Skool of Thought, Stanton Warriors, Breakfasterz @ Concorde2

It had been an important week for Supercharged, with three major gigs and three major artists in a week. The responsibility for wrapping up this ‘grand finale’ went to the undisputed king of the bootlegs, Dom from the Stanton Warriors.

Skool Of Thought kicked things off playing a more varied set than he did at the Plumps DJ’s gig a mere few days before. His style got the filling dancefloor moving, with almost everyone unable to resist throwing a shape or two to the massive basslines that he spun.

The only omission from his set that I would have loved to have heard over the Concorde’s phatter than phat soundsystem was the outstanding Cutty Ranks “Limb By Limb” remix – which until recently I’ve called the Toasty Boy track (whoops!).

Big tracks included Skool’s new “Bang Bang Bang” track, which sounded fresh, and Slydes magnificent vocal peaking and bass squelching “Vibrate To This”.

By the time the Dom Stanton took over, he was playing to a seriously packed out and varied Concorde floor. So it was interesting to see what type of set he was going to play. He brought the usual mix of new and exclusive tracks that you expect when you hear the Stantons play: loaded with accapella’s, a little scratch or two and even a rewind, he set about destroying the eager crowd.

Dom’s set was tight and contained all the things you would expect and a few new bits. The Rouge Element’s remix of “Hope Time” was featured, which adds a new level of depth to the original, making a very fine remix indeed. “Dip And Get Low”, which is driven by UK hip hopper Rodney P sounds better every time I hear it.

But the real highlight was the remix of Roman Flugel’s skint epic “Get Noch”, which – when doused with the usual Stanton drums and the sweet dulcet tones of MIA (in the form of her “Bucky Done Gun” accapella) – really did blow the fuck up. Again, proof of the bootleggin’ mastery which the Warriors seem to possess.

But the Stantons have more strings to their production bow than mere bootlegs. Recent tracks “Blue” and “Night Mover” (featured in the wipeout pure PSP game) stood out as little gems of electro break beat which screamed of their “She Not In” legacy.

I was disappointed that Dom didn’t play his remix of seminal drum and bass track “Atlantis” by LTJ Bukem. I first heard this remix about three years ago and it blew me away then. The original, along with Goldie’s “Timeless”, is about the only drum and bass I can stomach listening too. So to hear a breaks version, coupled with a cheeky vocal from the cult film “Warriors”, was pretty special. Maybe one day this will get a release; I live in hope.

Next up – and with the job of following on after Dom’s set – were the Breakfasterz. With 12 releases/remixes last year, they really broke into and saturated the breaks scene with a whole load of quality that had been lacking from other new artists. I’m pretty sure the Breakfasterz only have to open the door of a studio and it throws a classy, fresh-sounding release back at them.

Because there’s three of them, the Breakfasterz have been able to cover a lot of ground whilst DJ’ing out. Last weekend saw them split between Sheffield, Russia and Plymouth. But fortunately for Superchargered, tonight saw all of them grace the turntables.

The Concorde 2 is a bizzare club. The name itself come’s steeped in the history of Fatboy and Daimen’s mythical Boutique sets which seemed to have followed the name Concorde along from venue to venue. This, and the fact that it is dominated by a stage more suited to gigs always makes it interesting to see what a promoter/cub night will do with the space.

Around six months ago a small fortune was spent on the venue renewing the lighting rig and it shows. Even after a chat with Burgess Hill, I’m still not convinced that they are using them to their full potential, and with the rear two scanners left off all night, I wonder whether it’s time they
re-addressed this issue.

The visuals were split between four screens, and I have to say they were very pretty. They linked back into the recent Supercharged flyers, and the projections and animations were crisp, if a little small, but still very enjoyable.

The main thing about the Concorde is the stage. Putting a DJ up here really does give them a platform to perform on. And I don’t think that anybody would have been better suited to this job than a group of drunken and energetic Breakfasterz.

They spent most of their time – when not DJing – jumping around and hyping the crowd up at every opportunity. And the real beauty of this is that because there’s three of them, this meant the crowd were never given a chance to quieten down.

The mixing was precise and they played a shed load of new and current stuff. All round they took over from the singular Stanton perfectly, and talking to people after the gig, it looks like it’s a toss up which set they prefered the most.

It was good to see a Supercharged event at the Concorde2. The look and the feel of this place fits the Supercharged ethos perfectly. It was a great week for breakbeat in Brighton, with arguably four of its finest exponents playing across the city for Supercharged, with Hyper playing at the Volks for Flawless.

I had a wicked night, and I loved the freshness of the music. Many of these tracks came straight from the studio and had that beautiful ‘just been burnt’ cdr glow to them. And that can’t be a bad thing. Loved it. Simple as really.

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Words: 3 0 3 t i l l i d i e