To mask my envy I change the subject and ask him where he sees himself among the current crop of DJ whizz-kids from all around the globe, who are armed with pairs of SL 1200's and wrist control that would rival a daily sperm donor. "I'd like to be a turntablist, I used to be one, but nowadays I'm not up to the standards of people like the Invisible Skratck Piklz or the Scrtach Perverts. They're really good. The whole turntablist vibe seems a lot more chilled these days. Originally it was strictly battle and you wouldn't ever compliment your competition, you'd either dis them or take them on! When I was doing it there was no way a club or promoter would pay you to go into a club and cut up breaks all night. Now they get paid and get to tour over the world which is really good." Back to that again are we? Fine, so I ask him if he thinks we have finally reached the limits of what we can do with a pair of turntables hooked up to mixer. "I thought that 10 years ago actually just after I got out of the whole turntablist thing. And then I saw this video of Mixmaster Mike and Q-bert and I was like 'what the fuck is that?' They were crabbing and using hamster switches and going off. I got back into it for a while, but not to a level where I would take any of them on!"

After tonight's gig, Cut plans to chill for a bit in Cape Town, before heading up to Brighton to sort out a number of projects which are currently in the pipeline. Top priority seems to be his own album which still needs to be fine tuned. He sounds confident that the many hours he has spent in the studio adjusting EQ levels by himself are going to result in a slicker package than some of his earlier releases. He's also bringing in a live element with a group called Snow Patrol who are helping him out of some sample clearance problems. " Working with a live band was fun. For the first time I was sitting back in a director's chair like, 'OK, now you bang that drum a little harder'! Working with bands is different though 'cos they get all moody with each other - working with other people is always quite difficult". Although La Roc seems to prefer working alone, one of his upcoming projects will find him teaming up with some British MC's - a collaboration which he describes as "sort of massivey attacky, but more funky and upbeat".

11:30PM...
My time is up. He has less than an hour in which to prepare himself for another night of madness, getting paid to keep people up all night, while he himself has hardly slept in days.