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13th May 2008

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HarderFaster DJs >> Judge-Mental >> Column

Column by Judge-Mental
Submitted 13-May-08 (58390 views)
 
Review for recent events

Event: X-clusive Hardstyle vs Hardcore party
Venue: Miami in Johannesburg
Date of deployment: 28 March 2008
Mission: Destroy! Destroy! Destroy!
Amount of fun had: Above more than the call of duty

Journal entry #1 (27 February 2008)

Now I don’t really like flying, in fact I pretty much detest the idea of a big tin can (orange in this case, thanks to Mango airlines) trying to stay aloft at 35,000 feet in the air.

Ok that is maybe what my thoughts were when Eddy Virgo called me to book me for this event.
(Flying… Oh please help!)

Amazingly I said yes to his ‘interrogation’, not even thinking of the actual “how the hell am I going to get to Johannesburg” part. Of course, what I should have been focusing on was “Would my set go ok?”, “Would I clear the floor?” and “Would I remember my toothbrush?”. All tricky questions you must understand.

Journal entry#2 (28 March 2008)

So yeah the day finally came to go fly over the rainbow to Johannesburg. The flight was, in a nutshell, quite interesting; if one could call the plane losing all its wheels (training ones too) during nose-diving ie landing, interesting hhmmm….

A very kind ‘cute’ girl then picked us up at the airport on arrival and whisked the Psycho-one and the Mental-one off into the night yonder towards our place of destruction (the venue, Miami).
Oh and just in case you have been told differently, “There is no road rage in Johannesburg, oh no!”

After thanking our driver profusely for the lift, we got out of the car and made our way to the doorway armed to the teeth with our dynamite (read: records) to show Johannesburg we were there to create genocide and take no prisoners (well except for sweet girls, but that’s another topic altogether).

The line-up for the combatants was as follows: DJ Serenade, Vertigo DJ, Daniel Licht, Ben Kay Djay, Jerry Bad Ass, Eddy Virgo, Psycho Keaton, Judge-Mental and then a thrash bash of styles right at the end with Eddy Virgo leading the victory march onward home.

Unfortunately due to our flight time; we, the Cape Town soldiers, only arrived at the venue at around 22:30. So because of those circumstances we missed the first two DJ’s and witnessed only the second half of Daniel Licht’s destructive warpath. And what a path he carved! He grabbed his machete (tunes) and demolished those trees (punters) and when the dust cleared; a new path did exist. He was that good! Dark and deadly like the blackest of night (cue wolf-howling background noises) AAAHHHWOOOOOO……..

Next up to bat was Ben Kay Djay. First time I had ever heard of him and what a wizard on the decks he is! He, like Daniel, was born on the dark side of the moon (shades of Acen there for the old skool nutters), and by that statement I mean he played dark and dirty. With cuss words and samples galore, nobody was safe from this DJ’s onslaught of sound. All in all a well rounded set.

Ooer… it was now time for our first representative from our shores to join in the battle, Jerry Bad Ass. Not just by name mind you, this boy is B.A.D. Seriously, I think a few DJ’s in Ibiza are getting nervous at the amount of talent coming from Cape Town at this time. Surprisingly though, for people, such as myself, he threw down one or two more “uplifting” tracks in his set.

And then, trouble…. Eddy Virgo made his presence felt with a huge banging gabber set from the depths of a very warm domain where the girls are not screaming for you but in salvation for their souls (read:Hell) oh yes…
I had not heard a manic set like his for a long time. In fact the only time I can recall recently is when I have cooked up a storm at home to tick off the neighbours Razz
Eddy had the crowd yelling nearly the whole time over his “sounds from the underground” which was great to see as gabber has not had the chance it deserves in South Africa. (promoters take note)

It was then time for our next private to go into battle representing the shores of Cape Town, Psycho Keaton. Now this boy has a following as could clearly be seen by the amount of Keatonites that were basking in his sounds of destruction. Clearly.
Great set I felt which paved the way nicely to my own meal of hardcore… Yes it was time for my set, Judge-Mental style!

Now it wouldn’t be fair if I critted my own journey, seeing that I am the writer of this trip down memory lane. But I will say this, “The people that were able to stand after the onslaught of the other DJ’s had great fun jumping around like rabbits to my hardcore sounds!” Having DJ Syntrax there to witness the battle was also quite a surprise as he went out of his way to support the engagement driving all the way from Pretoria to Sandton, Gasp!

As the night drew to a close, it was great to see that one can still take chances in organizing an event of the more underground styles and that being different is still a great way to standout in this field of work we call DJ’ing.

All and all a great success I feel, and chalk one up to the hard, fast I’m-not-afraid-to-fuck-your-head-up genres of electronic dance music.

What I learnt from this fun almost dream-like experience; is to never play Citrus – Fascination on a clubs system ever again. Heh

The flight back for Psycho and Mental was a heck of a lot better than the first attempt as our plane decided that having wheels is great for landing, ie a nice smooth touchdown. Which is more than could be said for our brains at that point what with having virtually no sleep.

Big up to all that promoted, attended, sacrificed, cooked and above all enjoyed being entertained by a bunch of commandoes with a war to win.

…And win we did…

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