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Here we go people for the first allaussie hip hop review and its for the Elefant Traks 10th anniversary party Live at the Forum DVD.

As a part of the Elefant Traks 10th Anniversary celebrations, a concert was held late in 2008 featuring performances from The Herd, Hermitude, Urthboy, Horrorshow, Unkle Ho, Astronomy Class and The Tongue. The show was a one off and was professionally filmed and recored.The subsequent footage was turned into a DVD package that has a run time of 130mins and is jam packed with live performances.

The DVD’s cover artwork is made up of the album artwork taken from all of the performing artists, underlying the Elefant Traks logo. Opening the case, you are presented with a nice A5ish sized booklet featuring photos, track list and credits. Personally I would have liked to have seen a bit more effort placed into the booklet. I could have imagined a cool profile on each band with extensive photos of each. Additionally, a write up on the Elefant Traks rise to become one of Australia’s most influential hip hop labels, could have been an interesting read to say the least.

Moving onto the DVD. Right from the start the production and presentation reeks of quality. To watch The Herd live on my widescreen HD tv and 5.1ch surround sound was an exciting experience.The menu of the DVD is split into three different viewing sections; 1) The whole concert 2) Select groups 3) Blondies photos.I found this an excellent way of navigating through the menu.

After selecting the whole concert option, I was greeted by none other than Elefant Traks emcee The Tongue. The Tongue had hosting duties for the night and did an exceptional job. In between sets, The Tongue would interact with the punters and also offer some of his own colour commentary on the events appearing on stage. This offered a nice mix throughout the DVD presentation.

As all of the performances were red hot, I am going to mention below some of the more worthy moments that are worth checking out. If you would like to check out some of the highlights on the DVD, Elefant Traks have posted some of the same ones we have mentioned below. You can check those out by following the links.

Unkle Hoe
Senator Jim on the antenna, this was amazing to see. Catch the cool antenna mix at the end of the track Big Bag Rag.
Unkle Ho – Big Bag Rag here.

Astronomy Class
The Tongue joins Astronomy Class on stage. Nuthin Nice, School Daze and A Bright Tomorrow were all banging tracks. Gina Mitchell joins the guys on stage for School Daze and is one fine looking women with an even finer voice.
Astronomy Class – A Bright Tomorrow here.

Urthboy
Urthboy, Jane Tyrrell and Elgusto don the pirate outfits for the set. Urthboys The Signal is hard to go past as a major highlight and the crowd get right into it. The Tongues comment on Urthboys choice of outfit is a classic.
Urthboy – The Signal here.

Horrorshow
Solo and Adit are set to release their second album Inside Story on October 2, but the song No Rides Left is still a favourite of mine and the live version did not disappoint.
Horrorshow – No Rides Left here.

The Tongue
One of my favorite Elefant Traks artists, the heavily rotated tracks Bad Education and The Punch are clear standouts. We look forward to seeing some big things from the Tongue in the near future. Stay tuned for more on this.
The Tongue – Bad Education here.

Hermitude
Hermitude bring some crazy beats. The end of Cartridge Kingz features a cool keyboard and beat pad showdown from Elgusto and Dubs.
Hermitude – Cartridge Kingz here.

The Herd
How can I select a highlight from this set! Songs performed included, I was Only 19, Burn Down The Parliament, The King Is Dead and 2020 amoung others. The Herd really are a spectacle, that have to be seen live. This will be as close as it gets in your own living room.
The Herd – 2020 here.

All in all I must say we were quite impressed with the quality of the DVD, both in production and sound quality. The high level of production clearly makes up for the lack of effort with the booklet. The performances from each of the Elefant Traks acts are large and can be enjoyed by the average aussie music fan. As for an aussie hip hop DVD, I highly recommend this addition to any aussie hip hop collection, it’s a must have. I give the Elefant Traks 10th Anniversary Party Live at The Forum DVD 4 out of 5.