REVIEW: DMC World Championships
- Posted on July 28, 2008 10:32 AM
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Review By Chris Carruthers
By 8 O'Clock, an appropriately healthy, mixed crowd had arrived and the tangible atmosphere that was to crescendo with the night's festivities had already established itself. It was immediately apparent that the standard of performance we were dealing with was close to world class, with the early rounds of the ‘Battle for UK Supremacy’ catching the crowd's undivided attention.
The technical ability shown by all of the participants was incredibly impressive, and even to the untrained eye, it was easy to appreciate the skill involved. Despite the epidemic across so many genres of DJ driven performances and music, the mastery of turntablism remains at the core. Having become such a widespread institution, the art is frequently taken to new levels, to such a point where incredibly talented scratching and tight beat juggling doesn’t quite cut it against unique interpretation and development of the art.
The semi finals were the perfect example: Jeppa, Disect, Mr. Eclipse & Switch; all strong characters with individual styles as well as a brilliantly considered selection of tunes covering everything you could think of from Mo-Town to Tech Minimal.
The hugely confident Switch was first to grab the crowd's attention with a couple of near perfect rounds, the first flaunting some extravagant scratch techniques and the second demonstrating amazing beat juggling,remixing classics like James Brown ‘I feel good!’.
Working the crowd nicely and with the odd finger up to the opponent over a ‘Get outta here!’ vocal sample, blended into some very convincing sets, I for one was looking forward to how far his sets could develop. After an impressively skillful second and third round, Mr. Eclipse had established himself as a strong contender, only to be shown the door after a huge battle with Switch.
In the semi’s Jeppa’s distinct upbeat style gets the crowd jumping, scratching musical samples to create melody lines and remixes, blending in some impressive beat juggling to eventually see off Disect. Switch and Jeppa fought a crowd pleasingly intense battle in the finals, with both of their completely unique, contrasting techniques pushed the full, yet remaining near perfect throughout.
Once again a great DJ in a great effort to defend his place has been written off by the consistent and ever confident Switch, now one widescreen plasma better off.
As the crowd barely had time to catch their breath, the mighty Million Dan steps up to treat us to a few classics, with the support of DJ Skitzand Le Shadow the crowd is soon jumping again. Keeping with the vibe of Skitzcuts, he dropped samples all over throughout the brief but tight set from the acclaimed rappers.
The popular Islington venue benefited from an intimate feel despite housing a 500 strong crowd, and the DMC crew, unsurprisingly ran a tight,well constructed show. Unlike the pair of judges selecting a favourite contender as in the UK finals the panel for the consists of seven worldclass DJ’s.
With absolute legends in the DJ world such as Cutmaster Swift, Scratch Pervert Mr. Thing, UK’s own DJ Blakey and representing the under 18s; DJ IQ. The pressure was most definitely on as the finalists step up to battle for the World Champion title. DJ Switch, now well at home, pulled out all the stops with his progressive sets culminating in a huge round of his range of styles and abilities, whilst still interacting with his cocky showmanship. With a more than decent run from Jeppa including some mid-90s DnB classics, guaranteed to get the die hard fans jumping every time, the bar had once again been raised in what proved to be an intense final. However, despite Jeppa’s world class effort, unfortunately he only saw fourth place.
An explosive final well underway defending champion JFB steps up to blow us away with his significant experience and finished style shining through, making for an impressively professional set. Scratching seamlessly, purpose made samples JFB had his set down to an absolute tee, throwing in massive classics like Block Rocking Beats before breaking out into some mad scratching stunning the crowd to near silence beforeerupting at the end.
If there was one thing that could sum up the nature of the night and of the championships, it has got to be the one or two seconds of amazement that races through the crowd, before the whole place goes mental in awe of these final sets. And what a climax it turned out to be. The one and only DJ Skully steps up, the fans not knowing what’s about to happen. Astounded by the incredible sets JFB and Switch have pulled out at this point, those who may be less familiar with Skully’s work would be forgiven for wondering how it could be possible to top them. Still, to look at the ever increasing standard at these competitions and the ethos of DMC on the whole, we know by now to expect the unexpected, and that is exactly what Skully was all about.
An unreal couple of rounds beat juggling and scratching that defied logicit self, Skully dominated the most complex techniques, mastering them completely seamlessly, he looked like he was born with this ability.
Despite both JFB and Switch gaining the four point first place from a couple of the judges, it was Skully’s commanding performance that left no doubt, he deserved the title of DMC World Champion 2008.
Overall an incredible final, absolutely world class technical ability all round and a fantastic,lively atmosphere made this night one to remember, then again we’ve come to expect nothing less from the mighty DMC.
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