"Loud beatboxing and polite conversation" is how Simon "Shlomo" Kahn describes his show Mouthtronica. A one-man band without instruments, this vocal percussionist collaborated with Björk at the opening of the Athens Olympics, and became the first ever world Loop Station champion. Here he demonstrates his skill with teeth, lips, effects pedal and audience (four of the 10 tools of the trade, he tells us), and relates fragments of the autobiography of a grandson of Iraqi Jews growing up in Buckinghamshire with a very un-Iraqi, un-home counties talent.
And what an odd talent it is. Shlomo's beatboxing is both amazing and curiously forlorn, its success measured by how closely this young man can make himself sound like a machine. The answer is: remarkably closely, as his multitrack mouth emits layers of vocal, drumbeat and – into a second microphone pressed to his neck – bone-shaking bassline. It is an eye-popping ability, and when fed through his technological box of tricks (or hammered into it – Shlomo makes his knuckles bleed tonight), it makes raise-the-roof dance music. Which is impressive, and would be exciting, were this a party and not a theatre.
As it is, Mouthtronica is always enjoyable: Shlomo is a cheerful if less than authoritative presence whose enthusiasm is catching. But his show is casually thrown together. A story of belly-dancing parties at his Iraqi gran's house promises a narrative arc that scarcely develops. Shlomo's path to success seems to have been without incident or obstacle. There is a moment when he impersonates jazz instead of drum machine; I welcomed the richer, more soulful sound, as well as the glimpse of other textures to his talent. But then it is back to the breakbeats, in a likable show that is more about virtuosity displayed than music to savour.
