As expected, the drum n bass collektiv turned out in the masses to witness brilliance in its raw form. The World of Drum n Bass Tour was held in the Heat nightclub, now a premier spot for drum n bass fans. Consisting of Killa Kella, Kenny Ken, DJ SS and Twisted Individual; it was to be a special night to finish off their world wind tour that included countries from UK to Canada and even Russia.

Arriving at 12 and greeted by the tunes of ol skool hip-hop, I was not surprised about the excellent turnout that arrived to witness some of the biggest and best names of drum n bass (dnb) in action. The club was packed to capacity and the crowd was waiting eagerly in anticipation of the night to begin.

Not wanting to keep the punters waiting, Skeletrik took the decks and MC Trip took the mic promising to ‘blowout Perth’ to end their world tour. After a few minutes of introductions and formalities, MC Trip brought out Killa Kella to amaze the crowd on his beat-boxing skills. It was reminiscent of the umbilical brothers where MC Trip would say a sound efffect and Kella would reproduce it. When MC Trip said “bass kick” and Kella reproduce perfectly, the crowd cheered for more. Then there was progressing passing beats, snares, single high hats and double high hats, which sounded like the sprinklers that sprayed from one side to the other and back to position. Also in there was the ‘reverse’ sound effect and then impressing everyone by delivering wicked beats from placing his mic against his throat. It was like seeing break-dancing moves on music videos and wanting to copy it so that we could impress our friends; except with beat-boxing we could practice it within the confines of our bedrooms.

Round 2 started with Kella providing the sound effects on beats from Britney Spear’s ‘Slave for you’. It sounds weird to be beat boxing to that song, but when he sang the words ‘I’m a slave for you’ and then made the thunderous booms and basses after, it sent shockwaves thru the packed building; it was freaking amazing. He also did renditions of 50 Cent’s ‘21 Questions’ and Jay-Z’s ‘Hustler’ and then electrifying the crowd with his remix of Kelis ‘Milkshake’ with his own lyrics. To finish off, MC Trip said all the sound effects in random order and Kella synchronised it perfectly. It was insanely amazing to hear what was in front of us. There was great crowd involvement and when Trip asked if everyone got their money’s worth, the punters roared to sounds of their approval.

After a short intro, Kenny Ken and MC Foxy were up next at 1.30am. Kenny Ken light his cigarette before putting his first vinyl into place and started slowly with his beats. But soon enough he progressed to his quicker beats, reflecting what the crowd wanted. During the set, 3 beach balls were bounced around the dance stage with MC Foxy providing the kick-back when it got to him. The Fugee’s ‘Ready or Not’ was played to the crowd’s delight and had them singing to it.

Foxy then announced that this is ‘the best fucking party…fucking gravy’ and that DJ SS told him that Perth was the best place that they’ve played anywhere in the world. This reviewer does think Perth is one of the best places to be for dnb, but when you have 12,000 turning out in Russia for them, it was hard to believe. But I guess our frenetic enthusiasm more than makes up for the numbers!

At times during the set, beats were mixed in all over the place and the crowds had somewhat dispersed during Kenny Ken’s set, which is actually a good thing as it provided more space to dance. But by 3am when DJ SS and Twisted Individual were ready to play, the crowds move in once again, packing the dance floor. The duo took on 3 decks between them and sent the crowds into a frenzy with their heavy rollers (steppers), mixed slammers and heavy bass-lines, where a lot of tracks played were fresh off their studios from Formation Records and where it wouldn’t come out for the public for another 6 months. DJ SS and Twisted Individual delivered the 1-2 punch that would knock off everyone off their feet.

Unlike the Bass Sessions: Dillinja and Lemon D event that was held at The Office a month ago, the sound system at the Heat nightclub didn’t blow out everyone’s ears and left them deft for two days (like this reviewer experienced!).  The only negative aspect of the night was too much strobe lighting that could’ve left you blind or send you into a fit if stared at too long! It was a distraction, but didn’t harm an otherwise excellent night.

  It was 3.53am when I looked at the time and noticed people had cooled off their dancing shoes and the railings upstairs, which overlooked the stage and dance floor, were surrounded by punters who were happy to just listen to skillz displayed to them by DJ SS and Twisted Individual. But 20 minutes later, the duo dropped the fattest baselines and we were back in business. Everyone’s energy levels were revived and were moving and stomping again. At various times, DJ SS fanned himself with his vinyls indicating how hard he was working. They both continued to bang out the heavy beats to the approval of everyone until the break of dawn.

The whole night was filled with an excellent party atmosphere and friendly people all around including the hospitable staff. As MC Trip suggested the dnb community left their egos behind and instead, lived and thrived on the music they all came for. A friend told me she hasn’t been to such a bad boy gig like this in years. Agreed.

For more info go to:

killakella.com

formationrecords.com