What a busy night of high profile gigs happening across Perth! With Innercity
happening a couple of blocks one way, and Perth DnB heavyweights Pendulum hitting
Metro a couple of  blocks the other way , it was a feast of a day of Electronic music
happening for all fans of all Genres. Focusing on the Breakbeat genre, Canada’s Andrew
“Myagi” Mavor was in town to show us his stuff on Ableton Live at Geisha’s Backbeat.
With a strong local line up in support with Gully and the Beetslappaz, the night promised
to deliver a blend of funky, tough and driving beats.

Coming across from
Innercity during the day, I arrived at Geisha just as it was opening and the Beetslappaz
were warming up the decks. Playing a funkier set than normal, the Soundbreaks.net
head honcho’s, Ian G and Juxtapose were blending a good mix of funky tracks including
Deibeats Hittin the Jack, local lads Signal Drivers “Liquid Bang” before finishing up on
their own production “Rogan Josh” which got the punters ‘wooing’ and ‘shaking for more
when the half step breakdown came on.

Gully stepped up to a half full Geisha but
did a great job of filling the dancefloor in time for Myagi to step up. Having arrived back
that day from a trip to the UK and spain, Gully’s crate was fresh full of new material that
he had obviously picked up on his travels. Some known tracks were played as well to
keep the punters senses in tact. Tracks I noticed was an Aquasky remix of a vocal track
that is soon to hit on Passenger records, the name eludes me. Also Control Z’s Shotgun
Riddem was well received from the club as well. By now the dance floor was well packed
and it was clear that even though there were two massive events taking place that day ,
it didn’t deter from the punters coming out and enjoying themselves on the Easter Long
weekend.

12 oclock would see Myagi hit the limelite to a full nightclub. A lot
had been said about the young man and his use of the ever-increasingly popular Abelton
program, which has become much of a heated discussion amongst djs and producers
alike. The first 10 minutesof his set would see him work the program to good effect,
cutting chopping amongst loops and accapellas creating live mash-ups on the fly. Notably
slipping in Jurrasic 5’s - ”Whats Golden” over a hectic, funk fueld breaks
track.

From the word go, one could tell that the crowd would be in for a
bumpity ride of funk influenced breaks and would show that Myagi has deep roots in his
funk music and hip-hop styles. After grabbing the crowds attention, Myagi stepped into
his own and showcased a selection of tracks that were forthcoming. Mostly remixes and a
few originals, but none-the-less very upfront and gave the crowd a treat of what to
expect from the canadian in the near future. Honourable mention goes to Myagi’s own
“Cure For Pain” which worked the crowd into a frenzy at the breakdown. All at the same
time keeping his mash-up theme up with the tunes and dropping favourites such as “Ice
Ice Baby” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” - which I might add, gave his whole set
an element of fun.

Stepping into a bit more tech-territory myagi still kept the
energy flowing and once again with the aid of Abelton and the ability to improvise on the
fly, kept the  crowd on their feet, even stripping it back to a US (Dj Fixx) remix of
Midnight Oil’s - ”Beds Are Burning” which had many punters on the floor singing
along.

Still humming along, Myagi finished it up nicely with a few well known
tunes  and more original and remixes from the vault, much to the dissapointment of the
backbeat crowd who were screaming “ONE MORE!!” when the lights came
on.

What a wicked way to finish the Easter long weekend !