The Ministry of Sound ‘Sessions’ Elektrick arena played host to some of the more deep acts of the night, providing an alternative for those wanting something different to the traditional drum & bass, techno or house arenas. Although the Elektrick arena was scheduled to kick off at 11pm, there was still a band playing to a host of groupies at 11:30 and it was not until midnight that the general public were allowed inside. Unfortunately this delay meant that local lad Warren 10 missed his warmup set and Adam Kytka had to get the music rolling, playing a set of chilled tech house featuring his usual tight mixing.

Ewan Pearson, the young London-bred Berlin-based DJ / producer, then carried on from Kytka with some similarly down tempo groovy house tunes. Although the room was never packed like sardines, there was always a happy crowd of punters dancing away to Pearson’s set. Towards the end of his set Pearson threw in a few acid house tunes, to the appreciation of his audience, rounding off a quality set.

Next on the bill was Paul Harris of Dirty Vegas fame, who straight away picked up the tempo somewhat. Harris played a set of deep progressive house, also drawing on influences from the rock genre such as The Killers making for a thoroughly enjoyable eclectic and grungy couple of hours. At the end of his set Harris played a house mix of his best known work, Days Go By, which had the room erupt into a mass of frantic dancing people.

The closing honours of the Elektrick arena went to London DJ Klaus “Heavyweight” Hill, who immediately changed the music direction from Harris’ grungy progressive house to his own heavy style of breaks. Throughout his set, Hill drew well on various subgenres like acid and tech-breaks to keep the crowd interested, although the atmosphere in the Amplifier bar seemed to lack that special something to keep people captivated until closing time and I noticed crowd numbers slowly thinning before they had to.

The Elektrick arena was good for ‘something different’ at an event featuring a few mainstream dance music artists, but it sometimes struggled to look as busy as the other rooms. I wondered how this could be improved but I found I could not come up with any definite answers. We expect people to go where they want, not necessarily ‘support the scene’ but to see the artists they want to see and go where their friends want to go. However, whether or not numbers could be improved by something like a greater sound and lighting budget is a matter of speculation. Overall, working with the options available to them I believe Delirium did a sterling job with Ministry of Sound ‘Sessions’, once again proving they are Perth’s best dance music promoter.