The Habit night has now enjoyed a number of successful instalments over the years starting in 2004 and since then moving through a number of Sydney’s much loved venues. The night is centred on the concept of bringing together an up-for-it crowd to enjoy a variety of quality tunes in a small and intimate venue. The single most important factor in Habit’s success is the general music policy: uplifting sounds that build progressively and smoothly all night from house oriented beginnings through to progressive and melodic tunes towards the end of the night. The latest in this series of nights presents two fast rising stars in the global progressive scene, Matt Rowan and Jaytech as well as a number of other local DJs. Matt Rowan and Jaytech have enjoyed an impressive string of success in recent times; having released music on the influential UK label Hope Recordings, and featuring on Dave Seaman’s ‘Renaissance Master Series Vol 7’ mix CD; amongst other achievements.

On the night we arrived in Kings Cross at about 11:30pm and meandered towards Candy’s Apartment; marvelling at all the action happening in this entertaining part of Sydney. At the venue the line at the door was quite reasonable and before we knew it we were inside and immersed in quality sounds and headed straight for the bar to warm up. The venue was decorated quite creatively with some cool looking greenery in front of the main stage and many other decorations throughout. Already early on in the evening the dance floor was already full of punters enjoying the night out with Matt Rowan on stage laying down a number of funky driving progressive tunes including many of his recent productions including Tomorrow. Throughout the set his mixing was tight and the bass driven tunes provided a fantastic atmosphere that had everyone on the dance floor going off. The general sound of his set could be described as funky dance floor-oriented track with great basslines with strong melodic influences.

Jaytech who produces tracks with Matt Rowan was up next and was due to lay down an hour of original material using Ableton Live program. For those who have not seen this program it allows you to manipulate loops or generated sounds on the fly using midi controllers which he was doing with great ease. Jaytech laid down some great tunes that were very well received by everyone on the dance floor. Very cool driving tracks with a balance of tech and melodic sounds and influences. After Jaytech sets Adam Jace stepped up to continue on from where he left off with some dirty prog tunes however we didn’t stay for too long and only saw the start of his set, which by all reports was excellent.

Overall, it was an incredibly fun night with quality music and an up-for-it crowd. The Second Nature room featuring live percussion was an interesting and unique addition to the night. All DJs on the night played some great tunes both perfect for the dance floor or for chilling in the corner and the sound, visuals (by VJ S.A.W) and atmosphere were all top-notch. If you like the sound of this then make sure to head to Sweetchilli this Friday where Matt Rowan plays alongside progressive house legend Steve Porter and other locals.