Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Let’s talk Dinosauria. Although the word ‘dinosaur’ means ‘terrible lizard’, they were, of course, not lizards at all due to their upright posture. This incarnation is neither terrible, a lizard, is most certainly upright and has a talent for synth-pop concoctions. At first considered unintelligent and sluggish; later discovered to be socially adaptable and switched on, this version has evolved to the latter. Having turned some earlobes in his post-Jurassic direction with 2010’s EP, Household Goods, Orlando Higginbotham aka Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' high to low tempo and well produced set at this year’s Bestival further intrigued. His gig at East London's XOYO was anticipated palpably.

With LED’d balloons floating to the ceiling, the dancers on this occasion were less than remarkable, however the framework of what’s wandering into a full dance, light and music show is starting to take shape and will develop with the refinement of his oeuvre. But, as they say, it's all about the music and as the son of a music professor, the young Oxford based musician has his own thing going on and it’s not limited to his homemade dinosaur outfits. The decks form the mere backbone of his set as he bounces from keyboards and drum machines ad libbing as and when. With big funky bass lines and the odd riff Erlend Oye wouldn’t have minded thinking of, he plods across various types of electronica which in this case ebbed and flowed the capacity crowd into a grooving unity. With much of this genre it's hard to put a finger accurately on where the music goes, but it did cruise along at a decent rate and floor fillers such as Garden continue to impress.

What remains clear is that this is a recording artist who revels in the live set. One of his marks has been used already on a corporate advert and surely there’s more to go on that front which will be a shame for the live fan perhaps, but perfectly understandable to the aspiring artist. It would be nice if the proceeds are injected into some more studio time and a polished album, which would only benefit his broadening repetoire. As the dominant terrestrial vertebrate for over 160 million years, extinction led to all but the airborne variety; this one’s got a little way to go yet, but stay tuned, he’s exciting and far from extinct.