- Now a bi-monthly event and now residing at Zen night club in Kings Cross, Premium takes breaks and garage to another level and proves that syncopated beats have come quite far since the days when New York block party DJ's would spin the breakbeats from old funk tracks to the realm of dark heavy bass and very syncopated beats.
Comprised of DJ's Emme and Ritual alongside the verbose MC Antic, Switch started off the night with their trademark mash up of 2-step and breaks. However I only managed to catch the end of their set thanks to the amount of available parking space. It would have been interesting to see if they played drum'n'bass on the night as well to mix things up. No matter, Switch knew how to keeps things warmed up nicely. Menta's "Sounds Of The Future" is really a testament and a neat description of the 2-step scene, and seeing them mix up 2 copies of Jammin's "Hello" was pleasing to hear as well.
Q45 was next to rinse it up and his choice for the night was ragga-tinged breaks mixed up with some nu-skool treats. His remix of Black Eyed Peas' Weekends always gets the crowd hyped and it was a surprise to hear Meat Katie's "Cum Shot" as it's more of a tribal tech-house track, yet it seemed to fit in quite well, which is another interesting aspect of Premium. It's forward-thinking attitude to music, whether it's breaks, 2-step, 4 to the floor or even drum'n'bass, sets it apart from other nights, who usually choose to stick to one style ie. clubs that play house will most likely have house all night. zzzzz.....
Premium's own organiser and local UK Garage DJ Sheen took his place up on the decks. Mixing a varied set which was composed of the vocal R&B-ish side of UKG to the harder sounds now being generally regarded as breakstep. Not really sure if going in and out between the vocal style and the hard styles is really a good thing as it seemed like he was losing a bit of momentum... alcohol really does play a part in your overall appreciation for the music! Accompanying him on the mic was MC Tanzi who knows how to keep the crowd hyped with her freestyling and also singing off the top of her head.
Set of the night goes to Farj, one half of Sydney's own Garage Pressure crew. After having seen him, along with partner in crime Paul Fraser, play at other nights such as 10-4's 2-step night, I was expecting him to play more of the vocal R&B 2-step style... seems he's discovered something interesting on the Darksyde! Farj dropped the darkest and heaviest tracks I have heard to date along with one that sampled the theme from Jaws - thankyou John Williams for creating a beautiful piece of cinematic soundtrack music that would one day be sampled and played to thousands of 2-step clubbers around the world. Always one to support his music style and more importantly his local scene, Farj even mixed in "What It Takes" by Intaconnect, a local producer. In fact after catching up with him at the end of his set, he told me that the tunes he was playing throughout the night were current tracks he ordered straight from the UK, most of them done by new producers. Easy to see that Farj is totally passionate about his own scene and music regardless of how small it is. Hopefully they'll put on another Darksyde to showcase more tunes like that.
To finish up the night in the main room, Premium's own Dabnes took to the decks. Starting off with Wu-tang's Gravel Pit was an interesting choice but it was the track that sampled the sax line from DJ Kool's "Let Me Clear My Throat" which was a winner. Awesome breakdown and then a smooth speed up and Dabnes was pulling off some scratches to it as well.
Even though the turn out was pretty good, it was not enough to open up the back room which was meant to host Premium Garage - 4 to the floor tunes with more of a house flavour. I did catch it while it was open and Pete Mac was on the decks playing some chilled out tunes... definitely suited the lounge atmosphere of the area. It's quite a pity they closed it off soon afterwards.
One of the only specialised breaks/garage nights in Sydney that's been going strong for the past year and maintained quite a following since it's early days at the Dendy, Premium offers the locals a distinct taste of UK flavour. If you like breakbeats yet yearn for something more cutting edge, Premium offers you that and more. Oh and if you do start talking like a Pom due to overexposure to underground breaks, eg "roit, a' you sor'ed guvna?", blame Sheen and drink plenty of Crownies.