Okay, so Mad Racket’s annual New Year’s shindig didn’t have waterfront views, fancy fireworks, free champagne for the ‘laydeez’ or copious amounts of drunk 18 year old girls desperately trying to find someone for a New Year’s pash. But they did have something that trumps all those things (except maybe the 18 year olds): really fucking good music. Under the infamous copper ceiling of the Marrickville Bowling Club, locals Simon Caldwell, Ken Cloud, Zootie and Jimmi James and Detroit legend John Tejada provided the soundtrack to a couple of hundred revellers’ New Year celebrations, and what a soundtrack it was.

Before jumping into the chinstroke-a-thon, I’d like to give the Racket boys some props for their effort with the evening’s production. The ‘Bowlo-sonic’ sound system was out in full force (and seemed to have been given an upgrade for the evening), some well-placed decorations added a certain kitschy – but charming – aesthetic, and there were intelligent lights a plenty, including a laser (yeah, I’m a sucker for lasers – perhaps I was a trance fiend in another life). All this extra effort really demonstrated the pride Ken, Jimmi, Zootie and Simon have in their party and highlighted the fact that even after nine years of parties, not one of them has lost the enthusiasm for running a great night.

I arrived as Zootie was testing out the sound system’s low frequency response with his trademark blend of deep, warm, dub-inspired tech house occasionally interspersed with chunky, metallic minimal cuts. While it may have been a little too early for him to have a full dancefloor, Zootie still clearly impressed the slowly growing crowd: a quick look around the room revealed plenty of nodding heads and appreciative foot tapping as the crowd settled in for the evening.

Next up Ken Cloud got the dancefloor firmly on-side with a varied selection of techy beats ranging from crunchy, synth led numbers such as his now staple Plastik by Simon Baker to deeeeeeeeep, rolling tech house. It was a set well-suited to his timeslot: energetic and driven enough to fill up the dancefloor, but not too heavy or pacey, leaving plenty of room for the music to progress further as the night wore on. Technically, it’s really not even necessary to say Cloud was on form. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him mix poorly to be honest.

Simon Caldwell then took over the controls and played a set that divided opinions. From an objective point of view, musically and technically it was brilliant: the tunes were varied and interesting and the mixing was tight and adventurous, but there were differing personal views on how appropriate it was as a ‘warm-up’ for John Tejada. Tracks such as The Pressure Cooker by Mike Dunn, I Get Deeper by Late Nite Tuff Guy and Samuel L Session’s percussive work out Tribecutz had most of the dancefloor heaving, but a few punters felt the sounds were just too hard given Tejada’s preference for slower, deeper music. Personally, I enjoyed the set and to be honest New Year’s seems like the one time someone could get away with busting out a little, especially when playing the midnight set.

At 1:30 John Tejada emerged from the shadows to rapturous applause and took his place behind his all-hardware setup that consisted of an Elektron Machinedrum, Elektron Monomachine, Korg Kaoss Pad 3 effects unit, a MFB Synth, and a 16 channel mixer – enough to make the nerdiest of music nerds have to change their underwear. And best of all, he didn’t waste a single feature of each hardware unit. Instead, he worked his gear to its fullest extent, chopping, morphing, effecting and generally tweaking his tunes to excellent effect.

Musically, the set was a mix of his released and unreleased material which had been re-edited, tweaked and – in some instances – created especially for the gig. Taking the crowd on a true journey which weaved its way through minimal, tech house and techno of many shades, Tejada’s sounds were as varied as they were engaging and immersive. Glitchy, funky, bleepy cuts such as Mono on Mono and Word Problems (co-produced with Arian Leviste) sat alongside warm, lush synth-driven numbers such as Lost In Thought.

But was most impressive was his final fifteen minutes. First came Sweat On The Walls, stripped of its vocal and tweaked to the bullshit. The acid line was squelchier, the bassline was deeper, and that crazy repetitive synth (you know the one I’m talking about) was made to sound raspier and fuller. And then to finish: The End Of It All. I’ve never heard an entire dancefloor simultaneously cheer so loudly when they heard the first note of a track. Everyone had been waiting for it, and it was one of those special moments you just had to be there to witness. Again not content just to play the track in its original form, Tejada subtly tweaked the bassline and main synth, at one point making it sound almost like slowed down trance, but better. Magic. Simply magic.

Jimmi James was given the difficult task of following on from Tejada, but he relished it, playing a sterling set that picked up where Tejada had left off, focusing around solid tech house goodness, including the Heartthrob classic Golum. And then in the early hours Ken and Simon jumped back onto the decks, laying down a set of classic morning anthems, including Read My Mind by Metro Area and a Henrik Schwarz remix, the name of which escapes me at the moment (I do apologise, my memory for that part of the morning is a little hazy to say the least).

And when it was all said and done, people walked out of Mad Racket with smiles on their faces and memories (or lack thereof) to last until next New Year’s Eve. Can’t really ask for any more than that, can we? Happy New Year, everyone. I couldn’t have thought of a better way to ring it in.