‘Jack your body’ read the placard held up by John Devecchis as he commenced his set. Fast-forward 6 hours, and I doubt there was anyone in the entire club that hadn’t taken heed from this request. Monkey Tennis was back with it’s third event headlined by an international DJ, the previous outings having Inland Knights & Da Sunlounge, and The Lawnchair Generals, this time it was Chicago’s Bryan Jones.

Possessing all the attributes for achieving success – commitment, passion, activeness, and, of course, talent – Bryan Jones has developed himself into a widely respected and accomplished producer and DJ in deep house circles worldwide. This is particularly true of the last 18 months or so, firstly aligning himself with the influential Joey Youngman and his various record labels, followed by the inevitable formulation of his own label, Control Recordings. Hard-work, consistent quality musical output, and lots of self-promotion has set Bryan up for a long career in his chosen field, and has led him to be touring Australia for the first time.

Arriving just before midnight, I skipped down the stairs of Candy’s Apartment to be greeted by an already bustling crowd, the whole main room littered with party people of all descriptions. The friendly and free-willing security team at Candy’s reflects the sort of crowd the club attracts, 23 years to 30-something’s out to drink, dance, and be merry, but at the same time maintaining somewhat of a level of maturity and self-control – the desirable interpretation of anarchy.

The Monkey Tennis DJ’s, Gary and Lummy, did a solid job warming up the crowd, handing over the reigns to regular Monkey Tennis DJ, John Devecchis, at around 12:30 to a lively dancefloor. John got straight to work; cutting and blending funky, percussive deep house in what is an easily distinguished ‘devecchis-style’ of mixing. The crowd was well warmed-up by now, and whilst John would give them numerous tracks to cut loose to, ‘Disco’s revenge’ by Gusto being a good example, he was still conscious that he was warming up for Bryan, and subsequently see-sawed the musical intensity, not allowing the crowd to use up too much dancefloor energy. John played one of the best warm-ups I’ve heard from him, and his mixing was the tightest it’s been since he switched from vinyl to cdj’s about this time last year.

As the clock edged closer to 2am, so too did Bryan towards the decks, the cheers and whistles from various sections of the club indicating that a lot of people were there to hear him play. The dancefloor was jam-packed by this stage, everyone squeezing themselves into their preferred dancing spot. Bryan started his brilliant set with the Miguel Migs remix of Chuck Love’s ‘Spread the love’, definitely one of the more accessible tracks in his collection, though you can tell why Bryan loves it – Migs’ bumpin’ bassline sounds incredibly chunky on a big sound-system. The crowd erupted as it dropped, and the majority of people on the dancefloor didn’t move for the next two and a half hours as Bryan took the crowd on a journey through bumpin’ melodic grooves of all flavours.

His first hour was kept relatively deep and warm, UK garage classic ‘I refuse’ by Somore on the brilliant i! Records being one of the many standouts. At 3am, he took the level up a notch, dropping his signature track ‘Get loaded’, and an assortment of driving techy tracks, all completely drenched in funk. He then calmed the crowd down with some luscious, vibrant deep house, the padded basslines and Rhodes keys melodies giving the musical soundscape a real soulful vibe. Try Flavor Recordings for a representation of this sound. Local soulful house dj/musician extraordinaire, Yogi, was smiling and nodding with approval.

Not letting the crowd rest for too long, Bryan soon brought back in another dose of bangin’ tracks, this time choosing Dj Sneak-esque filtered tech-house, the Rhodes keys still in the mix, but the warm basslines swapped with straight-up thumping kick-drums and crisp, open high hats. This block of thumping tracks was closed out with Mario Fabriani’s (Joey Youngman) remix of the Sound Navigators’ ‘System Sprain’, a track that would push any sound-system to capacity with its monstrous bassline. Bryan added a soulful accapella over the top to add warmth to this otherwise slightly offensive track.

Next up was one of a couple of homage’s to various producers that Bryan obviously has a lot of respect for. Starting with ‘Back in my life’, then ‘Funky-ass beat’, and finally the remix of Li’sha’s ‘Feel’, this was Bryan’s way of saying Chuck Love is a great source of inspiration. Showing that he is a truly remarkable directional DJ, Bryan then got the crowd going hard again, this time to some driving French house. The familiar opening of a track with a female vocal repeating the words “I can try, I can try, I can try” from the track ‘If I ever feel better’ by Phoenix, really got me going as I’d never heard this favourite of mine on a big system.

Edging closer to 4am, Bryan played one of his most well-received productions ‘Chicago Jack’, laying a thumping kick-drum track underneath it, giving the track a bit of extra punch, as well as allowing him to cut the catchy melodic riff in and out, the knowledgeable crowd all giving it up to Bryan for producing what has become something of an anthem in the deep house scene. After allowing the dancefloor to catch it’s breath, Bryan then dropped one of the only acid bassline tracks of his set, a bit of shame, as I was rather eager to hear more of this sound. Perhaps a 4-hour set is required next time. Not that I had much time to lament about it, as Bryan closed out his set with what could almost be described as funky techno, a relentless 15 or so minutes sending the crowd wild, as well as sending Bryan off with cheers and applause from all around the club. Totally deserved too – it was the best set I’ve ever experienced live in a club.

Illya closed the night out, showing that along with John Devecchis, Sydney harbours some fantastic talent. Illya kept the intensity at 10 his whole set, pulling out many of the tricks from his bag, and making sure Bryan heard a few of his tracks as production outfit ‘Lamanex’ (with Toby Neal), ‘Pheasant’ in particular sounding great on a big system.

Unfortunately I didn’t get much of a chance to spend time out in the backroom, where there was a healthy crowd all grooving away to funk and disco classics courtesy of Danny Bass, Mo’ Funk, and Pete Dot – an exceptional line-up in it’s own right. Next time there is an all-local line-up at Monkey Tennis I’ll definitely be spending more time in that room.

Well, that just about covers it. As I mentioned earlier, Bryan Jones provided the best set I’ve ever heard. Bryan Jones, I salute you. Monkey Tennis, I thank you for bringing him out. I look forward to future installments of what has fast become the best party in Sydney.