- As one who works until midnight, I''m usually the person to miss out on warm up sets when I go out, such was the case when UK DJ''s Lombardo & Storm hosted Twisted Individual & DJ SS for Redrum early 2003. I had completely missed out on hearing both Lombardo & Storm play that night, that it almost brought me down - I was not going to get my fix of dark grimey breaks that night! Black Friday February 2004, the first Black Friday of the year saw the Garage Pressure crew of Farj and Paul Fraser host yet another Darksyde event - the only breaks night in Sydney which plays host to the dark, hard, nasty, dirty and grimey breakstep sound of breakbeat. The event itself signalled a return of the Garage Pressure boys to the Sydney breaks scene and also a welcome return for DJ Lombardo who made the trip (his third in total) to showcase the sounds from his new label - Fragile Beats.
Upon my arrival, Kid Kenobi was just about to wind up his set of "Coffee" induced breaks as he laid down the Coffee acapella on a bass heavy garage beat. Apparently the young jedi was playing a set of tough nu skool breaks to which the crowd didn''t respond to well at all - they were eagerly anticipating the dark grimey breakstep beats from Lombardo who was to follow. I know there are differences in the sound, however both are underground breakbeat genres, so it comes as a surprise to find out the poor crowd reaction.
Once the clock struck one the guest of honour made his way up to the decks and with him he had many dubplates in tow - lots of 10 inches as well, which just goes to show you - it ain''t the size but how you use it that counts! Lombz is one who believes in advertising and opened up his set with a track that wouldn''t stop repeating the words "Fragile Beats" - awesome cement that shit into our heads so when we go around looking for new tunes we know which record labels to follow!
Lombardo basically let it rip with some of the phattest breakstep beats this town hasn''t heard since Darqwan came to town over a year ago. Fark, most of the tunes I couldn''t even put a name to, so it was the job of Farj to trainspot each one that night - good work matey! Kid Kenobi acknowledged the fact that I perceived it as being really aggressive music by stating that "... the music is definitely for the blokes in here..." however in saying that, there were some fine chickies in the place that night too - yowsa! Werd to DJ Dubstep for telling me that he wanted to "tip a table over!" I couldn''t agree more. Not content to keep things at 135 bpms, Lombardo upped the pace to play some drum''n''bass - it''s really nice to hear Lenny Fontana''s Spread Love heard on a big system and big ups to the whole crowd for cheering him on when he dropped the Ganja Kru''s Super Sharp Shooter. Club 77''s dark atmosphere and sound system provided the perfect environment for all the tunes in Lombz'' set. The crowd went mental when he played a half tempo drum''n''bass track, let it slow down then rewind it and play it all over again - Lombardo himself enjoying the experience as he was jumping around, bobbing up and down behind the decks and getting into the music.
Some new names have been going around for this "new" breakbeat sound and while breakstep seems to be the title of choice for many, names like Sublow, 8-bar and Grimey have been flying off peoples tongues recently. Lombardo pulled out a breaks remix of Grimey to an appreciative crowd, dropped Darqwan''s Said The Spider, and finished up his set with Zinc''s People 4. Most of the crowd preferred to soak in the sounds while sitting around the dancefloor for a few drinks and a chat, while there were the hardcore few who cut a rug all night during his set - including a trio of Japanese tourists who saw the Darksyde ad in the local street press and walked around William St asking for directions to it!
In the 2 hours I was there, I felt refreshed and educated, finally there''s something out there to show us all that breaks isn''t always about the Freestylers, or Krafty or Fingerlickin, breaks can also encompass the dirtier sounds of 2-step and garage and turn it into something evil and twisted like what was heard on Black Friday. Think Supercharged Records instead of Against The Grain in terms of breaks and think Renegade Hardware instead of Renegade Recordings in terms of drum''n''bass!
For those who missed out, Garage Pressure are doing it again, same bat time, same bat channel, with another guest in tow - Landslide from Hospital Records will be making an appearance at Darksyde at Club 77 on the 5th of March.