REVIEW: Sharp, Gridlok, Photek, UFO!, Audio Angel and MC Duh @ 1015 Folsom 4/1/05

Friday night at 1015 Folsom is usually a mob scene. Driving by in the past I’ve seen the line over flow into the streets for many an event. Tonight the line was pretty long. Get Freaky was happening upstairs in the main room and in the entrance room. My reason for coming here tonight was to check out the basement where Groundscore were hosting Sharp, Gridlok, Photek and UFO!, with vocal backing from Audio Angel and MC Duh. I saw Duh out front and he helped me avoid the line. Breaks and Booty Bass Electro filled the air as I walked in. It was 11:28pm and I was bit tired from the day. I hit the bar for a Vodka and Redbull.

April 1st had been billed as Fuck Off and Dance, a night of Drum and Bass favorites rocking the basement from 11pm to 5am. I descended into the dark nether region to hear the sweet sound of Audio Angels vocals flowing over Sharp’s mixes. When I entered the room I was happy to notice the bar downstairs had been opened and was serving drinks. This will allow for total enjoyment of the night. No need to go upstairs unless the restroom beckoned. Besides upstairs was another world where the breaks are in slo-mo. The room was filling up with D & B lovers and the random Breaks Hippy. All heads bounced to the music pumping out from the speakers. Above the DJ was the sign FUCK OFF AND DANCE. People were feeling it.

Sharp’s set was a clean set of dope tracks. Eventually Duh got on the mic to toast and welcome one and all of the “April Fools”. As Sharp finished up he dropped Calibre’s now classic “Drop it Down”. More heads started dancing a bit harder. I walked around the room to find a sweet spot. When I first got in I felt the bass was too low and the treble too high. I couldn’t hear the tunes to well. It almost seemed like noise. This leveled during the last half of Sharp’s set and was almost all eliminated all together when Gridlok came on depedning where one was standing. As the night when on I felt the sound could have been better.

As Sharp ended I could see Gridlok in the back gearing up to get busy. MC Duh announced the oncoming VIOLENCE! I caught Gridlok at Phuturo quite a few weeks back and enjoyed what I heard. He was playing back to back with others then so I was looking forward to hearing him play solo. I heard he has been mad touring and also working on tons of tracks. Violence recordings, Hive’s label has a long list of new music coming out so I was excited to hear them mixed in along with other tracks.

Gridlok slow killed Sharp’s last record and started up fresh with a new intro. As the tune came in Duh shouted the warnings of a “Dead Man walking”, prepare for the Violence, Project 51! When the second track dropped it seemed like the sounds system was sounding better almost tuned right. The bass was kind of filling the room and the highs sounded more muted. Gridlok played a masterful set with a few well placed rewinds to get the crowd hyped. He played a rich set of a few older tracks and quite a few favorites. There were plenty of Violence records tracks dropped in as well. I heard the Neo remix and a few of Gridlok’s own tracks. Tons of stuff I had not heard this loud. He played tight and did not give one quarter. His head bounced harder as he watched the crowd joyfully respond to his mixes. Duh found space in between shots to remind the crowd how it all goes down on a Friday night. Sick booming drums kept coming. Parts of the set almost reminded me of a D & B version of speed metal done right. He would build to the break and drop it heavy heavy.

The crowd was having a blast. Many people dressed in furry vests with glow bracelets that were here for the breaks party stumbled down into the basement. Many stayed awhile and freaked out to Gridlok’s dense and highly danceable volley. Eventually Hive and Keaton’s BRING IT ON was playfully brought in. The track beckoned the dancers to kept going nuts. DO NOT STOP DANCING. As the one hour set was coming to a close I checked the time. Damn no cell phone reception in the basement. I found a person with a real watch. 1:15am and Gridlok ruled. He came heavy and tore all who heard him a new one.

Photek was up next and it was also time for another Redbull and Vodka. I had not seen Photek since like ’98 or so. I was sprung on his newer tracks. His song with Die, Thunder was in heavy rotation on many a turntable, mine included. Age of Empires on Metalheadz is another track that is just epic. I was looking forward and not knowing what to expect.

Surprised is how I felt when Photek was dropping funky tracks with some dancehall and ragga aspects. He was having fun. He would seem to bring the rewinds to almost toy with the crowd. I heard one track that had vocal samples that almost sounded like soccer game chanting. Other tracks had American sounding MC’s. A grip of tunes got by me, lots of new stuff I had not heard. Later after he played I had a chance to chat with Photek a bit and found out a good part of the newer tracks were actually tracks by Hochi and Infiltrata, two new artists freshly signed to TekDubs his new label. New material was also dropped from System Noise from Norway also on TekDubs.

Duh was still repping on the mic keeping the crowd up. He warned the crowd that last call was about to hit. Thirsty dancers made dashes to the bar. Duh also kept talking about all the Trance and Happy Hardcore that was in store for the night. Hilarious!

By 2:15am Photek changed it up and started to get heavier. The second track of the next hour was Age of Empires. Other tracks had vortex sounding beats. The floor was going nuts. The basement was a tad emptier than it was but the energy was live. Less Breaks Hippies and more skanking, sweaty bassheads. At one point Photek sprayed water big time upfront on shocked smiling dancers. I am sure many were not expecting water from the DJ. Photek had started out hard and funky and he was taking home mad technical, booming and scary. All in all his set had something for everyone.

UFO! came on right after Photek. He brought on the last set of the night for the truly hardcore left. The track he started out with had the some sample about blacking out that sounded way sinister. UFO! always reps hard. I checked out about 20 minutes of his set and then had to leave to meet Photek to do a small interview.

The night was fun and I enjoyed all the sets. Gridlok truly played my favorite set of the night. It’s exciting to see such a dedicated producer also strong as a performing DJ. Aside from some of the sound concerns the night was killer and action packed. It left me curious and anxious for the next D & B event at 1015. Props go to Groundscore for pulling together a nice night of top notch talent.