Getting to Minke at our usual time of “last bus into town”, I was disappointed to see a small turn out of maybe a hundred people spread between the two levels. Then again, with Dave Seaman playing Traffic on the same night, and Clash of the Titans on Saturday, I wasn’t surprised. Breaks is, after all, an emerging scene here, and the vibe of the place reminded me a lot of the early dnb shows – most of the people there at that early stage in the evening were either industry, or friend of the DJs. However, like the early dnb shows, the DJs played as if to 5000 people, as Skywalker and Jayar kept those few that were dancing on the floor for the majority of their sets, playing a mixed bag of funky and tech breaks, building up the party vibe as a few more people wandered in.
Journeying downstairs, the mood was more relaxed, as Denorthwode played popular hiphop to a chilled crowd. Whist it was nice, I was up for more up tempo music, so we travelled upstairs again, to be greeted the splendid sounds of Stephen King, who decided to entertain us all with a set of old school breaks. Playing such gems as Herbie Handcocks’ Rockit and Coldcut’s wonderful remix of Paid in Full, he enticed the growing crowd out onto the floor. Wanting to stay for a while as his tune selection was wonderful, and his mixing superb, he had to compete with the Beat Smugglers downstairs, which was unfortunate, as they won my interest, and we headed down again.
The Beat Smugglers, if you haven’t seen them, are simply amazing. A funk band with a dance mentality, these guys know how to put on a show. Even with one man down for half their act, they still managed to get the now packed place jumping, rocking with their not-so-unique but ever-so-funky blend of funk and hiphop music. When Kim Dezen arrived after his Wozone appearance, he took the band up another level, scratching superbly over their infectious beats, and not a head in the place was still. Thinking Cut Le Rock was on at 2:30, we trudged upstairs again. To our surprise, he hadn’t started, and he didn’t start until 3, which kinda annoyed me as I would have liked to see more of the Beat Smugglers. I dashed downstairs, and missed their last tune, started chatting to a few people, then dashed back upstairs.
By this time the place was nicely filled with about 400 people (but I’m bad at judging crowds), reminding me further of the early dnb scene, as no one would go out until the main act would come on, then there’d be millions of people. As Cut Le Rock had already started I manoeuvred my way to the front to get a close look. Cut Le Rock has been on my “must see” list for about 5 years now, and it was well worth the wait, as he put on a show that simply blew the place up, quite literally. His scratching was simply amazing. He was responsible for guiding the Scratch Perverts away from technical showmanship to be more dancefloor orientated, and, as with them, it shows true turntable skillmanship to be able to mix so well, and keep the dancefloor moving. His track selection was quite a surprise, being all mainly bigbeat, playing such artists as Fat Boy Slim, FreeStylers, and of course dropping a few of his own tracks to boot! Whoever said Bigbeat was dead has not seen Cut Le Rock.
More surprising was the fact that the crowd appeared to lap it up. People were jumping about and cheering as he dropped track after track of happy, funky party music. I’m sure that both he and the crowd could have kept going all night, but unfortunately the wonderful BOSE sound system there has a fatal flaw in that if the computer overheats, the sound dies, as it appeared to do around about 4:15. They played around with it for a while, but to me it looked like they wouldn’t have it fixed quickly, which was a real pity, because everyone was enjoying it immensely up until that point. Why they didn’t move Cut Le Rock immediately downstairs is a mystery, as I’m sure a lot of people, like us, took their cue to leave at that time.
This night reinforced my view that breaks is a growing scene that needs more class acts like Cut Le Rock to come and absolutely rock Adelaide to its foundations at ALL types of shows, not just clubs. The skillmanship and professionalism in the face of a technical breakdown was a joy to behold, unlike other DJ’s who have hissy fits and swear never to come back. He took it firmly in his stride, assisted where he could, and chatted to fans and let people take photos with a laugh and a smile that is refreshing to see from an international DJ. I for one can’t wait to see him again, and suggest that you do too.