Voting has closed and the results announced for another year in the inthemix50 competition, where punters from across Australia vote for the country’s top 50 DJs. Along with this comes the ‘Sony Inthemix50 Month’ where some of the best and most talented DJs from across the the country showcase their talent through parties held in conjunction to celebrate the competition results.
Traditionally Sublime has been the premier choice in hard dance clubbing in Sydney, so it wasn’t of any great surprise that they were hosting the event for harder style of dance music during the Sydney contingent of the inthemix50 month tour. The night’s lineup featured DJ Archie who’d ranked #15 in the poll, and Nik Fish who was ranked just behind him as #16.
Amber Savage was warming up the crowd with a varied set that was not only tech trance influenced, but also featuring the up-and-coming genre of ‘tech-dance‘. The rolling waves of pounding bass and well-synchronized beats exerted from the depths of Voodoo, and she showed us why there’s no doubt that she’s considered the ‘queen of hard dance’ in Australia. As her set rolled on the never tiresome deep, driving, hypnotic sound was captured by the audience and received by the diverse crowd that covered the main floor. She continued to entertain with a varied set covering a broad spectrum of dance , from melodic trance to the edgier electro influenced selections to the harder trance tracks. Basically, she took the punters of Sublime for a roller coaster ride. However, it was a rollercoaster ride also in the sense that it had a few jitters in terms of set progression.
In contrast to Amber Savage, Jumping Jack was technically superior and played a much more full bodied set consisting of great track selection and showcasing the classic driving, uplifting tracks. This progressed further towards the harder style of trance towards the later end of his set. Archie then was introduced onto the stage, and his credibility has certainly risen over the last couple of years that I’ve seen him perform. Always consistent and never dull would be one way to sum up his classic hard trance energy-charged mayhem. He provided the crowd with another great set through his flawless scratching and popular track selection, as he locked in the crowd for another roller coaster ride and a healthy (and heavy) dose of 140bpm pleasure.
Even though the sweet taste of hard dance music was still lingering in my mouth, Sublime also offered a well supported escape for some patrons with Nick Tooth entertaining the crowd upstairs in the Icon Room with his feel good hip hop mash-ups. It meant the Icon was the perfect place to recover and escape the thunderous bang of the sound system working overtime downstairs. It also gave Tom Piper a chance too with another urban house mash-up assault that was supported later in the night by a impressively sized crowd.
As the Sony Inthemix50 month tour wrapped up in Sydney, I was encouraged to reflect. With so much new talent appearing onto the scene, can the guys and girls that command the decks in major nightclubs like Home hold onto their grounding? Or will we see a new conqueror take all that’s before them? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out next year at the end of another successful Sony Inthemix50 poll.
