After not having had a good fix of grime, dubstep or breakstep for many months now a new night called Outbreak quenched my thirst this Friday gone. The night was held at the Pheonix bar which is slightly up Oxford St just a block or two past the Burdekin. The music on the night was diverse and can be described as an underground derivative of the Garage, jungle and breaks sounds with dirty and interesting basslines and tough funky beats. The night featured some of Sydneys leaders in the genre including the Garage Pressure Crew, Cause, Eli, Zerodub, and Kodama each presenting punters with an assortment of  new monsters as well as some classic tunes.

We walked down the black walled dark staircase of Pheonix bar to be greeted by friendly door staff with thick and smooth bass sounds already oozing towards us from inside the venue. Inside the club is cosy and minimally decorated but looks nice. I hadn’t been to this venue before and I quite liked the layout, at the back there was an additional chill out room and their was an adequate amount of comfy seating to be found. The sound in the venue was absolutely unbelievable and props must be given to the lads for getting together such a quality setup for a relatively small night and getting the tiny venue sounding so good.

When we came in Cause was at the decks laying down some nice slow bassy two step and smooth tunes to get everyone in the mood and build the vibe for the rest of the night. He dropped a few older tracks as well which sounded familiar but I can’t for the life of me remember any of the track names. As the crowd started to build in the main room so did the intensity of the music and shortly Zerodub took control of selection duties.

Zerodub’s set was also full of variety but focussed on quality dubstep tunes that began to get everyone on the dancefloor warming up very nicely. Eli was up next and in my opinion rocked the venue the hardest playing a great blend of interesting but extremely danceable tunes which the crowd seemed to get into. Its a real pity that these guys only had half an hour sets each as the crowd was really getting into both Zerodub’s and Eli’s sets as the night went on. Eli finished off with a few interesting tunes and dropped some testy bass heavy 4×4 beats to finish up with.

Up next were the Garage Pressure crew who stepped up and immediately kicked off with huge tracks including one that many in the crowd knew Darqwan – Said The Spider, this monster wavering bassline got the dancefloor going crazy. They followed this up with a Lombarbo tune, some nice 4×4 tracks and some dubbier tunes were belted out as well. As well as an array of massive tracks Garage Pressure also dropped a few more eclectic and experimental tracks full of interesting sounds and good production to slow the pace down. Later in their set the ramped up the pressure again constantly supported by MC Harlequin who was rolling with the beats quite nicely and creating a great party vibe. Unfortuanely I wasn’t able to stay for Kodama set but would have loved to have heard what he had to offer.

Overall, this was a great night out and if you are a fan of anything ranging from breaks, 2step to jungle you will no doubt love most of the music played at these nights. All the DJs played a great mixture of amazing new tunes and some classics from the past with floor rattling basslines. The venue and sound suited the event very well and the turnout was great with the entire dance floor full for several hours of the night creating an electric vibe. Hopefully we will see more nights like this over the coming months in Sydney and for those who enjoy this style of music get out there and check it out as well as supporting our local DJs. The cover was extremely reasonable as well at only $5 before 11pm and $10 after that. Great to see lots of familiar faces as well on the night, see you all at the next one!