With a percussive flourish, the Beat Cartel burst onto the Sydney scene. It can be tough to find a night that has it all – poise, grace, a sense of fun and truly wicked beats. But featuring an eclectic mix of old and new talent, live sounds and the lush style of the downstairs Civic, the Beat Cartel launch was just what Sydney needed, a solid night of truly superb beats with enough substance to keep everyone sane, no attitude and just enough style to be swinging.

The bottom room at the Civic always reminds me of some jazz club straight out of the prohibition 1920s. We walked down into the bowels of the building to red plush velvet and polished wood, and it was a perfect setting for the first night of this new recurring event. With such a talent loaded line up in the night (lets hope the first of many) it was not to be missed.

First up was Adi B. While I was too late to catch him play, his broken beat goodness was no doubt what had the room so primed for what was in my mind, the head line of the night, the very talented Crucial D. With some 12 years plus of DJ and music production under his belt and memories of his performances at the Freaky Loops parties years ago, my hopes were high and he did not disappoint. His afro-Brazilian fused broken-beats were lush and the venue was jumping like a bootlegger’s paradise. Newly returned from Dubai, he was ready to play with all the style of a studio don, dropping superb tracks.

To follow up Crucial D’s tunes was the very talented Rephrase. Now here’s a beatman with true Cartel style. One of the few Australian beat makers to find his way into the crates of the very talented John Stapleton (Dope on Plastic), his set was infused with a little live goodness, and it was superb. Deepchild aka Ric Bull was up next. One of Sydney’s finest in dubbed up soul and electro goodness and chief of 2ser’s electroplastique for longer then I can remember, Deepchild took it down a notch, dubstepping the light fantastic. It was sweet as usual, if a little heavy on the soul.

After a light percussive interlude we had Somatik. Always one to please he brought a little more deep house to the floor and had every bit of dance space available grooving along, or at the very least nodding furiously (yeah, I mean you to the guy in the second booth from the front!) Somatik is one of my personal favourites and his perfect form took the night to a fever pitch, which Cartel boss Bentley took great pleasure to capitalise on. The two of them complemented each other’s sets beautifully, I don’t know if it was prearranged but there was a nice bit of continuity between them that you so rarely see these days.

Finally up was Liquid Lab and Revolutions very own mastermind Mr Pez. Always in good form and carrying a full six shooter of the kind of attitude you dream of in a DJ, he brought his broken beats to the floor to have the crowd grinning till close. This night was great. Great music, a star studded line up of new and old faces and a top crowd. Maybe the security was a little heavy handed but what do you expect of your local cartel. This reporters only question was why only one floor Civic..? Why only one floor?!