As the interior of Home continues to transform, the list of internationals playing at the venue continues to grow in turn as we hit the meaty part of the summer party season. This weekend Future Entertainment and their weekly Saturday night party Famous teamed up to present Renaissance. This night has a long standing reputation as one of the leading global dance brands, representing quality acts and top class music. Renaissance has successfully expanded its brand to incorporate international tours, one-off spectaculars, live events, and a series of high-quality mix CDs, all featuring the hottest artists in the dance music scene. The brand is one of the oldest on the global scene, formed in 1992 in the UK. This year the Sydney leg of the tour featured Sander Kleinenberg and Junkie XL (both of The Netherlands), and Tom Stephan (aka Superchumbo), as well as local Famous residents.

On Saturday night the weather gods were not smiling on Sydney, and after finally bagging ourselves a taxi it was not too long before we made it to the club. As we wandered into the dark main room, we were surprised to find Junkie XL had already kicked off his live set (he was originally billed to play at 4am). By this stage Home was nicely full, but not packed, and the crowd immediately hyped up as he dropped the first grungy track of the set. His setup consisted of a couple of Apple laptops, an old school Korg synth, and an Xone 3D mixer. He was working the midi capabilities of this unit nicely, creating epic build-ups that were tearing the main room apart. Throughout the set the sound quality was amazing, which is testament to his perfectionist production skills. The thumping and punchy sound was definitely appreciated by the crowd.

The set kicked off with a hard rock feel, with classic JXL samples thrown in between sequences for good measure. The set was generally fun and rock influenced, but each build-up was so huge that the euphoria in the room was out of control when the next destructive bassline dropped. Junkie was decked out in his usual gear, representing in an Adidas tracksuit and cheeky hat for the whole hour long set, all the way through pumping up the crowd with his energetic antics. During several of the build-ups he even jumped up on the table to hype the crowd. Some of the tracks that he played, or briefly dropped into the mix, included Coldplay Talk, his own hit Angel, and even a sample of Avril Lavigne Boyfriend towards the end of the set. He played for just over an hour and fifteen minutes, and the time flew by quickly. Before long Sander Kleinenberg was stepping up to take over as Junkie XL banged out the last track to a wave of applause.

Sander Kleinenberg got straight into it and had the courage to step down the intensity a notch, kicking off with some solid dark tribal progressive. Above the stage a series of screens projected the DVJ visuals that he uses with his performances, and this added a great visual aspect to the set, accompanying the lighting on the night. As the set progressed he slowly built the sound, culminating in a huge tune every now and then. With each build he shifted the vibe to be more and more driving, as the set moved through a variety of sounds including dark and dirty, eclectic progressive, electro influenced and acid house. I could not recognise many tunes, but one classic dropped was Da Hool Meet Her At The Love Parade, which got a great reaction from the crowd. After Sander finished Tom Stephan took the sound even harder as many people started to make a move home. By this stage we were pretty tired and decided to head off and call it a night too.

Overall, it was an excellent night, jammed full of quality music from both Junkie XL and Sander Kleinenberg. The highlight for me was the huge live set laid down by JXL, full of amazing sounds, super sized build-ups and almost -evil basslines. Quite simply, this was an example of what live sets should sound like. Sander, on the other hand, totally surpassed my expectations, playing an assortment of dark and driving proper underground house. As he built up the set, the relentless tunes literally glued me to the dancefloor, not letting go until his set finished at 4am. Props to Home for the new additions to the main room, it is really starting to regain its place as the premier venue in Sydney. Anyway, enough rambling from me, see you at the next one!