Shy FX at LIDO Festival: a relentless set that Todd Dedman found still fresh

This piece looks back at one of the most glowing reviews the live show of Shy FX has received. The verdict came from Todd Dedman, writing for Beats Per Minute, after the artist's afternoon set on the second stage at LIDO Festival in London in 2025. The review appeared as part of a wider festival write-up covering several acts, which places Shy FX's performance within an account of the day rather than as a standalone piece.

What the critic responded to first was pace. Dedman describes a set that moved at a relentlessly fast tempo, and he presents that momentum as the defining quality of the performance. An afternoon slot can be a difficult proposition, with crowds still arriving and attention easily drifting, so the sense of sustained drive is the thing a reviewer is most likely to single out. It is the thing Dedman picks out.

The second element of the review concerns the catalogue. Dedman notes that Original Nuttah still sounded fresh, even though the track is more than thirty years old. He does not frame this as nostalgia. The emphasis falls instead on the way an established piece of drum and bass material could hold its place alongside newer work without sounding like a museum piece. That distinction matters for readers, because it speaks directly to whether older material can carry weight in a contemporary programme.

The specifics of the verdict are worth noting. The review is an enthusiastic one and does not hedge its praise with caveats about the setting or the time of day. It rests on two observations, the tempo and the freshness of an older track, and draws a clear conclusion from them: the live performance worked. Nothing in the notes suggests the critic objected to any part of the show, so the piece should be read as a positive assessment without reservations.

Taken together, the review says something about how Shy FX has been received live. A set that keeps a steady, high-energy pace and makes older material sound current suggests a performer confident in their own catalogue and in how to shape a crowd. A single review cannot stand in for a body of work, but this one offers a clear snapshot of a summer festival appearance that impressed a critic, and it remains a useful reference point for anyone looking at how the act performs beyond the studio.