On the eighth day of Christmas, Transmission brought to Sydney…

Christmas came early for the Sydney dance scene when the Transmission crew unexpectedly announced a December party, and a main-room only State Sports Centre gig brought together trance and hard dance royalty for some merry season cheer. The locals did their job in rocking the crowd, especially Nervous and Jumping Jack who read the vibe perfectly and provided them with Joop The Future and the Durand remix of Lethal Industry. The sound was crystal clear and the lasers… Wow! We now have a new benchmark in Transmission production.

Pick a superlative and it has probably been used to describe the party’s headliner Paul van Dyk. From a technical point of view, the man is astounding. He mixes using two laptops; one running Scratch Live by Serrato, and the other running Ableton, and this is all run alongside a bunch of other technology including 3D mixers, keyboards and more. He’s held onto his international superstar DJ status, while still retaining an underground flavour in his selections. And while he mixes trance, yet is openly anti-drug. For Transmission, acquiring his services was a brilliant coup. They even sensibly allotted him nearly three hours to do his thing. And alst Saturday, he chose to educate the crowd with a blend of trance, techno, prog and electro.

Perhaps the crowd didn’t know Tracey Thorn Grand Canyon (King Unique Vocal Mix) or Michelle Nicol Time, but they certainly responded enthusiastically to classic the 1999 or the chunky Life Less Ordinary. Tech beats from Plastikman Spastik sat next to the uplifting melodies of Motorcycle As The Rush Comes, as well as rock samples like White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army). All measure of the man’s genius. From the grandstand I got to witness the laser show, easily the best I have seen in Australia, and this kaleidoscope of colour was the flawless backdrop for PVD’s finale of For An Angel.

I have seen Yoji Biomehanika, keyboard cowboy, several times before. My first taste of this Hellhouse seducer was when Transmission secured his debut Australian performance for Black Magic 2005, and it was a magical combination of endearing beats and thrilling showmanship. However, the following two sets were lacklustre so I wasn’t sure what to expect last Saturday. Opening with Tom Jones, the same intro he used at Transmission 2006, Tomorrowland 2007 and Kryal 2007 – seemed to signal he was again on rehash duties. Fortunately, sporting his trademark sunglasses and new peroxided hair do, Yoji made me remember why people once offered $500 to buy my Black Magic ticket. Admittedly he played his older tunes – Samurai and Monochroma – but he treated each track like an adventure. By the time he had finished tormenting the crowd with Never End, and had his prerequisite ‘God is a DJ’ moment by putting his trademark showmanship on display, I was willingly ticking the ‘back in form’ box. My only complaint? No DingALing. Again. Still.

Orange assaults the vision. Showtek appear on stage. The message board flashes “*Q-Dance* is Coming – Australia 2008”. Every hardstyle fan in the crowd goes into hyper drive. Que screaming. Que bass. Que stomping. Q-Dance, for those not in the know, is one of Europe’s most well-known hard dance promotions company, alongside ID&T. Famous for their annual events like Defqon1, In Qontrol and Q-Base, getting these guys down to Australia represents a welcomed recognition of our growing scene. So, early March: if you love your hardstyle, you will be there. Meanwhile Showtek, the act trailing in the wake of such an exciting announcement, proceeded to demolish the SSC with their live performance. DV8 enthused the crowd with his naughty MCing, whilst beefed up versions of Early Soundz, Revival X and 3 The Hard Way hit the spot. We were treated to some old style Showtek in the form of Brain Crackin, as well as their brand new remix of Wonderful Days. Their set ended on an appropriate sentiment with FTS – “I live for hardstyle baby”.

Up next was Walt, and categorising his style would baffle even the most hardened musical anorak. At 147bpm, or thereabouts, it isn’t hardstyle… Yet his popular Music In You often gets sandwiched into such sets. There is not quite enough melody in his recent release Waltmart for it to be considered trance. And Ctrl Walt Del has an electro edge, but it would never be played at a Ministry of Sound event. One must therefore bundle him into the hard trance category, with the caveat that his style has more tech grit than the hard trance of yesteryear. Slotting him after Showtek took the pace back a notch. Along with the three tunes already mentioned, he cranked out Chopperchunk, TOCS2, and Thomas Rubin classic Cold Night.

The crowd was begging for some dancing music and Duro, brother of Walt and other half of Showtek (just in case you didn’t know), did not disappoint. Opening with his 2003 Just Begun, he bullied the shufflers into keeping up with the ‘Al Pacino’ remix of Cocaine Motherf**ker and the Showtek remix of Oldskool Phenomenon. A few bootlegs, and rock cum dance in the form of Nothing Else Matters, rounded off the set. Almost. Wilde Guille Bas? Yes please!

All up, with a lineup like that and some of the best production we’ve ever seen, Transmission was a night that was perfectly wrapped. Your next taste of the pudding comes on Saturday 28 June next year with Magic City III. Keep an eye out on ITM or www.transmission.net.au more details as they come to hand!