“Ill tell ya what fatman , if that had happened back in Australia, he’d already be toweling off and reaching for the talcum powder, without a shadow of a doubt”. And happen back in Australia last Saturday night at Heat Nightclub – It did. The big man of dance music , Carl Cox and fellow stalwarts in the scene The Freestyler(s) were in town to rock the Perth massive who were either a) too lazy/poor to go to the Big Day Out the next day, or b) Pre-empted the doors crashing down on the Boiler room and didn’t want to risk missing the pair after paying a ton for a ticket.

I walked in the main room of Heat to a fairly packed ground floor that was already getting down to the sexy beats of Luke Neville who built his set rather nicely for the crowd to get progressively amped up before Aston Harvey from the Freestylers was to rock the room. His last 3 or so tracks were growlier than the others as he pre-empted the onslaught that Aston was about to unleash.

At around 12 oclock, Harvey got up to the decks and wasted no time in getting the crowd moving , going straight into the Deekline and Wizard remix of Boomblast. Game on – the crowd was most certainly up for it as the MC didn’t go over board in hyping the crowd up. Aston played a, shall we call it “nostalgic” set going through some of the older freestylers tracks that they had become well known for as well as some of the recent releases throughout 2004. Breakfasterz ragga influenced Spit it Out was a nice follow up to Deekline and Wizards remix of Prodigy’s Outta space as well as the timing of the sirens in the song when about 30 uniformed police officers let their presence known in the club. Who knows – maybe there is an election coming up soon?

Probably the tuuune of all summer was unleashed on the Perth crowd soon after the boys in blue made their appearance. Rewinds in Breaks sets are fairly rare and this track deserved every wind back it got. Perths drum and bass sensations ,Pendulum had hinted in a recent interview of the work they had done with Freestylers, and Aston couldn’t have picked a better time to drop it. Very “Pendulum sounding” indeed , the track received an ‘off the hook’ response from the crowd when it dropped to the tearout bassline and steppy hook.

Aston continued to rip it out, including about half an hour of drum and bass which the heat crowd appreciated before going back to the breaks. JDS Blackout was a fitting second last tune for the set, with the crowd predictably going nuts at the never ending breakdown. My only gripe with the set was to follow. Who the heck follows up such a massive tune such as Blackout with the original of Push Up. Sure it’s their own track and is a funky track in its own right, but I just thought the mood of the dance floor was taken down when following up from such a massive tune.

2am rolled around and Carl Cox and his entourage of security graced us with their presence. Being witness to his previous set at global in 2003, I couldn’t help but notice the difference in energy and quality of his mixing this time around. This was the Carl Cox that many had been raving about before the Global gig and the Big Man didn’t disappoint.  Cox banged out a driving 4/4 set of tech house, tribal as well as a little bit of cheese for the masses in the form of 7th Nation Army. Tracks to feature in his set that got the crowd moving and sweaty for the next 2 and a half hours were eric sneo – rock the planet, dj misjah – so high, oliver klein – virus, and danny casseau – project. Carl Cox definitely didn’t disappoint and many of the crowd commented about how much more energetic his set was this time compared to the Global appearance from 2003.

After Carl Cox has finished, it was time for me to make an exit so unfortunately I was unable to witness Perths ITM number 1, Kenneth L.

What a way to kick off the proceedings for some who were backing up the next day at the big day out. But from many reports it was probably a better alternative to the debacle that occurred the next day during the Freestylers and Cox’s set in the Boiler room, but hey , that’s not my review ;).