Perth is well known for its undying love of the broken beat, and this weekend in June served up two of the finest international exponents of the breaks genre for a night worthy of anticipation. Promoters Boomtick, as well as music forum regulars, did a good job of hyping this gig and as a result, the line for the limited door sales stretched 45min around the block by some reports. Those lucky enough to score a last minute ticket were in for a night to remember. Or not, depending on how hard they partied. It was one of those evenings.

Arriving at Villa and navigating towards the rest of our crew to the sounds of the Stanton Warriors remix of the Plumps’ Shifting Gears, we knew we were in the right place for a good time. Micah was high up in the skybox laying down some solid warm-up numbers. Using a combination of CDs and laptop equipped with Traktor, he worked an already packed crowd with style.

The prime grooving areas on the two levels of Villa’s impressive architecture were well & truly occupied when Deekline hit the decks soon after 1AM. Serato was the software of choice for this selector as he let loose a barrage of bootys, remixes, mashups, and original tracks. His scratching skills were also on display: always a welcome addition to a party when done to this level of precision.

More Stanton tracks popped up: Precinct got a great response, and their remix of Deekline & Wizard’s Handz Up was also dropped early. Madcon’s Beggin’ was played, even though Micah gave it a spin not much earlier. Timo Mass’ version of Doom’s Night and a breaks remix of Deadmau5’ Ghosts n Stuff was certain to rev up the masses.

The commercial nature of the set took on a more obvious slant when Kings of Leon’s Use Somebody put some hands in the air. Fair enough, it’s Deekline’s own remix and the response it garners is pretty huge. As the Black Eyed Peas’ Boom Boom Pow hit the speakers, something was definitely wrong. The also- overplayed One in the Front and Blur’s Song 2 sealed the deal as the set wavered off into a far too predictable festival style for my liking. That said, it was a high energy flow that set the scene for Skool of Thought’s more welcome underground selection.

A wicked re-rub of the Freestylers’ The Slammer shared space with other fresh monsters, all containing huge basslines and satisfying syncopation. The highlight for me was SOT’s own remix of Groove Armada’s Superstylin complete with a half-time tasty dubstep drop. I was actually expecting more of this kind of dubstep territory from Skool of Thought but he mostly stuck with heavy breakbeats. I was disappointed that he didn’t drop new single Heart of the Hood, but still, his talent shone through, and he definitely won the award for ‘set of the night’.

Mono Lisa then had the unenviable job of following some pretty big tunes and keeping the masses stuck to the floor. Her 10, 9, 8, 7, 6… countdown intro had the doubters well & truly on her side as she stuck to the breaks formula that worked all night and continued feeding some nasty beats through the bass bins. Not far from closing time, exhaustion took over and I dragged myself out into the chilly night air lest I end up as a permanent dehydrated fixture on the Villa floor.

The entire night was rinsed with 90% proof breaks, with a small smattering of 4/4 styles and dubstep rounding out proceedings. Many major breaks gigs and fests can look to this ratio as a thankful reminder that a night can be very successful by staying true to this much analysed & criticised genre. All in all, a wicked night. Next!