2 weeks in paradise - 24th July to 7th August

T

tunes

New Member
This was my first time in Ibiza. It was a trip I was waiting to make since I was about 14 years old and it didn't disappoint. I'm only back to reality now and some of the days have faded away so I'm just going to write about the days and nights we actually went out. Hopefully I can remember most of it and don't leave out anything important

Tuesday 24th

Our flight left Dublin on time and we touched down in Ibiza around 10:30. By the time we got in a taxi and got to our apartments which were just outside Playa D'en Bossa it was about 11:30. Everybody was a bit anxious after the flight and because 1 or 2 of the lads were not too pleased about the apartment (they stayed in the jets in 2011). I knew that with 5 lads staying together for 2 weeks that this would not be the only time there would be a bit of tension in the apartment. We headed up to Playa D'en Bossa to get some booze and tickets for Carl Cox. I was in two minds whether to go to Carl Cox or not. We had travelled with about 10 more friends who were staying in a different apartment and they were all going to Solomun's Diynamic night in Sankeys and the line-up for that looked really good. I wanted to see Guti though and I knew I could probably catch Solomun the following week anyway so I ended up shelling out the 40 quid for space. We met up with a ''contact'' that the lads knew from last year who sorted us out with what we needed for the night. We went down to the beach just behind Bora Bora Bar to finish off our drink. By this time i was really excited and just wanted to get inside Space. Walking up to Space I was just amazed by the buzz around the place. The whole place was nothing like I expected it to be. To be honest, I can't remember what I expected it to be like anymore. I was just blown away by it. The lads who were there last year said the exact same thing happened them. I couldn't help but stop to take pictures of the Kehakuma and We Love Space billboards just outside aswell. We strolled into space terrace half-way through Josh Wink's set and what a welcome to Ibiza that was. Really enjoyed Josh Wink but couldn't help but think that having him on before Guti was a bit strange. Got a good spot in the terrace and partied away for the night. Guti and Yousef went B2B for a few minutes and Guti played this melody on the piano which was one of the best things i heard all holiday. Made our way into Carl Cox in the main room. What an atmosphere in there! And Cox was just pumping it out, what a man to get a crowd going. I didn't like the main room as much as I liked the terrace, though. I don't know why, I just always seem to like smaller, more intimate rooms more. Anyway we left Carl Cox with about 45 minutes to go. Didn't really want to leave but my legs couldn't take much more after the day of travelling and I refused to pay another 8 euro for a second bottle of water (something which became easier over the rest of the holiday). We went for a little sit down on the beach as the sun came up before making our way to the apartment. A brilliant first few hours in Ibiza!

More tomorrow!
 
Thursday 26th

Woke up early feeling fresh after an early(ish) night on Wednesday. We just used Wednesday to have a few drinks and a stroll around the area to have a look around. Me and my friend ''K'' were in two minds where to go on Thursday night. He wanted to go to Paradise in DC-10 for Craig Richards but I really wanted to see Dubfire and Maya Jane Coles in Space. I eventually convinced him to go to Kehakuma because it would be our only opportunity to go to it (as we were 100% going to DC-10 the following thursday) and because K knew Craig Richards would probably end up on the bill for one of the Circo Locos we'd be going to. The rest of the lads were easy and didn't really mind where we went and all the lads staying in the jets were going to Kehakuma aswell.

Around 1 we walked up to Playa D'en Bossa to get something to eat and our tickets for later. We got Space tickets for 25 euro entry before 12. I didn't mind going in before 12 as I had read that Richie Hawtin had put all these weird lighty/interactive features around Space and i wanted to get a look at them before the place filled up too much. After we got food and the tickets we went down to the beach. We went for a look at Sands and decided it would be a good idea to walk the whole way up the beach to the tower from it's all gone Pete Tong. A long enough walk but one I'm glad I took. We actually ended up walking up past the tower up to a little beach with some boathouses which was a nice spot.

