The next in the series of A Night of Trance events took place this weekend gone at Arq nightclub in Sydney. The special guest this time round was one of the pioneers of trance in Sydney scene who has slowly built his reputation as one of our most versatile DJs, none other than Mark Dynamix. Having achieved so much over the past few years he is currently working on a number of productions and has released numerous mix cd’s under the Ministry of Sound label. Other Djs throughout the night include residents Diggs and Morro, Scott Richardson, Joshua van Aalst in the main room and Karvan & Condivi, Muli, and many more in the second room.

We arrived at the club just after midnight and made sure to head straight down to the bottom room to check out up & comers Karvan and Condivi who were playing their debut live set. Relatively unheard these two were generating some great trance sounds much to the appreciation of the well sized crowd. Despite the short time slot of half an hour these lads packed in plenty of huge synth melodies, dreamy soundscapes and some rocking beats. In my opinion definitely an impressive performance and no doubt we will be seeing a lot more of them in the near future.

After watching the live set for a while we thought we would get comfortable e and check out the end of Scott Richardson’s set in the main room who was warming up the crowd in the main room. The main room was already quite pumping and free space quite scarce on the dance floor due to the excellent turnout was much better than previous nights at the venue. As Mark Dynamix stepped up to take over it was instantly clear why he is one of the most well respected Australian DJs as he began what was an amazingly enjoyable trance anthems set which was absolutely lapped up by the crowd.

His set was a classic collection of some of the biggest tracks of the last six or seven years. I don’t want to name too many of them but some of the tunes he laid down included Push – Universal Nation,  Thrillseekers – Synaesthesia, Condor II – You Can Kiss My, Binary Finary – 1999, Armin van Buuren – Communication and Café Del Mar – Energy 54. Each of these tunes receiving a massive cheer from the crowd and keeping the atmosphere in the room at boiling point; as well as the dance floor packed till the end of the set. Dynamix also showed off some of his scratching skills throughout the set surprising many how well it fit in to the feel of the set. After all these amazing tunes which no doubt brought back many memories for some, the crowd was about as fired up as I have seem it for a long time and Dynamix (obviously enjoying the set as well) played on for almost an extra half an hour.

After this Joshua van Aalst came on and played One perfect Day as the first track to start his set off with Nicki on one of the podiums signing live vocals to accompany the track. It was quite a unique thing to have at the night and she sang the track very well in my opinion. The lasers fired up during Josh’s set and during several points were all aimed at him in order to reflect the beams off his risqué mirror covered jacket which he was wearing throughout his set which no doubt was a spectacle for many. The final set in the main room came courtesy of Diggs and Morro who played till close at about 7am banging out some quality tunes until close. The duo laid down a mixture of quality tunes both new and old including tracks such as Roland Klinkenberg – Til You Drop, the amazing Wrecked Angle mix of Age of Love, Karada – Il Futuro, and Cyclone – Salobre.  Finishing with a string of massive tracks all those who hung around for the end of night left the dance floor with a smile.

Overall, it was a quality night and both the variety and quality of the music on offer across both rooms was very high. In my opinion the highlight of the night was hearing some old tracks during the anthem set by Mark Dynamix and seeing a new live act at the night. Props to the Josh and Friends crew for running another quality night which showcases Sydney’s best trance DJs. For more info on when the next event is coming up check the Josh and Friends website.