-hop, bouncy house, garage and 2-step – his DJ booth was brought into view with his recognisable logo and two screens either side of the stage dominating the forum. The particularly young crowd were then entertained by an opener as the frenzied masked performer entered – his trademark ninja balaclava still hasn’t lost its novelty.

Similar to DJ Yoda, Jaguar Skills relies on visuals and sampling to maintain an air of originality in his performance – making him no ordinary DJ: he gained acclaim from performing on BBC Radio One and The Trevor Nelson Show. By mixing in comical chopped up samples of cartoonish punches and fighting sounds and well-known tunes like the Super Mario theme into his eclectic mix of hip-hop, drum and bass/dubstep remixes, he had the crowd moving in a way no ordinary DJ could. From Eminem’s My Name Is to The Notorious B.I.G.’s Juicy, Jaguar Skills utilises familiar vocal samples from songs like these to dominate freakishly antagonistic bass lines. Accompanied by Nintendo 64 images of Street Fighter and what looked like obscure Japanese war movies on the big screens, the visuals play a big part in the performance – creating a hypnotic, childish ambience in the crowded location.

A thoroughly clean set throughout, it got more attention-grabbing as he blended in dancehall beats to change up what some might consider the irksomeness of dubstep. New songs constantly stimulated the crowd as Jaguar Skills whizzed through his thoroughly entertaining and sometimes nostalgic collection of records. A unique and playfully animated performance.

Matt Di Salvo

For further information and future gigs visit DJ Jaguar Skills’s website here.

Watch the DJ Jaguar Skills and his Amazing Friends album teaser here: