With 2 months worth of quality parties under its belt, Break Inn has quickly established itself on the Sydney scene so I knew we’d be in for a good night with Melbourne lads Nubreed coming to blow up the Cave with an arsenal of mpcs and synthesizers. They were here promoting the launch of their new Y4K mix album, joining the ranks of Hybrid, Freq Nasty, Tayo and countless others who have mixed one of the best loved compilation series in breaks.

The Sound Advice boys were holding it down in typical fashion to a seriously packed and sweaty Cave when I arrived. The crush was partly due to the fact that Nubreed were about to start and also partly due to the far end of the room having been turned into a veritable studio. A plethora of drool worthy gear was laid out over two tables including two mac laptops, a Virus synthesizer, midi controllers, a mixing board, Pioneer FX units, an MPC and the list goes on…

Finally the volume came down and Mykel hopped up on the mic, he seemed genuinely enthused about playing in Sydney and the crowd were more than up for it so they launched straight into it with one of their biggest hits ‘One Day’ with Danny Bonnici singing live. What followed was one of the finer displays of live electronica I think I’ve witnessed with a range of sounds as varied and as well produced as what you might expect from a good DJ set. Although they didn’t stray too far out of the realm of breakbeat they did incorporate every conceivable flavour and sub genre from progressive to tear-out to plod step with helpings of cheesy house and jackin tech thrown in for good measure.

The music was often tantalisingly dark and twisted and yet I had the feeling that they were holding back, restrained perhaps by the notorious inability of Sydneysiders to handle anything more cerebral than Mylo, a fact well documented amongst Melbourne’s clubbing elite. My having heard a much moodier, darker and consequently floor clearing set by Danny Bonnici a few weeks earlier further fuelled these suspicions.

As far as stage presence went they ranked somewhere in the middle Mykel was good on the microphone firing up the crowd when required and there was a token amount of fist pumping and angry faces but for the most part the boys were absorbed by their keyboards and monitors. Really though with music this good there was no need to get the crowd any more worked up. I had planned on getting a look in at Bass Kleph but was struggling to tear myself away from Nubreed any longer than it took to take a piss, and then before I knew it I spied the Kleph out in the Cave rocking along with the rest of us.

The crowd was the usual diverse array attracted by Chinese Laundry, pockets of breaksfiends interspersed amongst the casual clubber, the occasional tourist and the odd drunk stumble-inn. People were definitely feeling the music though; the eyes of the dancers were fixed on empty space rather than on each others attire and plenty had their eyes shut completely with the looks on most faces betraying the pure aural ecstasy on offer (ok it wasn’t all aural).

When the lights came on at 3am I’ll admit I was a little dissapointed, I had hoped(perhaps a little optimistically) that we were in for a 2 and half hour show (the normal closing hour being 4am) but unfortunately due to people leaving early only the Laundry side is open until the end now. To add insult to injury the boys refused to play an encore, despite a very vocal attempt by the crowd to coax one out of them, add to that the set sounded suspiciously similar to one from NYE 04 and I am inclined to suspect that the show was so precisely layed out and planned that an encore would not have been possible, a little disillusioning but then with a show that spectacular it would be naive to imagine it being possible any other way.

I hung around for a bit of Impossibles madness afterwards but I wasn’t really in the mood to spoil the taste of Nubreed, with Britney Spears mash-ups and crunk accapellas although I was tempted as these Impossibles lads seem to be getting better every show they play. All up another great night at Break Inn, keep em coming guys.