You have to wonder how much longer promoters can continue to put drum & bass internationals of such a high caliber on school nights. While it did not seem to adversely affect the turnout for DJ Hype, I’m sure it did impinge on how much some people were able to cut loose. Being a lazy bum uni student on summer holidays, luckily it did little to encroach on my enjoyment.



I was initially rather surprised to learn of the venue for DJ Hype’s inaugural Sydney appearance. I’d been to Bohem in the past, and while it is visually a very appealing venue, the sound had repeatedly been a major concern. We arrived to hear Ritual, Murda 1 and Alf rolling out some tasty tunes to a very sparsely filled dance floor. I’m not sure of the usual set-up for Bohem, but in this case a DJ scaffold of sorts had been constructed just outside the wooden circle on the floor in the center of the room, adorned with a few lights and two mighty speaker stacks on either side. While it looked rather eye catching, it wasn’t the most practical of setups. Equipment wise there were four decks and two mixers, presently being utilised effectively by the trio on stage, with Murda 1 displaying his scratching skills.



Around the time the Ritual, Murda 1 and Alf juggernaut drew to a close the dance floor had began to fill rather dramatically, so much so that it became difficult to move from one side of the room to the other. This posed a problem if you wanted to change your view or make a trip to the amenities, however on the good side it was great to see so many people out on a Thursday to support a drum & bass show. The second major problem was one that most people had predicted long before the event had even taken place, the sound. More or less, the only outlets of substantial sound in the whole venue were located directly either side of the DJ booth. And since the DJ booth was positioned in the middle of the room, the sound while sitting down on the (albeit very comfortable) couches was shocking. It seemed as if attempts had been made to compensate for the poor sound on the outskirts of the room by pumping the system in the center of the venue. While most people found the levels of bass adequate, I found it got to a stage of over kill and I couldn’t stand within 5 meters of the speakers for any length of time without the sound distorting and pummeling my ears.



Right from the beginning Hype had the crowd in the palm of his hand, pumping out some relentless beats. Also evident right from the beginning was MC Rage’s insistence of calling for a rewind every couple of minutes. While the rewind is a fun tool, it becomes a tad irritating when employed every second or third track. I remember MC GQ also going a little board at Andy C, must be a UK thing. Hype’s track selection was wicked, at times harsh (but this may have more to do with the sound quality than tracks played). I would have preferred a bit more of a melodic angle in places, but the crowd seemed to be enjoying the set as is. My highlight was when Hype dropped the overplayed but still brilliant Shake Your Body. Although the track has now crossed over into the land of commercial radio play, it was still a nice touch. Other notable tracks that I recall were DJ Zinc’s Ska, as well as Planet Dust and Rodeo from Bad Company.



In all an enjoyable night, but definitely with major room for improvement. I can’t help thinking that the event may have been substantially better if the venue had been different, I’d say there would have been easily enough people to make the Metro a viable avenue in this case.