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An inside look at the QLD DMC Final
In an age where turntables and mixers have now become a staple of music stores and the art of scratching can be regularly heard on commercial radio it would seem that the art of turntablism is here to stay. Another indicator of the popularity of this relatively new artform is the number of worldwide championships that are now cropping up. The longest running and most hyped of these is the DMC or Disco Mixing Competition as it was originally known. On August the 1st this year the states best tablists all assembled under the one roof to battle it out for the right to represent Queensland at the nationals later this month.
The venue was the plush Family night club in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley which, filled with a largish crowd of relatively uninitiated punters, provided an almost perfect backdrop for what was about to go down. The hosts for the night were Melbourne's Mc Sherlock, Zephyr Timbre's MC Sureshock and Koolism's MC Hau who all turned in solid performances themselves during the course of the night. The back and forth jibing between Hau and Sureshock along the lines of "My DJ's better than your DJ" was a feature and provided a few laughs during the necessary quiet points of the earlier battle.
First up was the Supremacy battle where the competitors first completed a qualifying round and then went head-to-head with two sixty second routines which culminated in a final round of two 90 second routines.The first heat was between Cairn's newcomer DJ Morph and Brisbane's DJ Sheep. Both put in strong performances of up-to-date technical routines with Sheep triumphing and advancing to the final. The second heat was between Brisbane's DJ Cryptic and defending showcase champ Da Master from Noosa. Both took it back to the old school with Da Master pulling out some well executed but somewhat outdated bodytricks and some standard old school cuts. Cryptic went a little more tech but lost the flow of his routine through what appeared to be a needle jump and it cost him the round. The final between Da Master and Sheep was somewhat of a grudge match with some clever, well executed lyrical disses coming from both sides. Sheep clearly outclassed his opponent through the help of some well constructed juggles and some technical scratch sentencing that earnt him a unanimous decision.
Next up was the six minute showcase style battle which featured 14 contestants and was defended by Da Master. Again Sheep was victorious with his trademark technical routines which he managed to combine into a tight funky composition including all the necessary requisites. His major competition came from one of his former students DJ Tex who finished a fairly close second with some amped programming and sharp scratching skills. Third place went to DJ Tazmo, who despite neglecting to beat juggle, threw down a well constructed routine with consistently clean cuts and a nice advancement section. Personally, I thought this place could have gone to DJ Morph and probably would of if he hadn't downed so many lagers after the Supremacy battle. Special mention deserves to go to the 16 year old DJ Rush who despite some early hiccups managed to display some genuine juggling skills which definitely belied his lack of time on the decks, what with school and all.
The funniest point of the night came at the end of the showcase battle when perennial showman Da Master dropped 'Old Time Rock 'n Roll' over a Hip Hop beat. The expressions on the judges faces were worth the price of admission alone. I think by this time they may have been half expecting him to slide across the stage in his shirt, socks and jocks on some old Tom Cruise type steez. Not to dis Da Master though he looked confident all night despite the big occasion. His antics which inluded trick mixing with his foot on the record while rapping into his headphones were by no means purist tablism but left the crowd entertained nonetheless. Another crowd favourite was DJ DNO of Resin Dogs and Shin Ki Row, who went on just before Da Master but failed to impress the judges with the somewhat played concept of constructing melodies from test tones. It was probably just as well these guys went on when they did, by this stage of the night the crowd had sat through just a couple too many DJ's attempt and fail some of the more tech aspects of the artform and at times appeared a little restless. A strong case for DMC to introduce some type of auditioning system next year.
Given the controversy surrounding the results of Oz turntablist battles in recent years and the ever growing interest in the culture from the general public, the pressure's been on for DMC to come correct with the judging and running of it's competition this year. For the Queensland chapter of the battle they definitely delivered, bringing in a panel of highly accomplished tablists of past and present notoriety from around the country. The panel included DJ Bones (Syd), DJ Danielson from Koolism (ACT), Nino Brown (Syd), former Australian ITF champ DJ Kuyar and former Queensland state champ DJ Angus aka DJ Bribe. It was definitely an accurate result for mine and a fairly well run night overall, although the wait was way too long before they announced the winner. I guess bar sales had something to do with dictating that scenario. Koolism were dope (as usual) as were the Gravity Warriors but the one criticism I do have was to do with the sound. At times you could hear people chatting over the competitors' sets while at other times you had to cover your ears to block out the deafening mid range and high end frequencies. Not what you'd expect from a million dollar sound system.
There's already a lot of interest developing over the national final later this month with the majority of competitors having a real chance at taking it out. DMC Australia's definitely got a hot battle on it's hands and thanks to the in-roads made by Dexta in recent years we should have the respect to figure prominently in the world finals this year.
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Published / Sunday, 04 August 2002
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