If Jack Beats were making food instead of music, experiencing their live set would be comparable to devouring a giant slab of rocky road… delicious! On Friday night, London lads, Niall and Beni, aka Jack Beats, brought to the Academy ‘kitchen’ their finest selection of ingredients – anything from house, electro, dubstep and drum n bass. Here, they carefully handcrafted them into a tasty, textured and full-flavoured set that had the crowd so enticed that one piece of this dance music dessert was not enough!

The night kick-started with strong local support sets from DJs Cheese and Offtapia. As expected, Cheese’s set was energy infused and saturated with a selection of indie and electro hits including Art vs. Science Magic Fountain, Ou Est Le Swimming Pool Dance the Way I Feel and Yolanda Be Cool & D Cup We No Speak Americano. Cheese was able to create a buzz amongst the punters drawing them onto the dance floor. A stand out track was his breaks mix of Swedish House Mafia One (Your Name). Following on was Offtapia who continued to get the young, (mainly male 20-something) crowd going with a good selection of funky house and electro tunes. Feature tracks in this set were Avicii & Sebastien Drums Feelings For You as well as an interesting addition of the Beverly Hills Cop Theme.

Jack Beats took over the decksplaying a solid two hour set. Their sound was big, packed full of crunchy electro goodness and a balanced combination of their own singles and remix work. (Like I said, comparable to rocky road!) Right from their opening track they had the punters eating out of their hands. In the first ten minutes the boys had spun Passion Pit Little Secrets and their killer single Revolution. I was immediately engrossed by their dirty, yet so squeaky-clean mixing of tracks, particularly in the first hour of the set. They worked simultaneously on the decks with brisk, but smooth transitions between each of the tracks. Together, they produced a predominately bass-heavy sound that still had the ability to send the dance floor into an absolute frenzy. It was highly energetic and electric. I was impressed with their delivery of Out of Body and their mix of La Roux I’m Not Your Toy. Both these tracks added just that little bit of contrast between the meatier ones. The inclusion of Yeah Yeah Yeahs Heads Will Roll and Fake Blood Mars got people dancing and congregating around the stage area, with many getting as close as possible to the two who tweaked the tunes.

Although I, and the hundreds of other punters were definitely digging what the pair had to put down, I questioned whether it was all a bit too hard too soon? After an hour or so, the sound became harder and the direction seemed to become distorted. There was a heavier presence of drum & bass, combined with pieces of electro and some rogue sampling (think Barbara Streisand – help!) which may have put a dampener on the overall vibe. The crowd started to thin out before the end of the set which finished up around 3.00am, but there were many left on the dance floor screaming for “one more”. The encore track was T.C. Where’s My Money? ... interesting choice?

To conclude the night of mayhem local outfits Peking Duk and Dept. of Defiance jumped on the decks to work some last minute magic. They demonstrated that Canberrans do know how to mix a tune or two with Peking Duk opening up with their own track, that I give two thumbs up to, and then working in more ‘big’ tunes like The Subs Mitsubitchi. The finishing touches were left to the Dept. of Defiance who, in a very short time, incorporated some innovative ideas and interesting samples like Salmon Dance into their set. Kudos goes out to these guys who followed on from such a hyped-up main act.

My afterthoughts: Jack Beats were able to satisfy my musical palate, providing a whole slab of electro goodness that was devoured with a smile stretching from ear to ear. If you love Crookers and Bloody Beetroots then Jack Beats are definitely going to get you going. They certainly did it for me.