ARIA and DIVA recognised Sydney DJ Sveta came to town last night and took firm hold of Family Nichtclub in Fortitude Valley.

Having heard she’d been selected to DJ at Home Nightclub in Sydney this year to play with Junior Vasquez for the MTV Afterparty, I was well keen to see what my favourite female DJ had to offer. When I moved to Sydney in ‘98, I wanted so badly to get to hear Sveta play ‘out’, after hearing the set she’d done for Triple J’s ‘Mix Up’ that year. I was uber-keen to get this gig to review because I’ve been lucky enough to see and hear Sveta play in a range of venues including radio-studios, underground clubs, Mardi-Gras Main-room and outdoor festivals; have heard her play the greatest range of genres I’ve ever heard any one DJ actually play, much less play with the earnest love for and empathy with the music she plays and the people for whom she plays it – and I have never been disappointed.

Kudos to Family’s door-staff for the easiest, most pleasant entry to a club or event I think I’ve ever experienced,.. and we’re in. We patrol the basement level and find it pleasantly occupied with all manner of cookie-cutter nouvelle-vague club-kids and head swiftly for the bar to stockpile before heading up to the Mezz.

Mezz is chockers and we again patrol; cruising and grooving – then I remember there’s an upstairs. We drink some more and talk some more and ‘omg wtf is she wearing?’ and ‘wtf is this music?’ and we head for the sanctuary that is Sveta. Just In time and en-masse the collective groove commences and we get down to some serious business. ‘They’ say, that ‘women respond to bass’, and I don’t know if it’s a case of a woman getting down to bass or a woman getting down to a woman getting down to bass, but my legs went wobbly a number of times. Good stuff. According to Sveta’s own website, “Sveta plays a diverse and eclectic range of funky, twisted, deep and dirty grooves, her sets ranging from electro, electro clash, rock, lounge, vocal house, deep-tribal house, funky tech-house, progressive house and techno.’ – last night was all that and more.