Great day, great lineup, great party… Melboure will be gagging for our next Parklife installment I’m sure.

I need to preface this review with a statement regarding my music preferences. I am an unapologetic breaks fan. Whilst I happily dabble in a diverse range of electronic music my passion first and foremost is solidly within the realm of a mashed up broken beat. As such the majority of my day was spent reveling in the tunes in the Earth stage and whilst I meandered through the other stages it is impossible to be in three stages at once so my review is someone focused on the happenings of one of the stages.

Fervent prayers to the weather gods that rain would remain at bay for the day were answered. Despite the sky looking perilously close to opening up the ground stayed dry for the whole party, justifying Melbourne’s inclusion in what has for the past few years been strictly a Sydney, Brisbane and Perth tradition. Birrarung Mar has presented itself as an amazing new venue for events right in the heart of the city. The relatively small area means that getting from stage to stage was not the ordeal that it can often be with any major festival. Amazing views were on display from the hillside over Southbank and the river in general, making it the perfect place to rest those weary legs after an afternoon’s dancing. Hopefully it is a space that will be utilized more in the future.

The day began with the customary gathering of friends where we were presented with Blueprint pulling off his traditionally impressive live set with live drumming but a disappointingly small crowd turnout. His sets have been right on the mark each time I’ve seen him and it’s a shame that so few people were there to witness more of his magic.

Next up was Peril on the decks mixing up a, true to his style, predominantly hip hop based set. His partner in crime MC Surreal was up front getting the crowd a bit more motivated but I couldn’t help but feel that the drastic increase in punters towards the back end of his set had something to do with the fact that he was followed by Kid Kenobi.

Then Australia’s favourite breaks DJ was up on stage with his colleague MC Sureshock. With a rather down tempo intro he incrementally upped the pace in a progressive buildup before blasting into a full fledged breaks assault.

Mixing up a storm he kept the dance floor shaking for the full length of his hour long set validating his impressive reputation around the Australian and indeed worldwide electronic music scene. Mixing up some of his party favourites he finished his set with an awesome Bloc Party remix leaving the crowd’s music cravings well satiated. One hangup I had about his set was that it was leaning towards very electro/housey breaks – a more recent shift it seems since he wasn’t playing these tunes last time he graced Melbourne’s shores. This in itself isn’t wrong but it just seems that this is an attempt at trying to keep breaks more relevant by shifting the direction of sets to what’s popular now and right now it is very much electro.

My biggest regret of the party was that house legend Mark Farina was playing the same time as Kid Kenobi causing one of those dilemmas of any festival where prioritizing means missing out on someone’s set. No matter – at the end of the day you make your choices and live with them.

Stanton Warriors stepped up to the stage next and again hit the crowd with a high energy breaks set. I stepped in and out of the tent throughout their set checking out the venue and some of the other stages. It reaffirmed my previously held opinion that Fuzzy are one of the best promoters in this country. With the exception of a (pretty severe at points) toilet deficiency the event seemed to run flawlessly. The tents were roomy, the crowds not too huge, the people happy, the variety and quality of tunes impeccable.

With the Stanton’s set finished up there was a shift in momentum from one of the top breaks outfits to one of the best turntablists in the world. Having split from Jurassic 5 Cut Chemist has forged a solid reputation as a killer turntablist in his own right. Last time I saw him was at a small underground funk club where he did an unadvertised show in front of maybe 200 people.
Quite a glaring contrast to the, by this point, well filled Earth tent… He proved his skills again pulling off turntable tricks and blasting out both a technically professional and sonically astounding set. It was the perfect respite for legs that had by this point done some seriously hard dancing, groovy stuff that just radiated funk.

Next up were, in my humble opinion the most impressive outfit of the entire festival – Coldcut. These guys are absolute masters of their craft and about the only act I really wanted to see and still hadn’t yet. From the second they wheeled in their setup – quite literally about 7 metres in length you knew you were in for something special. They delivered… Yet despite how amazing their set was it was almost eclipsed by their visuals. It seems like it must have been somewhat pre-produced, this assertion based on the perfect synchronization between the visuals and the beats. Either that or they’re even better than I thought they were before. They dropped a couple of tracks from their new album (which if you haven’t heard it already, is one of the best releases of the year) and dropped an extremely hard section of hardcore drum and bass, rejected immediately by the breaks purists, but to those with any appreciation of the genre complemented the diversity of their set perfectly..

The next hour, and there’s always one of them for everyone at any festival, was spent randomly trying to meet up with all your crew that you’ve lost. As I’m not the hugest Beastie Boys fan I wasn’t too gutted that I missed his set but by all accounts I heard later it was a wonder to watch.

And then to finish up was Krafty Kuts, master of all things funky. The 8:30 to 10:00 timeslot is a big responsibility and it takes a special type of DJ to step up to the mark and Krafty came up with the goods. The tent was filled to capacity with people making sure they crammed in a complete days worth of tunes. To tell you the truth his set went by like a blur to me.

Whilst I remember having a good dance, particularly to a funked up remix of “Bass Phenomenon” the final hour and a half flew by at an unrivalled pace.
Before I knew it the crowd was cheering before that final walk out the gates wondering where the hell that day went.

So now on Monday night, the blisters on my feet from dancing have healed, my various extremities have stopped cramping up, my ears have stopped ringing and my head has stopped pounding but my memories are holding tight. This was an amazing show and a great introduction to a party that it seems the rest of Australia has been holding pretty close to their chests. Great day, great lineup, great party… I’ll be first in line next year without a doubt.