Well what another bumper year it's been for us here at dbe HQ once again! Loughborough has truly outdone itself this year in times of recession, showing that even though times are tough, theres nothing like a good rave to help put smiles back on faces.
We started the New Year in 2011 with a night that surely went down in history as one of the most intense nights that the Union has ever seen! SHY FX absolutely blasted us all with a show of pure talent and legendary records which cemented him as one of the fore bearers of quality drum and bass! He smashed up Fusion with an amazing performance, but more importantly poured praise on our main man Pasquale as he warmed up for Shy with some insane records deep from his collection of classics! Even better was the fact that the queue was huge showing that people support quality music here in our old town! Samiad, Mike Mases and Wolverine all bought the energy too playing very very loud music!
March bought an event bigger in scale as we teamed up with the Mayhem gang with a three venue bonanza headlined by the Radio 1 legend Kissy Sell Out and dub step don Plastician! Staying true to our nature of providing a wide variety of music to the masses, we started off at The Orange Tree where a great variety of local bands shone brightly and we had the pleasure of hosting a certain drunken sailor for his first ever UK set! Following that the main man Plastician smashed up Rain Nightclub with a tough as nuts set for the true step massive supported by new blood C.R.S.T. And to add even more to that Echos nightclub played host to the eclectic sounds of Kissy Sell Out and our new favourite scratch maniac DJ Woody who played host to an insanely great visual show which was on everyones lips for a long time after! Another truly spectacular turnout!
The beginning of May saw us team up once again with our great friends in Notts, Detonate. We were told that we were hosting the Digital Soundboy room and boy were we excited! Once again we played host to Shy FX along with his label friends Breakage, Redlight, Donaeo, Yasmin, Youngman & B-Traits swell as garage LEGEND DJ EZ! That said legend absolutely smashed up the dance straight away as he reeled off tune after tune and really got the crowd going wild! After that it was an easy ride for the rest of the D.S. Crew as the people were in such high spirits! But no doubt they bought some quality vibes to the dance, Breakage and Redlight being our particular favs. However the strangest highlight of the night has to be coming back on the bus at gone 6am in the morning to texts of 'Osama is dead'. At first thoughts we couldn't believe it until it was confirmed. Sort of in shock we then rode into Loughborough which was actually ablaze in a fiery abyss. The combo of shocking events combined with the after-thrill of a crazy night was one of our most surreal moments of the year!
A few weeks after we managed to dust our raving socks off and put together another local rave this time in Echos nightclub. Similar to the Shy FX dbe it was a smaller gathering but by no means less hardcore, with scene star Jakwob headlining proceedings. Backing him up was an amazing new talent in XXXY who has now broken through to international fame thanks to his single 'Ordinary Things'. This was one to remember as both dudes bought great vibes respectively. Jakwob smashing up the dance with his blend of tough dub step and insane drops with poppier inflictions for the ladies, and XXXY playing some really up front music including many of his own swell as anthems such as Blawan's 'Getting Me Down' to a great crowd willing to take in fresh tunes!
Our end of term party was truly one of the best nights we have ever had the pleasure of putting on. Always bound to be a big turnout as Loughborough wraps up another academic year, this year was truly exceptional with many of our core audience finishing for good! So with a lot of emotion it was many peoples last dbe's, so we didn't want to disappoint! But with a HUGE lineup it wasn't hard to! With a main headliner the calibre of Beardyman, Room 1 was literally slamming all night long! Even when his equipment had a minor malfunction the man rocked it acapella and truly wowed the crowd! Backing him up was one of our favourite DJs Toddla T, who smashed it with some incredible music ranging from Dancehall to Electro to House to Funky. DJ Woody also returned for another Visual show which once again was an amazing performance. Upstairs Kito bought the vibes once more with a very very tasteful yet grimy performance. We really rate her here at dbe HQ and think she's gonna blow up next year! But the main talking point was who was gonna go B2B with Emalkay. Rumours had been spread up to the event but when no other than the man like Caspa got up on stage to a great reception, the two bought the room to an utter climax of dancing bodies.
