About a week ago Palu (Canberra’a esteemed editor in chief) sold his soul to the inthemix devils and made an evil pact. He agreed to give up his soul in exchange for one review of the Surgery Xmas Party. After much consternation by the mysterious men and women of inthemix, it was decided that I (asparagus) of photography notoriety was to do my first review. I hope you will all keep this in mind when reading this. (In other words: please be gentle!) And sorry if I misspelled any names of DJs or tracks. Word Spellchecker can only fix so much! Peace out. 

The surgery Xmas party was a night of two parts. The first half of the night was devoted to some great DnB. I have to say from the outset that I am not a connoisseur of DnB, so my views are anything but authoritative. I guess you could call me a DnB ‘voyeur’ of sorts! Anyway, the first thing to greet me upon entry was the sounds of DJ Pooki, but as I arrived at the very end of his set I was unable to get a full feel for it. What I did hear of the set was a mix of trance and ‘DnB’esque music which was the perfect appetiser for the first main course of the night: Benjammin vs Paf. Even though I am not a frequent listener, I have to say that the stuff these two played was sheer gold. Back to back the boys completely blew me away with a style of music which was until this day about 10th on my “music styles I like to listen to”. I can very safely say that thanks to these two, I now view DnB with much higher esteem and will be looking out for more DnB events to go to.

But less about me and back to the night. The boys opened up with Concord Dawn’s “Don’t tell me” which was awesome. Other memorable tracks were Konflict’s  ‘Messiah’ and Black Sun Empire’s ‘the Rat’. Messiah particularly moved me with its dark evilness. Great track! All in all these two were a pleasure to watch, with Paf’s excellent track selection and Benjammin dancing around like it was 1999, making the start of the night particularly entertaining. To add to this veritable buffet of fine DnB was the guest appearance of the beautiful Eska, who graced us with her presence and a few select tracks. Lovely as always!

To complete the first part of my evening Loose Canon also tried his hand at a bit of DnB, reasonably well, which is impressive considering his normal penchant for all things hard. Watching Alexxx and a certain female DJ try to ‘feel the Drum and Bass’ was also particularly entertaining and capped off the first part of the night.

The second course of the night kicked off with the also-lovely X-dream. She smoothly transitioned the night and the mood from one of DnB to one of Hard Trance and Hardstyle. I was so absorbed by her music that I actually forgot to write down any track names. What I can say it that as always I enjoyed her set which included a mix of softer trancey tracks and the harder acidy and hardstyley tracks (I know those words don’t exist, but throw me a bone here peoples. It is my first review!)

Her great performance was followed up by Loose Canon and DJ Cranky. In my humble opinion Loose Canon is going to make it really big in the next couple of years. Every set that I hear him play is better than the last, and this night’s was no exception. Good from the start all the way to when I had to go home a few hours later. I also have to say that Loose Canon and Cranky seem to feed off each other, and provide great entertainment to watch and listen to. The music got harder and louder as the night progressed, powered by Simon’s awesome rig, which was sounding particularly nice with the ex-Red Gecko mixer. The clean bass sound helped show off the great mixing skills of these two Djs. Tracks to write home about: Umleitung. Sends shivers down my spine every time. Other great tracks included Black is Back and Taken by 009.  

All in all I have to say that I had a fantastic night, and look forward to seeing more great parties put on by the Surgery Crew. The crowd was the usual and cheery one that I have come to expect at most events of this ilk. Canberra may be a small place, but the crowds here play harder than many other larger places. Big Ups to everybody involved and everybody who came!

Asparagus