When I arrived at Wrongbar this past Wednesday for Bassmentality, I was pleased to be greeted by a populated dance floor with plenty of breathing room. The vibes were good, the crowd was dancing, and resident DJ Warrior Music was doing his thing. The room always has a light-hearted feel when this DJ is on stage. His presence and beaming smile make it impossible to be in a bad mood during his set. I was impressed with his assortment of new tracks that I was unfamiliar with – it’s great to see DJs digging for new music to bring to their audience. He played a few of his own remixes and mixed up the pace by dropping some upbeat drum and bass tracks. I’ve heard Warrior Music spin many times, and I feel he really brought out a new style on Wednesday.
Next on the turntables was another Bassmentality resident, Geronimo. I had never heard him spin before, and I was quite impressed. He knew how to grab hold of an audience and keep them moving. One of his opening tracks was World War Z by Warrior Music, which displayed the tightness of the Bassmentality family. Similar to Warrior Music, I could also tell that Geronimo searched far and wide for new never-before-heard tracks to drop. He played a remix of a Daft Punk song that had the quickly growing dance floor going wild. At the far edges of the dance floor on all sides of the room, hardcore ravers were throwing down their moves like it was no one’s business. Geronimo dropped a world-wide favourite, Niggas in Paris by Kanye West and mixed it into a dubstep classic, Watch Out by Doctor P. The party-goers were rhythmically bouncing throughout the room, each face plastered with a smile and/or an epic ‘bass face’. Geronimo catered to the recent explosion of trap music’s popularity with a few tracks within that genre, followed by Rumble in the Jungle by Zeds Dead, which consists of two Bassmentality founders. His track list had the audience as well as myself unable to stop dancing. Geronimo killed it song after song. He dropped Shake That Ass by AFK, a remix of Major Lazer’s Original Don by Helicopter Showdown, and Delta Heavy’s remix of Crowd Control by Excision and Downlink. Near the end of his set, he dropped Skrillex’s remix of Hey Sexy Lady by iSquare. For some reason, playing Skrillex songs is looked down upon in the bass scene, but in this case, it seemed more than appropriate. No one can deny their love for the man who was a significant contributor of the sudden popularity of dubstep in Toronto – everyone knew the lyrics, the beats, the notes and the drops of the song. The crowd went crazy for this track, because Skrillex’s songs are classics to us, and everyone loves a classic. Geronimo’s enthusiastic dancing and passion on stage allowed the dance floor to get in the same excited mind-set throughout his performance.
When the headliner, Gemini, took the stage, my heart skipped a beat. Personally, I find Gemini’s style of music so beautiful. He almost brings a romantic aspect to dubstep. He started out his set with melodic tracks accompanied by smooth female vocals, which is his preferred structure of song. I found his set began with a tone that is true to Gemini’s nature. Clearly keeping up with new music, Gemini spun Mash it Up by Kill the Noise, and gradually slipped into his original mix, Fire Inside. Gemini kept the room pumping with upbeat bass with tracks such as Killer by SKisM and DC Breaks, and Alvin Risk’s remix of Eyes by Kaskade. He continued to feed my love for his unique style when he dropped my favourite track by him, Vision, which consists of melodic vocals as well as rumbling, vibrating bass. Gemini went on to drop popular tracks such as Flosstradamus’s remix of Original Don by Major Lazer and Alvin Risk’s remix of Make It Bun Dem by Skrillex. After spinning a remix of The Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up, the crowd began to dwindle and thin out. This wasn’t unexpected due to Gemini’s late set time at 1:15am, and I was okay with it; more Gemini for me! As I had hoped for, Gemini dropped some more of his older songs such as Blue, which is the title of his 2011 EP. Nearing the end of his set, Gemini treated the dance floor with some popular dubstep hits like Skrillex’s Breakin’ a Sweat, his remix of Cinema by Benny Benassi, and 16 Bit’s remix of Surge by Amon Tobin. This familiar track list was an amazing way to end the night. He ended his set with his own remix of Born to Die by Lana Del Ray, which is one of his more popular tracks. The small crowd that remained was going hard. Gemini even re-emerged for an encore, and dropped the Skrillex and Nero remix of Holdin’ On by Monsta.
Overall, Gemini put on a great performance with a variety of tempos and styles for a wide range of bass music fans to enjoy. It’s always a pleasure to hear this UK born DJ spin.
Alix Nikulka – EDM TOR