We met up with our contact again and got our booze for the night and headed back down to the apartment around 6. By around half 10 we were raring to go and were fed up of being in the apartment. We walked up to the Jets to see what the other group were up to. A few of them were mad to get going too so we walked up and were in Space for around 11:15. A bit early yes, but it was nice to see Magda playing in El Salon. Thought it was a good move by Hawtin to put such a big name DJ on at such an early stage of the night to get the buzz going early. A little while later we left the Salon and stopped just outside the toilet to wait for one of our friends. I was in the middle of saying something to one of my friends and I just saw his eyes light up as he looked over my shoulder. I turned around to see what he was looking at andwho else but Richie Hawtin was walking straight towards us! I couldn't believe he was just walking around with nobody bothering him. One of my friends ''N'' started calling his name and asking for a picture. Richie came straight over, put his arms around us and posed for the picture, only for us to realise that the person with the camera was the one who was in the toilet! We started to panic and apologised to Hawtin for making him wait but he was cool about it and the friend with the camera arrived on scene. One of the best moments of the holiday! I'm a big fan of Hawtin. Not the minimal stuff so much but for just pure techno he is a genius and you've also got to respect everything he's done with pushing technology forward.

We then went for a look in the old terrace. Anyone who's been in there for a Kehakuma night know that under the influence of some choice medication, those net thingies are the coolest things ever! I must have spent about 15 minutes just turning around in a circle and rubbing the net. What a cool place. Went up to the Premier Etage then for a few minutes to chill out and I really enjoyed the ambient soundtrack up there. Really chilled me out before what I expected to be an unbelievable set from Dubfire. Got down to the main room just as Dubfire was kicking off. He started off with this really weird kind of ''build-up'' track, which is to be expected at the start of a set, but this just went nowhere. I was expecting Dubfire's usual growling, angry brand of techy tunes but it just never happened. I waited in there for about 40 minutes for him to get going and after that I just couldn't stick it anymore. I was really disappointed as I was seriously looking forward to seeing Dubfire. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood or something. He was having technical problems and the music kept cutting out which didn't help either.

Went into the terrace then for Maya Jane. She's one of my very favourite Dj's lately and having seen her in Dublin in a tiny, dark, dirty room earlier in the year i was very excited to see what kind of stuff she'd play on Space Terrace. She didn't disappoint either. Her first hour was strange enough but I enjoyed it, you could tell she was still only on warm-up duty. The second hour she started getting into her own sound, those deep bouncing basslines and I was really enjoying it. The last 20 minutes were class, she really belted it out and the atmosphere was class. I expected her to close up with her new Florence and the Machine remix but she played this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smAcSdKquO8 which i thought was a deadly ending to a set. She got a great ovation at the end and the guy that was on after her (hearthrob or hobo?? not too sure) picked her up and showed her to the crowd ha!

After that I went into Hawtin in the main room. You could barely move in there but I made my way onto the dancefloor and promised i'd stay for a few minutes. I only stayed for about 30 minutes but I felt that was enough and I was happy to have experienced what that genius had to offer. Anyway, I needed my bed by that stage. I was in no mood to walk home so a taxi down the road was the only option, which all the boys agreed to!
 
sounding good so far mate,

enter. sounds a great night from everything i've heard, hawtin playing the perfect host , very friendly down to earth guy from my own experience of meeting him.
 
MattKirton said:
My friend K always has me in a confused state of where we should go, but he usually makes the decisions for me.

:p
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Haha I knew as soon as i wrote that sentence I'd get a response like that! He is a good friend though....

Didn't get around to posting tonight, I'll throw up a whopper edition tomorrow.
 
TM78 said:
sounding good so far mate,

enter. sounds a great night from everything i've heard, hawtin playing the perfect host , very friendly down to earth guy from my own experience of meeting him.
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Yeh Hawtin is a legend in my books and my respect for him went through the roof after that. You can tell he really loves what he does. The enter. nights are really cool but I think next year they should give him his own night (maybe plastikman) and leave Kehakuma to Nick Curly.
 
I've got to stop reading these reviews. I've still got 5 weeks at work to get out of the way before we go, and I'm so distracted from thinking about Ibiza already.

I really do find that the whole thing takes over my life for at least a few weeks before the trip and then the hideous comedown/back to reality crash and clinical depression for a few weeks after.
 
Same here. Going 13th to 20th September and the build up involves a phone call to my best mate everyday talking about what we are going to do, how wicked its going to be and how long we've still got to wait!

Im not even thinking about the come down, which will inevitably last until Christmas.
 
Friday 27th

Before we headed to Ibiza the plan for this day was to go to ushuaia for Sasha and then head out to Cocoon mainly for Jeff Mills. Jeff Mills is one of K's and mine music heroes and I really wanted to go to a proper techno night. As you can probably tell by now K and I have absolutely identical musical interests. Anyway, we were absolutely wrecked from the previous night so early on in the day we decided that we wouldn't go to Sasha and instead just go to Amnesia. As the day wore on, though, we both knew that Amnesia was not going to happen. The bed just felt too comfortable and the thought of a trip out to (and back from) Amnesia was just too much. We didn't want to waste the day though and ended up deciding to go to Ushuaia for Sasha, the thought of an early night really appealed to us. It's funny, before we went to Ibiza, Jeff mills was MUST see for us but after we got there we didn't really mind missing him as we were getting to see another world class DJ anyway. it wasn't the only time something like this happened on the holiday either.

