As the Swirl turns

>> Highlights of this weekend's bipolar blowout

by KRISTA, SCOTT C and RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Whether you're down with hip hop's scritchy-scratch or up on the techno/house beats that match, the Swirl party's got a room for you at Cepsum this Sunday. Here's some of our choice acts:

Paul Van Dyk: As the Berlin wall came down in 1989, PVD climbed through the crumbled stone hole opening to the west clutching a few precious mix tapes he'd made on "two fucked-up turntables and a very old mixer." Soon after that he was resident DJ at Berlin's hottest club night Dubmission and making tunes with Cosmic Baby. He has since become Germany's #1 DJ/producer and a worldwide ambassador for uplifting trance music.

Justin Robertson: Sitting comfy on big beat's second tier (while Fatboy and the Chemies duke it out above), Lionrock's Robertson applies an elegant, English detective's ear to scrounging up sonic evidence at crime scenes reaching from Jamaica's legendary Studio One to NYC's sainted Paradise Garage, from sweat-drenched northern soul proto-raves to the MC5's filthy rockpig digs. His reworking of the Get Carter theme should sound bells in the noggins of anglophiles everywhere.

Bad Boy Bill: Back in the '80s, Bill, a former breakdancer, battled his way to a third place position in the U.S. DMC Championships by cutting up records with a sex toy. In the '90s he turned on to house music, wound up DJing at Berlin's Love Parade, and winning the title Radio Mix Show DJ of the Year at the Winter Music Conference in 1998. He now runs the International House imprint and sells mix-tapes.

Mix Master Mike: Though he got his start jiggling pause buttons on a ghetto blaster, Mike, alongside pal Q-Bert, rocketed outta San Fran to the forefront of the turntablist world. More recently he's hooked up with the Beastie Boys (it was he who opened their last show here by dropping the riff from "Tom Sawyer"--the guy knows his demographics). Watch for his forthcoming EP Eye of the Cyklops.

Kid Capri: Even after all these years, there's only a few of those old school hip hop DJs that can still throwdown when the time comes. Red Alert, Funk Flex (maybe), and of course the one and only Kiiiiiiiiiiid Capri. Although he's tried his hand at the production thing without the greatest success, the Kid is still gets his hands on the odd exclusive and gets the jam movin'. If you'd like to see where a lot of those blabbermouth DJs got their game, this is the man for you.

Apollo: I'll never forget the first time I saw Apollo back in '93 when he was DJing for Souls of Mischief. They were appearing on Xtendamix on Muchmusic and Apollo was there, doing back-to-backs of "That's When Ya Lost" with his eyes buggin' out of his head. As one of the founding members of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Apollo has been at the decks for years, which means he has some new and old tricks up his sleeve. :

Swirl 6 happens at Cepsum on Sunday, May 21, 9pm, $50