After a short break we were back in October at our new home of Vice Versa! A great renewal of their club cemented our decision to start events there. The lights and decor is top quality and when we heard about the basement we got on the phone straight away to Sleazy Wonder and got him to host down there in the Wonderland! First up we had the two Radio 1 powerhouses Mistajam and duo Jaymo & Andy George. Both of them played some great records, Mistajam purveying quality music as exemplified on his radio show and Jaymo & Andy George surprising us with a great house set full of bangers such as Julio Bashmore's anthem 'Battle For Middle You'. Samiad and talented new resident Jake Twell got the crowd going once more and both are really gaining a local following now. And Sleazy's Wonderland supplied us with two vinyl only sets from Ian from Samiad and Yobema aka Sean Hulse, the former bringing an old school hip hop flavour, and the latter playing classic house and even Black's 'Wonderful Life' just showing how versatile the sounds are downstairs!
The month after we got straight back on it and bought you one of the finest Drum and Bass and more recently House DJs around in the form of the legend that is DJ ZINC! He really smashed up the place with an amazing set which starred out with his newest bangers with a bouncy feel and even started a new dance craze in the form of a buzzing 'Mosquito'! Backing him up was one of the freshest talents we've heard this year, Two Inch Punch. Not much was known about him prior to the event, but after hearing his set, jam packed with amazingly fresh music, we are certain he will blow up next year! His 'Love You Up' EP was a beautiful contrast to most of the stuff we've heard this year and talking to him after his production credits have been insanely varied and surprising and it was a pleasure hosting him for one of his first ever live sets! Downstairs we had our friends 25 Sessions who completely transformed the basement into a hive of visual seduction and live streaming pleasure!
Lastly and most recently who could forget our amazing 3rd birthday bash all but last week! It was truly a special occasion and it was great seeing a few friendly faces make it back for another great event. Headlining was man of the moment Joker, who truly bought a high octane performance full of tunes from his latest smash hit album which is getting played everywhere! The man epitomises dub step's rise to daytime airplay yet retains its exciting vision for the future whilst staying true to it's roots. Backing him up and topping off a versatile lineup once again was DMC champ JFB. He bought us some crazy tunes mixed in inimitable style and really bought some energy to proceedings! Downstairs was our craziest lineup yet epitomised by a killer last set by George Sammonds who went all out '08 style with a set split between throwback dub step mixed with wicked drum and bass!
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But here at dbe HQ we want to look back with a retrospect of what really mattered, the music. Us head honchos have put our collective heads together and managed to get together 3 big names along with our residents to scratch out a short-list of our favourite tunes from this year and have tried to form a collection that says as much as it says for dbe and our manifesto as it does for electronic music. We hope its not a select-by-numbers kind of list but you never can please everyone so we hope you enjoy it regardless...
PART 1
ROSKA - TOP 10
Dismantle - Computation
Spectr - Dance 4 Me
Katy B - Lights On
Champion - Lighter
J:Kenzo - Roteks
Tickles - Don't Get Lemon
Breakage - Fighting Fire (Foamo Remix)
Funkystepz - Caution
Caspa - Champion Skank
Redlight - Source 16
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PASQUALE - TOP 10
Deadboy - Here 4 U
Lil Silva - Seasons
Jon Convex - Convexations
Huxley - Shower Scene
Gonzales - Knight Moves (Lone Remix)
Virgo Four - It's A Crime (Hunee Mix)
Scuba - Adrenalin
Blawan - Vibe Decorum
A1 Bassline - Falsehood
Til Von Sein - Non Existent Love ft. Tigerskin, Lazarus, Meggy (El Txef A Remix)
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Stay tuned for Part 2! Thankyou everyone for a great year!
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