Black Cat is a great little club, and now that Traffic has closed it’s sure to get a lot more business. DJ Krush was my first experience of an international DJ at the place, and there’s one thing that stands out about the place – it needs better sound! The sound on this night was all over the shop, and it really impacted on many people’s enjoyment of the night.

I got there early in order to see the New Pollutants, who were their crazy selves. The crowd seemed to be full of chin strokers and wallflowers, so Mr Speed utilised the wireless mic by running out into the audience and singing, dancing and generally being mischievous with us, bringing us out of our shell. Next up were a group called Devine Interruption and going by their debut performance they are going to get very far. Consisting of a DJ, beat manipulator and MC, these guys performed a range of tunes down tempo to banging in vibe. Utilising both the MC and pre-recorded lyrics, they got many a head nodding, and even some booty shaking.

It was during their set that the sound started to go wonky, and, whilst the MC was beating himself up for it afterwards, they did a very good in dealing with it, especially for their first show. I’ve got to say I was unimpressed by the next few DJs. Sure, I was waiting for Krush, but these guys just didn’t grab me in any particular way. Muksrat on the other hand, after some technical problems trying to find a decent mic for himself, and then a second mic, he busted it out in his own inimitable style.

Krush stepped up next, drawing even more people onto the dancefloor, and the master of the scratch played a set that blew most of us away. Using normal scratch techniques through a filter, he played some atmospheric beats that slowly built up and up, then turned mighty tasty, with just a hint of dnb style, but without being anything but hiphop. Like last time I saw Krush, I only knew two tunes, a Krush tune and DJ Shadow tune, and truthfully, I loved it! There’s nothing better than hearing a true master play tunes that you’ve never heard before.

Attaché stepped after Krush, sounding muddy as all hell, and it was quite a let down after Krush. What I could hear was really interesting as there’s not many Adelaide people making music like that, and it was kind of a shame to hear it played with bad sound. When Freq Nasty stepped up, the crowd had thinned noticeably – it was a school night after all – but the volume was excessive and made more people leave. Once they turned the damn system down, it was evident that most of the damage had already been done as there were only about 70 people left, however most were getting down to the Freq sound, which was good to see. Freq Nasty played lots of dark breaks and a few bootlegs, the AC/DC thunderstruck one being one of the highlights.