Premium & Garage Pressure present Zed Bias @ Basement, Syd (26/10/02)
As Saturday evening arrived we hyped up for the next in the series of Premium parties, this time co-hosted by the lads from Garage Pressure. The Basement is usually known for hosting a plethora of Jazz events in Sydney, and features an immaculate sound system, as indicated by the booming beats already emanating from the building a block away. Inside, the music was at an intense volume, but still crisp and defined as the bass sounds oozed out of the subs. The special guest for the evening was Zed Bias, who is known by many production names such as MaddSlinky, Phuturistix, Daluq and the Henchman. He is a huge name in the UK Garage scene, and has been involved in over 100 remixes covering a diverse range of artists such as Gabrielle, Artful Dodger, The Streets and DJ Hype.
We entered the venue to the lush sounds of Paul Fraser, who took care of tune selection till midnight. The crowd was slightly smaller than I expected for the first Premium featuring an international guest, although all the usual suspects were present; you know who you are. Throughout the venue, every square inch of wall space was plastered with posters and Jazz memorabilia creating interesting scenery in every corner of the joint. Sheen stepped up to the decks after Paul, immediately slamming down a few bouncy tunes and carefully building up the vibe through a great selection of 2-step tracks. A good number of punters were already up on the dance floor at this stage getting warmed up for the UK guest.
As mentioned in the flyer Zed Bias was here to play “a swag of unreleased dubs”, and he did just that. He played an impressive variety of tunes from a similarly large family of styles. The intensity of his set throughout the night could clearly be measured by the numbers on the dance floor. At times full of people going nuts to a bangin’ 2-step mix such as Jameson – Urban Hero, whilst at other times chilled to a succession of soulful or jazzy tracks. Much to my disappointment both MC’s K-Note and Antic did not even have a chance to rhyme with Zed Bias, or any of the other DJ’s throughout the night. Apparently Zed requested for no MC’s during his set despite repeated requests from both Antic and K-Note who regularly hype the crowd into a mad frenzy at the Premium events.
Zed Bias played on for almost and extra hour as the time flew by ever so fast with the barrage of awesome tunes. A definite element of intensity was missing from some parts of his set. The more chilled out parts of the set may also have been due to the reactions of the crowd which were mixed. Some punters opting to get stuck into it on the dance floor, whilst many others were simply chilling out and listening to the beats in the plentiful seating areas throughout the venue.
At approximately 4am the lights were switched on throughout the venue much to the disbelief of everyone at the club. Many people kept dancing, thinking this was simply a mistake, and the offensive lighting would soon be switched off. The actual reason for this being that the considerate management of the Basement decided that going with post-daylight savings hours is more convenient for them and their staff. As a result, both Farj & Q45 did not even have a chance to stand behind the decks. Eventually many fired up punters ended up congregating outside to kick on at another venue, head to a house party or just call it a night. See you all at the next one! For more info about Premium or UK Garage events in Sydney check out www.dj.com.au/premium or www.garagepressure.com.