We went up and got our tickets for Ushuaia anyway. We weren't even drinking. I felt kind of weird from the night before and decided to give myself a bit of a detox day. There's not really much else to report from this day so I'll just get to the music. Booka Shade, Damian Lazarus and Sasha were on the bill. I was expecting the order to go Booka Shade - Lazarus - Sasha, but when we walked in Lazarus was half way through his set which I was kind of disappointed about. Just as we walked in though he dropped Subb-an's new remix of Tiga - Pleasure from the bass which was another absolute highlight for the holiday. We only saw him for about half an hour but the music he played was some of the best I heard on the island. I'm a big fan of his, if it wasn't for him the deep house music scene would not be half as big around the globe as it is today. I was sceptical about Booka Shade but they pleasantly surprised me. The stuff they played was a good warm up for Sasha. I was a bit annoyed though that they were listed as playing a dj set and they barely touched the headphones all set (one of my pet peeves). Sasha came on and was awesome from start to finish as expected. What a man to put together a set. He even broke the speakers with about half an hour to go! It made the end of the set a bit anti-climatic but the fact that he actually broke the speakers was fairly cool. I really liked the outdoor venue aswell, Ushuaia is probably my second favourite venue on the island (after DC-10). The buzz is just different and not as intense as being inside a club. This suited Sasha's music aswell. We left ushuaia and some of our friends went straight down to catch the bus to Amnesia. I was really tempted to hop on aswell but I knew I'd end up feeling tired after about half an hour and wouldn't enjoy it at all. One piece of advice i'll give to people is that if you're not 100% up to go to a rave, don't go because you won't enjoy it half as much as you should, even if it's one of your favourite Dj's. The two brilliant sets from Lazarus and Sasha made the decision to go home easier aswell and the early night for the first time in a few days was a welcome relief!!
 
tunes said:
. One piece of advice i'll give to people is that if you're not 100% up to go to a rave, don't go because you won't enjoy it half as much as you should, even if it's one of your favourite Dj's.
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This is so true. It's all well and good having a plan in advance but sometimes your batteries are drained and you just don't have the energy. There is nothing worse than being in a club and everything being a massive effort. I know I'll be lucky to make it out to everything I want to this year.

Sounds like you enjoyed Ushuaia anyway. Fingers crossed I get to check it out at some point.

Looking forward to the next installment :)
 
Monday 30th

We had not intended to take two days off but that's just they way things panned out. We were going to go to DJ Sneak and Green Velvet on the Saturday but we ended up getting really smashed before it and got sidetracked. A bit of a binge through to Sunday made Space on Sunday a no-go aswell.

Today was the day I most most looking forward to. The line up for circo loco came out the morning that we left for Ibiza and I was buzzing for it ever since then. All I had heard since the rest of lads trip in 2011 was DC-10 this and DC-10 that. We went searching for tickets around 2pm and started to panic a bit when 4 people told us that their tickets were sold out already. I was getting anxious because I would probably have broken down in tears if I had missed this day. We ended up getting tickets for 50 euro each. I know that's well over the odds for DC-10 and i also knew in the back of my mind that I would get in by paying on the door, but i felt more comfortable with a ticket in my pocket.

