Brap.FM at Breakspoll 2012

We were lucky enough to be invited to Breakspoll 2012, and here’s our review of the biggest breaks night of 2012!

Brap.FM arrives at Cable around 10pm and there’s a large queue stretching round the corner, made up of eager breaks fans looking to claim the last few tickets left on the door. For ticket holders there’s a much shorter wait, and after a hairy moment when a huge team of police with sniffer dogs work their way up and down the queue, we are in.

The club is busy already but there’s no trouble getting to the bar to get a drink, and only the consistently packed main room is tricky to get into during the night – it can be done, it’s just a bit of a squeeze! Aquasky are already smashing it up in there with their trademark tear out breaks and in the bar room Hong Kong Ping Pong are delivering a dose of nufunk and funky breaks to an engaged and up for it crowd. Parker is the highlight so far, dropping filthy hip hop beats in the large Relay room – normally a separate club, this has been opened up tonight due to the huge demand for tickets. It’s a great space with the best sound of all three rooms, and Parker takes full advantage.

Damian & Buba are on in the bar room, playing some good old fashioned breaks to delight the purists in the crowd – and then it’s time to shoulder our way into a packed main room just in time for the awards (which unfortunately meant missing Featurecast – who we were told played an amazing set). Barry Ashworth (Dub Pistols) and Carl Loben (Westway) present the awards to a huge response from the crowd, but Ashworth comes across badly here, making fun of both the awards and the winners. In a small scene like breakbeat these awards are likely to be the only recognition many hardworking artists and DJs will receive, and his flippant approach slightly sours what should be a special moment for the winners and the crowd.

You can find the full list of winners here; there are a few surprises and a few predictable winners, but with no single act dominating it’s A-Skillz (winner of Best DJ and Best Free Track) who is king of the Breakspoll castle tonight, and fittingly he’s playing the first set in the main room after the awards. A-Skillz rinses out a blistering 45 minutes of bootlegs and edits mixed up at lightning speed, including his award winning California Soul remix, which simply tears the roof off! Whether you love his style or not, no one dancing is left in any doubt as to who the best breaks DJ is tonight.
You can hear Brap.FM’s interview with A-Skillz at Breakspoll 2012 on the next Bad Bunny Beats – Tuesday 6th March, 8pm on Brap.FM.

Brap.FM dashes to the Relay room in time to catch the Freestylers – well deserved winners of the Outstanding Contribution award – who are bashing out some quality bass heavy ragga breaks. Later on Aston tells us that there’s a new Freestylers album on the way, and if their set tonight is anything to go by it is going to be a belter!
Brap.FM’s interview with Aston from the Freestylers at Breakspoll 2012 coming up on Bad Bunny Beats – Tues 3rd April, 8pm on Brap.FM.

There’s just too much on this line up to stand a chance of seeing all the quality breakbeat on offer; Beatman and Ludmilla (winners, with Hyper, of Best Track for Lights), play an awesome set of psy-edged breaks in the Replay room (hearing them bring in Leeroy Jenkins being a particular highlight), the end of the Beat Assassins set in the bar room is huge despite the sound cutting out at the end, meaning late addition to the line up Monk3yLogic are left to close out the Relay room, which they do with pounding electro psybreaks and the biggest grin I’ve seen on a DJ all night. Booked to play till 5am, they stop the music on schedule, but with no security leaning on them, and the crowd shouting for more, they bring the beats back up and give us a cheeky “ssssh” sign – keep quiet and they might not notice we’re still going!

So that was Brap.FM’s experience of Breakspoll 2012 – an absolutely brilliant club night, and the best night out we’ve had in a long time. If breaks is dead then Breakspoll 2012 was one hell of a wake!

Big thanks to Jules from Fingerlickin and Breakspoll for letting Brap.FM review this event.
Breakspoll official website

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