When Matthew Herbert pops into your night to check it out, you know you’re doing something right. When Matthew Herbert pops into your night to check it out and hardly anyone even notices because they’re too busy going mental, then you know you’re doing EVERYTHING right.

Such was the event which was Glitch last Friday. Having expended lots of blood, sweat and tears over the last year, all the hard work is paying off for the Glitch crew, who are marrying the DIY ethic of grass-roots promotion with some solid and eclectic choices in international talent.

This month’s visitor was Michael Mayer – one of the bosses of Kompakt, a Cologne-based cartel which comprises a record shop, a number of labels and a distribution company responsible for most of the hot record labels in Europe. More than just a businessman, Mayer is credited as one of the key figures in pushing a sound that everyone has difficulty describing. The most common names are ‘Cologne Techno’, ‘Heroin House’ or even ‘Nu-trance’ – think rich, synthetic sounds, layered on each other, with a house music tempo and melodic sensibility combined with a techno production aesthetic and beat. It’s a sound that’s gaining much popularity in this town – even Fuzzy bigwig Jonathan Wall has been dropping Kompakt joints in his sets recently, and odds are you’ve heard – and grooved to – this sound without even realising it.

We got to 77 about 11, and Ajax was doing his business for the benefit of a couple of early starters on the dancefloor, proving his versatility as the one true chameleoid DJ in town. One got the feeling that it was strictly business for the Bang Gang Boy, who was replaced in due time by the Glitch guys themselves – Matt Aubusson and Dave Choe. If Ajax was all about cool professionalism, these two were nothing but raw passion, daring to give themselves the key warm-up slot after a year of playing in the nether regions of the setlist. This was no self-indulgent showboating, however; in their hour they took the dancefloor from a handful of folk lolling about to the writhing, sweaty, screaming mass we all know and love. A couple of well-timed bombs set the stage perfectly for the Cologne terrorist to come along and mop up, though it has to be said that these two were so good that they could have easily carried on for the rest of the night and I doubt that many people would have complained.

And so Herr Mayer stepped up beginning his set with Herbert’s “around the house”, perhaps as a subtle acknowledgement of its creator’s presence. With his cap duly doffed, he then launched into a phenomenal set that ended up lasting far longer than the advertised two hours. At times sweetly melodic, at others raucous and pounding, he treated a packed and bouncing 77 massive to a perfectly-selected set of divine music, most of which none of us had ever heard before. This, after all, is the secret to Mayer’s potency: you don’t get to be someone who runs one of the techno world’s most successful labels and distribution companies if you don’t have a good ear for music – so his track selection was bordering on divine. Furthermore, being in such a position means that you have access to thousands of tracks that won’t even see the light of day for another six months. Competently, he didn’t just tease us with the freshest music, but like a good DJ is able to do, he contextualised it with well-placed and well-known tracks; Adamski’s ‘Killer’, Plastikman’s ‘Ping Pong’ and even Depeche Mode’s ‘Personal Jesus’ were all dropped along the way, giving us reference points for our madness.

In the end, the 77 staff had to turn off the soundsystem to get Mayer off the decks – after over four hours. It seemed that he’d enjoyed himself just as much as we had, and not content with endearing himself to everybody musically, he then charmed the stragglers by hanging around and talking politely and warmly with everybody, until the bouncer shooed him out. If allowed, I’m sure he would have stayed on the decks until the last person had dropped. At this point, much praise should be heaped on Phil Smart, who graciously stepped aside (as if he had any other choice!) and allowed Mayer to carry on playing to the end. The best thing a DJ can do for a party is to let it continue, and Smart did that completely selflessly.

A truly inspirational set of wonderful music framed a delightful party full of great people. 77 was rocked to its foundations, and the Glitch boys’ deserve total credit for their vision and hard work in bringing this party to us. I can find no fault with the night – other than the inescapable fact that it had to end.