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Break & Spectasoul @ Paradox |
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A night with the right backing, the right system, the right line up and the right drinks deals. Your holding a flyer in your hand which displays the names ‘Break’ & ‘Spectrasoul’ it also presents a 35k rig and £1 pint drinks deals on a Thursday night in the centre of Southampton’s high street. The venue for tonights show is ‘Squares’ a venue now known by the locals and students as the centre for the students ‘Carnage’ bar crawl events and a place that is pretty much dead or filled with undesirables most other nights of the week. Its reputation may not be the best but tonight you know whos putting the night on and you know what crowd your going to get! Paradox, the promoters that are at the centre of the vinyl world in the city as their hq is T2 records in Bargate shopping centre. This explains to you that the right people with the right heads know about this event and have come for not only the big names that are at the top of their game right now but quality listening and a social with friends in the game. Paradox wouldn’t have it any other way for their customers either, so a night of the high grade is what always goes down with these lads.
As we arrive at the venue we are greeted by the doormen and then asked for our entrance fee to the night. This was £5 which was a snip for the line up that was billed. The venue that is squares seemed very dramatic as soon as you walk in, due to its high ceilings and balconies peering down upon the main bar in the center of the room. Everything can be seen apart from the DJ booth and the hardest of skanking ravers which are down at the front. As you guide yourself around the bar you soon see what you have come here for and that is a sound system! This rig is like nothing else you will hear on dnb nights in Southampton FACT. Theres enough power there to blow away any cobwebs that uve collected from not getting out the house as much as you would have liked in the past months. Bringing my plugs for this night was essential for the next test. As i stood next to the stack of subs down at the front my whole body was shaking and my teeth were rattling. I really was vibrating across the dance floor with legs like jelly. After talking to one female raver who said “this really is orgasmic you know” which left me with only one conclusion, how many nights have you ever witnessed where physical orgasams could happen from the sound system!?
With that aside and our knowledge that the sound is more than well covered, I was observing the MC talent which was MC Visionobi, spitting over the set of Spectrasoul. Now Spectrasoul have been making big news for themselves of late with huge releases and the association with Frictions dnb label Shogun Audio. We have caught them before and most notoriously at Shoguns very own night at the Light box in London. Even at a night which may be mid week and may not be into the high hundreds Spectrasoul do not fail to deliver. A set of rolling bass and with some of the smoothest transitions that only the finest can pull off were laid down mix after mix after mix. Spectrasoul handle their sets with delicate due care and attention which is now turning out to be their trademark amongst so many of the heads who listen to this sub genre of drum and bass. Vinyls were brought along by fans to the night to be signed after their set and the reception was about as high as it can get for the capacity of the night.
Next up on the decks was Break, a DJ who really has made every step of success for himself of late and is one of the most highly respected djs amongst heads in the game. If you catch Break at any large night with big line ups you will notice that the crowd that are there to see Break are always well educated with their knowledge of production or spinning. Break is a real DJ’s choice and thats why hes headlining tonight. Breaks set was accompanied by again Visionobi and an amazing lazer show from the lighting rig. Everything that was in place by the promoter was perfect and the DJ’s you could see appreciated this.
The night itself was not the busiest but it had the right people there. This was no fault to the promoter as for £5 you really were laid out a banquet of dnb. Maybe a venue change would be the best thing that could help Paradox right now as squares does not attract the widest range of ravers. One things for sure though theres big respect for Anil and his crew and if you don’t know about Paradox you really should because they have quite a back catalogue of huge nights that some promoters can only dream of.
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