It was the best of clubs, it was the worst of clubs, it was the age of melodic prog, it was the age of shitty fidget. Indeed, it was a tale of two clubs at The Chinese Laundry on Saturday night, as it is on so many nights in this Sydney stalwart. On one hand, a cave rammed with melody lovers, on the other, a courtyard dripping in booze and adorned with impossibly short skirts. Treasure and trash. My attention was only going to be in one place tonight: the sweaty confines of Sydney’s favourite sandstone enclosure, listening to the best thing coming out of Canberra this election, Jaytech, and the masterful stylings of one half of Way Out West, Mr Jody Wisternoff.

The Cave’s sound system has had a tune up, and while some spots in the room were a bit ear splitting, there was a nice distribution of sound throughout the space. Scotty Wright was finishing off warm up duties and doing an admirable job keeping things restrained before the main event, laying down some warm house grooves as the crowd built steadily. By midnight, The Cave was predictably rammed and it was hard to see if Jaytech had started. However, the music gave the game away with the Canberran’s trademark melodies rippling through the crowd. He built the energy slowly, weaving in his own production, In The Jungle quite early and playing some truly ethereal melodies at the 30 minute mark. Things really kicked up a gear when Gold Rush from Jamie Matrix made an appearance; many a prog-dude thrusting arms aloft, reaching for The Cave’s roof in a display of jumping prowess. A cheeky remix of Underworld’s Two Days Off built to what seemed to be the high point of the set, Jayetch’s own remix (with James Grant) of the BT’s classic Flaming June. It may have only been an hour and a half, but damn – it was good! The mixing was seamless, the progression thoughtful and the music, simply awesome.

Jody stepped up to the decks and pulled back the pace a little. He started out with a more rolling groove, dropping the BPMs and the energy. However, it wasn’t long before bigger tunes started making an appearance as Jody’s bouncing behind the decks became more pronounced. There were some ho-hum moments, but these were balanced with a number of melodic stormers with basslines that threatened to tear apart The Cave’s speaker system. About an hour in, he dropped some ridiculously heavy hip hop into the set, coming completely out of left field and leaving many in The Cave to determine just how much thrust they could get from the hips. There is no doubt that Jody Wisternoff is one of the more entertaining DJs to watch rocking out behind the decks, clearly into every second of the music and sharing the ride with the crowd with a Cheshire-like grin on his face.

A few cautious laps to the other rooms throughout the night only highlighted how the musical segmentation divides the whole place into two different venues. The long bar queues and filthy toilets didn’t add much to the evening, but when the tunes are this good, who really cares? At the end, the consensus was that the night’s standout was local hero Jaytech, who delivered a musical knockout. Can’t wait for him to be back in town!