The die-hard fans had waited nearly a year for him to return after his blinding acid-laced set at Future Music Festival in 2006, but finally on Friday night Lee Coombs made his return to Sydney to play at Break Inn. Supported by a stellar local lineup and playing on one of the best sound systems in Sydney, Coombs at Break Inn was always guaranteed to be a fantastic evening and it certainly panned out that way.

Taking care of warm-up duties in the Chinese Laundry, Steve Lind was making the most of a rare opportunity to flex his musical muscle over a two hour set. Known more for the party/hiphop/mash-up sound, Lind reveled in his chance to show the punters he can rough it with the big boys of breaks, but still keeping the funk he so lovingly calls his own. Starting off with party breaks even funkier than a yeast infection in James Brown’s underpants, including a killer remix of Stevie Wonder’s Superstitious, Lind got the punters on the floor nice and early. He soon picked up the pace a little with some crunchy, low-slung electro house (the good kind), and plenty of bootleg action as well, including a very large breaks re-edit of Exceeder by Mason, which benefited immensely from the addition of a broken beat. The final thirty minutes of the set were the most surprising for this reviewer though: I’ve never seen Steve play so heavy. Lots of tough breaks cuts like Bring Forth Ya Booty by 10sui & The Ragga Twins sat alongside ballsy tech house such as Malente’s massive unreleased remix of Boogie Army’s fortchoming gear, providing an excellent lead-in for Mr Coombs.

By the time the prince of acid ( Josh Wink being the king) stepped up to the decks the room had filled up nicely, but there was still enough space to really cut loose should one feel the need to do so. Using his two hours to its fullest extent, Coombs demonstrated his versatility with a set that spanned tech house, breaks and techno, all held together by a common theme: underground music. Although initially his mixing was a little looser than usual, Coombs quickly settled in to a rhythm and for the remainder of the set. His mixing was tighter than a nun’s nasty and his phasing was sublime.

The first hour was characterised by funky but still massive and crunchy breaks like EK’s Feelin’ Fine and the Elite Force mix of Play by Redlight, peppered with slamming tech house cuts like Solid Groove’s Red Hot and the Buick Project reworking of The Last Survivor by Rulers Of The Deep. There were plenty of splashes of acid as well, including The Right Side Of Wrong, a collaboration with Elite Force, which was this reviewer’s personal highlight of the evening. The tune just came to life on the Laundry system, with the bassline rattling rib cages and the squelchy acid line drilling holes in skulls.

The second hour of Coombs’ set was reserved for the darker side of his musical spectrum, as he straightened out the beats and went primarily for the four-to-the-floor sounds of ballsy tech house and deep, subterranean techno. And despite there being very little beats of the broken variety at this point, it was great to see the crowd still lapping up the sounds. Kicking off his second hour with some big, bassline-driven tech house sounds including an unreleased mix of King Unique’s To The Left, it was soon time for the techno – and this is the part of the review where the trainspotting stops. It was just unreleased gem after unreleased gem as he weaved his way through the techno spectrum from deep, throbbing minimal beats to storming percussive monsters laced with squelchy acid lines. Unfortunately the set eventually had to come to an end, but Lee chose to leave the crowd with something to remember him by: a bootleg of the Azzido Da Bass Dooms Night classic, which had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand (even more so than they had been for the rest of the set).

The Impossibles then took care of the closing set in the Laundry, playing considerably tougher and dirtier than usual, dropping big bassline-driven monsters like Meat Katie’s Stop The Revolution and Jim Shimmer’s The Quad, all mashed and remixed on the fly with crazy acapella and sample trickery like only they know how. The final portion of the set descended in to breakbeat anthem madness with tunes like Smack My Bitch Up, mashed up nicely with the Tetris theme, providing excellent comedic value. Forey once again acted as the light-hearted vocal accompaniment to the set, never taking things to seriously and covering numbers from artists like Peaches in his own inimitable style.

Over in the Cave, Basskleph was savouring every second of his opportunity to stretch his legs musically until close and show the punters just how varied his taste actually is. During the earlier portion of his set, bouncy tech house numbers like Sebastién Légér’s remix of The Rendition sat perfectly alongside party breaks staples like Stanton Warriors’ Da Virus, as well as some of his own bootlegs of big house tracks like Kurd Maverick’s The Rub. As the set progressed, so did the energy levels, with Stu stepping it up a notch and laying down some dark tech vibes from Sebastién Légér ( Ectro ) and Fedde Le Grande ( Don’t Take No Shhh ), as well as some filthy breaks, the most notable of which was the excellent Bassbin Twins re-edit of Evil Nine’s Crooked. Technically he was outstanding: his mixing was nice and tight, there was plenty of clever looping and sampling and he utilised the effects to their fullest extent, without detracting from the tracks themselves.

So what does all this equate to in a sentence? Another killer night at Break Inn.