Ministry of Sound Annual @ The Globe & Metro City (24/10/03)

Urban Takeover Room

The drum & bass dj’s played on the big stage this time around, providing a good focal point for the room. When I first arrived, the early gatherers were milling around, getting warmed up for the night. However, as is usually the case with the drum & bass posse, it didn’t take long for people to venture out onto the dance floor and get things moving. Diamond D (pron. Diamondee) and Concept were first up, with the warm up numbers getting the night started. It wasn’t long before the harder tracks were coming out of the bags though, with neither dj wasting any time. I didn’t catch much of Diamond D, but Concept played well, getting the crowd right into the mood.

Next up was Adrian Sardi (pron. Sardee), who leapt right in with a big vocal to announce his arrival, signifying a change of venue for me. Upon returning from a quick trip to the breaks room, I suddenly remembered that drum & bass has mc’s, with tonight’s guys now up on stage making a noise. With this added help, Sardi dropped a solid set, playing the lead up to the main act. To his credit, he really made it a tough act to follow, with precision mixing and quality track selection that had the whole room moving. He tended more towards the dark side during the second part of the set, keeping the pace moving throughout. Sardi showed that he is definitely one of Perth’s premier drum & bass dj’s.

Finally though, it was time for Aphrodite (pron. Aphroditee) to step up to the decks. Aphrodite cut down the pace immediately, but not for too long. He played a wide variety, cutting from darker tracks across to vocal selections and melodic basslines to really change up the pace and tone. Aphrodite varied his mixing, sometimes cutting straight into breakdowns, and at other times mixing tracks with precision. Despite the contrasts, the set kept up its pace, even incorporating a slower number that he dropped midway through to break (no pun intended) things up. The lighting engineer did a good job in this room, keeping the place in minimal lighting for the majority of the night, which is good for those of us whose eyes react badly to strobes (help, I’m blind :P). It made for a better mood I thought. The mc’s also kept going with their commentary “When I say dj, you say yo”.

After a visit to the breaks room, I came back to catch the end of Jungle Brother (or was it Funky Shit, I’m not quite sure, there were lyrics from both tracks thrown in there), and the conclusion of Aphrodite’s set. He finished off the same way as he started, with a variety of tracks, some with their own mc’ing (putting the locals temporarily out of work. All in all, a well rounded set, with several different styles displayed across the three hours to keep up the variety.

Daemos (pron. Daemos) finished off the night in this room, but unfortunately other commitments meant that I had to leave at this stage, so apologies to all for the lack of coverage.

33 and 1/3 Breaks Room by Ricksta

Entering the Amplifier Bar was a shock to the system. Perhaps I’m just getting old, but it was definitely several decibels louder than the last time I was in this club. I’m sorry to say this, but there is such a thing as being too loud, and at this stage it was still just the locals in action.

All grievances aside though (for now), Buex took the stage in this early timeslot. Given the minimal numbers in this room, and the early time, he was playing a set of almost trance-like tracks (I didn’t even need to go to Metro’s) in true breaks style. Buex kept up a quality performance, occasionally switching to more Electronic music to pick up the ambience. A good set for the early time in a nice, relaxing fashion.

Wato took to the decks next, stepping it up a notch and starting up with another vocal selection, as seems to be the trend. However, this soon changed with Wato playing a solid set, choosing a harder selection and generally amping up the crowd.

Up next was Koosh, who continued on in a similar format to Wato. However, Koosh didn’t seem to like merely mixing records, and chose to throw down some scratching as well, really complementing the track selection. Koosh played a lot of bass heavy tracks, which could be heard through the walls of the venue, and threw in a really long breakdown track (uh yeah) that just seemed to go on forever. However, it allowed for a lot more scratching, and gave Koosh time to wave his hands around a lot and hype the crowd. Overall, this was a very technical performance and an extremely good set, enjoyed by all.

Kraymon was up next, but I only managed to catch the last part of his set. For some reason he finished three quarters of an hour before the scheduled time, meaning that I missed most of what I wanted to see. However, what I did see was quite impressive. Kraymon played in quite a different style to the preceding dj’s with a punchier beat and lots of vocal tracks dominating the latter part of the set. Kraymon also enjoyed playing to the somewhat limited crowd, with a constant smile on his face, you could tell that he was having a good time. Stepping off the stage meant getting mobbed by groupies, but he handled these well, laughing and chatting away.

Unfortunately for me, his set was over too soon, which left Dazz K to finish off the night (see my earlier poxy comment as to the lack of review).




MOS Annual Main Room @ Metro City by bec watkins

As plans always seen to go I was delayed in my arrival to the night that promised to be the usual mastery of Ministry.

Arriving to see most of Clint Wiltshire I was impressed by the size of the ever growing crowd, cramming in to see this talented DJ spin his favorites. There were defiantly some unusual individuals around at this early stage, obviously eager to see the likes of some of the most well known international acts. Wiltshire finished on a high note, getting the crowd amply pumped up for the likes of the viewer pleasing Junkie XL (JXL).

Taking like a duck to water, this constantly surprising talent stared with his commercially released tune ‘Little Less Conversation’. The interaction and showman performance of this man was inspiring and had the crowd jumping. Ok this tune reeks of commercialization and therefore it started to loose some ever ready fans but this was duly noted by the performer, who mixed in a funky bass tune to rise the spirits again. From here his set played a little like the Rocky Mountains – constantly up and down. Laying down tracks like the Matrix inspired ‘Red pill, Blue pill’ achieved an awestruck appeal, the DJ living up to his words in recent interviews, expressing his desire to add more ‘vocal’ songs into his works. But, the excitement of the DJ can only carry the crowd so far and at times people looked a little lost for direction. That aside he finished well to let Tall Paul take control.

Now don’t get me wrong I have the utmost respect for a DJ (Tall Paul) of this caliber. I have enjoyed many a fine occasion watching and listening to this man cast his magic, I’ve seen him at his finest, turning heads at his father’s ‘Turnmills’ and captivating crowds at Perth events such as Gatecrasher, but this time just wasn’t up to his usual standard. Experiencing some technical difficulties his start was very slow. He did counteract this well with some hard beats brining the audiences attention back to his domain, however it felt like he was playing for himself and not the audience. Again it was a bit up and down for the whole set.

So lastly (running half an hour late) Mark Dynamix hit the scene running, drawing back an excitable crowd. In true Dynamix style the set comprised of a great range of melodic, uplifting, up-tempo tracks. This carried on pleasingly until the night finished and the sun came up. Dynamix seemed to love the crowd as much as the crowd loved him, at some stages the whole lower level moving as one.

Overall the night was a mix of highs and lows but one thing I must say is the lighting was extraordinary. I’m not the greatest strobe fan but the display fit in with the music perfectly adding that extra something every performance deserves.

Well defiantly another successful Ministry, with the crowds growing every time we are sure to see more fine events coming up soon.