Breakscentral presents Atomic Hooligan @ DCM, Sydney (21/03/03)
Breaks as a dance music genre is a funny old bag of fruit. Incorporating elements of house, techno, hiphop, drum ‘n’ bass and electro there’s seemingly no limit to the eclectic sound that nestles under the breaks umbrella. Its this refusal to fit snugly into a specific sound that is causing many to call the breaks scene the next huge movement in dance music, the ultimate fusion of ultra-magnetic electro intricately laced over pulsating breakbeats. For those of us still being dragged kicking and screaming into the next millennium mercilessly hanging on to the old skool elements of hiphop, funk and rave we’d be somewhat remiss to not embrace the throbbing monster that is breaks. We’ve been lucky enough top hear from the likes of Koma and Bones and DJ Hyper over the past six months in Australia and on Friday DCM played host to Atomic Hooligan, one of the UK’s hottest breaksmeisters keeping the vibe alive.
Arriving to hear Auxilary (aka Daniel Matthews the second half of Nutshell Breaks) I was greeted by the fantastic Deep South by Layo and Bushwacka and I knew the night was gonna be a good un. Other stand out tracks included the Plump DJs “In Stereo” and Defcon1’s Roaring Forties placing us firmly in the digital beat factory all seamlessly cut to shreds in the best possible way by the ever dexterous Auxilary. Elroy then took over the deck duties as the dance floor went into overdrive lapping up storming tracks including Q45’s “Shabby Chic” and Mulder’s fantastic “Listen to the Basstone” bringing us jumping and bumping to 2am and the start of the Hooligan’s set.
With their very own stormer Dreams of Life Matt Welch and Terry Ryan once again transformed into their turntable alter egos Chad Outlaw and Rick Stealth and the dance floor erupted. With Terry tearing up the decks and scratching away Matt was working the crowd into a frenzy. Showcasing other acts signed to the same label as the Atomic boys (Botchit & Scarper) we heard Aquasky & Masterblaster’s “Thru The Fire” & Bionic’s “We Are Getting Down” – both excellent examples of what has made this Shoreditch (UK) label such a respected name in the nu-skool breaks scene. The tough tune track selections kept coming and the relentless battle style mixing all worked to generate a pulsating, vibrant rhythm containing numerous nods to old skool hip-hop breakbeats but complimented with modern synth lines and melodic breakdowns. Dave London’s mix of “Turn The Lights Down” by Trinity Hi-Fi and the wonderful drums on The Autobots “Rocky” kept my feet firmly in dance floor territory but there were countless other priceless moments including a wicked breaks mix of Phil Kieran’s mind blowingly dancefloor friendly “My House” (Skint). Eclecticism in dance music such as this makes breaks no hard sell and with acts such as The Hooligans we will be seeing the world of breaks grow and expand our musical boundaries and soundscapes for a quite some time to come. Congrats to Breakscentral for continuing to serve up some of the best talent the breaks scene has to offer. Truly Atomic.
