As a James Zabiela virgin, and having heard a lot about him, I was very excited to hear that Friction and Lexington Music were bringing him to Canberra. And, I can wholeheartedly say that James is easily one of, if not the best DJs I have ever seen, and this night is one that will not soon be forgotten. My only gripe is that Nic Fanciulli wasn’t there too, as their mix CD for the One+One project is excellent.
I arrived fairly late, in time to see Jeff Drake spinning some cool sounds. At this stage I was somewhat shocked, thinking “where are all the people”. I’d been thinking that the scale of the event would have rivalled that of Sneaky Sound System, but the ANU refectory had been closed off so it was quite a small capacity. Alas, it seems that there aren’t as many Zabiela fans as I thought, yet, this was a good thing as it allowed more of an intimate vibe. But by the time Zabiela started, and ended, the venue was positively packed. And the intimate nature of the gig did make it better, as you knew that everyone who was there genuinely wanted to see this man/robot do his thing.
Zabiela is the most technically awesome DJ in the world, ever. He produces sounds and effects that blow your mind, and his track selection is absolutely spot on. The perfect blend of underground and slightly more well known tunes, but nothing obvious. And everything is mashed so that it is unrecognizable, along with his signature samples and sounds that he uses. Such as the ‘thank you’ at the end. That was a nice touch.
I really cannot say anything bad about this night. The venue, the crowd, everything was perfect. Except for the sound. It was loud. Ear damagingly loud. I couldn’t bear to actually stay on the dance floor for longer than 5 minutes at a time, due to risk of damage to my hearing. Other than that, this will be a hard night to beat in 2008. I cant wait till the next gig. So Look out for the debut of Frictions new night B.A.D. next Friday.
