Paul Strange is a well respected and highly accomplished promoter in the Sydney club scene. Name any of the big clubs in town and chances are that he has played a role in the success of a night there. In chronological order these club nights have included M2M at Gas, Saturdays at Home, Together at Home, Kink at the Arthouse, Defected in the House at Tank, and ThinkTank at Tank. Shortly after the re-shuffle down at Tank, Paul received a call from Home’s owner Simon Page (in conjunction with Andy Rigby from promotion company Playground Music), who invited him to join the team at Strangeways, a relatively new club night which utilises the infamous rooftop, or Terrace, and the smaller middle room of the 3-storey superclub venue on Darling Harbour’s city-side location. Needless to say, Paul seized upon the opportunity with the zeal of a hungry alley-cat, all the time coyly aware of the irony the club night’s name alludes to his own surname. It’s a “Strangeway back Home to the Terrace”, as his catch-phrase for the night reads.

The Terrace lay-out has had a few adjustments made to it since it started operating as a separate club night to the rest of the premises. Namely, the removal of the bar in the main room (to compensate for extra toilets and a bigger dancefloor area); the DJ setup moving to the back right-hand side of the room instead of remaining in the notorious booth spot as it was previously; and a considerable upgrade of the sound-system. Opening the night on the decks was the talented and ever-elegant rising star in the Sydney scene – Disco Lou. Lou is a DJ who credits Chicago’s Derrick Carter as one of her inspirations, and listening to her DJ it is quite clear that she wears this influence on her (record) sleeve. The music she relishes in playing is the deep and jackin’ sound that Carter is renowned for. Lou played an intelligent warm-up set, keeping the music relatively deep and cruisy but dropping the occasional bigger track to lure the drinkers in from the bar area. By 12:45 the crowd was very much socially lubricated and getting down to the party sounds of Cristo Castelli’s classic track ‘Through Changes’.

Next up was John Devecchis, a DJ who exudes class whenever he steps behind the decks. Not wanting to waste any time, John made his presence heard by playing a three-track stint which was worth going out for in itself. Beginning with Style of Eye’s ‘You got that’, John then brought in a long-time favourite in his collection, Santiago & Bushido’s ‘Back 2 back’, blending the two tracks together superbly in a long mix. Almost as soon as he phased out ‘You got that’, he dropped the bass of ‘Back 2 back’ and cut to the emotively-fueled bassline of Wonderland Avenue – White horse. These two tracks worked brilliantly together, and John enjoyed switching basslines for a while longer, much to the crowds rousing approval. The latter track played signaled a change towards a techier sound that John has been getting into lately. His closing track was a huge techy electro number – Esoterik’s ‘Alycone’, the remix played coming from one of the hottest producers in house music right now – the USA’s Jake Childs.

Sydney’s legendary DJ Johnny Gleeson was next on decks, and he began with playing funky ‘mainroom’ style house. This style of music tests my patience on the dancefloor, so I thought it was a good opportunity to check out the middle room, dubbed ‘Back 2 Mine’. Walking in to hear DJ Robotek spinning dark and dirty break-beat dispelled the idea that this room was simply a chill-out room, as it was when Paul previously ran club nights at Home. The speakers have been setup so that they’re facing the entrance, and as a result there’s much more of a dancefloor orientated feel to the room. The signs are in place for this space to develop a dedicated following. Walking back upstairs at around 3:15am, I was surprised to hear that Gleeson had moved his sound on a progressive-house direction. Buy Now – ‘For sale’, a big prog-electro track, was resonating out of the speakers, its snarling bassline driving the speakers to full capacity. The crowd was really receptive to this driving prog sound; perhaps something the promoters should take note of for future bookings.

Next up, and the last DJ of the evening, was none other than Illya Cooper. A true prodigy of the art of DJing, Illya’s skills behind the decks have been noted by just about every international deep house DJ that has stepped foot on Australian soil in the last 5 or so years. Illya began his set with the driving deep number ‘Get loaded’ by in-form producer Bryan Jones, a good follow-up track to match the intensity of Gleeson’s final few tracks. He soon brought the intensity down with an old favourite of his, Stacy Kidd & Melvin Meeks – Let love enter, before bringing it straight back up with a two-track combination which always signals Illya is in ‘terrace’ jackin’ mode. The first element being the accapella to Dr Dre’s ‘Forgot about Dre’, the second being the aptly named ‘All jacked up’ by No Assembly Firm. Illya never seems to tire of the Dre accapella, and much to my amazement he always seems to give it a new lease of life by choosing the perfect tracks to run underneath it. Shortly after, a big Ian Carey sounding track took the sound in a funked-up party house direction, further exemplified with two of Toby Neal’s (Illya’s production/DJ collaborator) tracks to close the night out; his bootleg of The Littlemen’s ‘Foolin around’, and his original production ‘My love’. Illya milks each breakdown in a track for its full worth when he is mixing, often creating longer build-ups on-the-fly. This is just one of the reason’s why he is so popular in Sydney – crowds seem to revel in the feeling of suspense/anticipation created in a long breakdown, and tend to erupt when the drop is finally released.

For the second week running there was a relatively large crowd left on the dancefloor after the final record had run its course, all of them pleading for more music. This alone is surely an indication of the night’s success. The fact that the music styles encompassed smooth deep house, jackin’ deep tech-house, mainroom electro/house, progressive house, break-beat, and funky deep house – all without losing the crowd – is greater proof of this success.