On Wednesday night, seven of Bloomington's biggest DJs
participated in a round robin competition at the IMUG Starbucks in the Union. Here's a recap of the night:
Although this show was originally scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m., the DJs began spinning their tunes about a half-hour late. However when they did begin to play, over 100 people filled the venue. The set was fairly bare bones- with only a traditional laptop, turntables and tiny flashing blue lights. Yet, the high sound quality and the talented break-dancers more than made up for the poor decor. The IU BBoys danced while the Djs competed.
Here's a brief summary of each DJs' 15 minute set in order of their performances:
1. Action Jackson- This Indianapolis native started the show off with a stutter. His set began with the 'THX' movie intro theme, which even diehard Star Wars fans now scoff at. He hiccuped with a few poor transitions, and laid out an unoriginal set. He played old remixes from early this year, such as "Twist and Shout", "Sweet Dreams" and a popular Smashing Pumpkins sample. However, Action Jackson succeeded in pleasing the crowd when he got people to clap along to the 'Rocky' theme. The judges conflicted in their reviews of his set. Two of the judges said the set was a pleasant, crowd-pleasing medley of oldies and contemporary beats, while Donovan Knowles, the cousin of Beyonce Knowles, said the set sounded like a "15 minute excerpt from a party I didn't even want to go to."
2. DJ Mallz- Mallz started his set with a yawn-worthy hip hop feel. WIUX DJ Joshua Kraus said Mallz was "just playing beats over excerpts of songs-nothing special-no talent needed for this." The highlight of this boring set was a childish rendition of the 'Space Jam' theme. Joby Wright, one of the judges and a fellow Bloomington DJ, texted on his phone throughout the majority of the entire set. Again, Mallz played the "Sweet Dreams" remix towards the end of his set.
3. Sleepy T- Sleepy started off strong with the a remix of President-elect Barck Obama's famous "Yes we can" speech. As the judges noted, Sleepy T performed a solid and diverse set. However, his set was aggravated by a few technical difficulties that slightly detracted from the professional sound of his performance. He finished off his set with a beautiful remix of "Please Mister Postman" by The Beatles.
4. DJ Zeke- Zeke performed the first set that inspired the weary crowd to get up, dance and enjoy themselves. He successfully used many unique and unheard remixes of obscure songs to create an original sounding set. The judges noted that Zeke used clean transitions, original songs and crowd-pleasing effects in his set.
5. Phenom- Phenom started his set off with energy by clearly enjoying and dancing to his own set. However, Kraus noted that Phenom's set had many off-rhythm transitions, especially with "American Boy." The judges noted that Phenom played too many mashups, but used good technical effects throughout his set.
6. Alex Goulet- Goulet kept the crowd on their toes with an original and uncommon set. Kraus noted that Goulet's set had an unconventional trip-hop feel. Because of this, the set did not inspire dancing like Zeke's set, however many people bobbed their heads to the beats. The judges noted that the set sounded like two sets mixed into one, yet it remained enjoyable and unique. Also, Robby Racette- one of the judges- was pleased to hear the inclusion of a Frank Zappa song in Goulet's set.
7. DJ Figure- Figure definitely infatuated the judges, who played air-piano while listening to his piano-heavy set. He performed well, and mixed in plenty of unique crowd-pleasers like songs from RZA's soundtrack of 'Kill Bill Vol.' Figure also kept the crowd's eyes on him with his epileptic dance moves. Overall, he performed a well-balanced set.
After all of the DJs performed once, the top two DJs-Action Jackson and DJ Zeke- performed again to compete for the top spot. DJ Zeke finished second, although he managed to make people dance to a Kelly Clarkson song- albeit a heavily remixed Kelley Clarkson song. After playing a groovy set with a sample of "Jungle Boogie," Action Jackson took the top spot.
-Yahya Chaudhry
Below are photos taken by sophomore Brittany Lopez:
