Review: One More Time at The Court

One More Time at The Court
w/ Krafty Kuts, DJ Craze, Micah, Weaponess, Bezwun
Sunday, June 28, 2026

One More Time was back once again to sate the appetite of Perth’s broken beat massive, with Boomtick filling the hole in our broken hearts in the absence of Ambar and Breakfest. This time featured two legends of the game: real DJs and turntablists that learned things the old-school way and honed their skills over many years, coming from a hip-hop b-boy background and evolving with the breaks and bass sound.

Krafty Kuts needs no introduction to breaks fans. Martin Freeman, as he’s known to his mum, is a long-time DJ and producer from the south coast of England. The man’s a certified legend who’s visited many times over the years. Since first gracing our shores at Breakfest in the early 2000s, Krafty’s had a long love affair with our country and is pretty much an adopted Perth son. In a rare headline tour, Krafty was in fine form, promoting his new album, Turbulence, which comes out next week!

And in support, he brought his brother in beats, the one and only DJ Craze, who is more of a rare visitor. “The best DJ in the world”, as Krafty would describe him later in the evening when taking over from him. And that’s not hyperbole; Craze truly is one of the all-time greats. He was the only person to win the DMC World DJ Championships three times until 2020, when DJ Skillz joined him in that feat. His intricate routines are legendary. But as well as a technical wiz, he knows how to put together a set that flows and keeps the crowd engaged.  The Miami native is a mashup maestro, and his sets can span anything from hip-hop to Miami bass, trap, dubstep and drum & bass.

While it was a wet and wild day outside, the forecast in The Court’s cosy, enclosed courtyard was cloudy (from the smoke and lights) with a high chance of breaks. There was no raining on this parade, and the crowd of OMT regulars were in high spirits.

Kicking things off round 4pm was Bezwun. There wasn’t much of a crowd yet, but that didn’t stop Bezzy laying down some heavy drum & bass rollers for the early crowd, setting the tone for the evening.

Taking things up a notch, next up was Weaponess, aka Courtney Fraser. Perth’s first lady of drum & bass, she’s now the new host of RTRFM’s Full Frequency on Wednesdays, following on from the epic 24-year run from Dart.

Weaponess played a great set, tailored to the audience, and really got things going as the crowd filed in. Mixing in a lot of breaks and bass, as well as her more usual liquid DnB and jungle sounds. The vibes really started to build as the dancefloor filled up, which was definitely the best place to hear, and feel, the music. Dropping the wicked Pola & Bryson reboot of Adam F’s classic Circles got people bouncing.

Our own local maestro of all things broken beats, Micah, stepped up next and delivered a huge set up to his usual standards, mixed with precision, working his way through an array of sounds, including In This Bih’ by Chris Lorenzo and Kah-Lo, and some scorching acid breaks, with the appropriately named Wicked Acid by Destroyers & Aggresivnes. Wrapping up his hour of power, he handed over to the one and only DJ Craze, who quickly made himself comfortable behind the decks.

It was good to see they had set up a deck cam, which would flash up on the big screen every now and then, so we could see the master at work. Using Serato Scratch with vinyl control, he effortlessly cut and scratched his way through a megamix mashup set at breakneck speed. It was so great to see some elite turntablism again from a real DJ. Something that used to be commonplace, it’s now more of a rarity outside of hip hop and turntablist events. Opening with some hype samples, he amusingly cut in a sample from Anchorman’s Ron Burgundy, “I don’t know how to put this… but I’m kind of a big deal.”

“What’s good, Perth?!” he greeted the crowd on the mic. Opening with a flurry of scratching, he mixed in the riff from Benny Benassi’s Satisfaction to fire things up. It was a shame we didn’t get to see him show off his incredible, award-winning DJ skills more, but this wasn’t a trick set; it was a party set. He still managed to fit in some impressive and seamless scratching and even some crazy beat juggling on Sally (That Girl) by Gucci Crew II, an amusing early hip-hop jam from 1988, which he mixed into Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams.

In a tour de force set, he tore through many sounds and styles, including a remix of My Humps and the early Miami freestyle electro jam When I Hear Music by Debbie Deb from 1984. As impressive as the skills and mixing were, sometimes it was hard to get into the groove and dance, with the constant stop/start, chopped-up flow, not letting any song play out too long, but as his set progressed he locked into the crowd more and things really began to flow.

Craze really is one of the greats. He makes it look so easy as he veers between tracks at breakneck speed, triggering samples and loops and all manner of technical wizardry with his arsenal of equipment that has grown over the years, as he’s embraced the possibilities that have come with advances in DJ technology. Constantly cueing up the next beat to throw in the mix, he’s an entertainer who really engages with the crowd, getting on the mic on the mic often to hype up the crowd in that old-school hip-hop style, getting a feel for what they’re vibing on. As he moved into the second hour of his set, he started dropping some heavier sounds, drum & bass and dubstep, which the crowd really responded to.

There was an obligatory spin of our hometown heroes Pendulum’s Tarantula, the stabbing bassline of Natural Way from Break & MC Fats, and the smooth rolling beats of Netsky’s remix of Everybody Loves The Sunshine, bringing the sunny vibes on this gloomy winter’s eve before he ended his set in an impressive display of cutting and scratching. A blistering set and display of technical prowess, it seemed to go far too fast.

But then it was time for the man of the hour, as Krafty Kuts stepped up, and he wasted no time getting down to work, dropping Masters at Work’s Work featuring Puppah Nas-T & Denise, then dropping the huge tune Nighthawk from his King of the Beats collaboration with Plump DJs and Freestylers, who he toured with last time he was in town at the Breakfest Reunion gig. He even mixed in the vocal sample from Fatboy Slim’s Star 69, “They know what is what, but they don’t know what is what, they just strut…”

Another highlight was a huge breaks remix of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. The familiar guitar riff filtered into the mix, followed by a mighty breaks drop and nasty bass line that was elevated by the explosive light show, which had the crowd going off!

There was a big, bassy version of Armand Van Helden’s You Don’t Know Me; a cool mix of Blue Monday; and a wicked, rolling, bass-heavy remix of the Drummatic Twins classic Feelin’ Kinda Strange, which always goes down a treat on the dancefloor.

With deft dexterity Krafty created his own remixes on the fly, dropping a big reworking of Galvanize from The Chemical Brothers featuring Q-Tip, which he then mixed into Bicep’s Glue. Even a bit of Suzanne Vega’s classic “do, do, do-do” vocals from Tom’s Diner were thrown in the Krafty Kuts blender.

He seemed to be having a great time and got on the mic to give a shout-out to Perth and how much he always loves to play here and gave respect to Craze, as well as local legends Liam and Marika from Boomtick for putting on such a great gig.

Keeping things fresh, he dropped in some more current UKG sounds and his new single Curvy. This was a great set from Krafty, who’s always evolving, always moving forwards, keeping it fun and keeping it curvy! We’re blessed with him visiting regularly, but this set was one of his best in recent years: exciting and a bit different, not just resting on his laurels and playing the usual old-school breaks classics. He finished with a spin of his own classic with A. Skillz, Tricka Technology.

The Perth love affair with breaks and Krafty Kuts continues, and Craze reminded everyone that he’s still one of the greatest on the wheels of steel – would be great to see him back here again soon with a headline set that allowed him to show off more. There was a great vibe throughout the night with much dancing and general frivolity. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even Simon Pegg (in town for Supanova), who was spotted getting down in the house!

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Alfred Gorman