It’s been a massive four years for Sydney night Dust Tones, with a run that has seen the crew put on events across the Clare Hotel, The Metro, The Manning Bar, The Factory, Becks Festival Bar, UTS Loft Bar and onto their current weekly home at the Beach Road Hotel in Bondi. Throwing down everything from funk to dancehall to rock, soul, hip hop, beats, drum n’ bass, breaks an heaps more, it’s been a favourite destination for everyone who loves quality leftfield dance music.

This Friday night they’ll be throwing a massive bash at Beach Road Hotel to celebrate four years in the game, an eternity for any underground night. Here ITM chats with Bentley, the man who puts it all together.

Hi Ben, this is Angus from inthemix. How have you been travelling recently?

Good, been really busy with Dust Tones and also gearing up for a big summer. Got a slot at Days Like This! festival and also at the Becks Bar with DJ Yoda. Also doing some radio with Mixup on triple j and some DJ action on FBi. We also just released the third Dust Tones CD that I mixed.

We’re talking to you because your night Dust Tones is about to hit its fourth birthday. It’s rare for clubbing brands to reach such a milestone, especially one that has such a leftfield musical focus. How are you feeling about it?

I’m pretty damn chuffed really, I guess I never really thought about it when I first started, we just wanted some where that like minded people could listen and dance to the tunes we liked. Since then it really has become a brand that people know delivers the goods which is cool. Hopefully we can last ten years, a great bench mark set by nights like Frigid.

Have you still got the same level of energy and enthusiasm for the brand several years down the track?

Yeah, it’s really developed over the years and has grown from a monthly partly to a weekly one. So I live sleep eat and breathe it at the moment. It’s a like a kid you love it but often it really tests your patience. It’s funny though to look back and see how it has changed. It also good now I have people helping me out like Lachlan Grant, Mike Who and DJ Ability so makes my job easier.

What have you got planned for your birthday bash, anything in terms of special surprises?

If I tell you it won’t be a surprise… hahaha no really like any good party there will be presents, music, dancing and in the end you know someone is going to cry. Come down and get your yo yo and CD!

The most amazing thing about Dust Tones is that you’ve been successful with taking it weekly, with your residency at Beach Road Hotel. That’s incredibly rare in the current clubbing climate, what’s the secret to making it work?

Hard work, we work on Dust Tones every day. Whether it’s online with social networking sites, forums, websites like ITM or putting up posters, We have also just done our second mix CD and some fresh stickers. To be honest I still don’t think we do enough and I’m constantly trying to find ways to make Dust Tones better and to let more people know what we are up to. I still think there is a lot of people that don’t know about us and I think I certain section of the music media is so focused on indie and electro that we get forgotten about, just written off us people that play funk and hip hop, but you would be surprised at the music that gets played. Its like a proper block party mixing up bits of everything.

Since the beginning, the musical focus of Dust Tones has been very eclectic – funk, soul, breaks, hip hop, a bit of everything. How would you define the musical focus of the brand?

We have done parties across a broad range of genres from breaks, drum and bass, hip hop, funk, dub, dance hall, hip hop and world music. I guess at the moment we are really trying to throw a 21st century block party. Mixing up all genres in the way that early DJs did, it’s like that house party that everyone has been to where things get loose and out of hand. Some one winds up in drag, some gets way to drunk, some one takes a strange girl home, but first and forth most people dance there ass off to some damn good tunes and not necessarily ones they know.

You’ve certainly hosted a lot of excellent international talent over the past four years. What were some of the most memorable for you?

The Nextmen for sure! Was our gig at Beck’s Festival Bar, one crazy night. They are Dust Tones royalty! Other stand outs have been Talvin Singh, Bassnectar, Mark Rae, Fat Lip and Nickodemus.

And what about your favourite local acts?

Hermitude always rock it for us, one of our favorites at the moment. But other acts like Urthboy who played our 2nd birthday, Thundamentals always kill it, Chasm is the BOMB!! Plus some guys coming up like The Versionaries, Diafrix and Skryptcha.

You’ve also taken Dust Tones all over Sydney to a wide variety of venue. What have been some of your favourite spaces that you’ve thrown parties in, and what do you think of Sydney overall in terms of the venues that are available?

The Clare Hotel will always be our spiritual home, but venue wise I love venues like The Metro and Manning Bar. Both are great places to see good gigs. I think the only thing that Sydney lacks is venues that have outside areas where you can have people playing. I’d love to see somewhere like Cockatoo Island but closer to the city start doing parties and maybe on Observatory Hill or south head.

Finally, what have you got planned for the future of Dust Tones, and can you see things continuing well into the future?

Yeah, I’d like to do a 10th birthday party for sure. In terms of the future we have a great summer planned with the likes of Featurecast, P Money, Nickodemus plus some other tasty touring internationals and a few guests that will surprise people… watch out New Years Day!

Dust Tones turns four this Friday 13th December from 8pm at Beach Road Hotel in Bondi.