- After recently releasing his Breaks, Beats & Blondes LP to critical acclaim, Deekline AKA Nick Annand from the Rat Records crew came down to Australia for a couple of gigs to showcase some of the tunes from the album with partner in crime Ollywood to present a night of breakbeat, booty bass and tear-out breaks that the duo have become infamous for. The pair were also responsible for the outstanding Hardcore Beats From The Streets mix CD, which was released on Rat Records during the latter half of 2003 highlighting the latest in tear-out breaks from artists like Aquasky vs Masterblaster, Distortionz, DJ's Quest & Mutiny along with unforgettable anthems from DJ Zinc and the Stanton Warriors with acappelas thrown in, deft scratch routines all held together by old-skool favourites, The Ragga Twins. For the Sydney show, the event was held at the Gaelic club, a venue which has recently become known for hosting hip hop shows such as Ugly Duckling and Koolism and also hosted breakbeat turntablist Cut La Roc on his last visit down under.
Local support acts for the show included The Impossibles who kicked off the event, Sydney breakbeat kid James Taylor and Q45. Due to unforseen circumstances, I had missed out on the first two and was only able to catch the last half hour of Q45's set (some reviewer I turned out to be eh?). Q45 had the crowd going and by the time I walked in had a Stanton medley dropping the ragga tinged Slanty, Slanty before going into their booty remix of Never Leave You. Arms were flung up in the air for Purple Funky Monkeys and the Plump's remixes of Some Place Funky and Push Up - Q45 once again proving his worth as the warm up DJ for Deekline & Ollywood.
Just before entering the club, I had a chance to meet Deekline himself and got a copy of my album signed as well. I found out that the boys had just gotten off the plane from the UK only hours before the gig and were in a rush to get settled in as they were due to play within 30 minutes from jumping off the taxi. Apparently their bags had gotten onto the wrong flight and ended up in another destination but luckily they managed to get everything sorted out in time. After the last tune spun by Q45, Deekline and Ollywood jumped onto the decks and wasted no time in delivering the booty bass/tear out styles that they've made themselves famous for. Bushpig with the Yolanda vocal got a spin showing that they haven't forgotten the trans-continental link that produced the track in the first place (for those who aren't aware, Bushpig was the result of a collaboration between Deekline, Nubreed, Phil K and Ransom and one crowded recording studio).
While Deekline took care of the booty bass selections, Ollywood rinsed out the tear-out breaks bringing out tunes like Distortionz' Hitman with the Gaelic's massive soundsystem setup finding no trouble in delivering that sickeningly twisted bassline. Bootlegs, dubplates and CD's galore got played out that night as well, with a new ragga version of Booty Space (yes, even more ragga than the one available in stores) getting a spin - it's cool to see people associate with the Prodigy sample (yes, I know they sampled it off a reggae tune) singing along with the vocals and dancing frantically when the beats dropped. Rat Records anthems got a spin as well including Friendly's remix of the Booty Bouncers' Get Dirty Baby and soon to be released cuts like The Housebreakers' Jump On It.
With a 3 deck, 2 mixer and 2 CD player setup, Deekline kept himself busy during Ollywood's mixes by cutting and scratching and in turn while Deekline was in the mix, Ollywood would get busy bustin' a move... with beer in hand as well. For a small bloke he's quite capable of doing a bit managing to have a dance while mixing with a beer in hand - nice work! Mid-way through their set, they pulled out a couple of classic hip hop tracks in the form of Sir Mix-A-Lot's Baby Got Back and Salt & Pepa's Push It - just a couple of fun tunes that brought a smile to everyone's face.
Unfortunately for the pair, a crowd wasn't in full force that night with the breaks crowd preferring to head down to Krafty Kuts' performance at the Metro, which was a shame since Deekline and Ollywood did a pretty good job of rinsing out the tear-out breaks and booty bass that doesn't get much of a play in Sydney. What was originally scheduled to be a 3 and a half hour breaks set got cut down to let Klaus "Heavyweight" Hill to finish off the night with his brand of hard, tech-edged breaks sounds.
So what more can be said about the night? The Breaks, Beats & Blondes tour had everything right going for it in terms of DJ selection, venue, sound system and tune selection. I can honestly say that I left the event feeling educated knowing that there are more breaks platters to look forward to in the coming months, but as with a lot of events, it is such a downer to see a half filled room in support of a great act. Nevertheless, if they ever manage to make their way back to our shores again, I for one will be in full force to catch them spinning the breaks.