If it ain't broke, don't funk with it.

"I know you got soul!" - Eric B & Rakim

Last Friday night, when the rest of y'all were either drinking, clubbing in the city, crashing into bed after a long day in the office, or catching Borat at the cinemas, I ventured out into the white elephant formerly known as Fox Studios.

I rocked up at 9.45pm hoping to be entertained for the night. Damn, I'd been working 12 hour days for the past week or so and needed a break. Something to look forward to. What better way than to spend it watching a live funk/soul band called Breakstra?

I must admit I've never heard of Breakstra before last Friday. In fact, I was just hoping to not be ripped off after spending $45 on a group I've never heard of. Hailing out of Cali-for-ni-a, they brought the funk (and loads of it).

Performing live, they used a mixture of electric guitars, saxophones, keyboards, and drums. There actually wasn't much singing, though they did have female vocalist who was mediocre at best. But Breakstra brought it, playing song after song continuosly for about 1.5 hours. There wasn't a break inbetween songs, and seamlessly floated into the next song. It was a just a fusion of live instruments, funk (that's right funk, not crunk), solo performances, riffs, breakbeats, and some crazy renditions of classic songs.

I think the best part was when they played classics like James Brown and The Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache". There were even a few beats I reckonised from the Roots - I've actually read that the ?uestlove of the Roots sampled some of their stuff so I'm not surprised. It really was like James Brown meets the Roots while jamming to George Clinton. In short Breakstra was off the hook!

Interesting sidenote, I must have been the only Asian in the whole club. Ok, Ok, there were a few other token Asians, but it was a predominatly white (Caucasian) crowd. I reckon that the people that truly appreciate true soul/funk music in Australia are predominatly white.

Anyhow, awesome band though some of their stuff did start to sound repetitive but they broke up with some vocals and nice solo jams. And the saxophonist (if that's a word) was just amazing. He did an excellent vesion of DJ Kool's "Let me clear my throat" and the crowd went off!

DJ Ho rating: 9 outta 10.

I'm out like token asians at Breakestra,

DJ Ho

p.s. for an awesome rnb and soul podcast check out Chromegat's (obifromsouthlondon) playlist. Where you at dude?