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Advertised as the official breaks after party for Transmission, Sunday Throwdown offers the breakbeat elitists one final injection of syncopated beats for the week before it’s time to get serious again and become slaves to the wage. Already in it’s third month, Throwdown seems to be doing pretty well compared to previous breaks ventures (R.I.P Broke-N-Beats), possibly thanks to the nicer venue and its “Central” location in Sydney.
Pricecuts and pH started the night off with a back-to-back set incorporating the funkier sounds (thanks to Pricecuts) and moving into the harder nu-skool sounds (thanks to pH). Hah! Back to back my arse! It was more like a “Hey mate, could you play for a bit while I go have a beer, and I’ll take over later” kind of set – a kind of set that suited the loungey setting of Bohem. The pair must’ve been really keen to drink as they persuaded The Jackal to spin for about an hour; with him moving onto the current breaks anthems (including one interesting remix of Outkast’s B.O.B) and getting some movers onto the dancefloor.
Mark Walton was up next, and for someone who’s been in the DJ biz for over 15 years; nothing bad can really be said about him or his DJ style. Mark has a very hip-hop oriented approach to playing breaks and tends to mix up the old skool tunes with the new tracks – tunes like Tag Team’s “Whoomp There It Is” sitting alongside a breaks remix of “In Da Club” and Soul Of Man’s “Get It Girls” - and finishing it all off with the conga crazy Tim “Love” Lee’s “Again Son” prompting an unnamable “nutter” DJ to give me his analysis of the different cities dancing styles. Too true mate, I agree completely!
His first ever trip to Australia as a touring DJ, DJ Mutiny was up next to show us all how it’s done in the UK, bringing with him a backpack full of records and some fresh dubplates in tow (as pioneered by Terry from Atomic Hooligan). In speaking with him beforehand, he agreed to play it funky at first then move onto the darker stuff – good move! – kicking things off with a little Mr. Potato Head, Man-a-Man, a little beat-juggle of Krafty’s remix of Move Your Feet before getting into the harder breaks sounds that he and his Funkatech and Cyberfunk crews have pioneered. He wasn’t even afraid to drop the “dangerous” breaks, neatly placing a couple a 6/8 time signature tracks that got the crowd’s feet moving to a different shuffle, and it was good to finally hear the finished version of “Beachball” which I had the privilege of listening to once online, courtesy of some linkage by Mutiny himself.
After an hour of Mutiny’s manic breaks, Gadget took over for the final slot. Good thing the crowd were still up for more at 3:30am on a Monday morning, with tunes like the breaks remix of Satisfaction and Freeland’s We Want Your Soul managing to keep the hardcore of shakers still on the floor, whereas the thought of having to wake up at 9am to go to class had prompter this reviewer to go home – with a nasty hangover no doubt.
According to Dave Pricecuts, that night had brought on the largest group of punters to Throwdown, and they had good reason to be there - $15 for an international DJ is a decent price to pay to be able to hear some wicked new tunes.
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