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For the 280-ish collective of mid-week groovers and longe lizards who got on down to a slightly warped Tatou, came the chance to check out the new space beneath the club itself. Long in the pipeline, the basement gave out a taste test of things to come.

Having said that, I should say that in my opinion, the future looks bright and supa sharp. Although downstairs was perhaps 3/4 way to completion (lacking its main staircase and bar), the space was wicked and way appropriate for the nite at hand.

Upstairs was given a shakeup and was used as the lounge environment, whilst downstairs in the depths of funk, the floor took the nature of a darkened sweatbox which was fully enlightened by the uncompromising deep, hip funk + electro flavoured sounds being provided.

Major props to the way cool and down-2-earth Fred Fresh. He's another synth/analog gearhead like T.P. Heckmann and it showed thru in his dope selection of freestyle techno and electro. So did his experience - coming on since the way early 1980's - this dude saw hip hop and electro from the "break"-out and followed his way down the line to become a wicked ass electronic producer in the present day.

Fred's 2 two hour set was a rollercoaster freestyle journey thru a funky kaleidoscope of techno/electro grooves - and it sounded real fine. The mixing was cool too - chopping, changing, cutting and scratching in good form, which we don't see around here too often. Hip hop sensibilities shining on thru I guess.

Following that came an inspriring and moving set from Mechanism - electronic homebake at its dopest. Once again this unique young man delivered an eye opening set of his own compositions off DAT. His recent vibe, since moving to Australia, has seemed to replace the industrial strength trance with industrial strength funk.

With his typically ruff around the edges approach to writing trax, he's got himself into a sterling gold set of sounds and vibes. This is an artist who's flair for mad genius rhythm, percussion and conventional sound escapism could and should be getting heard in underground bunkers thruout the techno world! But that's just a matter of time. And perhaps a matter of opinion - but is's one which is shared by a close friend of mine I consider to be in-the-know.

On the nite he drew comparison between Mechanism and the Wizard. I had to agree, Mechanism is the down under answer to Jeff Mills.

Those two extraordinary sets were well flanked by the Headstrong Crew and Tjaden, who all got into the swing of things and helped to provide a well on-to-it night on the floor. Word.

Now that Wellington's club life has had a sample of something new (and an excellent response to it) We can all look forward to some advanced and dedicated nights to go down under the S-ENCE banner. I don't know when when the next installment will be. Hopefully it won't be too far off. Whatever the case, just remember that some bombs are rigged to go off.

Reflection by H.C.