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Empire Hotel

339 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley, 4006

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Empire presents Adicts Break & Enter Launch

Finished
9pm
$15/Members $10
Bookings & Enquiries: http://www.empirehotel.com.au
This event has now passed
Empire presents Adicts Break n Enter Launch featuring special guests Skool of Thought (UK), Splitloop (UK) and Madox (Italy).

Cover Charge: $15 all night
Members: $10

After a one month Yo-Play-incurred hiatus, Breaks & Enter is back on August 2nd with a massive triple header lineup!

Skool of Thought (UK), Splitloop (UK) and Madox (Italy). It rarely gets better than this!

Once again delivering the best in breaks from across the globe, ADICTS brings to the Moonbar, one of the biggest breakbeat lineups to ever grace the venue!

The trio are supported by Breaks & Enter residents: the Adicts Collective, Rhythm Division, Conjure and Stryder with Disco Daz on trumpet and rhymes by KNO.

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*About: Skool of Thought*

Living between the UK and Australia, Skool Of Thought is the owner and label manager behind the award winning Against The Grain & SuperCharged Music record labels - home to the likes of the Freestylers, Krafty Kuts, Splitloop, Ed Solo and of course Skool Of Thought. He is the guy responsible for the enormous Groove Armada 'Superstylin' and Freestylers v Pendulum 'Painkiller' breaks remixes. He has appeared on the front cover of 3D magazine in Australia, described by IDJ magazine as 'an underrated genius' and recognized by DJ magazine as helping form the 'nu skool breaks' scene. He has produced countless breakbeat monsters over the years including Heavyweight Breaks Volumes 1 & 3, Breakspoll 3, numerous 12" singles and is currently celebrating the success of his debut artist album with Ed Solo entitled 'Random Acts Of Kindness'. To top it all off he has just launched a third label called 'Cool & Deadly' with Tayo. Phew! Time to take a lesson from Skool...

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's spin back through the misty turntables of time, to the days when Skool of Thought was a young, slip of a lad, a time when you weren't worth your salt unless you had an Atari ST in the studio. We find our man flipping through some dusty vinyl in a Brighton record shop, when a chance meeting with a little known DJ by the name of Krafty Kuts produced a meeting of musical minds. Discovering a mutual love for the breaks, Skool Of Thought and Krafty Kuts set up the world-renowned SuperCharged club night in Brighton. As residents of the night, the two DJs played every week to an ecstatic crowd, in what is now a legendary Wednesday session on the south coast. As the club night exploded, demand for vinyl releases of the SuperCharged sound grew, and two record labels were born.

The first Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought single was the double a-side 'Feel The Music' and 'Loud Noise', the bottom heavy thumpers with a soulful twist which caught the attention of many in the scene and shot the 12" to number 1 in DJ Magazines Beats & Breaks chart. Their tunes were spotted by a production company that was working with MTV, and the boys were soon commissioned to write the music for the MTV EMA's (European Music Awards), which later won an award for 'Best Title Sequence'.

Following these early successes, the labels went into collective overdrive and soon they were celebrating signing the Freestylers to the Against The Grain stable. The release of Freestylers 'Push Up' single blew the roof off, selling over 100,000 copies worldwide, going top 10 in 5 countries and picking up a gold disc along the way, 'Push Up' was by far the biggest selling breaks tune ever. Skool Of Thought, found himself in charge of two of the most highly regarded breaks labels in the world. This led to him spending increasing amounts of his time at the business as label manager, rather than as an artist. Over the next few years he dedicated the majority of his time to this role and his success at the job soon saw the additional signings of Krafty Kuts and Splitloop, plus another album from the Freestylers. It wasn't until last year that time permitted Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought to join forces once again and start work on their own album 'Random Acts Of Kindness'.

'Random Acts Of Kindness' encompasses all of the sounds and styles that have influenced Skool Of Thought over the years; from soul, funk and reggae to drum n bass, hip-hop and breaks. Effervescent, opener 'Love Your Life' isn't just for the ska jump up crowd, it's great song based fare and an early indicator of how the album delivers to more than just the dancefloor. Next up is King Tubby sampling soundbwoy stylings of Babylon Breaks. Reggae influences rear their head again on slowburning skankers 'Life Gets Better' and 'Raspberry Dub', while the D&B Remix of 'Feel The Music' does exactly what it says on the tin. Dipping into the UK underground with a bassline to loosen your fillings on 'Sludge', the guys show they have an eye for the retro too with their reworking of Incognito's classic 'Always There'. Throw in piano-laced hip hop ('Sometimes') and beeps and bleeps aplenty ('Tug Nut') and you’ve got an album, which could never be described as samey.

