Live Review: Breakfest

Boxing Day can sometimes be an absolute scorcher. So spending the day outside in an amphitheatre with no shade, dancing your guts out can be a recipe for lobster-coloured skin and heat stroke. Thankfully this year the weather gods blessed us with a cool yet bright day followed by a still and pleasant evening.

16 years strong and still going, there is a reason year in and year out Breakfest wins awards as Perth’s most popular festival; it’s the vibe. Everyone is on holiday, the weather is great and people are there to party. As always, Boomtick had a great choice of selectors from home and abroad.

Local acts got two stages to themselves. You could play beach volleyball or dance at the Beach Party stage, or slap on headphones and dance to one of two DJs in the Silent Disco (personally we were happy they had moved on from the Tiny Club in the toilets that had been present for the last few festivals, no matter how much you cleaned them, you never quite got rid of the smell).

Early arrivals were treated to sets from Cut Snake and Lady Waks in the Amphitheatre. Cut Snake brought a selection of electro-influenced tech house, whilst the “first lady of Breaks” performed a set filled with quick transitions made up of classic breakbeat hardcore and nu school breaks. Although they provided a nice background soundtrack, they didn’t really have the crowd’s attention.

Meanwhile, up in the Hiline Hanger Willy Joy was dropping a very party-focused set of trap and electro-dubstep. He kept the crowd worked up, by a near constant barrage of hyping on the mic. This mood was quickly killed however by Oski. Seriously, Smash Mouth mashups aren’t even fun when they are done ironically. Couple that with some pretty sloppy mixing and this resulted in a very subpar set.

Jumping back into the amphitheatre, and two Breakfest regulars played sets one after the other. Krafty Kuts started his set with some classic breaks cuts. Lots of squelching bass and bouncing beats. However halfway through he transitioned into radio classic remixes, which seemed like the perfect setup for Z-Trip.

You know exactly what you are going to get when Z-Trip takes the wheels of steel; classic hip-hop, a dash of metal and a whole lot of fun. The vibe built up by Krafty Kuts was pushed into hyper drive. At this point, space on the dancefloor was a valued commodity and there was even less space as you moved up through the tiers of the theatre.

What happened next however was possibly the most disappointing part of the whole festival. All the energy that had built up over the last 2.5 hours was quickly lost when AC Slater took to the stage. It was finally dark enough for lasers and an incredible visual backdrop, but what was offered was one of the most boring, lacklustre sets. People were mostly sitting around chatting, grabbing a drink or having a bite to eat.

Drum'n'bass fans however were dancing up front to S.P.Y. The crowd to the tent was spilling out, with groups of people dancing up to 10 metres from the entrance. Xsessive, ever the showman, had the crowd in the palm of his hand whilst a mix of liquid and techstep tracks were dropped, and calls for rewinds were made.

Ekali quickly followed, but unfortunately his sound was lost on the fans. The Hiline almost halved in capacity, which was a shame because what was on offer was a beautifully dark and aggressive set of trap, dubstep, bass house and half time D’n’B. This is a producer who really knows how to highlight a haunting percussion sound.

At this point the festival had been a bit underwhelming, but was quickly changed by the set from the Plump DJs. As regular visitors to Perth (and Breakfest especially), we thought we knew what to expect. Boy, were we wrong. What started off as a pretty standard set of electro breaks changed dramatically about 30 minutes in. The last 45 minutes was one of the most incredible sets of big beat and chemical breaks we think we've ever heard. This was easily the best set of the year and there are few shows I can think that could have equalled it. The visuals were simple and geometric, and the sound rattled the whole body yet had an incredible clarity.

Finally it was time for the headliner. Aphrodite offered a commanding performance, with Xsessive jumping on the mic,. A great mix of classic and modern drum’n’bass tracks were offered, but unfortunately after what the Plumps had offered, this was a little lacking.