2003 has been a big year for Sander Kleinenberg. His remix of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Rock Your Body’ has received approval in chart’s world wide, he released the final part of his ‘Four Seasons’ EPs on his own, recently created, Little Mountain record label and he has just put together the ‘best DJ compilation in the history of the universe ever’, Everybody, for Renaissance. To top this all off, he returned to Perth for his second set this year, but this time with four hours to take the crowd on a real journey of house music.

First up on the decks was Jon Noonan who I missed due to poor time management, so apologies Jon. Next up at 11 o’clock was Tigger. He played some nice tracks with chunky beats, starting to get heads bopping from those having a casual drink around the club. After the music broke down to just a gentle melody, the subsequent drop that followed received nods of approval. Many of the tracks Tigger played had tribal sounding percussion in them, which was reinforced when the words ‘you’re in my hut now’ were chanted from the speakers.

Adam Kelly followed on from 12 o’clock, at which stage it was clear that the crowd was not going to be as large as the night perhaps deserved. He worked the pace up a notch, encouraging those that were there to get on the dancefloor. In case some needed extra motivation to bust a move, Adam provided it with some clean chopping up of tracks. He had yet another trick up his sleeve though. When the music had broken down to nothing but a continuous synth sound, he slowly sped up the record from nought to full speed, requiring a very steady hand! Anticipation was starting to build as 1am came closer, with the dancefloor starting to swell, but remaining at a comfortable level. Adam played a lovely set with his usual tight mixing, but at a little past 1 o’clock, it was Sander’s turn to rock our bodies.

Sander started off slower and deeper than where Adam Kelly had the dancefloor, which was understandable given the length of the set he was about to play. His face oozed of concentration, reassuring punters that he was going to give it his all. Many of his opening tracks had odd, quirky sounds in them, as well as some interesting lyrics to say the least. Some of the dark and dirty basslines that he dropped gave an unexpected dark tinge to the early stages of his set, but were greeted with approval by the dancefloor.

The tone of the music shifted to a much lighter shade when Sander played the funky chords and bassline of Simon’s ‘Troubled Soul’. Undo/Redo’s ‘The Voyager’ also had a guitar influenced sound to it, this time as a mock solo over the top of a driving bassline. After the lyrics ‘the city’s about to explode!’ was probably the first time Sander really dropped it, which may have been a little long for some to wait. The somewhat spooky sounds of Rock’s ‘Be as One’ served to mesmerise the crowd as he spaced out the bigger tacks.

It was back to the darker side again as Pig & Dan’s ‘Addiction’ had the crowd singing ‘Woman, drugs and rock and roll…addiction’. From here Sander mixed in Luke Chable & Bonicci’s ‘Ride’. This seems to be a favourite mix of his lately and it’s not hard to see why. The gentle melodies went down a treat with punters before the beat kicked back in. At this stage Sander really had the crowd well and truly in his hands.

Sander sent out a message to the dancefloor, through the persona of ‘Therapy’, of cutting away all the superficial aspects of clubbing; ‘Fuck all that shit, man, I don’t need none of that shit’. Or perhaps he just liked the beat and the bassline. Sander went back again into trancier territory with DJ Chab’s ‘My Memory’, the soothing melodies giving the dancefloor a chance to regain some breath. It was disappointing to see Choice and Micah getting ready behind the decks before Sander was due to finish, but for whatever reason, he had decided to finish early. He received a well deserved round of applause as his final track played out, ending a good set that had a bit of everything.

Choice and Micah had the unenviable task of following Sander’s set to a dancefloor still feeling the disappointment of Sander finishing early. Their first track was a break’s remix of Underworld’s ‘Born Slippy’. This proved to be a brilliant selection, with the long section of vocal’s giving punters some time to come to grips with the situation, before the large breakbeat came in. Their set was diverse in style, keeping those still on the dancefloor interested. As 6am drew closer, the dancefloor was diminishing in size, a sign of how thoroughly the night’s DJ’s worked the crowd.

Sander’s set was great, featuring a lot of tribal influences and vocals, though I didn’t notice any of his own production work in there. While leaving out classics such as My Lexicon may be due to not wanting to dwell on the past, it would have been nice to hear some of the work from part 3 of his EP. Some may feel that he took a little too long to really get going with his set, but when he did drop it, he really dropped it. At times it felt as if the dancefloor was capable of going at a higher pace for a longer period of time, but as they say, you can’t have all thrill and no fill. All in all, it was a fantastic night with an appreciative and friendly crowd witnessing a lovely set from Sander Kleinenberg, who we can only hope, comes back to Australia soon.