It’s still a complete mystery to me why I was chosen to write this review as I spent most of last years bash slumped in the doorway of a nearby bank, barely able to breathe. I’ll blame Mikee Hussla, Pink Niki and the Total Science lads for that incident!!!!

OK, I think this would be a good point to move on to the review…

If you didn’t know the people of Oxford were gathering at the Cellar to celebrate the birthdays of Oxford Drum and Bass celeb DJ Fu and the unemployed DJ Azonica. Having the promoters of two of Oxfords most successful nights there was never any doubt that this night was going to be a roaring success. Well, that was until Zonny (Azonica) messaged me on AIM to tell me that there had been no promotion for this event whatsoever and then messaged me a day later telling me that he thought it would be dead.

Zonny’s prediction seemed to be correct as there weren’t many people in the club to appreciate the sounds of HQ resident 8-10 setter DJ Indecision who’s laid back grooves always provide a perfect warm up for the night ahead. Next to step up were Oxfords worst comedy duo Jibba and Rogue. I haven’t seen either of these guys play out for quite some time but I was pleasantly surprised to hear some excellent tunes and some good clean mixing. The club at this point was still a little empty but they’d managed to tempt a gathering of people on to the dancefloor.

This gathering soon dispersed after my 20 minutes of drum and bass deepness. After a few funny looks from Ocean & Collins resident MC Mantmast I decided to take my set a little more dancefloor. This seemed please a drunken DJ Azonica who kindly long-armed two of my tracks in quick succession, which seemed to get the crowd going. It was at this point I noticed the club had started to fill and by the time my set was over the club was at capacity. Not bad for night that wasn’t promoted!!

Next up was the aforementioned jobless and drunken DJ Azonica who was playing back to back with the ladies choice and Source resident Jay Jay. If I’m being completely honest I wasn’t really feeling this set that much as I thought that some of the tunes were a little too cheesy and I personally don’t feel that a peak time set at HQ needs have so many tunes like that. But to totally contradict my opinion the crowd seemed to love it. Espcially when Jay Jay dropped the liquid anthem, ‘In Love’ by Chase & Status, which was promptly followed by Zonny teasing Turbulence which had half the club banging on the air-vent in true HQ fashion. When the Tease Machine and Jay Jay finally got off the decks at 1am, there were still people queuing outside and the club was nicely bubbling.

Just when I thought the night couldn’t get any cheesier DJ Fu was behind the decks and ready to start his hour of drum and bass anthems (tehehehe). Although many of the tunes he played weren’t to my taste I have to say I really enjoyed his set. With the help of the Countryman MC combo of Burley and Mantmast who had the ravers in the palm of their hands I took a moment to stand back and admire the vibes Fu brought to the dancefloor. Whilst the tunes Fu plays don’t always interest me much the way he mixes just makes it really enjoyable. I’ve no doubt that Fu is going to go far in Drum and Bass, I just hope he remembers this review when he’s poor and famous!!

To round off the night we were treated to an hour of pure deepness from one of HQ’s founding fathers… the might DJ Chemical who in my opinion played the set of the night. By this point I was far too drunk to remember the names of any of the tunes he was playing I just know it was really, really, REALLY good. Big up man.

So then, that was the HQ Birthday bash. Just some points that might be of interest: Gem didn’t fall over, I didn’t fall over and Zonny finally bought a round (with Sammi’s money). - Stumasta

Roll on Kasra & Domino on the 30th June!!

www.myspace.com/stumasta