I’ve been having a love affair with the breakbeat for about a decade now. The first tune to open my ears to drum and bass was 1996’s Horizons, by LTJ Bukem, and I remember, after about 10 seconds of breathing in the rolling bassline, feeling like I’d just woken up from a coma, ready to take on the fresh new world that had opened up before me.

Unfortunately Sydney’s scene has always been lacking the massive crowd support other genres enjoy, and so for some reason after Sublime moved and Beatfix was absorbed into the regular Friday nights at Home, I kinda forgot about drum and bass. Sure, I still listened to the few CDs and EPs I had, but my attention was elsewhere. This all changed a few years ago when I discovered London Elektricity and the rest of the Hospital Records crew – suddenly here was lots of my kind of D&B – melodic, soulful, Just Plain Good? After seeing a few internationals like Bukem, Marky etc, my interest had been firmly rekindled, and I signed up for the good ship Amen.

Having defected from Sydney about 3 months ago, I’ve been looking forward to sinking my teeth into Melbourne’s drum and bass scene, and what better way to do it than by checking out the DJ and producer behind one of my favourite LPs of 2007, The Emperor’s New Clothes?

We arrived at Miss Libertine’s around 11:30, and were lucky enough to catch Keir (I think), playing a fantastic warm up set. I’ve been keen to check out Hidden Agenda after hearing Fabio’s Red Bull Music Academy set from last December, and if Keir’s track selection was anything to go by I’ll be feeling right at home – Alix Perez – Vanguard, Amaning vs. Dubwise – Smash, Calibre & Zero Tolerance – Waterfall, Commix – Be True, High Contrast – If We Ever… we were right there with him.

Trooper was up next and played a solid set, winding it back a little with some deeper, tougher tunes. The sound quality in the backroom was impressive, nice and clear, with bass loud enough to rattle the bones, and a clean upper range that thankfully didn’t have me reaching for earplugs. The crowd was now starting to build up, and after some decidedly ordinary microphone work by MC Tray, Klute kicked off the journey. I can’t really trainspot anything he played aside from 175BPM and Property is Theft (tune!), so I’ll stick to the sounds – dark, futuristic drums, plenty of smooth, filtered basslines, and tasty progressive/tech influences on the pads and synths. By now the place was packed, hardly any room to move, but nobody really seemed to mind – Klute was dropping track after solid track and it was being eaten up like popcorn.

I have to make an aside here, I’m not sure if it was the crowd themselves or just the fact that there were so many punters, but we seemed to spend a lot of time during his set getting pushed and shoved by people making their way through the dancefloor – I get that it’s crowded, but a little courtesy would be nice, especially when you spill your drink all over me and then knock me over on your way past!

Unfortunately, a week of insomnia and the night’s many beers had caught up with me, and I had to call it – time of death, 4AM. We made our way outside, grins on our faces, and went home to get some well deserved zeds. I’ll be making sure I come back though – Elementz know how to put Miss Libertine’s to good use, and I have no doubt Calibre will blow the roof off the place.