The Bagraiders have had a massive 12 months. After years of ‘we only play 45 minute sets at Parklife’ they have been releasing ‘radio friendly’ singles, developing their full live show and touring relentlessly. Their breezy, summery, synth-pop sound is very easy to listen to, and along with acts like Miami Horror they are helping to improve the state of Australia’s live dance-pop music outfits.

I had hoped to see the Bagraiders live show at Good Vibrations last month but due to the clashes and internationals on at the same time I decided to give it a miss as, let’s face it; they play in Melbourne almost every month. So, true to that formula, I headed down to Superdisco at the Prince to see them in DJ mode.

While great for ticketed live bands, the Prince is a big venue to fill every week in club mode, particularly when it is just locals playing. Given it was also a long weekend, and the night before Future Music Festival, I was impressed to find the venue comfortably busy with a young but energetic crowd when I walked in.

Generik was playing what I would suitably call ‘Superdisco’ music – upbeat, fun, summery, funky, big-room tech-house and electro-house. He mixed in and out of tracks very quickly, often bringing the next track in during the bridge of the previous track creating almost a ‘mega-mix’ style set, but it worked. He moved from current hits like a remix of Angus and Julia Stone’s Big Jet Plane to the disco-y fun of Stars on 45’s Stars on 45 as reworked by Criminal Minds. The sound, while very loud, was crystal-clear and tuned to perfection.

At 12.45am, Ando quickly changed the direction and went on to play what ultimately turned out to be an awful warm-up set of Bloody Beetroots/Boys Noize style bleepy electro. In comparison with Generik, his tracks were played full-length with very long breakdowns that failed to hold the crowds interest. I saw many people checking their watches clearly waiting impatiently for the Bagraiders to start.

The Bagraiders eventually arrived/took to the stage and immediately changed the direction of the music, illustrating why Ando’s warm-up set was so inappropriate. The fact that they couldn’t physically mix in their first track because of the huge genre change spoke volumes. They begun with Fred Falke’s classic remix of Rolan Clarke’s Music Talking, which would have slotted in perfectly to Generik’s disco-themed set. I have to admit I haven’t actually seen the Bagraiders in DJ mode before, but thought that their style would be a mixture between the synthy nu-disco of their current releases and the electro of their older ones like Fun Punch.

Perhaps it is every other night.

Instead, and for reasons I’m still trying to work out, we were treated to a ‘Ministry of Sound classics’ set. Some tracks like Kevin Saunderson/Inner City’s classic Big Fun were what I consider a clever way to educate the very young crowd on some proper classic house music, whilst playing tracks like Tom Novy’s Your Body and Axwell’s I Found You were a bizarre cheese-fest. It almost felt like the Bagraiders had forgotten their CDs, only had a few random old discs in the glovebox/bottom of the DJ bag and played a set with no thought or preparation based on the few random tracks they had.

It was fun but confusing. They had to throw in their current hits during their set being Way Back Home, Sunlight and the track it seems most people came to hear, Shooting Star. These were definitely ‘hands in the air’ moments with everybody singing along but because their own tracks were such a different style to the rest of their set these were awkwardly dropped/mixed in. The mixing in general was pretty sloppy and if I did wonder why if they loved Your Body enough to still be playing it in 2011 they were unable to mix in it properly.

I think a set of new, summery synth-pop from similar artists would have worked a treat. Instead, I left baffled as to what style of music a Bagraiders DJ set actually is.