We went back to the apartment and checked out the set-times on this website. K and myself wanted to get out there early enough as we're both huge Soul Clap and Martinez Brothers fans and we knew they'd be on early. Unfotunately though Soul Clap had been taken off the bill for some reason which was disappointing. I was also surpised to see that Kerri Chandler was closing the terrace instead of Troxler and Cirillo was closing the main room instead of Tanzmann and Squillace. Anyway, The Martinez Bros were on at half 6 so we got out there for the start of that. I felt that i was starting to get ''acclimatised'' to the island and thought it would be a good idea to increase my pill intake (possibly not the best idea i've ever head which I discovered later on in the night ha!). More friends from home had arrived in Ibiza the day before and we all met up in DC-10. There was about 20 of us all in there together! We went into the Martinez Bros and I stayed from start to finish. They just played the perfect music for an early slot in the day. Nothing too hectic but still really deep, bassy tunes. I reckon those two are going to be huge in Ibiza over the next few years. They're still only 23 and 21 and do a lot of live editing of tracks on the fly which I think is top class and makes their sets different to anybody elses. Either near the end of theatset or at the start of Andrew Grant's one, Troxler came out and got into the DJ booth. He was just dancing away in there and I thought it would be a great idea to go down and see if I could get a picture. Troxler is another absolute hero of mine. If I had to give a top five of my DJ heroes it would probably go Sven Vath, Troxler, Dixon, Laurent Garnier, Carl Craig. So I hold Troxler in very high regard! I went up and stood right next to the dj booth where he was standing and just kind of stood there in awe. After about a minute I somehow had the audacity to just say ''Seth'' and tap him on the arm. He was more than happy to come out and get a picture. We gave the camera to some guy to take the picture and after about 3 attempts he figured out that the camera was out of battery, what a disaster! I told Seth I was going to get another camera and he said that it was no problem at all. I rushed back with another friend who had a camera and another 5 or 6 friends who got word that we were getting a picture. We got the picture anyway and it's definitely the best picture of the holiday. I expected him to just get back into the dj booth but he stood talking to us for a minute or two. We asked him about the Visionquest party on Wednesday and he took out his iphone and started showing us all these floor plans and ideas for what he was going to do to the club. His exact words to us were ''We're gonna transform this **** up''. We told him how much we loved his music and all the usual crap and he shook all our hands and told us to have a good night. You could tell he genuinely meant it aswell and wasn't just saying it to get rid of us. What a legend he is! Definitely one of the coolest experiences of my life.

After that I went for a bit of a wander around the place, and what a place it is. It's just so different than any other club. You can tell everyone there is there for the music which sometimes doesn't come across in other clubs. The whole place just seems more personal. In my pill-fuelled stupor I ended up just talking to loads of different randomers on my own. That's another thing I like about DC-10. You can just sit down anywhere and strike up a conversation with the person next to you, something I didn't experience in any other club. (People were looking at me like I had 3 heads when I tried to start a conversation in Space!). On my travels I also bumped into one of The Martinez Brothers in the smoking area. It was the older one, I can never remember which one is Chris and whoch one is Steve! I shook his hand and told him I really enjoyed the set and that he was one of the main reasons I had come to DC-10 that day. He told me he appreciated it and seemed very happy about it which I got a buzz off. Just before we parted company i told him that him and his brother should start producing more because their recent remixes are top drawer. He kind of laughed at that and told me ''we're tryin to work on that!!''. He wished me a good night aswell and shook my hand again. This night was just getting better and better! I wandered in an out of the main room and terrace for Andrew Grant/Agaric/Derrick Carter's sets because I wanted to be fit and ready to go for the later part of the night. At about 10:50 we all went in and got our spot for Dan Ghenacia and I'm delighted that we did. Ghenacia played hands down the best set I heard all holiday. I don't even know what to call the stuff he was playing, deep-techy-house with a hint of berlin-y techno maybe? I really don't know, but it was absolutely excellent and I want to hear more of it! He was really enjoying it . I don't know what it is but a rave is always so much better when you can tell that the DJ is really enjoying it and interacting with the crowd. Tanzmann/Squillace were absolutely class aswell. They clashed with Troxler but i didn't mind missing him as we were going to Visionquest on Wednesday. I was expecting big thing from them after hearing their WMC set from earlier in the year (best set i've heard all year, if you haven't heard it then get on it now!) about 45 minutes into it though, I was absolutely f**cked! I had to go outside and sit down for a while. By this stage I was in no shape to continue. I was angry about this later as I found out Tanzmann/Squillace got a famous sit-down going and I missed it. I really wanted to get in the middle of one of those. We were sitting under the big poster with all the dj's faces on it when I heard Kerri Chandler whacking out Julio Bashmore - Au Seve in the terrace. I ran in for a listen as it's one of my favourite tunes this year. When it was over I decided that this would be a good note to close the night with. The friends I was staying with wanted to stay till closing which was okay because a few of the ''jets boys'' were heading back and I just slept there for the night.

What a brilliant night and the start of my love-affair with DC-10!!!!
 
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rydawg said:
Same here. Going 13th to 20th September and the build up involves a phone call to my best mate everyday talking about what we are going to do, how wicked its going to be and how long we've still got to wait!

