One of the main problems with reviewing drum and bass is that the music is often so frenetic and the urge to tap one’s feet so great that any notes you take end as unintelligible chicken scratchings. Thankfully that’s not entirely dissimilar to my more general handwriting so I can decode and disassemble and start by telling you that this was a very good night of top class drum and bass.

Things started as they always do in Sydney, sparse and quiet, the crowd filling in the early hours elsewhere. Slow and sedate (a miracle at 180bpm), Shuey was on the decks till eleven when he’s replaced by Ryan Lazy for a short set. Lazy keeps things going, mixing tightly, but it’s not until he drops the last tune of his set, the sort of patented sickness that brings dead people back to life, that things kick up. Handing over to Chris J, he followed up with another killer which brought out my inner demons and got me, along with fair chunk of crowd, onto the dance floor.

Hermann’s is a single square room in Sydney University, so there were reasonably priced drinks and students a plenty. The beans of the crowd seem to be kicking in, and this was a very good preamble for Calyx, who came out to a geed up crowd having had MC Antic doing his ‘oh-yeah’ thing. Everyone was in fourth gear, waiting for Calyx so they can drop the clutch and hit the higher level.

Calyx, when he comes on, drives some nasty technical beats and the sort of insane b-lines that gave birth to epilepsy. So dark, so hard, (a little chilly), it’s time to dance, dance, dance, and this goes on for the next two hours, Calyx smiling down and seemingly happy with his nights work. MC D:Tech turns up to liven things the more and the night turns in to a rave.

However, I do find it hard to get in to a night when smoking isn’t allowed inside. The shroud of smoke conceals the worst dancers and besides, having to go outside ruins the rhythm of the evening. Regardless, I understand the thinking behind it but I do believe that if you do ban smoking inside you have a duty to pump smoke in through a machine, just so the lasers float in the air instead of hitting the nearest surface and so you can retire to a dark corner and feel invisible.

All in all a very good night with tight drum and bass. In this, the off season effectively, it augers well that people will turn up to quality nights and as much as there were the same old faces the added addition of the university crowd made things a little more interesting and did I mention the music was fantastic?