After a much discussed evening show of experimental electronica courtesy of Matmos, Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald, and the Bugge Wesseltoft & Henrik Schwarz Duo (as well as a brilliant house set by DJ Sprinkles) at the Royal Festival Hall, the Academy travelled further south to Brixton to the newly refurbished Plan B. Joining forces with Hatcha and N-Type for a special edition of their Sin City night, some of the biggest names in dancehall, dubstep and the likes were squeezed across two rooms for one night of complete bassface mayhem induced by Ms Dynamite, David Rodigan, Appleblim, Ramadanman, El-B, J Da Flex, Kenny Ken, MC Skibadee, Oneman, Youngsta, DJ Heny.G, Jay 5ive, Kromestar, Walsh, Soul Jazz Sound System, Flava D, Cohoba & Mau'lin.

Opening the doors at 10pm, despite the icy conditions outside, the queue was already 100 people deep with capacity reached by 12pm. If you were lucky enough to make it inside you would’ve been treated to the fully functioning Funktion One soundysystem and a line-up boasting legendary broadcaster/DJ David Rodigan, garage’s no 1 comeback girl Ms Dynamite, Kromestar, and Academy participants Cohoba and Flava D, to name a few. Although we could give you the full lowdown on each DJ set, we’ve decided to shower you with a no frills highlight account.
 


Stepping up to the stage around 12.30am Ms Dynamite who was a last minute but very welcome addition to the line up, gave a performance like no other. Dropping her brisk spitfire style, she opened with the massive UK Garage classic Booo! and the lyric “feel the badgyal bass injection” couldn’t have been truer as the soundystem shook the walls when ‘that’ bassline dropped. Before the crowd could recover she went on to do her new material that sees her going back to her Booo! days. Performing Get Low produced by Geeneus and Academy-anthem-in-the-making Wile Out by Zinc, Dy-na-mi-tee certainly showed us why she was UK Garage’s first lady and will be back to reigning supreme in the UK funky and crack house days.
 


Meanwhile, Room 2’s intimate setting held down its own with an equally heavy weight soundsystem and line-up, including the Ghost gang and West London’s Anti-Social Entertainment to name but a few. Holding the fort at 3am were the Soul Jazz Soundsystem, who opened up their box of dubs to a packed room of hardcore skankers, to play classic jungle rhythms alongside dubstep and new-school London house.

Back upstairs, not long after the electricity from Dynamite, the crowd witnessed what was without a shadow of a doubt the highlight of the entire evening: a special lesson in sound from David Rodigan. Easily cementing his title as “baddest of badmen” (as one of his specials says) with heavy-hitting dubs from General Levy, Mavado, Buju Banton and Damian Marley to name but a few, the British institution sent the hot and sweaty floor of Plan B into a frenzy of gun finger salutes, dance and spontaneous sing-longs: Major Lazer’s Pon De Floor saw him wheel the tune no less than three times. With a story to tell before each tune, he perfectly represented the night’s concept: he showed a hand-signed King Tubby record from his massive collection before bigging up everybody from the original dub wizard Scientist (who unfortunately had to cancel his appearance due to Visa problems) to his predecessor on stage, Ms Dynamite, to the now-generation of London steppers carrying the torch for dub-heavy sounds (and the Academy’s very own Torsten ‘Akshun’ Schmidt carrying a rather frightening number of vodka shots). Ms Dynamite in return showed her appreciation by slow-wining alongside the man himself to Mavado's Weh Dem A Do to the colossal sound of applause. As he came to the end of his set, he had the crowd in the palm of his hands, and dropped another Ram Jam signature tune, Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire, to 250 bass heads. A truly memorable moment, and we just wanted to take a moment to say, Rodigan, out to you…
 


The session was far from over though, with Kool FM veteran Brockie filling in for Kenny Ken with a no-brainer selection of jungle classics from Krust’s Warhead to Shy FX & T-Power’s Shake Ur Body. At 3am he made way for the dubstep segment of the night, featuring residents N-Type and Hatcha playing out the big ones to an enthusiasmed crowd including Carl Craig and two of his scholars from Croydon.

A new dawn? Yessir.

Appleblim & Ramadanman (Applepips, Hessle Audio, Bristol, London) - Live from London - Sin City, Plan B
Brockie (Kool FM, Undiluted Records, London) - Live from London - Sin City, Plan B
J Da Flex & El-B (Ghost, London) - Live from London - Sin City, Plan B
OneMan (House Party!, London) - Live from London - Sin City, Plan B
Soul Jazz Sound System (Soul Jazz Records, London) - Live from London - Sin City, Plan B
DJ Heny.G (Anti Social Entertainment, London) - Live from London - Sin City at Plan B
Mau'lin (Twickenham, UK) - Live from London - Sin City at Plan B
Flava D (Eski Beat, London) - Live from London - Sin City, Plan B