So I thought awesome, ITM party, familiar faces, good tunes from a tried and tested breaks don (Hyper) and our own local talent pool, many a drunken shenanigan too look forward to and be enjoyed… Climbing up the stairwell into the lush world that is the Uber eyrie overlooking West End’s main artery Boundary St, I was greeted by the chilled sounds of the lounge room DJ a cheery receptionist and a lovely, but massive, bowl of potpourri. Not a lot of crowd though, and a distinct lack of ITM familiar faces. Gee well, obviously the reason no one is lounging in the lounge is everyone is hanging out in the main room because it’s so rockin’. 

Opening the door to the main room I was greeted by the pleasing sounds of smooth deep DnB – a glance at the DJ booth revealed a change in the pre-listed line up – those purveyors of fine Rudeness, Brisbane’s own Rudebwoyz were still rocking the dancefloor. Which was clearly visible through the complete lack of dancers. The furniture wasn’t being hidden by seething crowds either; all 10 or so punters in the main room seemed quite content to sit in the shadows or up at the bar having a chat or pulling a quiet bass face in the corner. In such situations of slight disappointment in terms of crowd size, the impetus of both the crowd and the acts must be to make the most of what they’ve got – or let the night flop. Fortunately for me, the rest of the evening was rendered most enjoyable through both artists and punters setting out to achieve some fun.

Taking advantage of the freedom to play, the handful of punters present were treated by Rudebwoyz’ Operon unleashing one of his own productions, upping the downbeat pace set by partner in Rudeness Erther from intelligent dance floor shuffler to hoover laden ravey vocal’d 2-steppin junglizm. A change of pace also signalled the beginnings of the Uber Olympics; undeterred by the fact that this particular party, dripping in ITM banners, managed to summons only a handful of ITMers out of the woodwork, those dedicated Brisbane forum whores Pez’n’Tez made the most of a lack of other human interaction by transforming a 3-seat bar couch into a canoe, a double scull, a toboggan, a race car, a vaulting horse….. I’m not quite sure who the winner was,  but I think it was me, being provided with visual distraction other than those hawt Rudies behind the decks.

Finally, as I was beginning to lose hope that Bass Kleph were to play at all, 11:30pm or so swung round and armed with a laptop, a mic and a visual projector, Bass Kleph took the reins from the selectors and plugged in the lappy for some live action. My respect always goes out to an artist who steps up to the plate facing an empty room, and instead of looking bored and hopelessly uninspired, steps up and has a bit of their own fun. Bass Kleph didn’t disappoint us or himself; among the opening tracks was the remix of the Drummatic Twins ‘Feelin’ Kinda Strange’, a track I tend to find quite irritating in it’s original form but quite funky and danceable with the Bass Kleph treatment. Accompanying the aural delights was a visual show featuring an awful lot of ankle. Emblazoned with a bass clef, the ankle was shot from here, shot from there, then the camera was angled and it was shot from everywhere….. Abstract, not sexy in particular, but definitely an intriguing ankle. Mr Kleph used the microphone to full effect over the sample-laden funkitronic sub bass melodies flowing from his setup, voicoding and joking with the crowd until a solid 1-2 person dance floor was established and those hiding in the shadows were either bopping their heads or laughing along with Bass Kleph in full MC mode. His use of his own voice as a live bassline generator was right up there in terms of live performance value with Future Prophesies and their midi clarinet earlier in the year, in my opinion. 

Around half twelve, Hyper, breaks legend and centrepiece of the Inthemix is Six tour line up emerged, albeit a little late, to take over mixing duties. To the man’s credit, a few driving breaks numbers into his set he had a good third or so of the crowd present in the main room up and dancing (a grand total of about 8, not too bad for a crowd that didn’t peak over 30 or so), and again, part of this was his own infectious enthusiasm. Hyper is obviously a well travelled and seasoned artist; again to his credit he appeared undeterred by the small turnout delivering a solid set of the expected but still pleasant party / new school breakbeat sound, interspersed with what appears to be the required amount of popular electro tinged housey numbers to allow the hypothetical dance floor to have a cool down shuffle before throwing in some older style acid line driven stomping breaks with just a touch of the 4×4 drive – not to forget the Big Names a la Prodigy et al featured in the Inthemix is Six CD mix compiled by Bass Kleph and Hyper for ITM. And all the while dancing, singing, and drinking along to his own beats.

All the elements of a messy, enjoyable ITM party were in place in my mind, except for the most vital component – the ITMers themselves. Conversations with inside contacts revealed however that the problem with attendance was officially not Queensland’s fault, in fact we told them so (ITMers in Brisbane like to live in the Shamrock, the Empire, and Family preferably of a Friday or Saturday night and breaks on a Thursday in West End is unlikely to have us breaking the doors down, especially considering we just had a very successful ITM gathering at the Shamrock featuring DnB and Techno and no breaks to speak of…. Hmmm, go figure) so it’s all Melbourne’s fault. Or Sydney’s – whoever it is in charge down Mexico way. In either case as long as someone down that way sends us Bass Kleph to perform again up here, all will be forgiven in my books – an excellent local strayan choice to go B2B with international super-DJ Hyper mixing the Inthemix Is Six CD, and an awesome live act that deserves to be showcased in Brisbane with, say, an audience for a start. Fortunately for all the artists and punters present at least the ongoing Uber sound system saga seems to have had most of the kinks ironed out, rendering it a venue with the potential to inject further nightlife into the burgeoning Boundary St entertainment strip and some much needed diversity into Brisbane’s scene…..

.....not that any of you ITMers can argue with any of the above because you weren’t there anyway. :P