Defected In The House feat. Copyright @ The Arthouse, Sydney (08/03/08)
So many people had attended the Future Music Festival that I wondered who would be left with the stamina to continue in the night’s festivities. Driving around town after the event, the streets did seem a bit on the quiet side. We were heading for one of my favourite venues, The Arthouse Hotel on Pitt Street. This has always been a quality place to hold a club night and lately Paul Strange has developed an evening of superb dance music with his Defected In The House series. That reputation alone meant that I need not have worried about the roll up, as the event was surprisingly well attended.
Perhaps one of the few international DJ acts who should have played at the festival but didn’t, Copyright were representing one of my favourite labels and I couldn’t wait. hailing from North London, they’ve got a reputation for playing thoroughly beautiful house music with the occasional bit of edginess thrown in. But before I could see them, I wanted to catch two other DJs on the bill. Liam Sampras played the early set, and his combination of smooth and funky house cannot be understated. I have watched him for many years developing his talent with the SHE stable. He is one of the best local DJs around and with the right promotion could be destined for overseas stardom.
Another local, well I suppose Melbourne is a bit of a stretch but hey it’s still in Australia, was next up on the decks. DJ Jorj is also a master of the true house groove. Sublime mixes of Precious Love and Touched The Sky layered over some stunning samba beats built on Defected’s already solid reputation of delivering the best in house. But at 1am, DJ Jorj made way for the guys I was really there to see.
Copyright, for my money, play some of the best house tracks around but the best part about them is that the do it with fun in their hearts. Sometimes I think that DJs believe that playing music is enough and that they are not part of the entertainment package. This is not the case for the boys at Copyright, for here we have two DJs who get into their music and take the dancefloor on their journey with a smile on their respective dials. From their very first blasting vocal, you could not help but smile along, clap and dance to their heady mix of addictive house. They gave a re-rub to MAW’s Work, dropped in a superb version of I Better Get You Home and gave us a killer version of The Harmonica Song. They also gave us their hits Put Your Drink Down, I Pray and We Can Rise.
The tune of the night however was when they let fly their version of the legendary D Train’s You’re The One For Me over the top of Pete Heller’s monster Big Love. For me the combination was one of the best mixes I have heard in along time. The edit of D Train is apparently done by Dimitri from Paris and expect to hear it from other DJs that have more than just a healthy respect for the ‘old skool’.
Copyright were everything that I expected of them. Two DJs who really go out of their way to make a dancefloor jump around to some quality house music. They played for three hours and didn’t let up at any point along the way. Paul Strange really pulled off a coup when he brought these two into town. The Defected In The House series produces some fine nights, and this was definitely one of them. If you like house infectious, funky and sexy, take yourself along to the Arthouse, you won’t be disappointed.
