Gig review: Ghostpoet, Glasgow

London-based MC Ghostpoet, known to his mum as Obaro Ejimiwe, has been likened to Dizzee Rascal on downers. The pair share a grounding in the city’s grime scene but could hardly produce more contrasting hip-hop sounds.

Ghostpoet: Velvety tone. Picture: Getty

Ghostpoet - CCA, Glasgow

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If Dizzee is the amped-up peddler of party tunes, Ghostpoet is the more considered morning-after comedown, offering a mellower vibe throughout his set.

Unlike his rapid-fire peers, he raps with a velvety tone at a steady, sometimes stately and often soothing pace over a tasteful, atmospheric electronica backdrop which draws at times on the hypnotic pulse of drum’n’bass.

Thanks to the warmth created by his live band, there was some common ground with the soulful coffee table trip-hop of The Weeknd, which was spiced with a little of Tricky’s brooding claustrophobia, minus the air of menace.

Although his subject matter drew as much on his inner life as his social circumstances, Ejimiwe was too self-assured and affable a presence to allow the mood to dampen or darken too much.

The drowsy Dial Tones was a little self-regarding, although the audience were nodding along rather than nodding off.

If there was any danger of the latter occurring during the noodlier instrumental interludes, the occasional eruption of crashing chords, keyboard cacophony and mountainous drum rolls provided the wake-up call and the sprung grooves and crunchy synths of the encore even whipped up a bit of dancefloor action.