Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs @ KOKO

Totally Enormous who? His actual name is Orlando Higginbottom and he is professionally known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs or ‘TEED’ for short. TEED is an English electronic dance music record producer and DJ. He is currently signed to major label Polydor and his eagerly awaited debut album “Trouble” will be released on 11 June 2012.

The first time I heard TEED was when Garden appeared on the Gossip Girl soundtrack, shortly after, Garden became the backing music to the Nokia Lumia advert. I’m a Spotify premium user so I rely on Spotify to dish out all the music I fancy listening to, with new artists Spotify usually only features their first EP but luckily it had a few older tracks such as Waulking Song from the Pre History II EP. As a regular listener of Annie Mac on a Friday night (BBC Radio 1, 7-9pm) TEED started to feature on both Annie Mac’s and Nick Grimshaw’s shows. According to Wikipedia, Trouble and Tapes & Money were Grimshaw’s Record of the Week in May 2011 and February 2012 respectively. TEED has also remixed tracks by the likes of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Professor Green.

 

 

On the 23^rd of May 2012 Orlando aka TEED took to the stage of KOKO in Camden after warm up acts Rob da Bank and DJ Zinc had completed their sets. My housemate had managed to secure us tickets to the sell-out event a couple of months in advance which was lucky. I’d never been to KOKO before, it was a cool venue and worked well for a gig even though the building is broken up into different levels as it used to be a theatre! Picture a Baroque style interior with naked female figures holding supports for the boxes and columns and rectangular marble proscenium topped by more plaster reliefs of reclining naked women… and you’ve got it. Once the The Camden Theatre (open Boxing Day 1900) in 2004, following its purchase by Mint Group, it was redeveloped and renamed as KOKO.

Since then, it has hosted concerts by many music artists, including James Blunt, Diana Vickers, Hanson, My Chemical Romance, Tina Turner, Bombay Bicycle Club, dEUS, The Chameleons, Coldplay… the list goes on.

So how was Wednesday’s gig you ask? Absolutely amazing! TEED was dressed as a Dinosaur (obz), he had a funky Triceratops head mask on (think Cera from Land Before Time). Half way through his set he changed into another headdress, maybe an Avaceratops this time…? Nonetheless it was silver, shiny and huge! For some of the more upbeat songs TEED was accompanied by two female dinosaurs dancers, dressed in lycra and who were breaking out some sick dinosaur style moves. The set pushed the boat out when it came to effects, with wicked lighting, confetti and streamers. If I knew more about music and how to describe how it sounded then I’d go into a big spew about the, er, electronics, bass.. tempo..? But really all I can tell you is that it was sick and if you like his music then it’s a must see!

Although his newest songs American Dreams Part II and Stronger were performed brilliantly the song of the night would have to be Garden, simply because everybody knew the words and that’s the best thing ever when you go to a gig, everybody singing along. I always imagine being the artist that wrote the song, you’d be well chuffed hearing the audience chant your lyrics! The entire set was recorded live by Deezer Live Webcast on the night, which allowed those who couldn’t be at the event to tune in and watch the gig via the internet. I’ve looked around the net since and can’t find the recording to watch now, which is a shame, but if I come across it soon I’ll let you know!

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs debut album “Trouble” will be released on 11 June 2012. Pre-order it here.

Keep up to date with TEED

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/TEEDinosaurs

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs

Twitter: @TEEDinosaurs

Tumblr: http://totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs.tumblr.com/   

Pre-order Trouble here!

And that was only a taster….