Raveology
Raveology Dogs January Sale
air Superclub
Birmingham
Friday 25th January 2008

Tonight Raveology presented their first event of 2008 the Raveology dogs. The Raveology dogs was night a where Raveology showcased the best talent from in and around the midlands alongside a number of special guests spread across the 3 arenas of Air.

With January being the sale period for most shoppers Raveology gave the ravers a January sale as tickets were priced up as low as £5. With the tickets being so cheap it was no surprise that when I arrived at Air there was an enormous queue. The queue had stretched from outside the venue right into Air’s very own car park.

Headed for the main arena and Dangerous D had just started his set. Dangerous ensured the crowd were warmed up by dropping plenty of crowd favourites throughout his set including ‘Fuck what you heard’, ‘Mr Kirks nightmare’ and ‘Anthema’ remixes

The main arena was quickly filling up and MC’s Hidro and Robes took the stage and got the crowd bouncing with their lyrics whilst involving the crowd with their chants. The oxygen arena was covered with a number of Raveology banners and murals dotted around the walls. It was handy that the video screens were displaying the set times across the 3 arenas all night along with information about the forthcoming events from Raveology.

MC Dap joined Hidro and Robes for the later part of Dangerous D’s, quite enjoy listening to Dap has improved quite considerably over the past few months. Dangerous finished up with ‘Special tactics’, ‘Fear of the future’ and ‘Pulp fiction’ remix.

Next up was Birmingham’s very own award winning producer DJ Hazard who was accompanied by MC Accapello. I really enjoyed this set from Hazard who ensured the temperature was set to boiling point. Hazard was droppings plenty of crowd favourites including ‘Busted’, ‘Scan darker’ and ‘Machete’.

Accepllo was on the mic rocking the main arena hyping up with his catchy lyrics making sure the ravers weren’t kept standing still. Hazard continued to destroy the dancefloor as he laid down slammers such as ‘Killers don’t die’, ‘Ambush’ and ‘Run coward run’.

Raveology’s special guest DJ Empress from NYC wasn’t looking to show tonight so DJ Stanza took to the helm in her absence. Stanza played an impressive set ,plenty of teases whilst showcasing the various styles of drum and bass throughout the set. Stanza was playing a bit of everything with tracks such as ‘Watchin windows’, ‘Shining’ and ‘Bounce’.

Accapello mc’ed for the first half of the set whilst DAP took over for the remainder of Stanza’s set. DAP is definitely one to watch for with a very powerful voice for such a small guy he really knows how to project his voice.

Following on from Stanza was Formation records head honcho DJ SS. It’s been an absolute age since I last saw SS and was quite intrigued to see what he had to offer tonight. SS played plenty of party tracks throughout his set dropping crowd favourites such as ‘Machette’, ‘Game over’, ‘Bonanza Kid’ and ‘Everyday’.

Birmingham’s legendary MC Bassman was mcing for DJ SS, Bassman was dressed as MR Black from Reservoir dogs as he wore a suit. Bassman rocked his hometown hyping up the crowd with dirty lyrics whilst getting rowdy with the crowd in his dashing suit!

SS continued to lay down the slammers finishing off his set with ‘Tunnel grinder’, ‘Fasten your seat belts’ and ‘Tarantula’. Next up representing Technique recording was the production duo of Drumsound.

Drumsound are two of the midlands busiest producers whilst working alongside Simon Bassline Smith they are responsible for a number of monster tracks. MC Juiceman took the mic duties working the crowd with his blend of lyrics and stage presence. Drumsound rolled out with ‘Friday’, ‘Screamer’, ‘Offline’ and the current dancefloor slammer from Ram records ‘Timewarp’.

Jaydan from Propaganda records took to the decks and was joined by Nutcracka Macka was on the mic. Nutcaracka hyped up the crowd with his crossover grime and dnb style. Jaydan dropped a number of slammers including ‘Mr Happy’, ‘Scan darker’ and ‘Offline’. Trigga took over on the mic for later part of this set and kept the ravers on their toes with his hyperactive mcing rocking the crowd from left to right.

3D Modes DJ Devize was on a great set of tunes from him, a nice dark selection as you’d expect from Devize deep dark and deranged! Lots of his own material from the 3D Mode label as he dropped ‘Think again’ and ‘Shadow squad’ which features both MC Bassman and Longjohn on the vocals. Bassman was immense on this set really complimenting Devize’s dark selection

Closing the night was the drum and bass workhorse Nicky Blackmarket a great set from the legend ensuring the crowd weren’t left standing still. Biggie took the mic duties for this set and was joined by the Shadow Demon Coalition duo of Shaydee and Trigga.

Nicky’s set rocked the crowd for the final 60 minutes playing a number of fresh dubplates alongside crowd favourites such as ‘Slowburn’, ‘Offline’, ‘Dark soldier’ remix and ‘Rah’.

What a great turn out for a drum and bass party in January down Air, good to see the main arena and 2nd room were busy all night long. January is known for being very quiet time in the raving calendar mainly due to people spending their cash over xmas and new years. It’s not that often you get to have a party down air with entrance being as little as £5 which is fantastic value for money with the number of artists on show!

Massive shouts to Magika, Jo and the Raveology crew, Presha, Hazard, Nicky BM, Shaydee, Juiceman, Dangerous, D, Devize, Garry K, Stanza, Carsel, Accapello, Biggie, Jaydan, Bassman, Robes, Dap, Hidro, Sly, Dirty, Alpha, CKB, Drumsound crew, DJ SS, Fozz, Hades, Trigga, Mistress Mo, Aaron, Vytol, TnT, Neil Badboy, Helen, Darryl, Donna and Clair, Opiate, Nursa, Dizasta, Leechy, Flarse, Wez, Sue, Gem, Hollie, Toni, Lauren, CKB, Josh, Drakey, Astro, Magz, Danielle, Doug and everyone else whose names I don't' know but faces I recognise.