On Saturday June 2nd, one of the few clubs in Sydney that can lay claim to being consistently packed, week in week out, for a whole decade, celebrated it’s birthday in fine style. Featuring the much hyped (and deservedly so) duo of One+One (the dashing duo of Nic Fanciulli and James Zabiela ), KOS and a plethora of local talent, the stage (or Laundry as it were) was set for another cracking night.

Upstairs in the Sand Bar, Ben Henderson had the honour of dropping the needle on the first record. In his typical style, Henderson laid down a mix of funk, disco, hip-hop, old school body-poppin’ electro and a small lashing of house, providing an excellent sound track for both those who were happy to sit and drink and those who wanted to get moving early in the night.

At 10:30, it was time to make my way down to the Laundry, and not leave for the rest of the night. I almost felt a little adulterous not venturing in to the Cave even just once, given how attached I am to that wonderful sand-stone box. However when KOS, James Zabiela and Nic Fanciulli were in control of the room from open to close, how could one justify even contemplating leaving it?

KOS, the official One+One tour warm-up, took care of the opening set, and did a mighty fine job of it. It’s so rare to see a DJ in Sydney actually play a proper warm-up set (lord knows hardly any Sydney DJs do), so it was such a nice change to wander in to a room and not hear music that should have been played at 2am. Keeping it deep, warm and techy, KOS tread a three-way tightrope of minimal, deep house and tech house, laying down head-swimming grooves from Daniel Dubb ( On Cue ), Tiefschwarz ( Damage ), Sebo K ( Dance For Me ), and Art Of Tones ( Praise ).

KOS built the vibe perfectly with this set, starting off deep and funky, before toughening up in his last half hour, leaving Nic Fanciulli plenty of room to do as he pleased, but still managing to get the crowd on the floor and itching for some peak-time sounds.

The man more affectionately known as Mr. Fettucine (honestly, I defy anyone who thinks they can pronounce his name properly!) then took over the controls for a solo one hour set, keeping the techy sounds rolling, but picking up the pace considerably. Dark, rolling, shuffly, percussive, deep, and chunky are the words that immediately spring to mind when trying to describe Fanciulli’s set. Kicking off with subterranean tech house and minimal grooves that made me wonder if I should have brought my caving equipment with me on Saturday night, Fanciulli kept it deep and groovy for the first portion of his set, before slowly introducing some more bouncy, percussion-driven techno cuts. A timely dropping of James Talk’s ridiculously massive remix of DJ Pierre’s Destroy This Track signaled a change-up in Fanciulli’s style, and instantly energised the room. From here on in, it was all about bigger, bassline driven tech house, including a great surprise in the form of X-Press 2’s classic Muzik X-Press. Technically, Fanciulli was also spot-on. His mixing was bang on point, his phasing was excellent, and the set, despite being diverse, never lacked flow.

Next up, the most lovable geek in dance music today, James Zabiela, got his opportunity to show the crowd what he’s capable of: a hell of a lot. One of the next generation superstars, James really has nothing to prove to anybody, but nonetheless, he still continues to hone his skills and improve his DJing as often as possible. This was no more evident than last night. His effects use is more restrained now, and rather than just playing with knobs to look tricky, he uses his intimate knowledge of the CDJ-1000s, DJM-800, Ableton and EFX-1000 to enhance his tracks and bring out their best elements. Starting off with his usual soundscape style intro, Zabiela gave the system a solid workout for the first half of his set with some massive bassline driven house cuts, including a bootleg of the old rave anthem Humanoid by Stakker. The second half hour of his set focused more around the broad spectrum of techno, from deep and warm such as Hot Chip’s remix of Junior Boys’ In The Morning and Juergens’ Love It to percussive and loopy. Technically, nothing needs to be said about James. The guy is a wizard, end of story. From looping to layering to scratching to re-editing on the fly, he did it all, and with style and a massive smile on his face.

For the final two hours of the night, the packed crowd rocked out to James and Nic going back to back as One+One. Having heard their CD, I was a little worried about how well the two gel together. Moments on the CD seem to come really out of left field, and the flow leaves a little to be desired. But live, they just work perfectly. Although there were a number of stylistic jumps throughout the set, the way they brought together a variety of sounds just created a great party rather than left people scratching their heads as the CD did. There’s obviously a lot to be said for the difference between hearing something in a heaving club and at home on a CD player.

Starting off with some thumping progressive house, including a re-working of Booka Shade’s In White Rooms, which followed on perfectly from Zabiela’s melodic techno, Fanciulli and Zabiela then went for more a party-rocking electro house vibe for a short period, which although wasn’t to this reviewer’s personal taste, certainly rocked the crowd. The second hour of the set signaled the duo’s dive in to the deeper sounds of filthy tech and just a splash of breaks, as was personally my favourite part of the night. The Stanton Warriors remix of Claude Von Stroke’s Who’s Afraid of Detroit?, Andy Page and Phil K’s monstrous Don’t Die, Don’t Kill Anyone, the M.A.N.D.Y. remix of Push Push from Rockers Hi-Fi, and their own track No Pressure, followed by a new remix of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy The Silence to finish, were personal highlights of the second hour, and all sounded amazing on the Laundry sound system.

Beyond their mostly excellent track selection, the duo also had most of the crowd mesmerised with their technical abilities. Outside of the expected tight mixing and clever effects use, Fanciulli and Zabiela also spent a lot of the time subtly editing and reworking tracks, adding new loops, samples, clicks, beeps, bass drops, synth washes and other sound effects, as well as layering up to three tunes at a time with scary precision. While one mixed, the other tweaked, making every track a unique experience.

I know I’m rambling on, but James, Nic, and KOS really do deserve such massive wraps. But to avoid looking like an obsessive fan-boy, I’m going to stop now and leave it at this: Happy Birthday Laundry. I don’t think anyone could have asked for a better party. Although maybe you could provide some fairy bread, party hats, snakes and ice cream cake next time, yeah?