As another winter weekend rocks along, along comes with it an exciting event featuring a diverse range of acts at the newly renovated Home nightclub, called Nokia Terminal 9. The event as the name suggests has corporate sponsorship from Nokia and featured some huge names such as Mix Master Mike, Pepe Deluxe, Koolism, Loose Cannons, Concord Dawn and many more. This huge line-up on offer for the relatively cheap ticket price of $41 was an absolute bargain and the event as expected sold out rather quickly. The headliner for this event, Mix Master Mike, is the turntablist extraordinaire for the Beastie Boys. Having been crowned DMC world champion three times he is known throughout the world as an all-round global hip hop legend. Pepe Deluxe are a Finnish duo set to wow audiences on their first tour of Australia with their twisted blend of chill, groove, funk, and jazz influenced tunes. Other acts on offer include rising stars of the UK the Loose Cannons, New Zealand underground drum and bass act Concord Dawn, Australia’s own Kid Kenobi together with MC Shureshock, electro breaks act Poxy Music and Australia’s hip hop favourites Koolism.

When we got to the venue we quickly checked out the new setup around the venue with Koolism on stage slamming out some great Australian hip hop. The group played a number of tracks from their 2004 Aria Award winning album titled ‘Part 3: Random Thoughts’ as well as a whole bunch of new tunes. As Mix Master Mike’s starting time was significantly delayed the lads played on for almost another 40mins playing a number of tracks, some scratching and tricks from the DJ and then a garage style mash up mix featuring the MCs and classic old school basslines from tracks such as Sparks and Kie – Fly Bi and Stanton Warriors – Da Antidote. After Koolism finished up their very entertaining and energetic set the room fell fairly quiet as a filler cd was put on over the speakers whilst waiting for Mix Master Mike to start. This was created quite a strange atmosphere as tracks such as Funky Cold Medina and other pop classics were pumped out through the system as time ticked by.

Finally Mix Master Mike appeared behind the decks with his laptop and Final Scratch style setup allowing him more time to focus on creating an almost unbelievably swift and entertaining mash up of countless huge party tracks spanning a heap of genres. His set was pretty much constructed by moving cleverly between the most built up part of the complementary tracks complete with mind boggling scratching, beat juggling and turntablist tricks. Some of the tracks I remember getting punched out through the main room speakers included Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit, Rage Against the Machine, Killing In the Name Of, Chemical Brothers – Block Rocking Beats, White Stripes – Seventh Nation Army, and a stack of quality hip hop and popular tunes which made for a great atmosphere in the main room. Overall, I was very impressed as it was an excellent balance of enjoyable tunes and technical tricks.

Next up in the main room were rocking UK act the Loose Cannons. This group consisted of an 8 piece live setup and their music was quite varied but all funky and rocking. However it was time to dart upstairs to the Terrace to check out Pepe Deluxe who had begun their 2 hour set. The terrace was packed with people and the vibe upstairs was a nice change with Pepe Deluxe rolling out a set packed full of funky, jazzy, groove oriented tracks with just enough energy to keep the room moving all night. We also checked out the thumping electro-breaks oozing out of the Silver room where Poxy Music were mid way through their set to another packed room. The sound and atmosphere in this room were amazing and made it quite difficult to leave.

After so much quality music and with the crowd quickly dissipating as the morning grew older we decided to make a move towards home quite satisfied with the evening and performances we had seen. Having gone to the event with someone who had never seen Mix Master Mike it was good to see them enjoy the set so much. The new renovations and sound system at home look great and I think it offers some great possibilities for memorable events in the months to come. The sound was amazing albeit loud however this is to be expected at a club night and which ever way you look at it the louder it is the more crazy the atmosphere at the venue. Visuals rocked it up with projections of Mix Master Mike and other acts both above the decks, along the balcony and on plasma screens along the wall a nice polished addition to general good atmosphere and party vibe. The only negatives were the long wait for Mix Master Mike and the usual idiots in the crowd who cannot seem to manoeuvre their way between people in a crowd without practically physically assaulting them, and them if they have a drink spilling everywhere and onto everyone. Overall, this was another top night of diverse music and well done to the Nokia Terminal 9 crew for a well organised event.