Supercharged : Adam Freeland // Audio

Photos by Marek Richter

Its been, give or take a few weeks, a year since I saw Adam Freeland play a set, that in my mind, cemented him firmly at the top of the breakbeat tree, what with it being one of the best sets I’d ever witnessed. Freelands a bit different to the usual breaks DJ’s that ply their trade @Supercharged. He for-goes the bass heavy electro noises, in favour of lush sweeping pads and escalating, building, intricate tracks. And although they are not as instantly pleasing as some of the ‘nu-skool’ stuff, if you give them the time and attention they deserve I think you’ll be pleasently supprised.

Sneaky started things off with a pretty serious, top draw set. Big new tracks from the Stanton’s, Madox and Krafty Kuts & Tim Deluxe featured. But the highlight had to be the end of his set, slowing things down and playing the awesome ‘Witness’ by Roots Manuva. Even now, five years on from the release of ‘Run Come Save Me’ this track still changes lives everytime its played, and in the confines of Audio it was a fresh and welcome sound.

Freelands sets are what they are. These days they are not nessasarily breakbeat. In a recent interview with Annie Nightingale from the WMC Miami he distanced himself from the breaks scene that he pretty much created. To anyone that has really listened to Freelands album ‘Now And Them’ this is obvious. As the first awesome track in his set repeatedly chanted like a prophetic mantra, ‘This is a Revolution.’

So it began with revolution and it didn’t stop there. Again he played a real journey set. The kind of music you can listen to, and then take something from it away with you at the end of the night. All the classic tracks featured, his own ‘Heel N Toe’ and a ‘Bloc Party’ remix seemed to go down pretty well. But genuine highlights came in the form of the mighty new track on Marine parade from the Bassbin Twins – ‘The Dogz.’ This tune is reminicent of the recent track ‘The Todler’ by Flack-Su, only better.

The Bassbin Twins, again arn’t 100
reaks. Most of the time their recent release’s adopt a 4/4 beat, but this doesnt detract from the substance and quality of the tracks they seem to knock out, one after the other. Dogz is no exception, it is a stylish chunky beat driven affair, with a very intence build and breakdown, I have to admit its a release to get genuinly excited about owning.

After that, the crowd were set up, begging to be knocked down and finshed off. The Evil’s remix of Future Funk Squads – ‘Towards The Sun’ done this nicely, along with highlights from Marine Parade’s back catalogue like Scratch D and H Bomb’s ‘The Red Pill.’ (Which I have to add sounded supprisingly fresh over the Audio sound system.)

Freeland worked the crowd supremely and played a form of music you can tell he genuinely loves. Some wicked mixing and inspiring tunes made this the best night I’ve had so far this year. I find his take on breakbeat a real eye opener and woould advise anyone with a passion for good music to go with an open mind, watch him play and see where you are at the end of it all. Its refreshing, its a journey to a better place. Its a revoluiton.

One small gripe…Do you think it would be possible to let a DJ do what he’s there to do and DJ, all this passing phones to a guy when he’s mixing with messages written on is just a tad school boy for my liking. Im sure he doesnt need to be told if he’s playing a good track – He’s just selected it and played it for fucks sake. Sort it out, keep your mobiles in your pockets coz it pisses me off.

Peace.

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Photos by that Czech guy.

Audio
http://www.audiobrighton.com

10 Marine Parade
Brighton
East Sussex
Tel: 01273-624343

info@audiobrighton.com

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