Dark Forces

The underground came out to play on Saturday night with demons, goblins, fairies and vampires all getting their groove on for the fifth Dark Forces celebration of Halloween.

6 Nov 2002

Normally a concert venue, Starlight pulled out all the stops to provide four diverse zones to cater for everyone's ghoulish tastes.

Punters were welcomed in from the cold by the warmth of the house zone upstairs, tearing up techno house with a bite. As expected, MJ's 'Billie Jean' was broken out, with the bass line permeating through to the ambient zone next door.

In the main drum n bass zone VJ's had a field day with three huge screens set up to provide visual delights for the party goers. Images from black and white horror films accompanied techno cuts to psychadelic imagery, not to mention the spectacular lighting in all zones and fantastic decorations, tantalising everyone's senses.

Kitted out with Rhombus's 'clav dub' mini, the hip hop zone, located in the concrete jungle carpark of Starlight, provided a cool but jiggy medium from the intensity of other zones. The man of the night Imon Star, with the help of his girl gave whacked out rhymes to coincide with DJ Raw and Manuel Bundy's dark and dirty hip hop tracks. Disappointingly, the zone was shut down early on, leaving Star - for the first time - lost for words.

Back in drum n bass B-Line took to the decks with subtle enthusiasm, showing everyone that chicks can kick up a storm like the rest of them. Concord Dawn's 'Check this sound' was thrashed out with extreme precision and cool by the chick from Auckland, teaming up with MC Kyla for part of her set for some all round girl power.

Encased in white lycra, those in need for a rest were left to their own devices in the ambient zone, with nothing but the thick bass lines of the house zone to relax to... where were those tranquil tunes we needed for rejuvenation?

In the final hours, ghouls and goblins united to dance out the remnants of energy they had. Baritone's heavy vinyl shrouded the room in darkness in protest to the looming dawn. As sunrise came the oh-so-cliché 'Morning Light' by Concord Dawn was short lived, but enough to warn every one of what they were to face.

Anyone still up for a boogie stumbled to the fifth zone at Indigo for more dark drum n bass. But even with the new balcony cordoned off by black fabric, shards of light still seeped through, just to remind everyone the night of ghoulish costumes and hard rocking darkness was coming to a close.