- After a stunning performance at Autumn Breaks 2002, the scratchmeister Cut La Roc returns to Australia for yet another round of scratched up block party mayhem. Sydneysiders were blown away by his performance at the Metro last year, so the breaks massive had to pay their respects yet again to see some more of that cut-up funk.
The Metro''s early 3am closing time definitely meant it was time for change for Fuzzy as a lot of breaks heads like to party on until the end of the night, so with it''s all night license, The Gaelic Club in Surry Hills seemed to suit the all-night party crowd. The venue itself is pretty small compared to the Metro with the bar covering one end of the dancefloor, but there are 2 floors, with the top providing a good view for people who want to check out the wicked skills of the guys on the decks.
I walked in late and missed out on Mark Walton''s set - damn! No matter, he''s been getting a lot of gigs lately so it would be pretty hard to miss him play his sets. Still, I would have easily picked him as the warm up DJ for Cut La Roc since he''s been known to mix it up like the best of them. Head down to Funktrust, Home, Fly and other major club nights around Sydney - he''ll usually be there!
With baseball cap tipped to one side, Ajax came in after him and dropped in the party tracks. You could name them: Ill Type Sound, Feelin'' Kinda Strange, Dooms Night with the Forgot About Dre acapella and one interesting mix up of Billie Jean, the acappela of Sandwiches then moving onto La La Land!
The Fuzzy man himself, Jon Wall kicked off his set with a mix of Jurassic 5''s What''s Golden and Punjabi MC''s Mundian To Bakhe - the latter being the Knight Rider theme-sampling-with-punjabi-vocal hip hop tune. The crowd really dug this tune from the amount of hands raised in the air and the cheers! Jon moved onto playing some house tunes, (which he is mainly known for) a bit of 80''s electro, (which prompted him to wear his headphones across his eyes like Jordi la Forge from Star Trek) up to the current breaks tunes that you''d expect from a Plump DJ''s set. With a huge smile on his face, grooving along to the beat and interacting with the crowd, Jon Wall really looked like he was having a good time on the night.
No matter how good the warm up DJ''s were, the crowd were there for one man - Cut La Roc - and he kicked off his set by scratching up the last Jon Wall track. He was on point with his scratches and he seemed really warmed up for the night. While gaining notoriety during the Big Beat scene in ''96/''97, it comes as no surprise that La Roc would mix in some big beat tunes such as Ruffneck, Build It Up, Tear It Down, Chemical Beats, The Propellerheads'' Dive and mixing them in with the current breaks anthems - The Slammer, Put The Needle On The Record etc. Sydney-siders still can''t enough of Scram as they cheered and whistled in delight as soon as they heard it. I even saw my mates chanting Fly Bi on the top floor totally getting into it! Cheekily enough La Roc had disguised it in his scratches with the previous tune, then hit us on the head with the drop! That''s the thing with Cut La Roc, regardless of how anthemic his sets are, he plays his tunes in a different way that makes everyone on the floor hungry for more. From the video streaming of the DJ cam, Lee makes it look so easy, scratching up samples, cutting up beats, making his own breakdowns and creating short melodies on the cut as well. This is what separates him from the rest - he gets really busy behind the turntables doing more than just beatmatching. Yet another awesome performance - La Roc rocked once again.
Q45 was the last to grace the decks at the Gaelic for the night and after seeing him get his groove on the floor all night, he seemed pretty up for it to give the early morning crowd the fix of breaks they need to end the night. Yet another mix up of Punjabi MC, this time with Missy Elliot''s Work It started off Q45''s set. There needs to be a club limit with how many times that Punjabi track can be played, otherwise people may get sick of it (how much Knight Rider can you handle?). Tom even dropped his current favourites such as Love Story and Donna Kebab - my parents would have been old enough to have grooved to that back in the day! The crowd numbers seemed to have died then as there was only a handful of us still into it - the true breakbeat heads! - so they closed the party early at 5am instead of the advertised 6am.
Overall, it was a good night. Fuzzy understood the needs of the breaks crowd and resolved to change venue to satisfy them. Personally I felt that the Metro is by far a better venue than the Gaelic as it has that huge stadium seating feel, yet no one really wants to start their night at 9 and finish at 3. You can''t win, however it isn''t the venue that always counts, but the vibe of the party. How good is it to have the DJ''s busting some moves on the dancefloor (along with Ajax doing some breakdance steps near the speakers)? How good is it to have a quick chat to the guest DJ on the dancefloor rather than seeing them fenced behind some exclusive VIP area? It''s really good, however I don''t know if I could envisage the Plump DJ''s at that venue.