In the crowded MTelus, sweat beads on the foreheads of spectators who dance and jump to the impetuous rhythm of the music. The atmosphere is supercharged, the air is electric, the walls and floor vibrate under the weight of the bass. On stage that Saturday night: producer Apashe. Surrounded by a brass orchestra, the Quebecer of Belgian origin alternates between his compositions and a few DJ set sequences where he plays popular tunes arranged in his own way.
For almost two hours, until almost midnight, the ecstasy never dissipates. We have rarely seen this room so full of this euphoric energy. “I don’t really realize everything that’s happening to me, I don’t realize how lucky I am,” Apashe told us, a few moments before going on stage. I haven’t yet defined the feeling in me very well. All I know is that it’s amazing. »
Apashe (real name John de Buck) released his second album the previous Friday, Antagonist, an object of all possibilities that sounds like nothing else, between classical music, pop and electro. The next day, the album came to life at MTelus in the most beautiful way.
Nothing is left to chance…or almost. Apashe explains to us that he likes to keep a touch of improvisation in his performance, to go according to the mood, his own and that of the crowd. For a show where he is surrounded by musicians, it is imperative that his contribution to the performance is well prepared in advance and carefully planned.
Thus, his stems (i.e. the separate elements that form a production) are all cut out in advance and he can then “send the different sequences” during the performance. Preparation is the most important element. “You have to connect with the musicians, but also with the light and the videos. » If he happens to give performances where he plays with the pieces to create a unique moment each time, there is less room for maneuver here. “I can’t change the production live like I sometimes do,” he explains. But I stay away from playing, I can play one track or another depending on the moment, with the same structure, to bring a slight variation. They can play the same thing, but I can find a little pleasure in it, since everything else is pretty fixed. »
The Antagonist album is hard-hitting and heavy. It makes the eardrums vibrate and dance without restraint. The one who has accumulated more than a billion plays on streaming music platforms releases a record which already has around ten million plays on Spotify in just a few days, on which Busta Rhymes and pianist Sofiane Pamart collaborate in particular , Montrealer Geoffroy, EarthGang (on a piece co-produced by High Klassified), Rhita Nattah, Wasiu and LIA.
The classical influences, always as strong in his work, are rendered by the Prague Philharmonic and Bulgarian Symphony orchestras. And if listening to the record delights us, nothing beats hearing these pieces in concert…
Saturday night, 10 p.m. The contrast between the cold outside and the intense heat between the walls of the MTelus is striking. The audience is warmed up. Here we are finally, after all these preparations: the show begins. After the first games provided by YMIR and Wasiu, the moment that everyone was waiting for arrived. You can hear it, the crowd is jubilant from the first moment.
From the top of his platform, Apashe still exudes the quiet strength we saw in him earlier in the day. But the producer is also overcome by a crazy energy which reaches the crowd and which the public sends back to him. The musical surges give electric shocks to the audience, who go wild with each drop.
Before the show, while trying to describe all the emotions inside him, John told us that he expected to realize what happened to him just a few days after the show. “Having thousands of people in front of you at a show is not normal, it’s not reality,” he says. It’s like being on a cloud, in a dream. I live it and I will understand later. »
