Taboo ranks as one of the best club nights in the ACT for atmosphere alone. It’s basically a group of friends throwing a party for their friends, and their friend’s friends. Oh, and there’s good music too – and plenty of it.

Like so many club nights, Taboo changed venue to Babylon (from Toast). Part of me was disappointed, as the night was partly characterized by its venue and all the shenanigans that took place there. However, the two rooms at Babylon meant more music and thus more bang for your buck. While there was the usual big crowd at Taboo, the club is so big that it always seems to swallow crowds and make it appear half-empty.

Being the official inthemix party as well, there was quite a large ITM contingent representing. ITM editor/DJ/househead Calico was mixing up a deep house set from 11 to 12.30 in the main room, and served as a nice warm up to for the evening.

The flavour in the back room was hip hop, drum n bass and all things broken. The $2 Scratchies (Mexi and 2 times ACT DMC winner Nathan – together at last) were impressive as expected, playing old skool party hip hop and some newer tracks, including everything from A Tribe Called Quest to Resin Dogs. Keep an eye out for these guys – hopefully now that they’re working together there will to be a lot more hip hop goodness going around.

Poxy Music (an unfortunate choice of name) were playing at the same time as the Scratchies, and dishing up a live dose of techy, deep, techy and driving house. This went largely unnoticed, as the crowd was packing out the back room. Their set wasn’t particularly inspiring or interesting, in any case. I was more interested in seeing Bec Paton play afterwards. She is one of the most diverse and talented selectors in Canberra and beyond, and it is shame she isnt getting better promotion. Her set was very impressive and my favourite of the night, incorporating breaks, 2step, jazzed out trance, deep house and just about every sub genre in between. May she get the recognition she deserves.

Following Bec was up and comer electro-freak Shunji. He followed on the deep techy house tip before turning things electroclash way, playing tracks by Ladyton and Felix da Housecat. Watch out for this guy.

On the whole Taboo are to be congratulated on their ongoing fine work, and for throwing another fun party. The music was diverse and fresh, and the vibe was fantastic.