It’s all about being alternative, isn’t it? No really, it is. You don’t believe me? Come on; the straight leg jeans, scruffy hair, flannelette shirts, guitars in commercial dance music – it’s hard to deny that the ‘alternative’ look is not trendy at the moment. Now, you are probably asking yourself, ‘why this guy is stating the obvious?’ Well, for those in attendance at the inaugural INTHEMIX Smirnoff Party at Sugar Nightclub, celebrating 6 years of ITM, the topic would certainly be of relevance. In most cases, the fatal combination of ‘rock’ and ‘dance’ comes to an ugly end, but the UK’s DJ Hyper showed Adelaide that he is not one to follow suit.

It’s 2am, the warm cocoon of Sugar is filled to capacity; it’s hot, the sweaty bodies of punters are grooving up against each other, and Hyper is dishing out some very ‘alternative’ influenced breakbeat. As if someone had slammed on the breaks (pardon the pun) without warning in your beaten up Commodore, the bpms take a sudden drop, and there are 200 odd punters shouting along to the lyrics of rap-metal anthem Killing In The Name, by ex-political rockers Rage Against The Machine. Something I certainly would have never expected to see at Sugar after my many outings at the club, it was surprising to see just how much the crowd were getting into the song – I too found myself screaming the profanities contained in the breakdown. However, one could argue that a room filled with trendy club-kids, shouting ‘…I won’t do what you tell me,’ could marginally defeat the purpose of the song. But in the end, everyone knows that it’s all about the music, and the first thing to get thrown out the door when stepping into a club is politics.

The vibe of the party was relatively timid for the first half of the night, however the tunes were nothing short of spectacular, and it seemed like the venue would erupt into chaos at any moment. Arriving to find Spark on the decks dishing out some quality breaks and getting up to his usual tricks behind the decks, it wasn’t long before I was getting my groove on to Mal Chia and special guest, Melbourne’s Sean Quinn. Twisted, quirky, funk-injected, electro tinged house ricocheted off every wall off the club, but it just didn’t seem like the punters were ready to shake their booty just yet – however, that was soon to change.

On the arrival of Lachy Pender to the hallowed Sugar decks, it was as if someone had blown a prison guard’s whistle and ordered everyone in the vicinity to the dancefloor immediately. Breakbeats swapped places with techno, before bouncing back into house and electro – real electro, with enough bleeps, buzzes and broken beats to get a sedated polar bear onto the dancefloor. After seeing Lachy play numerous times this was certainly the most diverse and entertaining I had witnessed to date – those in attendance making this known with their screams and chants.

Hyper made an almost ‘rock star’ entrance onto the decks – his ripped jeans and white bleached hair resembling that of ‘Johnny Rotten,’ ala The Sex Pistols. Picking up from where Lachy left off, Hyper’s sound had certainly changed from what I was familiar with. Gone the days of those dark, brooding progressive breaks, littered with sinister synths and rumbling basslines, Hyper somehow picked up the pace even more – how this was possible after Lachy’s performance, I do not know. Electro synth stabs that resembled laser guns firing in all directions of the club flowed from track to track – seamless mixing cutting each track into each other with surgical precision. Short and sharp bleeps bounced in and out of broken beats, before swapping back into 4/4, and I found myself having to take a breather every few minutes due to my frenetic dancing. Somehow, time must have evaded me, because before I knew it Hyper had replaced synths with filtered guitar riffs; 909s with pearl drum kits; and sultry female vocals with ‘punk rock’ screams, courtesy of Hyper himself. ITM National Editor Tim Hardarker, who had made the trip to Adelaide with Hyper, explained how the track being played with it’s mumbled slang and punk rock screams, was recorded in Sydney just days before by Hyper and a local breakbeat maestro.

The crowd was certainly getting into the music – Tim cheering on the crowd side of stage with myself and others bouncing away to these ‘rocky’ breaks. The vibe wasn’t giving up one bit, and then Hyper dropped that Rage Against The Machine track – to say the crowd went bananas was certainly an understatement. I could barely recognize any of the tunes being dished out by Hyper – Mogwai’s Get It On being the only one that appeared to be un-foreign to my now-deaf ears. The antics behind the decks certainly complimented the music; Hyper bouncing around in all directions with beer in hand and cigarette in mouth – it was obvious he was having as much fun as those on the dancefloor.

And as quickly as the vibe had picked up, the night was over – you know you’ve had a good time when it seems like only minutes since you walked into the club that you’re walking out with all memory intact. My first ITM party experience in my many years of contributing for the site, this was certainly a night to remember, and proved to myself, and possibly many others, that when dance music and rock music make love, the child is not always an ugly-duckling.