When you have a really high profile, in any scene, it’s quite hard to actually live up to your reputation, especially if you are continually reinventing your career and style to suit the times. Case in point, Madonna. But unlike Madonna, Aquasky seem to be one of those particular artists that while they’ve had a career that has spanned over fourteen odd years, they’ll still be able to look back over any part with grace and humility and be proud of their achievements. And so it was, when they returned to Australia on Friday night for a performance at Break Inn.

It’s not unusual for me to arrive (un)fashionably late to a venue, so I was sorely disappointed to find myself slung smack bang in the middle of the Aquasky set that started at 12pm rather than the usual 1am (and I also began kicking myself for not checking up on set times prior to the gig). While I was hoping for some really dark heavy Masterblaster style breaks, I wasn’t suprised to hear them playing an electro-breaks hybrid, building some of the more palatable electro-themed songs into slightly breakier ones. If the gathered crowd weren’t enjoying themselves so much I would have to say it was a little stop-start, but as always the breaks fanboy comes out and I have to say they were great – ‘cause they were!

For the most part the crowd seemed to be composed of the more hardcore of breaks fans who were front and centre eager just for the beat, instead of the usual Chinese Laundry crowd who might have been there just because of their love for the venue. All in all, everyone seemed up for a good time and were adequetly lubricated, which made for a good dancefloor. Anyone who has been to the Chinese Laundry before knows exactly what it’s like, so I won’t waste words here when I mention the new layout or design which kicked in when they opened their new Saturday night ¬The Club Club a little while back.

As to what was going on in the other rooms… Now, I’m not the most learned person when it comes to drum n’ bass, but hear me now when I say that the Cave on Friday night was the place to be. The DJ lineup was relatively new to me, but warm-up DJ Morphee seemed to provide the crowd with his own distinct style of track selection, and speaking to my compadres for the night it seems as though he is quite the up-n-comer on the scene. Lookout! Next up Typhonic was quite at home beat juggling, doubling, reversing and doing all sorts of turntablistic tricks, much to the delight of this chin-stroking reviewer, and whilst it would have been easy to return to the crowd-pleasing favourites of his genre he seemed quite happy with the amount of people surrounding the booth looking on in awe, including his female counterpart MC Spex. While I might be new to drum n’ bass, I still get a mighty big kick out of seeing two talented DJs offering up fine plates of tunes to devour. It was good eatin’ indeed!

Can you tell that I spent most of the night in the DnB room yet? I did. Because although I was keen to see Aquasky, I knew that if I spent most of the night watching them flirting with electro then I might have been disappointed; particularly because as a true breaks fanboy, I reminisce over their Aquasky vs. Masterblaster period the most. But any misgivings aside, I tip my hat to them and the Chinese Laundry for yet another great Friday night.