There is nothing more potent than the combination of a DJ who is perfectly in synch with his MC, as was the case with DJ Marky and MC Stamina on Anzac Day eve at The Prince. These two managed to keep the crowd captivated and moving to their every beat and rhyme, through their sheer energy and enthusiasm for the music. But I’m getting ahead of myself! Arriving at the very un drum n’ bass time of 11-ish (how silly of me to forget that midnight in Melbourne is when it all starts!) the Prince was quiet in terms of headz, but I enjoyed lush sounds being provided by DJ Dust. Rolling out a very pleasing selection of musical tunes from the likes of Commix, Logistics and Lomax & Focus (with 5 Weeks sounding particularly great in a big space) she provided a very smooth introduction to the night.

And the venue looked a treat; the Upfront crew had gone to considerable effort to dress the place up. There was of course the standard cammo netting as well as a variety of plants, and some nice visuals making the place feel all that more jungleistic and less onelove.
By the time Dust had stepped aside to allow JPS and Hooves to go back to back, a number of bodies had moved out of the shadows and onto the dance floor. Hooves and JPS started out with some energetic vocal tunes and worked their way through to some techy sounds providing quite the contrast to Dust.

When Marky and Stamina stepped up, the Prince was packed, ready for a sessions of quality dance floor biz and that’s exactly what was delivered. Although Marky is generally known for his more musical or ‘liquid’ style of drum n’ bass, his set was not limited to this style. He varied things up, mixing in some ‘jump-up’ style of drum n’ bass tunes before switching back to the musical vibes. As expected he drew a lot of material from his recent Masterplan release (including tunes from Random Movement) and general faves like High Contrast’s If We Ever, some classics from Ed Rush and Optical and some incoming big tunes (watch out for Subfocus’ Timewarp).

Coming from the diverse musical upbringing, it’s not surprising that Brazil’s Marky didn’t restrict himself to drum n’ bass for the whole set, as there was a segment of his set where he stopped and played some influential tunes including Bob Marley & The Wailers’ Could You Be Loved as well as Mas Que Nada amongst others. Whilst he didn’t play his joint hit with XRS (2002’s LK) he did play the track that inspired the tune Carolina Carol Bela. Marky didn’t even limit himself to using the decks merely to play his tunes; they became percussion, as at one point he picked up whole thing and scratching as though it were a guitar. He also demonstrated his vocal talent after Stamina handed him the mic and he sang along to a tune.

Generally towards the end of an international’s set the crowd starts to thin out, however such was the conviction of this two that the majority of the crowd stayed until, very reluctantly, Marky handed control over to Joe Seven. Many thanks to all involved from bringing out the ‘tornado from Sao Paulo’ with his trusty MC Stamina, for a night of high vibes on the dance floor!