Elijah Minnelli

Elijah Minnelli plays Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday 22 August, in The Lens Studio. He's a dub musician who describes himself as a 'fatigued onlooker', and the sound he works with is a bit of a hybrid: earthy, rootsy mutations on the reggae gene that owe as much to folk and Cumbia as they do to dub. It's a mix that sits somewhere between the dancefloor and the living room, and it's exactly what he'll be bringing to the studio.

Live, Minnelli doesn't do a standard band setup. He stands behind his mixing desk and rebuilds his percussion and bass lines on the fly, layering in his own voice and folk-inflected melodies. It's a dub set in the truest sense — the mixing desk is the instrument, and the performance is about how he pulls the sound apart and puts it back together in front of you. He's played this way at Cafe OTO in London, Dubfabrikken in Copenhagen and Circus Krone in Munich, and has shared stages with Shackleton, The Notwist and Holy Tongue.

If you're coming in fresh, there's plenty to catch up on. He's put out several singles on ZamZam Sounds and Accidental Meetings, and in 2024 he released the album Perpetual Musket on FatCat Records, which picked up positive reviews from The Guardian and The Quietus. The Guardian summed up the sound as 'the splicing of genres feels seamless, joyful and briskly contemporary', and that's a fair place to start if you're wondering what to expect.

It's a night for anyone into dub, reggae and electronic music, and for those who like their alternative music to lean into folk and Cumbia. Ted at the Controls opens the evening. The set starts at 20:00, tickets are £19.35, and since it's a paid event, you'll want to book yours in advance. It's not a children's event, so anyone under 14 needs to be accompanied by an adult over 18.