Im not even thinking about the come down, which will inevitably last until Christmas.
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This was my first year so I didn't really know what to expect. I knew it would be unbelievable but when I got there and actually experienced it, it blew my mind. Now I just can't wait to get back there. I'm very very tempted to try get money together to go to the closing parties!!
 
Great review. Really enjoying it. Heading out for 2 weeks on 27th August. Any chance you cud pass on your "contact's" no.?
 
Wednesday 1st

We didn't go out the Tuesday which is my only regret of the Holiday. 1 - because I didn't get to see Sankeys and 2 - because I didn't get to see Solomun. That Diynamic night is gonna be massive over there next year and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets moved to a bigger club, although I hear Sankeys is perfect for it.

Wednesday was Visionquest and I was really excited for this one after Monday at Circoloco We decided we'd all go out for dinner together that night as we were fed of up if cooking sh*tty dinners in the apartment. Our friend ''B'' decided to stay in, again! He was acting very strangely, only going out 3 times with us and leaving early (after about an hour) twice. Now it wouldn't have bothered us only for it was affecting our friend ''A''. B and A's music tastes are similar. They were more into nights like Be and A State of trance. This meant A was left coming to nights with the rest of us such as Visionquest (which he ended up leaving early) and this was annoying us all as A wasn't enjoying the holiday as much as he should have been and it wasn't his fault. After a lot of ''discussion'' B still wouldn't come out so we just left him.

I was delighted that tickets for this were only 35 euro, I was expecting it to be one of the best nights of the whole summer. We had a nice dinner which made us feel a bit more normal for a change! We met up with the jets boys and got our taxis out to DC-10. We got there around half 1 and I was shocked by how little people were there. Not that this was a bad thing but I was expecting alot more. It soon became apparent that everyone who was there, was there for Visionquest, unlike monday at Circoloco where some people believe that going to Circoloco is cool, which I only realised on this night!. The atmosphere around the whole club was unbelievable. There were these little teepees dotted around the place you could go in and relax. There were flags and banners everywhere. There was this weird grim-reaper type person dressed all in black just wandering through the crowd, brushing past people. There was a smoke machine filling up the entrance to the main room and there was a phone just outside the terrace where you could talk to a random person on another phone inside the terrace! Also inside the terrace there was this hall of strobe lights and then another room full of lights and mirrors. There were also these beds inside boxes dotted around the terrace, the whole thing was crazy!! On top of that there were loads of world class dj's just wandering around the place. We met Dan Ghenacia and told him he absolute destroyed the place on Monday. I'm fairly sure I saw Richie Hawtin again and we saw Troxler talking on the afforementioned phone. We went over to talk to him again and he remembered us. ''Aw you're the guys I showed my iphone to, what ya think?'' We told him we loved the place and got another picture. Another class moment. tINI was there too and so was the guy from Azari & III, all just mingling in with the crowd and dancing in the main room! At one stage we actually went into the terrace and saw Azari & III busting some of the craziest dance moves i've ever seen, on his own! It was all a very surreal experience.

Anyway, the music. Shaun Reeves was on warm-up duty early in the night and he did a good job. After a while, Ryan Crosson and him started to interchange a bit and the tempo started to pick up (not much though, it was Visionquest after all!) Lee Curtiss came on then and played for what seemed like about 20 minutes and just stood there for a while before heading off and he wasn't seen again. Very strange! We left the terrace for a little while after that and had a little wander around, (this was when we saw all our dj friends again). Troxler came on about 5 I think and he was amazing. This was my first time seeing him live and it was absolutely excellent. Troxler isn't the kind of dj that will blow you away with banging tunes or big anthemic tunes but his mixing (when not using a laptop obviously) is flawless and his track selection is top class. He's guaranteed to drop a tune in the middle of a set that absolutely no-one was expecting and he did this on more than one occasion on this night. He dropped a remix of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICNWY-4Yj9E. Not this remix though, and i'd be very grateful if someone could find me the one he played, assuming it wasn't a live edit haha. My favourite tune he played all night though was Barnt - Geffen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvcYhIMOpic. We went out for a little sit down in the smoking room before Troxler finished up and while lying down on those beanbags, looking at the sun come up in my new favourite place in the world, with my friends, listening to the music I love, really brought home to me that Ibiza truly is paradise. It's the closest i've ever been to crying with happiness at a rave! This was the best rave i've ever been to though. The combination of the music, the atmosphere, the people and the club were all just perfect and I think i'll have to go a long way to beat it. I went back to the apartment a very happy and satisfied man that morning!!!
 
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