You could be forgiven for not knowing who Omar S and Dubfunk are. The former, although being an active DJ and producer for over a decade, has been a quiet achiever and managed to maintain a certain air of mystery around him; while the latter is a more recent addition to the international circuit. But what you couldn’t be forgiven for is not knowing who they are after last Saturday night. Omar, the Detroit native who has a depth and understanding of music far surpassing your average DJ (and even your above-average DJ), and Dubfunk, the Egyptian progressive house/techno maestro who is leading the pack of new school producers marrying the sensibilities of techno and the production style of progressive house both played amazing sets and left the cleaners with one hell of a job at close: mopping up my drool and most of the dancefloor’s brains.

Matttt, everyone’s favourite baby-faced Cave resident, was given the enviable (but also no doubt nerve-racking) task of warming up the decks for this week’s international visitors. Getting deeper than I’ve ever heard him get (I swear he lost his watch in there), Matttt wouldn’t have hit anything above about 122bpm, and damn it sounded good. It was so nice to hear a warm up set that actually suited the artist that was on afterwards, and just did enough to hold the crowd’s attention and leave them dying for the main act’s first record, rather than just be a set of “early night” tunes that exists in and of itself.

As Omar S sauntered over to the decks, a huge cheer erupted from the loyal group of fans who had squashed up around the booth to get close to him, and he responded with a sly, but also modest smile. And then it was on for young and old. Starting with Farley Funkin’ Keith’s twisted The Acid Life, Omar didn’t wait around to get the party started, and across his three hour set gave the crowd a liberal dose of the kind of soul, passion and excitement that is sorely lacking from most electronic music these days. Playing primarily late 80s and early ‘90s records, occasionally interspersed with some newer cuts from his label FXHE and some of his own productions, Omar took the crowd on a journey through the all-too-often forgotten years of dance music, and while it may have gone over some heads, those who got it, really got it, and won’t ever forget it.

There was house, there was disco, there was techno, there was copious amounts of ACID, and there was even some proper electro. It was the kind of set that took in so many elements that on paper it sounds disjointed and lacking in direction, but live, just feels like the soundtrack to a fucking fun party. Highlights included Inner City’s Pennies From Heaven, the lush Throw by Paperclip People, a new Luke Hess cut, Omar’s own monster Psychotic Photosynthesis, the classic No UFOs from Model 500, and even a remix of George Benson’s Gimme The Night. Add in Ron Trent’s I Feel The Rhythm to finish, Omar’s cheeky grins and readiness to chat with fans and shake their hands and you’ve got the makings of a really memorable set.

At 2:30AM Dubfunk took over the controls and proceeded to dispel any doubts about whether he and Omar S was a good pairing of internationals. One could really tell that he is a professional, because instead of just starting his set fresh, without any consideration for what had been played before him, the Egyptian progressive house maestro started off with a good twenty minutes of rolling, funky grooves (including Darius Bassiray & Paul Benyon’s fantastic Jeebuz Champ) that slowly built up in intensity and flowed on perfectly from Omar’s deep, sublime ending. Before long he’d worked up to some crunchy, driving progressive house such as Hit Me by Presuming Ed, as well as a new Erphun remix and then in his final twenty minutes just belted out dark, rolling techno that had the loyal faithful who stuck around cheering like nobody’s business. A fantastically programmed closing set from a future hero of the dance music world.

All I can really say to close this review is the following: go and buy Omar S’s Fabric CD, go and buy Dubfunk’s releases on Beatport, and then do your best to relive the awesome.