The guys from Someone Say Dubstep and Reprazent promotions promised a night full of big, heavy bass at Bar Open with rising UK Dubstep artist and DJ, Emalkay, making his way to Perth for the first time on Friday July 31st. Coupled with a killer local line-up and the addition once again of extra subs for the venue meant that the night would definitely live up to that promise and be a sonic treat.

It goes to show how big the Perth Dubstep scene is becoming considering the excitement surrounding this show and the fact tickets had sold out several days in advance. This fact in itself however proved to be the only real downer of the evening; downstairs at Bar Open can be cramped at the best of times, so when the club was packed it made it a mission to move anywhere or have a respectable amount of room to let loose on the dance floor.

Yet this gripe aside the rest of the night was out of this world; first set of the night was a debut for local lads Rafti & Astep and they delivered with a really solid mix, Proximity Effect followed up showing why he’s one of the big names in the local scene, his mixing was spot on and he played some great tracks, with Caspa’s remix of I Remember mixed in with Nero’s Act Like You Know being a favourite with the crowd.

Next to step up to the decks was *Kito*¸ another of the local dubstep elite; with releases on Dubstep legend Skream’s imprint Disfigured Dubz you can see she has a really promising future. Kito’s set was helped by the fact that the promised extra subs really started to crank when she started mixing. The crowd responded enthusiastically to her collaboration with Reija Lee – LFO – in particular.

At 1AM it felt like a sauna inside the club and the crowd was really crammed in, yet this didn’t stop everyone really getting into it when Emalkay took the booth. From the moment he dropped his first track the sound levels went through the roof, the sub bass was insane, the floor was vibrating madly, and at one point in the night I could clearly hear the sounds from Bar Open leaking out the club seventy metres away down James Street. Emalkay’s track selection and mixing were superb, his own tracks Explicit and as yet unreleased remix of When I Look at You really tore the place up. Perhaps a few too many wind backs littered Emalkay’s set, but overall I appreciated hearing a really energetic mix that didn’t rely too much on the sometimes overused Dubstep wobble.

After what must have only been just over an hour Emalkay finished up and Rekab took over for the final set of the night, as always proving why he’s the don of the Perth Dubstep scene with killer mixing and track choices. All in all it was a wicked gig; perhaps a longer set by Emalkay would have been appropriate considering he was the international guest, yet with local talent like that in attendance there’s little room for complaint.