It had been too long since my last trip to Ambar, so with the news the club would be the location for new event night ‘I Love Bass’ featuring Drum n Bass maestro Bungle from Brazil and breaks stalwart Timmy Schumacher from New Zealand I was more than excited to make my way back down to the home of the underground. The crew from Jungle Box and Frequency Agency promotions forewarned of an event sell-out, as so often happens when Ambar plays host to an international drum n bass DJ; yet despite this warning the event thankfully wasn’t crammed to capacity. Instead there was some room to bust out on the dance floor, a good thing indeed considering the high quality of tunes dropping and rolling along throughout the night.

In keeping with the theme of BASS for the night it was appropriate for local dubstep DJ Proximity Effect to start off the proceedings. Hitting it up as usual with his mixture of vinyl and Serato time-codes he smashed it to a criminally small yet responsive crowd. No matter how many times I see one of Proximity Effect’s sets I never fail to be impressed with his selection of tunes and his mixing; as always top notch. As the dance floor started to get a bit livelier, another of Perth’s big name resident DJs took the decks; breaks don Micah. I have to admit it’s been more than a year since I’ve been at a club or event night with breaks playing, yet despite my possibly unfathomed distaste for the Breaks sound I enjoyed Micah’s set. The Technics 1210’s were abandoned for the more Ambar/Breaks friendly CDJs while Micah was mixing and he was certainly giving them a work out; utilising the benefit three separate decks and predetermined cue points can do for the sound of a set. Continuing the Breaks vibe was New Zealand bass purveyor Timmy Schumacher, and again despite not being a huge fan of Breaks music I have to say his set was off the hook. I have word from good authority (a real breaks fan) that this was one of the best breaks sets he’s heard in a long time; and judging by the crowds response; especially to Baitercell & Schumacher’s scene favourite track What’s Down Low; this statement was true to the mark. Schumacher’s set overall was filled with a lot of old-school breaks tracks, thankfully shying away from the electro based sound that gets labelled breaks all too often nowadays.

Not soon enough the man from Brazil got behind the decks to belt out what I and many others had been waiting for all night, drum n bass. I was lucky enough to spend about fifteen minutes chatting to Bungle before his set as he stood patiently next to the decks surveying the crowd and the club set up. I was happy to hear that he’d be spinning vinyl for his set (to me something that always makes for a more authentic vibe) as well as hitting up the CDJs; indeed I knew I was in for a sonic treat. Bungle’s productions lay claim to crossing a fair spectrum of the drum n bass sound so I wasn’t entirely sure what style we’d hear witness to when he started mixing; yet from the beginning he built a very structured set crossing from the breaks vibe with a very heavy rolling bass sound. The crowd at this point were pretty frantic, and the somewhat limited floor space was taken up by many shuffling feet and flailing arms, always an uplifting sight. For me hearing some of Bungle’s own tracks were the highlight of the night, especially new release ‘Move On’ and the track that’s been tearing up every dance floor since 2006 ‘Too Late’.

The drum n bass kept flowing as Q Bik and host of the night Seeka MC took the booth at about 3am, Q Bik continuing to keep the crowd happy and the dance floor packed with some liquid drum n bass gems. Unfortunately I missed most of JSpeed’s graveyard set, but from all accounts Ambar was still rocking pretty hard at 5AM. Indeed this lays as evidence of the success of the evenings proceedings; the crowd were loving the music all night, and there was a definite party vibe being exuded through the tunes. A lot of events in Perth of late have been a smorgasbord of all genres of breakbeat; and while in some cases this can result in divided patrons the opposite was true for “I Love Bass”, the crowd was responsive and appreciative to the varying sounds of the night.