Saturday night was the launch of the club night Endorphin in Australia. Endorphin.au is the antipodean off-shoot of the very successful Endorphin.uk. Having established itself as one of the leading hard dance nights in the UK, I was keen to see what the Aussie equivalent had to offer.

Chia was on the decks when we arrived playing to what seemed like a slightly diminished crowd for the time of 12.30am. Something was definitely up?! After a bit of investigative journalism, I heard that there had been an incident in Chinatown, but details of this were not able to be confirmed.

As time passed however, the punters began to stream into the club and Chia’s harder edge beats kept them there. By 1am the crowd seemed in high spirits and enjoying the quality hard house and hard trance on display. With driving basslines and rolling melodies throughout her set, Chia mixed it up to perfection and proved why she has been named Endorphin’s Australian resident. Interspersing new UK releases with classics like ‘Inside of Me’ and ‘Zombie Nation’, Chia maintained the tempo in anticipation of tonight’s international guest – Nicki S.

Nicki S took to the decks at 2am and I must say I was keen to hear what the wife of legendary Nick Sentience would deliver! She immediately set to work at the decks dropping killer tracks into the mix. The Nick Sentience & Ali Wilson track ‘Interelationships’ went down a treat and the crowd exploded begging for more. Keeping it hard and fast with tracks like ‘Shout’ and ‘Cause & Effect’ she encouraged any strugglers onto the dance floor. Quite the entertainer, Nicki S had the punters mesmerised and hanging on every beat as she danced behind the decks and encouraged them to have it large!

Following what has now become tradition in the UK, Nicki delivered many quality trax covering the spectrum of hard house, hard trance and tech-house – now the staple diet of Endorphin.uk regulars. Paul Maddox’s ‘Edge of Insanity’ is a tune Nicki admits she is hammering at the moment and from the response it received on Saturday night, I can see why! With her technical ability and enthusiasm, Nicki didn’t disappoint all night and showed that this young Aussie gal is a talent we will be hearing much more from in the future. 

As Bohem was open to Gas punters this night, I ventured up to see what was happening only to find DJ Rebekah on the decks! Hailing from the UK this lovely lassie is well known for more than her DJing ability… On this night she was playing to a less than impressive crowd but her choice of quality funky house made for a nice break from the harder beats downstairs. Having seen Rebekah play in the UK to a full house of appreciative fans, it was a shame to see the response she got on Aussie shores.

Heading back downstairs I managed to catch the last couple of tracks from Nicki S before it was time for DJ Tristan Cameron from Brisbane to power it home till 6am. In keeping with the rest of the night, Tristan kept it hard and fast with many a Sentience original or remix heard amongst his track selection. People would be forgiven for thinking that hard dance = Sentience if tonight’s track listing was anything to go by! The Sentience remixes of ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Hallucination’ were certainly the definitive tracks in his set and succeeded in keeping the tired crowd on their feet till close at 6am.

Despite the earlier problems, Endorphin.au turned out to be a great night. If you enjoy UK hard dance then Endorphin is sure to be a regular appointment in your clubbing diary.