' checked out the Thirst comp in QT

23 Apr 2004

Went to the QT , 'found at thirst comp' @ last night ,..

Was kinda interesting . 7 entries ..

2 from Dunedin .. 5 from Queenstown ..

I missed the first two chaps, but there was one chap who played
Drum & Bass . and the rest played house styles.

The two boys who are local club dj's Cuz & Clint made some interesting
stuff in the vien of Friday night club house .. not complex . but full of
solid bump bump hands in the air ..

there were two other locals . Sinclare. and Mike Angelo ..

Simon is into his deep prog house/trance and made a rather good
track that slipped over most people ..

and originally from the West Coast of the states ..
produced a very smooth deep house roller . that took the winning
slot on the night .. congratulations !

Mike is off to the final in AK on the 28th April.

The contestants where judged on a twelve point system .. that
covered the production of their track, their technical skills on the
decks . and their ability to engage the crowd ..

It was a close pick . but I think Mike's long term experience as a dj
brought more depth to his whole presentation ..

Heiniken did a fantastic job of branding, by providing moving lights'
with custom gobo's and VJ mixing live camera footage with graphic
loops ..

The crowd was small but fully engaged in the process, despite a
the MO show personality providing a very hung over MC experience .

The whole event felt very much like being at a rugby sevens after
party .. but there was no abstraction from the competition in this sense
as the dj's took their part very seriously ..

The coolest bit is that the entrants receive their submitted track on a
dubplate .. which they had to integrate into their 20 min set .

Anyway . good on Heineken for a serious attempt at getting into the
dance scene .. they might just have a working model which could
carry on for a few years here ..

.simon