- For weeks I have had great anticipation about this party. I had been to the two previous Toasted parties and had a ball at both of them. The idea behind toasted is to showcase some of the newest, freshest but relatively unknown DJ’s, supported by some of the heavyweight DJ’s in the Sydney scene. The big name DJ’s were Mike Dotch (Home DJ), Illya (Globe resident), and Ajax (Former Tweekin’ DJ and now resident at the Civic Hotel). Well that briefly brings you up to speed on the facts of the event, now to the party itself.
I got to Dendy at about 10:30, to have a couple beers and get in the mood for a night of dancing. At this point the crowd was pretty small, consisting mostly of Friday night drinkers, relaxing after a hard week at work. At 11:00 they started letting people for Toasted in. There was a line all the way up the Dendy steps. I could already tell there was going to be a nice size crowd who would definitely be up for a good time.
The first cab off the rank was Mike Dotch. He played his own style of kooky, funky house. It was the perfect warm up to an evening- nothing too heavy, but enough solid beats to get people up and dancing. The best track of his set was The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations” (Mike Dotch Remix). The crowd loved it.
By the end of Mike Dotch’s set The Dendy was very comfortably packed.
Next up was Gav Fisher. Gav, out of the three lesser-known guys, has been Djing the shortest amount of time. But on the night he surely didn’t show it. He came in with quite a bang. Moving away from the funkier house, he moved into Deep House territory. The best track of his set was played quite early on in the piece. It was Critical Phase “Phase One” (Futureshock remix). He read the crowd nicely, and knowing that Illya was on next ended with some funky breaks. Gav Fisher also played a remix of Madonna “Justify My Love”. Rather than an over the top cheesy vocal sample, it was quite minimal. Very impressive.
It was now time for Gav Fisher to end and for Illya to step up. And step up he did. One thing I love about Illya is he is obviously someone who really loves what he does. He is always really getting into it, dancing away, and fiddling with tracks to get the absolute most out of them. He played mainly breaks, but this varied from nu-school, to old-school to funky breaks. He threw in a few tribal tracks, while most of his set had quite a jazzy feel to it. Tracks that were especially well received by the crowd were a remix of Modjo, followed soon by a remix of Michael Jackson’s “Another One Bites the Dust”. The Michael Jackson remix was very bit beat, while being quite dubby. A top notch set by one of the most respected DJ’s in Sydney.
By the time Jay Walker started it was 2:30. The crowd by the end of his set had thinned a little, but the dance floor was still as packed as ever. Jay Walker moved on brilliantly from Illya. He is a very confident DJ who is prepared to try a few things. For example, on a few occasions he would use scratching as a nice sample over the top of a track. Rather than using this to excess, it was used intelligently and at the right times. One of his first tracks was “Kill For a Day” by Johnny Dangerous, taken from the Dangerous EP. He played Rui Da Silva “Touch Me” (Peace Division remix), followed by one of my favourite tracks of the night, Hyperion vs. Revolt “No Compromise” (Soul Mekanik remix). He ended up with quite a solid beat knowing that Ajax was up next.
Ajax, for my money, played the best set of the night. He started off with Dimensions, “Taking Over”, which was a lovely way to begin. Ajax played his style of banging tech-house. Other tracks that he played were “La-La-Land” by Green Velvet, “Wasteland” by Kamaya Painters, and at the end a nice remix of Tarantella “Karma”.
The last DJ of the night was Luke Glenday. At the previous Toasted parties he has impressed me the most. He has the calm of a professional and really knows how to build a set. For the first 20 or 30 minutes of Luke Glenday’s set he played back-to-back with Ajax. This was entertaining to watch as well as to listen to. During the back-to-back stint Ajax played a track from the recent Anthony Pappa’s Nu-breed, Two Right Wrongans “Sorry Mate, You’ve Got the Wrong House” (Steve Porter Remix).
When Ajax moved off, it was time for Luke to work his magic. Luke Glenday plays very different styles, but I would probably describe him as up-front tech-house. Never boring, but always with a good beat and a solid bass line. Probably the favourite track for the crowd was Dido “Thank You” (Deep Dish Remix). He also played “Dub me Something Fresh” 6400 Crew.
At 6:00 there was still about 100 people left. Most of these were on the dance floor and none of them looked like they wanted to go home. For the last part of the night Jay Walker came back and played with Luke. In this small set together they played what is favourably known as ‘The Globe Track’, called “Intro”. This was followed up by “Stylus Trouble” Sputnik One (Sputnik One remix).
Everyone was so appreciative of the night that three encore tracks were played. The first was the Horrorist “One Night in New York City”. It was funny to see the crowd reaction due to the bizarre vocals in this track.
For the final encore Luke Glenday put back on Dido “Thank You” (Deep Dish remix). This was a nice little track to end a great night.
As you can probably tell by my glowing review I had a great night. It was good music, a great venue, and a very friendly crowd.
Speaking to one of the crew from Movin’ House Entertainment, he seemed very happy with the event. I was happy to be informed that the next toasted party would not be far away. For anyone who missed this party I suggest you go to the next. You will not regret it.