Every now and then someone becomes so enthusiastic about a particular type of music, they decide to try their hand at promoting and running a dance party. As this was the first event thrown by the BassElement crew, the Adelaide Massive were keen to support their grand entrance on to the scene. It was a freezing cold Adelaide night as we all headed into Tonic. I remember thinking on the way in that one could be forgiven for not wanting to leave the house (or the heater) on a night like this and hoped that not too many people would choose the easy option.

Once inside, I scuttled past the House DJ and made my way out to the back room of the club where the onslaught of the hard and fast Drum and Bass was commencing. I was immediately enveloped by shockwaves of rolling bass and ear pleasing treble courtesy of Fiction and Filter- rocking it out in true Inbound style. Nudging my way to the bar, I noticed that the room wasn’t particularly crowded, however, within about twenty minutes there were around a hundred people going off to the tough, early selections.

As one o’clock approached, the six foot six gargantuan, Gigantor, made his way to the decks and unleashed the Evol Intent sound by way of an unreleased Tech Itch dub, ‘Death Jazz’. As Mike worked the CD platters, the Adelaide Massive was bombarded with lashings of sub-bass thanks to the generosity of Satori, who had arranged extra bass bins to compliment the crisp, club sound system. This indeed ensured that Tonic would be rumbled to its very foundations. Satori once formed a part of Adelaide’s old Rumble Crew of many years ago. Her insight and experience coupled with BassElement’s enthusiasm and positivity created a great atmosphere with a fabulous sound system.

Soon after Gigantor had begun, the crowd swelled to around a hundred and fifty people. The beats continued to get harder and harder as Mike dropped two huge smashers by Evol Intent, ‘Corrupt Cops Remix’ and the soon to be released ‘Street Knowledge VIP’. The crowd responded with gusto, making plenty of noise and calling for ample rewinds. Several new and unknown tracks were slotted into Mike’s set (including one tune that was apparently less than three days old), but plenty of hands went up when Evol Intent’s ‘8 Bit Bitch’ dropped. Mike rinsed it out solidly for nearly another hour before he finished (shortly before three thirty) concluding the set with a release from fellow heavyweight producer Limewax, ‘666’. It was a storming end to a disgustingly brilliant set… and one which was lapped up by the dance floor punters.

Local DJs Patch, Jason and Kiddo closed out the night with hard beats a-plenty but to be honest, by that time, I was well trashed and needed to go and rest my legs and ears. Props go out to MCs Pase and Seek for their vocal stylings on the mic all night and for knowing exactly when to let the tracks do their thing on their own- a valuable asset among MCs.

All eyes will be on the BassElement crew to see what they come up with next. The success of this party ‘blew their minds’ and there certainly seems to be a large demographic of Hard Drum & Bass heads prepared to throw all their support behind these lads. An absolutely smashing maiden event, this night will certainly take some topping!