Four hours + five Ninja Tune DJs = One night of crazy assed DJ sets that will not soon be forgotten. Saturday night I was joined by five friends for a night of amazing DJ music thanks to the KoolHaus and Ninja Tune. The first DJ, Blockhead, stepped on the stage at 9:00 and was warmly welcomed by the audience. He immediately jumped on the turntables and started up his Mac computer and kept going for the next hour. The audience was having a good time but we were all waiting for the main events. The next artist Sixtoo followed Blockhead and got the audience going with his MC stylings. DJ P-Love helped along with some crazy electronic and turntable voodoo.
Following this set the first of the three DJ headliners took the stage. Bonobo said nothing to the audience and he certainly didn’t need to. His music spoke for him. The audience was pumped and ready to dance which they were incouraged to do by the music. The set was a sweet jazz / rave mix. The only way to could keep from shaking your butt to the music is to either be dead or a robot (though I don’t think robots couldn’t stop from shaking their metal butts – the music is just that good). Following this set we were treated to the energetic turntable magic of Kid Koala. He mixed, chopped, breakbeated and scratched his way through an hour of the most awe-inspiring turntablism anyone has ever witnessed. No one can quite mix Bjork with gangster rap and then sprinkle in a little White Stripes for good measure like the Koala Kid. Out of all the DJs he was the only who continuously interacted with the audience keeping us pumped and grooving to the music. He is also a Canadian which makes his shows in Canada all that much more exceptional.
The night ended with the crazy assed industrial/electronic music of Amon Tobin. His music was in direct contrast to the four other DJs with a much more pounding and driving drum ‘n bass oriented DJ set. Though once again I couldn’t keep myself from cutting a little rug. After five DJs and four hours I was ready to get some sleep. So it was off to bed with a slight ringing noise in my ears.
All in all the night was amazing. Bonobo was shake your ass fantastic, Kid Koala was technically amazing, Amon Tobin was pounding and thudding and shaking and everything techno should be, while Blockhead and Sixtoo were interesting and DJs I will keep my eye on in the future.