The opening hours of 2011 brought a long-anticipated treat to this house-head from overseas as they were spent at Mad Racket’s annual New Year’s Eve bash. It was my first time at Sydney’s venerated house monthly, now running 12 years strong and bringing many of the top names in underground dance music to these shores. The party’s reputation had preceded it among friends and music fans, and I knew to expect a real vibe and an up-for-it crowd.

Deep house journeyman Chris Duckenfield (one half of production/remix team Swag among many other projects) returned to headline the event at Mad Racket’s stronghold at the bowling club in Marrickville; he shared billing with a live PA from German duo Session Victim. Duckenfield’s webpage was updated the morning of the party with an enthusiastic preview: “It is genuinely my favourite place in the world to play; there are literally a handful of places on the planet where everything comes together so perfectly, and Racket is right up there with the best of ‘em.” An impressive endorsement and it echoed other reports I’d heard.

I arrived at the bowling club with the party and the new year both already under way. The fellas in Session Victim were mid-set on a stage bedecked with hundreds of flowers – the kind of thoughtful, festive touch that’s always been the sign of a good underground gathering – and playing to a room rapidly filling up with revellers. With a simple setup characteristic of bedroom knob twiddlers (one of them was working off a table from the bar), they dispensed funky house beats at an uptempo clip, infused with disco undertones and bits of vocal, and did well by mixing it like a DJ set, keeping the dancefloor moving. The taller, beardier Victim rocked metronomically like a metalhead along with his own tunes; his sweaty passion was contagious.

Duckenfield soon took over, launching straight into the sweet sounds of Inner City’s classic vocal Big Fun, showing he meant to pull a few stops out for the night’s journey. If you’ve heard Chris play before, or are familiar with Swag’s consistently strong output of dubby, melodic, intricate and often epic house tracks, you won’t be surprised that he proceeded to blend with an expert touch.

He took us deep into techy instrumentals, getting heads bobbing along with the dark throbbing beats, before opening up into bright jazzy melodies and tinges of hand-raising gospelly soul. The crowd, packed in by now, was in for the long haul, and responded and participated in proper fashion, clapping for the breakdowns, and cheering and jumping up for the drop of the drum. It’s always a pleasure, after searching for something real in generic clubs filled with clueless punters all over the world, to find a good crowd. But that’s Mad Racket, so there we are. Looks like I’ll be a regular.

As hour three of Duckenfield’s set came and went, he held it steady, knowing just when to take it deeper to give us a break, and when to kick some old-school Chicago house energy to inspire shouts from the crowd and get ‘em rocking hard as ever. With the main floor this good it was hard to be patient enough to sit and rest by the bowling green and watch the sun rise. If I have one minor complaint, it’s that Chris never varied the tempo much. His hours of smooth mixing were truly impressive, and the tunes were brilliant, but I found myself wishing he’d occasionally slow it down, or throw in some breakbeats or garage.

But by the time he was unleashing Rhythim Is Rhythim’s monumental classic Strings of Life to joyful shouts from the clientele, it was hard to think of anything wrong. Exhausted and satisfied, I left the bowling club with dawn edging up on the horizon and the dancefloor as full as ever.