Reviewer: Richard Brown

We Want Your Soul
Saturday 26th July 2003

Adam Freeland 2003 - We Want Your Soul Tour

Australia is widely touted as the break-beat capital of the world these days, and while Sydney currently has the most highly developed scene in Oz, the level of passion that Perth shows for the broken beat has become a phenomenon in itself. Anyone who witnessed the cauldron of energy and enthusiasm that was the Globe on the evening of July 26 would surely agree. This year Adam Freeland demanded that the Perth leg of his Australian tour take place on a Saturday evening, and everyone in attendance experienced the brilliance of the nu-skool pioneer at the absolute top of his game.

On the night a fevered excitement could be felt the moment you stepped into the club, which was already almost at capacity an hour before Freeland stepped up. The local breaks crew did a fittingly excellent job of working the crowd into motion in preparation for the man at the epicentre of their genre. As the last man up before Freeland, DJ Smoulder was particularly effective at generating a kinetic atmosphere, dropping numerous killer cuts, the Plump DJ's mix of Electric Appliances one of the best.

The DJ booth was kept on the side wall of the Globe for the whole night, which I believe is superior to the alternate setup of having the decks standing on the stage at the back of the club. The former setup allows the stage to be used as a podium-dancing section, and means that the balcony level is facing the DJ booth, giving the space a cavernous, tiered feel, that creates an awesome spectacle.

As Freeland appeared and picked up the thread Smoulder left for him, the joint erupted. In fact, the level of crowd noise during all the key moments was at fever pitch for the entire set, making it one of the most atmospheric events I can recall.
The set started of with a sweet cacophony of wailing synths smattered with electric guitar samples, before letting loose with a massive bass line that had the crowd mad for it from the get go. Adam shows just as much physical enthusiasm whilst mixing as his sets invoke from the dance-floor, which only adds to awesome energy that a Freeland set generates.

Despite being one of the key-players in re-inventing the breaks sound during the late nineties, Freeland has grown tired of the constant association with term "nu-skool breaks", and perhaps partly out of a disdain for categorisation, he has continually evolved and kept his sound fresh. Currently grunge rock is a big influence, as a considerable amount of the early and mid-stages of the set took heed from this sound. It appears to be a marriage made in heaven, as blended with the dynamic flow of break-beat, the overall sound manages to be dark, moody and energised all at the same time.

Adam mixed and cut with precise timing and impressive sleight of hand throughout, and had the party people invested in every track. Around half-way through, he dropped his biggest production piece "We Want Your Soul". This track first cast its thrall on Perth audiences at Freeland's show last year, at which time it was an unreleased white label. It obviously resonated similarly well on dance-floors across the globe, as a year later it is slated as the first single off Freeland's forthcoming debut album, as well as being the namesake for his Australian tour. The track got a rapturous reaction as soon as the opening samples became recognisable. The hypnotic drone of the main vocal, offset by killer stabs from a sinister chanting sample, all atop an electric cyber-breaks arrangement, again had the dance-floor alive with motion.

Moshing and air-guitar are not typically the stuff of break-beat parties, however they did feature fairly heavily during the airing of one of Freeland's own productions, which reincarnates the spirit of Kurt Cobain with a rework of the definitive Nirvana number "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Might sound like a pretty strange blend of cultures, however it actually works extremely well, and brings together the grunge and electronic sound in a beautiful, reconciliatory, "why can't we all just get along?" kinda way. Ah yeah anyway … the raging cut (dubbed "Smells Like Freeland") was dropped flawlessly into mix, and infused the dance-floor with an energy that was, in a word, awesome.

As he put the crowd through the paces for the final hour, Adam's tune selection remained inventive, continually finding new directions (I wasn't expecting a Rage Against the Machine number, but again the unexpected went down a treat). The epic final stages included a second airing of "We Want Your Soul" (this time combined with the classic tune Plastic Dreams) as well as a sweetly melodious new cut from red-hot producer Ils, which capped things off in soaring style.

After being held rapt in the journey from beginning to end, most everyone in the club was gliding above the clouds when the set reached its final destination. As one of the true geniuses of the contemporary dance scene, the only problem with this man is we only get to see him once a year. Adam Freeland, you blew us away once again.

Richie Brown

Contact : Richie Brown

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Saturday 1st March 2003

Presented by Greenmelon.

Godskitchen (Metros):
Armin Van Buuren
Judge Jules
Junkie XL (JXL live)
Plus: Adam Kelly, Kenny L

GlobalUnderground (Globe):
Sander Kleinenberg
Dave Seaman
Layo & Bushwacka
Plus: Choice, Chad D

Hardware (Globe):
Meat Katie
Speedy J
Will E Tell
Slam
Plus: Greg Packer, Echoic, Gully, Richie Rich