February 5th, 2009
Lalla Land

Break the silence
Steve Lalla
slalla@hour.ca

Few local collectives have rallied so passionately about a particular genre as Montreal's Planet Break crew. Through a strictly enforced mandate of exposing all things breakbeat, showcasing the technical aptitude of their in-house resident DJs while welcoming and uniting existing factions within the local scene, the Planet Break boys have put their heart and soul into spreading their love for syncopated beats of a danceable nature. With their much anticipated return this weekend, they'll be reunited with fans, old friends and breakbeat fanatics citywide, filling an aching void in the local scene.
"Planet Break was created in 2004 by myself and Pinky 38," recounts Spacekadet with his usual reserve, "with the help of partners Daz and Deyond. We were all DJs and producers at the time. Finding places to play was hard back then so we decided to start at the bottom of the ladder and organize our own events. We made our mark fairly quickly, I think because of the friendly atmosphere of our nights and especially 'cause of the intensity that we give off when we perform. Planet Break brought together DJs, live acts, visuals, scratching and MCing, always on the funkier, dancier side of breakbeat music. I think we really took our true form when Kai and Murdock joined us in 2005 - they brought us to a higher level artistically."

As monthly events at Café Soho, Academy and Plaza Theatre turned into weeklies, Spacekadet and Pinky saw their stocks as DJs rise, performing twice at WEMF and helping to organize
Piknic's first breakbeat Sunday in the summer of '07. Burning the candle at both ends, Pinky and Spacekadet found they needed some time to regenerate their chi.

"I believe that changing Planet Break from a monthly to a weekly caused it to lose steam," Spacekadet confided to me. "Little by little the event lost its magic, and that had a direct impact on our motivation. Running a successful weekly is a full-time job, and seeing how for us it was in fact a second job, even more of a hobby than work, we decided to take a break [heheh] and concentrate on different personal projects."

"The return was natural for all of us. The total absence of breakbeat nights, the desire to get the old crowd together and party, and most of all the taste to make people discover our music has pushed us to bring back the nights. The passion for the music has never left us, as everyone will see on Saturday!"

Planet Break: The Return is Saturday, Feb. 7, featuring DJs Spacekadet, Pinky 38, Kai, Murdock and Nino (4177 St-Denis).