Sunset is a new local crew aiming to bring out the best progressive and trance talent to Melbourne. If their first event is anything to go by, the should be sticking around for quite a while. For the debut event we had Marlo from Holland, who has spent time in Sydney in the past putting on parties and releasing tunes under the name Liquid M, and one half of the production duo Mark Norman, also from Holland, responsible for tunes such as Overkill, Touchdown and Restart.

I arrived at Miss Libertine’s shortly after 10:30, which meant I missed out on hearing Dave Juric but was just in time to catch Chrissie Ferrer, playing out for the first time. She had the small built up crowd going off in the front room, with people dancing so hard the floor was shaking. Can’t ask for a better reception than that. This all meant though that the main room looked a little sparse. Mojo was rocking out though with some nice techno while the people started coming in and Marlo soon took over and brought the trance to the main room. His set was filled with his own productions and remixes such as Coldplay’s Viva La Vida and Brainbox from Ferry Corsten and went down well with the crowd. When Ahmet Atasever and Brett James came on, the place was pretty much packed, and the crowd had a bit of a singalong to Oceanlab to start off their set.

If the pumping tunes weren’t your thing, in the front room Algorithm was busting out some classic tunes that you could have a drink and reminisce over. Huddy followed on after and had a nice melodic vibe along with some techier tunes and was doing a good job despite some technical issues. The crowd had peaked by the time Norman started and everyone was pumped up for the main attraction. He started with a remix of The Sound Of Goodbye and had the crowd cheering and clapping along right from the beginning. Other highlights throughout the night included a remix of ye olde Children, Ender by Fei Fei and Simulated by Marco V. It was a pretty pumping set, I didn’t really know what to expect from Norman but I enjoyed pretty much everything he played. Even when some of the tech trance he played didn’t grab me, the crowd going off and the five (that’s right, FIVE) fricking laser beams ensured a good atmosphere.

He finished off with Restart and it was a pretty good end to a pretty good set. The crowd was pretty drained though I think and unfortunately the majority left as soon as Norman ended. This meant event organiser Joey Amen didn’t have much to work with but he still banged it out. The situation wasn’t much better for Nexus boys Jed and James Brooke, who had the pleasure of dj’ing at the same time as Norman and in between mixing tracks had to keep an eye on a monitor speaker with a mind of it’s own.

With Steve Strangis’ short and sweet set in the main room and Dan Essential taking care of things out front, the night was coming to a close and it was time to enjoy the brisk Melbourne morning air. I had great fun throughout the evening, and it was a testament to the night that people who aren’t even really into trance were dancing and shuffling away. The only negatives were a few sound issues and the dj’s copying each other with a few tracks being heard up to three times during the night. But that’s only nitpicking and I think it’s safe to say the night was a big success. Here’s to many more Sunsets in the future!