Aah… 22 Bayswater Rd, Kings Cross. The unchanging street address of place with a thousand and one personalities that I can never forget. But can I even begin to remember how many times I’ve been down this rabbit hole only to emerge hours later, ears a-ringing?

Hardened by many an entry to Chromatic’s slamming tekno during the days of Plastic, my ears were at first disoriented by Bentley’s hip-hop set in the front room. My eyes were soon in a similar situation, with the packed, sweaty, gurntastic room of old now really looking like the hall of the apartment of somebody named Candy. (Who else but a Candy would hang 50 mirror balls of all sizes from the one ceiling?)

Having arrived just after 11p.m. I was surprised by the still laidback house party feel of the music and the crowd, with Bentley playing the better known hip-hop hits with a high sing-along factor. The crowd was fairly young and mainly not of the hardcore clubbing type that gravitates to this part of Sydney for the likes of Icebox. Although I was expecting to walk into a more pumpin’ party two hours after opening time, my mate and I were quite happy to ease into the vibe.

(Apologies to Hermitude, the Blue Mountains duo I arrived too late to see.)

I have fond memories of hours spent in the back room dancing to some quality breakbeat. Tonight it was Deepchild playing an early set, before his main set in the front room. Although the volume was up at its old levels, the BPMs were down to almost undanceable levels.

Somatik was up next with an eclectic set that infused breaks with funk or disco and at this point the back room party had truly begun.

Meanwhile, in the front room, Sydney four-piece ‘electro-jazz’ outfit Entropic were playing their signature blend of live nu-jazz and deep house. Despite their somewhat rock appearance with guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard, they were definitely jazz in soul. It was fascinating watching the improvisation pull the music in subtly different directions, and that loose feel of jazz was a refreshing change to the beat-driven tightness of dance music that has graced that very same stage for years.

In more ways than one, Deepchild can be considered the John Butler of dance music. This dreadlocked and socially aware Sydney-based musician is living proof that one’s on-stage persona doesn’t have to be something ultra-cool and shallow, but very much down-to-earth and… deep. Maintaining a one-way chat with the audience throughout his live set, Deepchild got the dancefloor moving with his identifiably Clan Analogue mix of dub and delayed instrumental samples. His brother Andy B. made an appearance for live vocals on a track, and Entropic made an appearance as well—when Deepchild sampled them in one of his tracks.

Although this is the belated launch party for his third album What’s Going Wrong?, the music in the live set was of a dancefloor-friendly Clan feel closer to his second album. The tracks on the third album tend more towards an international lounge house sound.

Aleph-1’s live mixed visuals using two video cameras was worth watching alone. Featuring an ever-changing mix of processed live footage as well as animation, Deepchild at one point stepped aside to appreciate it himself.

The arrival of Simon Caldwell marked the end of the live gig part of the night. After so many years and so many flawless sets from parties like Tweekin’ and Mad Racket, this DJ is beyond reviews. Playing a set of minimal and tech house often on the dark side with tight, musical mixing throughout, he made sure that all traces of a laidback house party vaporised in a stomping of a thousand feet. 22 Bayswater Rd felt like a nightclub again.

After the peak of Caldwell’s set, Meem’s DJ set blended his own tracks with disco, funk, and many other genres besides. That house party feel started to return, making it the perfect way to end the night. It was after 4a.m. and time to leave an address with yet another remarkable tenant.