Launching weekly night Faster at the Carling Academy in Islington was a big challenge for the Breakin Science crew. How would the regular compete with big one-off events in London?  Since opening doors in September, the crew have wheeled in a Funktion 1 soundsystem and talent including Grooverider, Hype, Andy C, Ed Rush and Optical. How can you go wrong?

says party organiser Laurence Bagnall. ‘I think that they all felt that London needed a Saturday drum & bass night. We knew from the start it was going to take time to build but its been going really well so hopefully it will continue going in the right way'says party organiser Laurence Bagnall. 

On the night I arrived the line up is impressive to say the least; Bryan Gee,DJ Probe, MC Rage,MC Verse & Ed Rush. But to be totally honest I am still not sure about the venue itself. I am not sure how different styles of D&B will sit against the backdrop of london. I would have thought that a more underground setting would have been better

When I arrive on the night DJ Probe and MC Verse are warming the growing crowd. One of the first things I notice is the gender imbalance. Islington is better known for its R&B and hip-hop clubs than its drum & bass nights, so one girl suggests maybe this is where all the ladies are hiding. Or perhaps they don’t go for the harder styles of music on this particular party? The jury is out.

MC Rage steps up to the mic and an appreciative resonance can be heard from the crowd. By 1am the place is rockin’ and Probe takes the music up a notch; the beats get faster and the bass deeper. He drops Die and Photek’s ‘Thunder’ and the crowd bring their appreciation as lighters come out in full force.

Bryan Gee takes over and gives a literal meaning to the club’s name; the bpms increase and everything suddenly gets a whole lot more rapid. The D&B veteran is dishing up some heavy basslines and the dancefloor love it. Meanwhile Rage continues his stellar job at hyping.

When Bryan Gee spins a remix of the seminal ‘Burial’ everyone goes wild. Appreciative smiles are shared among fans on the dance floor and the atmosphere shifts up a gear to full throttle.

Resident Zinc arrives much to the pleasure of a small group who have assembled themselves near the decks and are eagerly awaiting his arrival. They have been asking me when Zinc is going to play all night. He kicks off his set as the club stops serving alcohol but luckily Zinc’s audio cocktail of tunes provides the perfect nightcap to seal off an impressive session.

All in all it is a great night, and according to Laurence it is going to get even better, 'In the future we can expect Faster to continue to grow and to support every genre of the D&B sound'. Its definately the place to be on a saturday