All summer long every year dance music lovers in Sydney’s intimate venues are blessed with major European and American DJs escaping their winter. The godfather of French house, Dimitri From Paris (Playboy Mansion etc), is one.

The 1,000 Cargo Bar tickets, billed as Sydney’s most exclusive New Year’s event, were sold out in early December with a flyer of Sydney skyscrapers and fireworks exploding behind the Eiffel Tower.

Sounds, the organisers of the event and that institution, Sounds on Sunday at the Greenwood Hotel, also arranged for an upstairs Encore Show in the Cargo Lounge for 350 guest tickets at $129.

This being a New Year’s Event and not a dance music appreciation society, some girls were dressed in Paris Hilton or Beyonce` Knowles and the classy guys in fashionable text t-shirts or embroidered shirts and jeans. Even the bar staff were dressed in black berets and French sailor tops.

Dimitri slipped on almost unnoticed at 2 am with his trademark seriousness and dedication. The first mix of easy latin and disco rhythms hinted to the occasional guest that the master French composer was present. Several platinum-blond girls arranged themselves near the decks to catch the attention of the tall, dark Mediterranean.

Sexy French house grabbed hold of the dancers with the combined sounds of Detroit/Chicago and the West European crooners of the 50s, 60s and 70s. We were on a rollercoaster ride through 20th century music history. Samples from swamp water blues and Bessie Smith vocals edged into the disco beats. Only a star mixer like Dimitri can seamlessly interweave such pure unrelated samples. The dancefloor bounced into a frenzy. The guests crushed to get onto the dancefloor for a boogie. It was New Year’s Eve after all.

The 2 hours plus set moved to an end with a intriguing combo of rap, breakbeat and The Jackson Five’s “Just Can’t Get Enough”. Ending with ‘Wonderful Person’ (by Black Masses from A Night At the Playboy Mansion) and a double wave to the guests, he smiled, briefly boogied for the first time all night, and was gone.

The spacious, intimate Cargo Lounge features many well-furnished lounges with stunning views of the harbour through enormous slabs of glass. The only lighting was a still red mirror ball, I suspected that Dimitri preferred the intimacy.

A couple of days later my friend saw him anonymously walking around the city. Even then, Dimitri seemed to exude a priest-like ambience, shopping for Bulgari duty-free in an open-necked Hawaiian shirt.

http://www.cargobar.com.au/
http://www.sounds.net.au/