In a city which usually finds drum n bass heads hibernating to their DYI lounge room dance parties, due to the lack of any regular (or irregular for that matter) DnB night – it was refreshing to be greeted to a packed Hunter Bar – those heads had come out of hibernation.

Greeted by Ben from Break and Enter, a friendly door bitch and a drink ticket set my night on the right foot. Moving Thru Air is one of Sydney’s only regular club nights catering to those partial to that music you just can’t dance to with style – drum n bass.

The Hunter Bar, near Wynyard Station was the venue for the third instalment of Moving Thru Air (MTA) from the Break and Enter crew. Firstly utilising the old favourite in the Marrickville Bowlo some three months ago (and what a cracker of a night that was), MTA was moved to the Hunter Bar last month – to my pleasure.

The actual venue definitely gets two big thumbs up from this punter. Reasonably priced drinks (OK, well you can’t beat the Bowlo, but The Hunter doesn’t do too badly). Ample dance floor space (thank God for getting rid of the three tables to the rear of the floor that proved to be a nuisance last month), the best air conditioning in Sydney (I’m serious!), chic yet punter friendly bathroom facilities (unlike places like Yu – what the f*ck were they thinking with all those mirrors) and lots of couches to rest those weary bones when you just can’t dance no more.

It was only 10pm, but all couches and surrounding bar area had quickly filled – probably attributed to the 9pm kick off – which this working girl is a big fan of. Ritual was gently pushing out some LTJ-esque, chilled drum n bass. Even though the beats were down tempo, he was making the most of the mixer – getting busy with almost every knob and anonymous do-hickey in between the decks.

Ritual definitely diversified his set by dropping in a random hip hop track or two, as well as the treat that is ‘Feel Good’ – Shy FX, with its uncharacteristic drop to a four-four house beat in the middle of the track. Certainly kept the crowd guessing.

A few beers and about an hour later, the volume and tempo rose. A sample of what seemed to be The Doors’ ‘Riders On The Storm’ eminated from the front of the club and the punters slowly ventured to the dance floor. Another two thumbs up for the regular drum n bass crowd – older, seemingly more educated, friendly, drinking crowd. Dissimilar to the hectic Krust n Die crowd I had experienced the week before – the MTA crowd was missing the breakbeat-off-the-shoulder-top-raving-crew that Fuzzy events are renown for. Needless to say I enjoyed the MTA punters’ company much more.

The clock ticked 11 and the moment I’d been waiting for all night, the entrée by the Perth drum n bass maestro, Shuey. I think I noticed Shuey going back-to-back with Ritual for a while, doing nothing but tease my appetite for the vocal, melodic, funky drum n bass Shuey has made MTA famous for.

I made my way to the front of the crowd, in the usual position in front of the DJM500. The positioning of the DJ, on the same level as the punters, was perfect – Shuey’s hard work could be not only heard but also seen.

Overall, Shuey’s set really impressed me and I wasn’t the only one. Speaking with several other punters and ITM‘ers toward the end of the night, they loved the “very danceable” tunes Shuey offered, and I for one loved his beat / tempo variation skills. Alternating between quite vocal, ‘girly’ drum n bass (such as ‘Supply and Demand’ – Delicious), crossing to the harder, more industrial tracks – pleasing everyone.

The highpoint of Shuey’s set were when Jenna G’s angelic vocals filtered through the fuzzy animal print-covered speakers, as Un-Cut’s ‘Midnite (Marcus Intalex & ST Files remix)’ came on. Intalex and Files definitely seem to be the producers of the moment, with 4 Hero’s ‘9×9 (Intalex and Files remix)’ drawing another huge crowd reaction. As was the remix of Missy Elliot’s ‘Get Your Freak On’ (a Son Of Ugly track, perhaps?) rounded out Shuey’s set – this little drum n bass nutbag was certainly getting her freak on.

The sound system at the Hunter wasn’t too bad, however there seemed to be a distinct lack of midrange – with the focus being on the low and top ends of the scale – definitely not what is needed to fully appreciate the melodies and vocals of this type of drum n bass.

Looking up, I must say I was very impressed with Sopp’s visual offerings. Sopp utilised a number of different ads and images for the regular drum n bass show ‘Polarize’ on 88.9FM, with actual pictures rather than computer generated graphics – which can become repetitive and a little too psychedelic at times.

The lack of MC must be noted at this stage, particularly because a DnB night such as MTA is rarely without an MC of some sort. MTA is the only drum n bass night I’ve attended which lacked an MC, however I don’t feel an MC was negatively missed. The absence of the MC allowed the focus to remain on the tunes and what the DJ was doing with them. As MTA generally focuses on vocal drum n bass, the need for the vocals of an MC is lessened.

Needless to say, a perceptively drunk MC Tanzi, with her punter hat on, screamed at the top of her lungs throughout Matt n Kayla’s set – somewhat ‘satisfying’ those who felt an MC was needed.

Matt & Kayla stepped up to the plate at 12.30am, which was my cue to nip outside for a bit of fresh air and a Pine Lime Splice. Not having seen a full Matt & Kayla set before, I was keen to get back inside and see what everyone has been raving about.

Resuming my front possie, Kayla was mixing in Calibre’s ‘Fire and Water’, much to my delight. I was impressed with Kayla’s skills (insert the first spin back of the night) however I felt Matt & Kayla’s set was a little disjointed and didn’t flow as well as Shuey’s did. A result of it’s back-to-back style, perhaps?

Nevertheless Matt pulled out a few of the big tracks – the sexy, almost saxophone-like sounds of Thunderball’s ‘Moving Fusion’ slowly filled the club. Die’s ‘Jitta Bug’ was soon to follow, which put an element of fun back into the set, which I feel was missing. (Matt made up for it in the looks department however. ;P)

My attention waning, I walked out of the Hunter feeling revived, fulfilled and extremely buggered. Break and Enter, through Moving Thru Air, are filling the long existing void of friendly drum n bass nights in Sydney. Funky, vocal, melodic, nice and friendly drum n bass (with a lil’ industrial edge for good measure) is what you will find at MTA, and for those just whetting their appetite for this genre, it’s highly recommended you get down to the next MTA and move through some air, yourself.