Break Inn feat. Danny Bonnici @ Chinese Laundry, Sydney (03/02/06)
Break Inn is the new Friday night at the Chinese Laundry – not surprisingly it focuses on (but is certainly not limited to) breakbeat mayhem each and every week, providing some filler for a hole in the Sydney club scene since the demise of Sound Advice, Hijack and other regular “breaks” nights. Already through the doors we have seen Paul Arnold, Splitloop and Nick Thayer as headliners, and this week we were promised gritty tech and electro breaks from Melbourne’s Danny Bonnici of Nubreed fame, and that’s certainly what we got.
I entered the club at just after 12, having had a much needed evening nap before heading out, and walked in on Moxx’s set in the Cave. Moxx is one DJ who manages to tread the thin line between dirty, dark and twisted, but still keeping that party vibe, and each time I see him he gets better and better at working the crowd. Again he played a solid selection of tunes that really got the cave bouncing early on before Danny began. In the Laundry Mo Funk got things moving as well, playing to a packed dancefloor as soon as I arrived. Mr Funk can play a variety of styles ranging from funky house/breaks to big room breaks to a style a little more towards a darker tip, but big bass was the concept for the night and the floor was rammed pretty much continuously throughout his set, one of the sets of the night in my opinion.
The lead programmer and frontman for Nubreed, Danny Bonnici stepped up at around one and took his position behind the Mac. He started out with an awesome track that felt like it was building to something a lot bigger. Unfortunately that “bigger” thing never seemed to arrive. To me it seemed like the set was dragging a little bit and also seemed a little tougher than the crowd was appreciating. Now I’m a big fan of prog and “tough” in general, and I’m a big fan of almost everything Danny and Nubreed have done, but this particular set seemed to lack something. Maybe a little energy. Maybe a bit more direction. I don’t know. The music was off the hook. I’d love to get a copy of it and lie down on my bed with a pair of headphones on and get lost in the sounds – but I didn’t have my bed with me in the Cave, nor my headphones, so I was a little stuck. I don’t think I heard any Nubreed stuff until the final tune – but we loved it, the whole Cave was jumping!
Despite my poor efforts with Danny’s set, I was more than impressed by The Impossibles. Not generally my favourite Sydney outfit, they pushed their musical boundaries this week and found the crowd’s energy and ran hard with it. I guess they did themselves no harm by playing a personal favourite track of mine – Hybrid’s remix of “Clubbed to Death” by Rob Dougan. Despite the trademark cheesy acapella’s over the top and more than enough cowbell (more cowbell?) the track drove everyone absolutely nuts. I have to say that out of any of the performances I’ve seen, this one was by far the best. Good work gentlemen! After Danny’s set in the Cave Dopamine was due to step up and do his thing, but the decision was made to combine Hook n Sling and Dopamine in the Laundry for a back 2 back set until close. I only caught the first bit of this, but if it continued along the same lines as it began, it would have been a fine finish to a fine night out! Dopamine will be heading off for a UK tour and will be back in 5 weeks or so, so it would have been a great way to have a send off.
The thing with Break Inn is not just the wicked internationals and big names like Nubreed, Freq Nasty and DJ Godfather that provide a good time, but each and every week you are guaranteed to hear some of the best music in Sydney at the moment, whether it be any of the residents or other lesser-known names. I encourage anyone, even those who are not generally breaks fans to head down and join in the shenanigans with a bunch of friendly people and top-notch music.
