Boxing Day 2004 marked the third Dirty House Session held at Candy’s Apartment, a relaxing environment with warm red tones and cool staff. Dave the Rock God was behind the bar and the sound in the main room was provided by a selection of DJs and local live act Alphatown. In the back room a nice eclectic mix of hip hop and breaks created a great atmosphere for this fun festive season of Sydney.

The Jackal was on the decks when I arrived and was playing deep, funky and dirty house to a slowly building but appreciative crowd. Smooth mixing and EQ work kept things flowing at the early stages of the event.

Jools arrived to a bit of a fan club and upped the tempo of the evening with some slammin’ house which included a smattering of hip hop samples, minimal vocals and warm sax lines. People were ready to boogie and gave it up for Jools, who kept things interesting by using the DJ mixer to its full advantage with line fader stabs and smooth cross fader and EQ action. Playing a wide range of 4/4 house he finished of with some bumpin electro which set the stage for Live act, trio Alphatown.

Alphatown hit the stage and with 2 MPCs and a DJ. The trio of Adam Zielonka, Andrew Maher and Luke Mynott hunched over their machines, all worked in sync. These guys rocked the fresh beats and bass lines to a semi packed, but house geared, crowd. With an authentic live feel they provided some smooth build ups and fat bass drops to keep everyone entertained. With the three guys all bouncing, improvising and working together the crowd were appreciative of the clean, crisp, fat drum loops and bass lines.

The back room opened up just after 11 and provided a nice break to punters and bar staff alike from the pumpin tunes of next door. Frenzie warmed it up with some old school electro with hip hop/funk influences. With some nice scratching/sampling keeping it real this seemed like the appropriate place to grab another coldie.

Defcon 1 jumped on the decks next, set up on a grand piano in the corner of the room, and slowly a crowd of regulars and newbies flowed into the back room. He proceeded to rock out a nice collection of modern and older tracks, with ‘Jump Around’ and a remix of Nelly’s ‘Hot in Herre’ going down a treat. But there was no escape as the main room was now almost filled and the aircon began to struggled under the pressure.

But of course the folks were loving it, and the dance floor was always pumpin as Alphatown gave up the stage to Craig Obey who commenced with a set of fat and dirty house with some fine scratching.

For a Boxing Day event this was a fun relaxing atmosphere that had something to appeal to most clubbers. An all round good night was had by all, so make sure you check out the next Dirty House Sessions party!