Exactly what kinds of noises are ‘dust tones’? I don’t know: all I know is that my vacuum cleaner makes too much of a ruckus from me to hear much from the dust. But I also know the Dust Tones crew have been making a ruckus this year with some superlative line-ups, of which tonight was but one. Really, if you weren’t salivating at this line-up then you may have had your salivary glands surgically removed without your knowledge (and in which case, you really should see someone about that). But it’s one thing to assemble a great line-up: it’s another thing altogether to put on a great party. Dust Tones managed both with aplomb.

We cruised in to hear Mark Walton warming things up. You don’t attain Mark’s reputation or longevity by playing bad music (you attain it by playing really rather good music, in case you were wondering). DJ Zeph’s Go Back exemplified the funk flavours permeating Mark’s set, and it was a great way to start the evening.

Into the live music next, with Percussion Junction. As the name suggests, they feature a fair bit of percussion: one regular drum kit, one collection of bongos, congas and such and one talking drum. They also feature Dust Tones impresario Bentley on the turntables: presumably, he’s the ‘Junction’ part. This was the first time I had seen Percussion Junction and I was very impressed. The interplay of the rhythms was complex but danceable and the band members had the ability to make what must be the product of much practice sound spontaneous, improvised, and most importantly, fun. If you are a fan of people hitting stuff with sticks, but in a good way, you should check out Percussion Junction.

Following that was the Rephrase live experience, with a promise to play “some of our music and some by other people”. The “other people’s” stuff included Mr Scruff’s Sweetsmoke and of course, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Relax, and Holiday Rap from seminal hip-hop pioneers MC Miker G and DJ Sven. As for Rephrase’s own music, I’ve mentioned before that his most recent release is an early contender for album of the year. The year keeps getting later and the music still sounds as good. And it was great to see a bit more saxophone action from Rephrase himself than I’ve seen in the last couple of shows. How many thumbs up, you ask? How many have you got?

Hang on to your thumbs, though: you are going to need them for Hermitude. As they started, the nicotine caucus came swarming in from the balcony of Manning and onto the dance floor. Starting with a new track called Walrus, they then moved through a brilliant set incorporating some more new stuff (_Testimony_ being the highlight), some older stuff and a bit of quick improvised honky-tonk work from Luke Dubs while El Gusto sorted out his needles. Hermitude are one of my favourite live electronic acts and this set showed that they’ve plenty of new musical ideas still to come.

Maybe I was just running low on superlatives by this stage of the night, but Katalyst didn’t really feel like the headliner. One could reasonably form the view that four simultaneous guest MCs is just too many (particularly when one of them is The Tongue, who has everything you could possibly need in a guest MC). The new stuff sounded promising, so it’s probable that I was just suffering post-Hermitude deflation as I decided that my feet should head for the door rather than the floor. Subjective thing, this reviewing. Your mileage may vary, and mine will probably vary next time I see Katalyst play.

A wise man once said, “There is so much good music, and so little time in which to listen to it”. Dust Tones once again proved the truth of that. And as I melted off into the night, I was most assuredly pleased that I’d spent the preceding hours trying, even if elusively, to hear the sounds of dust; and succeeding only in hearing some damn good music.