Aquasky have long been heralded as the purveyors of the “meaty bassline.” Their drum ‘n’ breaks attitude also shines brightly in their DJ sets. With massive (I mean huge) build-ups, and pounding rhythms, their descent on Canberra kept dancers firmly stuck on the dance floor of Toast with hands waving frantically in the air. And with the release of their new album “Teamplayers” in tow and talks of an Aquasky live band in the works, it is a poignant time for the rejuvenated Aquasky to shine without Masterblaster.

I arrived just in time to catch the last half of Dave Scully who warmed the turntables for Aquasky. Dave is an entertaining DJ and loves to work with the crowd. His set consisted of almost trance-like breaks, and a couple of times he would cheekily sneak in some acappelas such as Pink “Let’s Get this Party Started” (at least I think he did), and some other well known songs. The build-ups were big, the sounds were urgent and there was one function in his music – to induce dancing. At times, I found his set rather dull due to the pure functionality of his music and my body was unable to groove… That was until he slowed it right down with some twisted reggae-breaks to get me back on my feet again. 

When Aquasky graced the stage it was rather late. But the wait was worth it because this time ‘meaty’ cohort Brent Newitt joined the proceedings with Keiran. The two would replace each other behind the decks all night, which in my opinion didn’t work too well. I felt as though the two of them lacked consistency throughout the night, at times making it a very stop-starty affair. When they changed over the intensity and momentum of the set would stall and go into 2nd maybe 3rd gear. But that didn’t stop the two from choosing great tracks. Their selection focusing heavily on drum ‘n’ breaks with driving basslines and catchy danceable rhythms.

Brent’s start was particularly good, working the crowd into a frenzy by cleverly breaking in and out of an awesome guitar sample. I found it interesting watching the DJ when he wasn’t DJing. Especially Kevin, who would constantly be grooving away and focusing on the direction of the music whilst on the sidelines.  And when Keiran dropped “Take it to the Floor” from their insanely catchy Stay Fresh album, the crowd went nuts and bananas and monkeys! It was a delight to see. Although, as a minor disappointment, the quality of sound coming from Toast’s tinny Peavey soundsystem was at times frustrating. If they are going to provide us with international quality music (and let’s hope we see more), they really need to provide us with a soundsystem that does justice to the music (or use it to its capacity).

Overall, if you are a breakbeat fan you were probably watching the boys showing off their tasty breakbeat frenzy, and if you weren’t, why not? Congratulations to the Landspeed crew and lets hope some more ‘interesting’ dance acts come to visit our Pleasantville nation. Oh, what’s that? Digitalism on the 2nd of June? See you there!