Darksyde is well and truly back after holding another event at its new home at Club 77 on William St. This time the special guests were Landslide (UK) and Lombardo (UK) along with local legends Garage Pressure, Ritual, Q45 and Cause. Landslide who is one half of the team behind Hospital records is a resident at London’s finest underground garage/beats and b-lines night called Forward and plays alongside such names as Oris Jay, Hatcha, and J Da Flex. Currently playing internationally as part of the London Elektricity live show this man is in demand and brought with him a bludging record bag full of the latest releases. The other special guest was Lombardo, signed to the Fragile Beatz label, who played at the last Darksyde event and returns again to lay down some more huge bass lines and lively break beat tunes.
We got into the club just after midnight and descended the stairs down to some bouncy 2 step and break beat tunes coming out of the system courtesy of Landslide. Having just started his set he was laying down some tasty tracks with a soulful urban feel occasionally deviating towards something with a tougher, quicker beat. Landslide’s production sound has been described as “hip hop meeting grime with a good measure of soul” and this is a good way of summing up the sound of many of the tracks played throughout the set. Although the tunes Landslide was playing sounded amazing the vibe was much more relaxed than what many on the dance floor were ready for at this time. He would occasionally bust out a few quicker tracks and build the vibe up to get everyone dancing but then would breakdown into a slower more melodic track. However the mans skills cannot be disputed as the set was mixed immaculately and introduced everyone to a slew of quality new tracks.
As the end of Landslide’s set approached Lombardo could be seen milling around behind the decks and when he started up there was no turning back. Having seen Lombardo whip Club 77 into an absolute frenzy last time he was out here for the last Darksyde I was looking forward to his set. Right from the first track he picked up the tempo and proceeded to play some amazing 2 step, break beat and drum and bass tunes I have heard in a while. Along with this he would hype the crowd with his feisty mixing, rewinds and odd tricks on the turntables. Some of the highlight tunes that Lombardo dropped during his set were DJ Hype presents the Ganja Kru – Super Sharp shooter which had everybody bouncing around to the ferocious bass line and great drum & bass beat and Friction & Nu Balance – Robocop.
As the end of his set approached with the crowd still going absolutely mental on the dance floor Landslide got up to go back-to-back with Lombardo giving him a chance to play some of the harder tunes he had stocked up in his record case. Unfortunately we had to leave the venue as the night stretched into morning and we did not get to see Farj, Paul Fraser and Q45 play; but I am sure from seeing them many times before that they would have laid down some storming tracks to keep the dance floor going. For those that have not been to Club 77 for a while it has been refurbished since its old days. Now the room looks great, has a dark but comfortable feel and the sound is tight, crisp and loud.
Overall it was a great night and props to Garage Pressure for bringing back and pushing this sound in the Sydney scene. From hearing the reactions of people on the night this sound is only going to gain more momentum and hopefully we can look forward to this night becoming a regular occurrence. See you at the next one!
Check out www.garagepressure.com for more info and mixes from the DJ’s I described above.
