Kings Cross is at once a melting pot of all kinds of Sydney party people and yet a segregated bunch of closed doors and long lines demarcating each of Sydney’s very different subcultures. Sometimes though, the lines are blurred. Heck, there’s even psytrance at Oxford Art Factory now, so why not have techno (back) at Ladylux?

On this rainy night, the strip is heaving with a post- Big Day Out crowd flooding Darlinghurst Rd like a burst stormwater drain. However, one place the Southern Cross tattoo fans aren’t going is Ladylux. Wading through them to escape down the familiar slope of Roslyn St, I find an altogether different crowd milling around inside the club.

Ladylux’s bar is jammed with a mix of impossibly high heels and collared shirts bobbing for attention rather more enthusiastically than the pirahnas lazily floating in the headline-grabbing fishtank. There’s hardly anyone on the dancefloor until 1am, when circles start forming around handbags.

Sebo K’s published start time has arrived, and with it a sprinkling of techno fans pepper the dancefloor. You can tell who they are – they’re the old farts in sneakers complaining about the sound being too rough. Grumbling intensifies as the set from the German guest fails to materialise for an entire hour. The regular crowd is getting pushy and the dancefloor’s only getting fuller.

Finally though, he’s behind the decks. He flicks the mixer over to his laptop and there’s an instant change – the pitch is raised, the Funktion One system becomes crisper and fuller, a truer reflection of its potential, and the party roars to life. We’ve left familiar tech-house territory and we’re now humming along at a pace closer to the techno heard on this dancefloor before Frontier became Ladylux.

This, however, is very much of the now, if somewhat unique for Sydney ears. Sebo K’s first hour is great party music without any big party tunes. The crowd hasn’t heard these tracks before, hey, neither have I, but the pumping, bleepy tech is as much fun as a night out in Berlin.

Speaking of which, Sebo starts dipping into house music territory most recently showcased on Watergate 04, teasing the crowd with old funk samples, layered with new beats and dragged through an Ableton toolbox. This is the Sebo I was expecting – the cadence of the first part of his set is a pleasant surprise, but the arrangement here is skilful and the old mixes with the new in a fist-pumpingly good way.

An hour in, though, the set falters a bit and a ploddy house track here and there spoil the innovation of infectious big hitters like Rancho Relaxo and Martyn – Elden St. With the way he began, the set should have been a highlight of the summer, but the sound becomes weary, and with that, so am I.

Outside, the rain has set in. I take the back road and avoid the strip.

On a night with so many contrasts, Sebo K’s set was apt if nothing else. The flashes of brilliance show what he’s capable of, and the low points won’t deter me from seeking him out again.