- Upon entry to the Globe Illya was playing an opening (and unusually placed) set. Illya and the crowd, however were doing anything but warming up the night. Within 5 minutes of entry, Illya was cutting up Neon’s “Gumbo” (remixed by the Eastcoast Boogiemen) while the dancefloor grooved along to one of the dopest basslines of 2002. He continued to funk, cut and craze it up, always energetic, never lacking in track selection or ability. One can only imagine what 2003 will hold for one of Sydney’s most exciting house DJs.
Downstairs, the proceedings began with Luke Glenday. Luke always impresses, and it was great to see him do a bit of a warm up set. He played some great house and tech house that got everyone dancing. What was great about his set was that while it was a warm up, the tracks were still solid tunes. Not over the top, but definitely moving in the right direction. When Ajax came on, the downstairs was suitably packed.
Gav Fisher took control of the dancefloor upstairs while Ajax kicked off downstairs. Gav seemed to keep the crowd going at a nice pace for the time of night. He always kept it at a nice house pace but would inject his tech and electro stylings during his set. Chicken Lips – “He not on”, what has almost come to be a Toasted anthem let fly during Gav’s set and was followed strongly by Yellow’s “Oh yeah” bringing the dancefloor to boiling point. At this point in time it was clear that both Gav Fisher and those dancing upstairs at the Globe were having a damn good time with smiles on all faces present. Gav continued on nicely, continually hotting up the crowd for Simon Caldwell.
Ajax in the last year has become more and more experimental in his search for world domination. Every time I see him he is working up a sweat and really earning his money. He started with a bang, really industrial, dirty, grimmey tech and electro. It was tough, despite the BPM’s being quite low. The kind of music that can make your head cave in on itself, but done in a great way. One of the highlights was a remix of Fisherspoon “Emerge”. I don’t know what mix it was (wasn’t the original or JXL mix), but it was great. Really got the crowd going. Ajax ended off his set with a bit of breaks, lightening things out. This is one of the better sets I have seen Ajax play in a while, and I think he should play downstairs at Toasted more often.
Jaywalker’s upstairs set continued nicely on from where Illya left off. He kept the jazzy sounds pumping using tracks like the Lawnchair General’s “One day”. The house influences of America seem to be precipitating further and further into Toasted’s musical foray – jazzy keys, deep basslines and the occasional straight-up funky track are making their way to Toasted dancefloors thanks to the likes of Jaywalker and his ever improving sets.
Following on from Ajax downstairs, was Luke Glenday. Playing the warm up had been a last minute thing, and was really just an extra treat. This was to be Luke’s final set at Toasted as he was jetting off overseas. This set was in a different vein to his early one. Carrying on from Ajax, Luke pulled out all the stops. Playing some tougher tech house and some amazing breaks, the crowd was continually dancing for all of Luke’s set. The highlight of the set, and possibly the night, was Robbie Rivera “Trippin’”. This has been a bit of a classic for the Toasted regulars, going down like a dream every time it has been played. The minimal nature of the record is its strength. Its pulsating beats that slowly change key and feel as though they are getting faster moving the crowd into a frenzy. Then the bassline and synths just add to this. Pure madness, that never ceases and continues to build. Luke ended with some very tough breaks and tech ramblings. It was great to see the reaction of the crowd when he finished, he was cheered and applauded.
Simon Caldwell’s set was a true deep house set. Occasionally people will refer to house music as deep because it has jazz influences or a horn solo, but Simon Caldwell actually knows the definition of ‘deep’ in this context and can apply it very nicely to a constructed set. He seemed to drift around different realms of house music some times going into the quirky sounds featured on Phil Weeks’ “Hypnose” or perhaps to the upbeat floor killer “Sometimes I do” by Cajmere. All this on board his set wasn’t always conducive to a 2am-4am time slot. Sometimes the deepness would not precipitate appropriately over the dancefloor and would occasionally be lost (or perhaps lost on them). Unfortunately Simon doesn’t always play for the crowd and lulls were experienced during his set. Towards the end he decided to cheese it up, bringing in the ‘soulful’ side of deep house.
Downstairs after Luke was DJ Tickle. I had never seen Tickle before and had really heard very little about him. What I knew was he had made quite a little name for himself up in Byron Bay, opening for many of the internationals that made there way up there. Tickle carried on well from Luke’s set, starting off very tough and continuing on from there. He plays what can be described as pro-tech, very tough tech-house, almost techno, but with nice progressive elements (mainly melody). For me, Tickle got a little too hard and monotonous for the first half of his set. The changing point was when he played Chris Lum’s “Freaks Like Us”. The tune went down perfectly and really got people up and going nuts. From this point on he was more varied and mixed it up well.
The last person downstairs was Jay Walker. He came on and calmed the place down somewhat after Tickle. There were still a few people left and he brought the evening to a nice close. His three last tracks were New Order’s “Blue Monday”, “Grooves in the Heart”, and Donna Summers “I Feel Loved”. It was a great way to end what had been a great evening.