Frisky Music, Luxxe, Smash Bang, IV Dimension and Suck Music combined forces to present a brand new night at La Di Da called Base Space. The night featured a rotating roster of DJs like Luke Mcd, Ehsan Gelsi, Silversix, Joe Bennett and Samari among many others, and featuring man of the moment Shaun Reeves. Over the last few years, Shaun Reeves has released a number of essential singles and remixes on quality underground labels as Wolf+lamb, Crosstown Rebels, and Raum…. Musik.

Luke McD was just finishing his set, and handing the reins over to Silversix, as we entered the La Di Da basement. Looking around the club, we noticed the narrow dance floor opening up into a roomier lounge area. We headed to the bar to chill for a bit and enjoying the music. Sliversix played a nice, mid-tempo selection, dropping tracks such as a jacked-up remix of Moodymann’s ‘Shades of Jae’, and Johnny D’s ‘Walkman’. This started to attract a few punters to the dance floor. The funky tunes continued, as the crowd slowly built. Next up at the decks was Will Barrett, who gradually mixed in a more solid and techy sound, providing a nice bridge to Shaun Reeves.

Shaun Reeves hit the decks, starting off with deep, dreamy, pulsating tech-house. He didn’t take long to assert his presence, giving us that moody, drugged-out vibe that his productions are synonymous with. The crowd had built up, filling the narrow, bunker-ike dance floor. Shaun Reeves had no problem keeping them there – lulling them with his hypnotic groove. I found it quite hard to put my finger on most of the tracks he was selecting – not easy for a chin-scratcher like myself to stay away from the DJ booth in a situation such as this! However, I fought my natural urges and kept on boogying. His set wasn’t entirely a train spotter-s delight though. Towards the middle of the set, Shaun lifted the crowd with bigger tunes such as: Butch’s ‘No Worries’, and Coco Steele & Love Bomb’s classic early 90s house track Feel It. This definitely loosened the crowd, and created more of a party vibe. Eventually Mr. Reeves worked things back into more tribal territory, setting the mood nicely for Samari. Samari kept the crowd on their feet, beginning with Detroit-style tech, and working into straight-up tech-house.

The thing that really stood out from the evening was the vibe. The people at this party were friendly and unpretentious. The music selection was eclectic, and always interesting. Base Space definitely looks set to carve out its own niche in Melbourne’s dance community.