Breakspoll presents: Volume 2 mixed by Freq Nasty

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  • It’s a little ironic that Freq Nasty was chosen to take the reins for 'Breakspoll Presents Volume 2'. Considering the dude’s been at the forefront of dubwise breaks for the better part of a decade, his best showing in five years of Breakspoll was runner-up to Adam Freeland for Best DJ way back in ’02. His Y4K from that same year is still a series best and luckily, the good people at Supercharged realized that Freq’s unique brand of breaks is indispensable to the scene. Following up The Breakfastaz’ Volume 1 was no easy feat; those guys dropped bomb after bomb of top-shelf upfront breaks. But while that mix started off lean-and-mean, it got a bit saggy in the midsection. Freq’s mix is more careful, planting its feet with a couple of smoothed-out dubby breaks numbers and then deciding to get sweaty with the devastating bass assault that is ‘Karma’ by Ctrl-Z vs. The Autobots vs. Screwface. Things slow to a crawl with Budspell’s potent reggae joint ‘Poison Minds,’ giving clubbers (or runners, drivers, whatever) a well-needed breather before Freq enters halftime. And what a halftime show it is – kicking off with Bassnectar’s crowd-exciter ‘Everybody (Freq Nasty & Bassnectar Remix)’. It gets better: Future Funk Squad gives an acid facelift to Splitloop’s ‘KFC’, beefing up the limp original with some tight lyricism courtesy of Bukue One. The ever-clever Freq then lays the accapella of Aquasky & Ragga Twins’ ‘Ready For This’ over Krafty Kuts’ bleacher-buster ‘Basketball Jam’, a mind-blowing marriage that’ll leave both tracks flaccid if you hear them after this DJ played matchmaker. Halftime ends with Freq’s own 'Grand Theft', a soundtrack to a football hooligan streetfight if there ever was one. From there on out the mix gets a little bit uneven, like it can’t decide if it wants you to bob your head or shake your rump. Freq gets his heavily-dreadlocked head together at the end though, spreading positive vibes with ‘Love Your Life’, which is easily Supercharged label head Skool Of Thought’s best production. In typical Freq fashion, he slows up for the final send-off – in this case, the soulful ‘This Room’ by reggae outfit Fat Freddy’s Drop. With Breakspoll Presents Volume 2, grizzled veteran Freq Nasty has definitely managed to trump "Best Breakthrough DJ" upstarts The Breakfastaz. Based on the quality of the first two albums, we can expect great things from this series. But what can we expect from Mr. Nasty himself? Here’s hoping this mix results in more compilation gigs – I don’t want to wait another four years to get Freqy.
RA