With the glamour and the glitz of the spring carnival racing season well on its way, Melbourne Cup Eve is well known as a night of swish parties and sexy clubs that scream for you to attend in your best frock or your smartest slacks. The ever popular Alumbra nightclub and bar took great advantage of the situation, and lined up one heck of an attractive night for Melbourne’s glamorous clubbers, signing up the massive Defected Records for another all night houseathon.

For those of you that aren’t acquainted with Defected, well shame on you. Defected is the UK’s answer to Eric Morillo’s NYC-based Subliminal Records, and the two labels pretty much dominate the vocal, funky, chunky and sexy house scene for the last 10 years or so. Defected’s list of artists reads like a who’s who of top notch house producers, and the tracks they have released have gone on to become classics of the genre. Not to be outdone by his own signings though, head honcho Simon Dunmore is a highly respected DJ himself and was on deck for the evening, with support from Rob Care, Simon Digby, James Belias and Wei Shen as well as a whole host of other talent that were on the lineup for the night.

Arriving at about 12pm on a rainy and gloomy night, we were promptly escorted through by the friendly front of house staff. Entering the smart surroundings of Alumbra with its high ceilings, soft furnishings and enormous Buddha heads we were instantly removed from the grim night outside and catapulted into a world of strappy heels, smart loafers and carefully coiffed hairdos. Yes, the focus was definitely on looking your best while smoothly grooving your way around the dancefloor.

Entering the main room, Simon Dunmore was in control and deftly moving the crowd from chunky tribal beats to vocal stormers, and onto some well chosen classics too. His sound very much sums up what Defected is trying to achieve by making house as accessible as possible, but also keeping it cutting edge. He wasn’t afraid to play music that’s just a little bit dirtier, as he threw in some meaty remixes of Kings of Tomorrow, Laurent Garnier and Joey Negro before ramping it up with vocal smashers by Louie Vega, Martin Solveig and Dennis Ferrer.

The crowd was really moving to the sounds, and I have to say I haven’t felt a vibe like that since I took in a Subliminal party at the Space Terrace in Ibiza. There’s a lot to be said for a good house night, and I felt that this was one of the best I’ve been to. The sound quality at Alumbra is excellent and the team from promoters to bar staff and visuals are clearly out to offer one of the sexiest and best party nights around. After several hours of thumping baselines, screaming divas and sweet, sweet sounds we were ready to call it a night, and it was unfortunate that the grim night was still lurking about outside as we made our way home. But we couldn’t feel sad with our feet still tapping to the rhythm of some seriously Defected sounds.