- After seeing Ben Sims at WET 006 in 2001 I was cranked for his return, my memories of bewilderment at his 3 deck skills and funky, percussive, techno he played served to fuel my excitement to dizzying heights. The polished floorboards of Dex and the extreme sound system at work were only adding to my feeling of vertigo.
I walked into the half-refurbished Dex Nightclub (ex Billboards) to be greeted by the sounds of Ben Cromack and Dave Rankine. The sound system was cranked up loud, real loud, and Ben''n''Dave were taking full advantage.
Ben and Dave laid out some funked up tunes for us, and a few slammers as well. Anyone who''s familiar with these two will know what I mean when I say they were more than impressive. Quick mixing, tight as tight can be, full of chops and edits with some scratching thrown in for good measure, they funked me on for 2 hours going through tunes such as ''That Horn Track (Luke Slater Mix)'' by Egyptian Empire, ''Blackstage (Rolando remix)'' by John Thomas, ''Primitive Streak (Ben Sims remix)'' by Steve Bicknell, and Tomaz vs Filterheadz - ''Sunshine'' to name but a few. Their styles complementing each other well, they flowed from track to track with style and grace.
Next up was Damian Laird inviting Ben Cromack to stay with him for further versus action. Damian is a stalwart of the techno community, ever reliable and always on the money, and with the already more than warmed up Cromack to compliment him it was far from disappointing. I did notice however that Damian didn''t seem to be really ''firing'', but this was hardly a problem. Tunes such as the classic ''Spastik'' by Plastikman came out, and I believe ''Amphetamine'' by Adelaide''s HMC got the evergrowing crowd a''groovin.
1am and Simon Coyle stepped up to the plate. I was interested to hear what he had in store for us after reading on the flyer "with Leroy vocals", and it was interesting to say the least. I felt however that that the vocals didn''t work as well as they possibly could have, Leroy was a bit drowned out by the sound system, and I thought that her style of vocals would have better suited a different timeslot with maybe a different style of tech, more downtempo perhaps. 10 points for trying though, and I applaud Coyle for choosing to attempt something very different in a scene that is hardly welcoming of change. Simon was on fire mixing wise, playing a bunch of unrecognisable tracks, although I did catch ''Pontape'' by Renato Cohen and ''Acid Storm'' by Technasia.
This brings us to 2am, and the boss had arrived, Mr Ben Sims. It gives me shivers just remembering what he was about to lay on us. The significant difference between this performance and his last was that then he was tribal and funky, but this time he was slammin'' and funky. Drop upon drop upon build-up upon drop, constant three deck faultless mixing, effects, filters, tricks...he had it all. Scratch to double beat, chop, scratch back in, he monitored and cued in what seemed fractions of seconds. I tell you, he was everything I remembered, hoped and expected, but so much more. The tunes were all fresh, I spotted ''Shape'' by Grindvik and Hardcell, ''Tescat'' by Los Hermanos, ''Get On Up'' by DJ Rush, ''Carnival'' by Cave ( the next release on Ingoma, boy is this tune gonna be huge), ''Cockroach'' by Ben Sims and Vincent Davis, ''Outward'' by Hardcell and Johan Bacto, and I had to forgive him for playing ''Remanipulated (Adam Beyer remix)'', a track that has been so overplayed but hey, it is his track, and he did look as perplexed at playing it as I felt.
When his 2 hours were up I was exhausted and ventured into the side room to catch Mike Callander play some funky housey tunes, and to rest, and to talk about how good Sims was. For a good 2 hours all I could do was shake my head and say over and over "Ben Sims, Ben Sims, Ben Sim...". I felt satisfied.
The side room had a lot of potential bar one thing, there was no booth monitor. I ask you, how is DJ supposed to perform when he can''t hear what he is doing? It was annoying to say the least. But Callander, being the true professional he is, pressed on. Smooth and funky, just perfect after Sims, but I was in no mind to recall tracks at that point. Dave Pham followed and pushed through the monitoring problems, playing a lot more varied electro and techno, still just what I needed. I only spotted ''Minus Orange'' by Ritchie Hawtin, which got me up for a bit of a boogie.
As I left I witnessed the change over from Will E Tell to Dee Dee and Slieker, people were saying that it was the best they''d heard from Will in a while, for me though it was just way too fast. Must''ve been up around 150bpm! Lucky Dee Dee and Slieker slowed it down cos I couldn''t handle it for very long. The Teriyaki guys are always a pleasure, and they didn''t disappoint, at least what I saw of them.
Thus ends the night, a successful party all in all. Ben Sims ruled the roost, as I knew he would. Come again soon Mr Sims, we''ll welcome you with open arms.