- It had felt like only last week that Toasted had been on. The ‘once a month’ gig seems so much more regular than that. But I am not complaining, far from it.
When I arrived at the Globe, the place was filling up. The first DJ on up stairs was Jay Walker. He started off with some nice deep jazzy house. As he moved on he brought in more dubby and tech elements. A perfect opening set, with just that extra bit of bite to get people up and dancing. The only track I recognized was Martin Ventjoki “Really Don’t Stop”.
Ajax was the next DJ on upstairs. He was his usual self, playing loads of accapella’s and cutting records up left, right and centre. He was playing on more of a lighter tip considering he was in the deep house n’ funky breaks area. But this would only loosely describe the stuff that he was playing. He really played everything from old school funk to hip hop. The only track that I recognized was a bootleg remix of Eminem “Without Me”.
Downstairs for the first set was Gav Fisher. I was surprised to see how packed it was already down there. He was playing some nice tribal house and tech house, but all with quite a dark feel to it. He started off quite deep and then got tougher. Towards the end of his set he really seemed to get into, and started making use of the three decks downstairs. One track Gav played was “(Electronic Weapon No. 5) It Began in Africa” by the Chemical Brothers. This tune has a way of sounding so good out on a good system.
Next on downstairs was N-Zed. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of him as I went upstairs to listen John Hardy. But I did hear him play DJ Rasoul “Oh Baby” quite early in his set.
When I got back upstairs John Hardy was already on. The room was filled to the rafters with people dancing away to the smooth house of Mr. Hardy. John played everything and anything house. There were some nice vocals numbers, including the hugely popular Tim Deluxe “It Just Wont Do” and also Pound Boys “Express Benny” and The Cure “Black Cats”. A lot of John’s music had a great Latin feel to it and you couldn’t help but dance to it. Unfortunately like all good things Johns set had to come to an end. But he set it up perfectly for Cuz and Luke Glenday, who were on next, playing back to back.
Luke and Cuz played back to back, playing three tracks and then changing over. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves, working off each other really well. They started off deep for about the first 45 minutes, but then moved up a gear moving into more of the party feel. Some of the records Luke and Cuz played were Marcus Nikoli “Bushes” (Derrick Carter Remix), Eurythmics “Sweet Dreams”, Jesse Crabbe “Big Boya EP”, Stephan Goldman “Shnic Snac EP”, and Comtemplation “One” (King Britt Funk Mix). The back to back idea really worked, and I can see them doing it in the future.
Downstairs during Luke and Cuz’s set was Ben Korbel. I was very keen to see Ben play as it had been a long time since I had seen a set from him. He had just got back from a month of traveling and playing overseas, so I was keen to hear what he had in his box. Ben played one of the best sets I have seen him play in recent times. Playing breaks, deep progressive, some lighter, funkier stuff and even some scratching for good measure. He played Foremost Poets “Moonracker Accapella” (King Unique Mix), Sasha “Fundamental”, FC Kahuna “Glitterball”, Shmuel Flash “Chilling Moments”, Hybrid “Know Your Enemy”, Ben Burns & Void “Smooth to Touch”, Medicine8 “Ape Don’t Call Ape EP”, Psycho Radio “In the Underground” and an unknown Meat Katie record. Ben’s variety and reading of the crowd was excellent, and he was extremely well received by the Toasted masses.
After Ben, came Jay Walker. He had previously played up stairs to start of the night, and now he had a chance to play more of a deep, harder tech-house affair. Jay took off perfectly where Ben left off. One record he played early on was a nice number off the Azuli Label. It samples Satoshi Tomiie’s “Up in Flames” and really does the business. Unfortunately shortly into Jay set, I had to call it a night.
But as per usual the night was a huge success, and I look forward eagerly to next months installment.