This was the second MUSH taking place at the Park night-club, Manchester and since it was my birthday the night before I was up for having a mass stompage session. Got to Piccadilly station at around 8 O'clock then had to walk for at least half an hour to the club through the University and some well dodgy subways since merlin wouldn't get a taxi (bah). Arrived at the club and met up with an already f**ked Banksy and the Liverpool Massif. Got into the club at about 9:05 after a very easy going search from the safe security so banged my jacket into the cloakroom and went downstairs to have a look around the venue. The venue is very underground and dark with a dancefloor that could fit around 200ish plus two chill out area's on either side for the lightweights :), the lighting was good enough and had good effect for a club of this size but the sound system is what did it for me. I'm sick of going to events having to putting up with systems that are way to low in volume and being able to speak clearly with the person next to me, something which shouldn't happen and didn't happen here as the sound was extremely loud. First up on the decks was DJ Rascal, who I was expecting to play a nu skool gabber set but instead it was hard trance. Some really decent tunes with a bit of scratching thrown in for good measure, not many people were dancing yet as most people were either chatting or still arriving. Next on was Sarge along with Wotsee, Sonic FX and Rymes on the mic getting the crowd going, he played a seriously banging NRG set with a few acid trance style tunes and by this time most people were starting to dance. I highly rate Sarge as a DJ as his tunage selection is always good with excellent mixing aswell. 11 PM and the MC Rymes announced that SY was now on, soon the dj booth had a small crowd around ready to watch him scratch it up and he did a fair amount that during his hour set. Along with Rhymes doing some vocal scratching too, sounded very good from Liverpools #1. I was expecting an anthem packed set with tunes such as 'Kick it' and 'I need you loving' as Sy's set have become a little bit predictable. But how wrong could I of been. There were few crowd pleasures like 'Set you free' and 'Like a prayer', which did get a good reaction. But other than that, it was a wicked set with lots of Evolution releases and New Infinity 001- 'Connected' by UFO, he ended the set with Scott Brown's 'Ice Cold' which got everyone going mad. Dodgee was up now with the one like Wotsee on the mic, definitely one of the best freeform sets I've ever heard with lots of tunes that I hadn't heard before including (I think) the first release on Madness & Mayhem, the USA's first label releasing Freeform. The set was ended with 'Product Of Society' by Sharkey which is one of my all time top tunes, nice one. Some excellent mixing / scratching during the set and Wotsee didn't stop at all coming out with some first class lyrical madness. Look out for those two names as I'm sure you'll be seeing them around in the future. Last set of night was from the 'Pride Of Wigan' DJ Alarm who played half an hour of bouncy techno classics and then moved onto some nu skool gabber (whooooo hooooooo). MC Sonic FX was on the mic at some point during this set and it has to be said that some of his lyrics got the crowd well hyped up, ''When I say f**k you say you... F**K.... YOOOOU '' class :) Can remember hearing 'Now Is The Time 96' and Scott Brown's remix of 'Technophoba' but, I was saving my self for the second half and was well worth the wait.. too right it was !!! Alarm started the second half off with 'Dirty Words' by Paul and Distortion, a tune that uses the strings out of Terminator, DJ Paul's remix of 'Thrillseeka' and some other stomptastic tune's that were all quality. Tight mixing throughout his set but it all ended a little too soon. The last tune of the night was the all time classic 'Jiiiiiieeeeeehaaaaaaa' by Diss Reastion, which ended the night on a high for me. Overall I had a really good night, all the DJ's / MC's did an excellent job of entertaining the crowd. The atmosphere was buzzing all night and another thing that I liked was that each set was different with a mixture of Hard Dance styles. This is a really good night and anyone who's around the area should get of their arses and come to it !! The next one is on Friday 2nd of November and details of it should be up on the website (http://www.mush-hardcore.co.uk) Thumb's up to the promoters involved, See ya on the 2nd. Shouts : Merlin, Sonic FX, Dodgee, Wotsee, Jexxy, Alarm, Kerry, John Steel, Emma, Strike, Jamie, Kevin also a big shout to Banksy for being the north west's number 1 wreckhead and drinking two bottles of cider at 10 in the morning.
