The Abercrombie Hotel’s reputation as a venue for smaller more intimate parties is continually growing. With a good-sized outdoor area and comfortable seating and dancing areas inside it is well founded. It also allows for a greater mix of sounds than you would normally hear at a single room party. On my arrival the outside area had Ding at the helm cranking out some nice slow thumping beats that were quite dark and heavy while inside a lighter more glitchy sound prevailed. Both rooms were in warm up mode, a good early crowd in enjoying the beats and the odd beverage.

Next up outside we had a Hip Hop interlude from the ‘casa del Cleveland posse’ with a guest scratch set from Dartech. I particularly enjoyed this set as it gave an early change in the mood of the night, which can get quite intense when there is a lot of techno back to back. It seemed to me that this party was aiming towards a more chilled atmosphere than your average all-nighter. The inside beats at this time being provided by Matt Beashel looking stunning in his all white suit and pork pie hat.

Back outside Sydney’s ‘grand daddy of techno’ Vic had taken back control for the techno fiends and proceeded to lay down his trademark pounding beats if a little more on the funky side given the early evening timeslot. Devilfish – Manalive was a highlight for me.

In the other room Deft had moved the Hip Hop vibe inside working through a few classics of the genre including some Beastie Boys.  The crowd was building nicely with a little bit of dance action start to heat the floor as the early evening lubrication started to hit home.

Up next was AKA; the early sections of his set continued the hip-hop vibe before moving through some more breaky material. By this time it was getting to be quite a good crowd in both areas. While in the courtyard Techione banged out a set of his trademark solid funky beats. There was a brief bit of silence as both the outside then the inside sound systems went on strike, a testament to the strain the quality beats were putting them under.

Once sound was returned the High Jinks boys took over inside and were dressed to impress. Starting off with some disco tinged tunes before moving into tougher territory but always maintaining a funky vocal edge. Highlights were a mash up of Born Slippy with some solid techno beats and a Spanish sounding tune with associated dancer.

Outside Marshall was starting out on what would be one of the sets of the night. Continuing the hip-hop vibe that had prevailed all night he scratched it up before moving to some more funkified sounds. The scratching did lead to one minor hiccup with a fader flying into the crowd but was quickly recovered to great applause. As the set moved along all the anthems started to come out including The Bells and Jaguar.

Back inside Sydney’s own techno god Biz was cranking out his bass heavy technoid style to a quite full room, while outside we were treated to a live set from Sasquelch whose hard and dirty sounds set the scene for the closing set of the night.

The final set outside came from the departing Dartech and Jimmy Savage. They pulled the pace back a notch with a few more minimal tracks after the live assault previous to them. As usual Dartech was working the mixer to within an inch of its life and scratching up a storm. The back-to-back style was working well with the two styles complementing each other. By this stage the dance floor was packed, stomping hard and everyone had huge grins on their faces. For Dartechs last set in Sydney for some time, it was an absolute stormer and we hope he is back sooner rather than later.

From my own view I had an excellent night. A great party that flowed nicely, starting out fairly chilled before growing in intensity thorough out the night before the massive finish. An eclectic mix of tunes and sets kept it interesting all the way through. You never knew what you would get next and if it wasn’t what you wanted to hear, you could always try out the other room because no doubt their would be something in there for you. A top-notch effort from all those involved.