- With the cream of the world’s breakbeat crop spinning in what many regard as the UK's best club, expectations were high. Astronomical almost.
Any breaks fan knows that a good sore head is one worth lining up for, and the early queue of punters jostling for the two hundred tickets on the door meant the line outside Fabric formed early - this was going to be a night and a half. Room one got cranking early with the crowd willing Hyper Live to keep on laying down tracks, but it wasn’t going to happen; he was interrupted by the smooth and efficient Annie Mac who kicked off the award segment of the evening, albeit unbeknown to many still locked into enticing sets from Andrea Lai and Chris Carter in room two. No surprises that Krafty Kuts was the big winner on the night, taking best album, outstanding contribution to breaks and best DJ, predictable stuff, which brought forth the expected murmurings of dissent from the crowd. It was great to see Groovediggerz nominated in the breakthrough producer category, and Hexadecimal taking breakthrough DJ was a solid and hard earned success.
With the formalities out of the way, Krafty Kuts took to the booth in the main room and got the night into full swing. For those not bouncing away to Krafty's trademark party breaks, the place to be was the archways of room two, where Baobinga and ID vs 30hz had set about tearing the place apart. Starting off with DMX's 'Where The Hood At' and Sinden's remix of Plan B & Epicman's 'More Is Enough', the pair destroyed the room with a menu of grime, garage and filthy floor-tearing breaks. 30Hz's 'Daddio' was a standout that got everyone up and when The Body Snatchers remix of Ferry Corsten's 'Junk' dropped, room two became a mass of shifting bodies and jagging heads.
Come 1 a.m. Tayo was pulling the punters back to room one, pumping a collection of dubstep, breaks, reggae and grime through the massive main room sound system. Pulling it all together as only Tayo can, the sea of limbs on the mainfloor showed their appreciation, with hands in the air and ear to ear grins good enough for a Colgate commercial. Following Tayo were the ever-pleasing Matt Cantor and Aston Harvey, better known as The Freestylers, who churned out a series of bootyshaking basslines. Even the overplayed 'Fasten Your Seatbelt' was sneakily dropped, drawing enthusiastic hoots and shouts of "oi oi" from the crowd.
With the calibre of the breakspoll lineup it was near impossible to choose a room and stay there. With Klaus Heavyweight Hill vs Dopamine nailing it in room two, and Pete Jordan vs Hexadecimal taking the roof off in room three, it was going to be a good hour either way. Dopamine and Klaus rinsed it, dropping the likes of 'Hold You', 'Outside the Box' and Klaus's 'Heavyweight Hill' to the joy of those crowded front and centre. Dopamine's remix of Vinyl Life's 'Good Life' was warmly received as were a couple of Prodigy bootlegs mashed up live by Klaus at the end of the set. Meanwhile, a world away in room three, Hexadecimal was showing why he was awarded breakthrough DJ with tight set of clean drops and swift cuts, presiding over tracks ranging from his own rework of Josh Wink's 'Higher State' to Michael Morph's 'Forward.' Once 'This is It' was unleashed it was clear that this was to be room three’s set of the night.
From there it was back through the cavernous bowels of Fabric to Atomic Hooligan killing it on the 1s and 2s in room one. Atomic Hooligan was nothing short of amazing. Dropping SOTO's gorgeously filthy 'Ghetto Blast Ya!' gave room one’s soundsystem its best workout of the night. Meanwhile Sons of Mecca were in the process of whipping room two – when the first riff of The Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' rolled around the room, the crowd went completely mental. Following closely behind was a remix of Leftfield's unmistakeable 'Phat Planet' which ensured the room was still packed well after 4 a.m.
Unfortunately even with the relentless energy of Breakfastaz behind the decks, something was beginning to wane with this reviewer as 5 a.m. rolled past. There’s a point in every evening where the Red Bull just stops working, your legs turn into tofu, and a small voice in the back of your head keeps reminding you that there’s this thing called work in a few hours time. As the crowd started to filter out, and it got to the point where maybe it was a good idea to get the coat before the queue gets stupidly long - Breakspoll was over for another year.
An absolute cracker of a night, this year’s Breakspoll has set the standard - a sure sign that breaks is alive, well and kicking into the future. This year’s event sold out more than a week in advance. Next year make sure you get a ticket before the night!