Tiefschwarz / Mylo

With two events already under their belts, 2005 is shaping up to be a banner year for the I Love Neon crew. After February's bout with DJ Hell, the party moved to the more intimate confines of the SAT, which for this night was divided in half. German post-disco duo Headman, part of the shit-hot Gomma label, had been slated to headline, but by the time doors opened they had been mysteriously replaced by up-and-coming Scottish producer Mylo. Not that any of the 500 partygoers in attendance seemed to mind. Mylo's debut, Destroy Rock N' Roll, is already being touted in some circles as an album of the year candidate. As a DJ, he works a room with fist-pumping electro stabs and full-on guitar riffage, all the while dancing around his DJ booth with lager high in the air as though he'd been railing coke for a championship soccer match. His frat-boy antics and amphetamine-fuelled track selection more than made up for his relative lack of skill in weaving a mix. Fun stuff, but not mind-blowing. That credential was reserved for Tiefschwarz, whose set can only be described as "pure DJ bliss." Working with a deft mix of electro-house and jack-trance, Tiefschwarz rode the pulse of the room in a way only Michael Mayer can match these days. On the road supporting an impressive double-disc set, Misch Masch, he succeeds where so many others fail because of his multi-dimensional approach to the decks. Unlike Mylo, he sees the benefits of mining the space between "rockin'" and "not rockin'." He sees the psychology behind DJing, and the means and manner of working a room's inherent pauses, knowing when to hold the beat back and when to drop it. A great night.