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*About: Splitloop*

Splitloop are the group who, infamously, met on the bus in Ireland going to a Prodigy gig back in the day. Finding they had more in common than just a love of Liam Howlett's beats, Phil and Bren formed an enduring partnership that's rocketed them high into the breakbeat premier league. Naming themselves after one of their first productions together, the guys started making a name for themselves with early releases on the acclaimed Sinister label. It was the 'KFC' release on Against The Grain, Krafty Kuts' label, that really made their name on the breaks scene, though, and led to them signing to the leading breakbeat label that also boasts The Freestylers, Deekline & Wizard, Ed Solo & Skool Of Thought and more. Phil is philosophical about their early career. "Our first studio had a broken toilet, so everything smelled like wee," he remembers. "We could never afford monitors 'cos all our money went on pills and beer. As soon as we gave up pills, we bought monitors and got signed. Lesson learned, kiddies."

Splitloop's forthcoming album 'Pleasure Machine' is going to cement their position at the top of the breaks scene, and bring them a whole host of new fans too due to its crossover potential. Phil and Bren admit to exploring other musical avenues since the last album, and this broadening of horizons has had a profound influence on the Splitloop sound; "You can't be looking only to the breaks scene to get inspiration for your music," reckons Bren. "That would just be a ridiculous feedback loop".

"We're at an age where we really just wanted to make music we thought was really good and moving our sound forward, not worrying about what anyone else would think."

Dipping their toes into other styles of electronic music has certainly paid off for the guys. 'Pleasure Machine' has a velvety sheen, touching on modern sexy D. Ramirez-type electro-house, juddery Justice riddims, old skool electro, bleepy Trickyesque bizness, speak 'n' spell robotica and a hell of a lot more. There's a consistency to their sound that glazes the whole album – sexy electronic dance music that'll be rocking floor from Brighton to Beijing.

Accumulating all the tools to soundtrack a fantastic night out, the Splitloop guys have set the dials for pleasure. The touring that's going to be accompanying this album is going to bring them into contact with a whole new set of pleasure-seeking individuals set for a collective experience of orgasmic electronic dance music. But where did the 'Pleasure Machine' idea come from? Is it a sex toy? A Wilhelm Reich invention to rival his Orgone Energy Accumulator? What?

"The basic premise came from a tune we were writing," outlines Bren. "We wanted a robotic vocal bouncing off a female vocal. The first word that came to mind for the robot was 'machine', and the first thing that came to mind when thinking of a relationship between women and machines was 'pleasure' – if you know what I mean! That became the vocal of the tune, and it seemed like a good concept so we doubled it up as the album title as well."

Breakbeat has all too often been weighed in favour of blokes. As many women as men are going to be into 'Pleasure Machine', though: you just know by its kick-ass yet funky electro-breaks feel. The album is sure to elevate them above the traditional breakbeat acts and into a whole new realm, and the guys are excited about what the future has in store.

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*About: Madox*

Madox is the Italian breakbeat talent, also known as Stefano Miele. A student of oriental languages at the University of Naples, he’s been creating music his entire life. He likes to define his style as ‘locked break_grooves with techno energy’ and that description quite simply defines his trademark style.

After having played in the best electronic clubs throughout Italy, Madox was signed to Mantra Breaks, the first Italian breakbeat label, in 2003. His first release, “G-Toolz” caught respectable international attention but it was with the second episode, “The G-Toolz EP2” containing “Resonance Song” that Madox truly established himself, having the likes of The Plump DJs and Rennie Pilgrem exploit its unique sounds. With great anticipation, “The G-Toolz EP3 (The Funk Side Of The Toolz)” was released soon after and tracks such as “Hypnotic Funk” and “Plasticfunk” apleased masses of breaks fans the world over in the summer of 2003, drawing the attention and praise of Timo Maas, Groove Armada, Meat Katie, Carl Cox, Marco Carola, Stanton Warriors, Tayo, Lee Coombs and Krafty Kuts.

Before the end of 2004, Madox released what went on to be an epic title on Mantra Breaks: “Adventures in Drum: Brazil Careca/Alemao” with a uniquely brazilian flavour. The track was declared as an “Essential New Breaks Tune” by DMC Magazine.

2004 saw Madox continue to release a number of smash titles that led to his nomination at the 2004 International Breakspoll Awards for Best Breakthrough Act and saw him recognised and featured in the “People to Watch Out For in 2005” in DJ MAG magazine.

In April of 2005, Madox’s first project with label-mate Santos titled “Trouble Soup” was released with tremendous success. Titles, “Enjoy The Sirens” and “Via Chicago” secured international tours in the UK, China & Italy for the pair and earned Madox nominations for Best Remix and Best Producer at the 2005 International Breakspoll Awards.

2006 saw much of the same for Madox, releasing “G-Toolz EP4 and various collaborations with John Acquaviva, DJ Icey, Plaza De Funk, Rob Reng and Santos, landing him nominations at the 2006 International Breakspoll Awards for Best Producer, Best Remix and Best DJ.

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reviews

Saturday Afternoon Session
Reviewed on Saturday, 16 September, 2006 by Yug
Loved the: Atmosphere, Music, Bar Service, Door Staff
Nice: Value
Overall: Love it!
full review