Although a well-respected and widely-known name in the drum & bass scene, Dominick Martin, better known by his stage name of Calibre, has always been a man shrouded in some degree of enigma.

A classically-trained musician since his upbringing in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Calibre has been described as “one of the quietest people in drum & bass”. In a genre where larger-than-life swagger and hype go hand-in-hand with the music, a soft-spoken performer is a rare and exceptional commodity, but the advantage to Calibre’s discreetness is that it allows the music to do the talking.

So it was at Sydney University’s Manning Bar on Saturday night, as Calibre shuffled almost apologetically on stage, accompanied by his mouth for the night, the excellent rapper/MC DRS. DRS has proven himself to be one of the few rappers able to keep up with the rhythmic intricacies of the drum & bass genre, to the point where he has become almost synonymous with jungle pioneer LTJ Bukem’s Looking Good Records label.

With Calibre silently engineering the beats at the back of the stage and DRS smoothly and energetically flowing over the top, the night moved forward with an enthusiastic yet mellow vibe; Calibre wasn’t interested in huge drops, rewinds and drum & bass anthems. Instead his tunes felt more like a soundscape; peripheral yet unignorable.

The atmosphere at Manning Bar was one of excitement and admiration, the usual mix of students and hardcore fans mingling agreeably. Although Calibre indulged us with the occasional heavy bass beat, by and large he played more towards the liquid funk end of the spectrum, placid, ambient pianos grooving harmoniously against snappy and light percussion. DRS’ flow was a juxtaposition of drum & bass swagger chat and socially aware lyrics, telling us to “live our lives” and asking “what’s the point of a Saturday night?”.

Although laid-back and unpretentious, neither performer succumbed to passivity; DRS regularly made sure we were all still feeling pumped with the occasional machine-gun-speed rapid chat, communicating freely with the audience and even passing around what looked like a bottle of Hennessey to the front-row revellers.

Calibre, meanwhile, was content to throw the odd curveball into his beat-centric set, changing up tempos or rhythms which sporadic inclusions of heavier jungle sounds and more staggered and broken beats.

As the night drew to a close, Calibre and DRS turned the energy up to eleven with a spectacular and energetic final hurrah in the closing ten minutes. Even after the lights had come up and the beats shut off, DRS took advantage of the still-willing audience and indulged us with a minute or two of impressive a capella freestyle rhymes, poking fun at crowd members and thanking Sydney for a wonderful night.

Overall this was an excellent gig, two contrasting yet wonderfully complementary performers giving the crowd exactly what they came for; smooth and snappy drum & bass with slick and sick rhymes over the top.