With the 1st Breakspoll starting as a humble on-line voting awards in 2002, the promoters were blown away with the interest and success that it generated that they felt an awards ceremony was in order the year after, held at the Elektrowerks, to satisfy the fans and properly recognise the efforts of the producers and DJ’s that make the scene what it is today. Breakspoll has tried to mirror the ever evolving and all-encompassing genre by combining great venues and line-ups, making any fan that can’t make the night green with envy. There has however been recent speculation that the Breaks scene might have started to stagnate slightly with the ‘top dogs’ taking centre stage at all the events and walking away with all the awards. As ‘breaks’ has become a dirty word recently, many have jumped ship to ‘Electro Hau5’ and ‘Disco Bass’ meaning the ever evolving sound doesn’t get the coverage it may or may not need to succeed with the fresh new talent being forced to play in the shadows of the big players. Whilst the venue is still at Fabric, arguably the best venue in Britain, where it has been played for the past 4 years, the promoter’s (Jimmy MOFO – Beat Assassins and Jimmy Brayks – Founder of http://www.nuskoolbreaks.co.uk/) have had their ears to the floor and felt a completely new format was in need to kick-start one of the greatest genre’s, boasting supreme production standards and leading cross-genre innovation, back to life. And to make it not such a dirty word.

The 8^th International Breabeat awards has shunned some of the names that have moulded what we know of as breaks so as to allow the new blood the opportunity on a truly ‘worldwide stage’ to showcase their diverse sounds and more importantly the influences of tomorrow today. A wide range of artists (Far Too Loud, Equalizers, Jay Cunning and Plaza De Funk to name a few) from across the whole spectrum (Tear-out, Plod, Dub/Break Step, Downtempo, Techy) had been represented in the line-up with a strong emphasis on up-and-coming talent. To many of the ‘heads’ this was a much needed shuffle and had produced positive feedback from every corner of the ‘breaks world’. One of the main aims is to try and educate people who don’t spend their entire day nerding up on the internet about the newest Plug-Ins and freshest tunes (I am one of these people) that there is more to breaks than a house tune with a breakbeat re-edited on top.

Next on the itinery was the release of the Nominations for the actual awards themselves. Whilst there has also been a great variation in the styles that are represented there seemed to be something of a Déjà Vu moment when looking at the nominations. I am talking about the Best DJ, Producer, Track and Remix here. Now, for the record, I am not saying that I was disappointed with these results because these big guns really are worldwide exports who haven’t got where they are today by looking good behind the decks but I just felt with the new line up there might be new artists who have been smashing it (Baobinga and I.D. spring to mind) up for these awards for the first time. The Break Through Producer and DJ awards however are a great indication of who is really at the top of the game as they haven’t really got the worldwide reputation to get them as many votes so I was intrigued to see who would scoop these awards. There have however been only a few artists who have gone from ‘breakthrough’ to the ‘best’ nominations in the past and one of these is NAPT who were nominated for Best Producer, Remix and Track so I was particularly interested to see the outcome of these.

The difference in the line-up and nominations made me wonder what the actual night was going to be like. Would general punters still be attracted to the event without the big names pulling them in and if so would the crowd be chin-strokers who already know about the talent of these up and comers? I hoped not as I felt this line-up and night had potential for a serious party to be had whilst broadening the horizons and musical curiosity of all that came.

Starting at 9:30 the Spanish Armada were not wasting any time by being the first in the club eagerly awaiting to see their favourite DJ’s and get the best position in the crowd. The club quickly filled and before long room 1 was bouncing to A-Skillz incredible mixing and crowd pleasing party tunes accompanied by Beardyman.

The awards, presented by Janette Slack and Ken Mac, got underway with the crowd’s cheering at the nominations giving quite a good indication of who was going to scoop the awards. NAPT dominated the ceremony by picking up a hat-trick of awards for Best Producer, Best Track (Gotta Have More Cowbell) and Best Remix (Slyde – Frequency (NAPT Remix)) which was rightfully deserved with their consistent output and N-Funk flavour. The Best Remix must have been one of the best awards to win this year as 3 of the 5 nominations were Stanton Warriors tunes! It’s great to see that there has been a slight change in the table’s with the Plumps having been knocked off the top eventhough their new Remix of their own tune 'Beat Myself Up' is one of the most outrageously huge tune. Speaking to Lee Plump before the awards he said ‘the quality of all the nominations and general output in the last year were so great that there was no chance that the Plumps could win anything.’ Not quite, as they picked up the Best Album with Headthrash and Fingerlickin (the label they are signed to) picking up the Best Label. Even though the Stanton Warriors managed to be nailed by NAPT in the Remix category they still managed to win Best DJ and Best Compilation with the Stanton Sessions vol. 3. The Best Breakthrough Label went to Tayo and Skool of Thought’s Cool and Deadly who have been on top form for the last year with a stream of top-notch productions and bass-heavy beats. Russian Lady Waks has been going from strength-to-strength with her productions, starting with the famous ‘Minimal’ tune alongside Hardy Hard. These productions and the huge breaks scene in Russia managed to get her the award for the Best Breakthrough Producer.

Best Breakthrough DJ went to Apply The Breaks who has been smashing dance floors across the country and will hopefully continue to do so. Best Live Act went to the awesome Atomic Hooligan who have been touring the act at all the festivals and venues for many moons now. Best Large and Small Event went to FABRICLIVE and Vinyl Touch who have both been amazing at getting some of the freshest and cutting edge music coming out of their speakers with a great atmosphere at all times. The Best Radio Station went to NSB Radio who have been key to showing people the whole spectrum of breaks whilst the Grandmother of Breaks, Annie Nightingale, picked up the Best Radio Show on Radio 1. Annie also picked up the Outstanding Contribution to Breaks award which can’t have gone to anyone else with Annie being ‘The Face of Breaks’ for a long time now. The Best Vocalist was picked up by Beatboxer Beardyman who has been wowing people with his ridiculous vocal chord manipulation. Finally Beatport picked up the best retailer which came to nobody’s surprise.

Straight after the awards NAPT dropped the beats to much cheering from the crowd and continued to smash it until Far Too Loud took over. This live set by Far Too Loud was one of the best sets I have heard in a very long time with tunes that we have all come to know but with crazy new FX and bass lines put on top. Undoubtedly the best set of the night. In the other rooms people were treated to amazing sets from I.D. (without Reso as he was in Australia and didn’t tell anyone!) and another stand out set by The Equalizers and VENT. A shout out also has to go to Afghan Headspin and everybody's favourite Aquasky. Due to the sheer volume of people playing it was hard to keep a tab on each and everyone but there were relentless breakbeats coming out of every speaker in every room long into the night.

All in all it was an absolutely outstanding night and a massive shout out has to go to everybody who was involved especially Jimmy MOFO and Jimmy Brayks who have stuck their necks out and shown that you don’t need the biggest line-up in the world to have the best night of the year.

So what now? We start counting down the days until the next year’s awards are handed out to see whether this new format will have changed the face of breaks and given worldwide recognition to the new talent that we Brits have been fortunate enough to have on our doorstep for many years.

VIVA LA BREAKS!

For a concise list of winners and nominees please head to http://www.breakspoll.com/