Summer's here and with it heralds the summer season in party island Ibiza. Where else can you get the sand, the sun, the sea and a whole myriad of clubs with a diverse range of DJs in one place? I'd never been to Ibiza at the beginning of the season and this time round, I'd managed to get away from work to catch two of the island's prominent clubs opening parties.
The moment I landed on Sunday May 30, my friend whisked me right to Space down at Playa d'en Bossa. It was only 11am and the place was rocking. I walked through to the Discoteca and witnessed dancers garbed in some sort of medieval Roman gear moving to Tedd Patterson's Magnifique. There was a female cupid and a topless woman dressed as Venus. Sexy! We then headed out towards the Terazza where the DJ was dishing out nice tribal tunes. It didn't take me long to get into the mood. It's hard not to with the sun shining, the people screaming and hollering. We cheered each time a plane roared above us. Milk N Sugar took over but their set was marred by their CDs skipping a few times. I left to check out the DJ Mag arena outside at the Space car park and completely lost myself to their rotational DJs. I'd not heard of some of them but they were excellent!
David James played a subtle but distinctive blend of deep, minimal and tribal house and upcoming DJ Villeneuve took over and built up the set to down and dirty wicked tunes with pumping basslines. Saeed came on and began to lay down a funkier set over phat tribal beats. By the time it was Palash's turn, there was a good turn out and there were people in outlandish costumes walking on stilts parading around the white-canopied carpark! Smokin' Jo changed the mood from tribal to a more tech-house one and soon it was John Digweed's turn to move the crowd. It was almost 10pm by then and I'd decided to rest for the onslaught the next day.
Refreshed and rested, we drove to DC10 for Circo Loco's opening bash and found to our pleasant surprise, that the club has been repainted a deep pink and the roof's been changed to a proper one! Manga was playing his signature percussive set with lots of kick drums and hi hats. I saw Charlie Chester mingling with the crowd and Jo Mills flitting in and out. Locodice came on and began to play tunes with incredible drum programs, some melodic chimes and at one moment, he teased us with the opening riff of Underworld's Born Slippy. Rocky (X-press 2) took over and stole the day away! He was brilliant! He was dishing out twisted grooves one moment, tribal tech-house the next and had lots of blissful breakdowns that made the receptive crowd in DC10 went wild. He grinned when we screamed at KC Flight's Voices and he dropped Lou Reed's hauntingly beautiful Satellite that gave us goose bumps right before he whacked one of last year's summer tune, Sunshine. Amazing! After Rocky, it was Timo Mass and then Tania Vulcano taking turns working the decks. The opening party was closed by an utterly banging set by Cirillo. The scantily-dressed crowd cheered him on right till he played his very last tune.
I walked out of DC10 completely exhausted but exhilarated. In less than 24 hours, I'd partied to a number of DJs and met people from all over the world. It was wonderful and really, summer's not complete without a visit to this amazing Balearic island!