RA Ibiza weekly: Movers and shakers, Skream

  • Share
  • This week we offer our take on the season so far.
  • RA Ibiza weekly: Movers and shakers, Skream image
  • RA takes the opportunity this week to round up what's hot and what's not on the island in 2013. We also sit down with Skream ahead of his takeover of DC-10, and review a selection of the best parties from the past seven days. Movers & shakers I think it's fair to say that the first half of the 2013 season has been eventful. After last year's island-wide reshuffle, this summer brought yet more changes, twisting the make-up of the clubbing landscape into new and unexpected forms. While many of the newcomers have made a sizeable first impression, none have come close to equalling the popularity and respect commanded by Marco Carola and Music On. Since returning after an impressive debut in 2012, the in-form Neapolitan has fine-tuned his relationship with the Amnesia Terrace to near perfection, harnessing a raw energy that is unrivalled anywhere on the island. His weekly headline performances are, quite literally, the talk of the town. Clubs-wise, the past two and half months have been a turbulent time. No mid-season review would be complete without a mention of new superclub Booom! In what was a farcical birthing period, the club changed name, opening date, website and booking programme. Now officially open, the likes of Luciano, Defected and Yousef are left with the tricky task of improving the club's tarnished reputation. (On the bright side, things can only get better.) Suffering similar misfortunes is Privilege's Vista Club, who have recently had Next Wave and Get Physical drop off the weekly roster due to low numbers and venue issues respectively. Bar Saturday's Elrow party, which remains the island's most fun event, things look a little bleak for the picturesque venue. After a strong 2012, Sankeys are back bigger, and for the most part better, than before. ViVA Warriors and Solomun's Diynamic Neon party remain the lynchpins, attracting large, clued-up crowds week-in, week-out. Fuse has proven to be this year's surprise package, as their stringent, resident-focused booking policy further highlights just how loyal their fanbase is. Numbers for Ibiza debutants Hypercolour, Dirtybird and Flying Circus have been a touch slower, but with their persistent dedication to top-quality sounds, this probably won't last too long. Away from Sankeys, the UK presence on the island has expanded ever wider. London radio station Rinse FM has staged parties at Sankeys and Ibiza Rocks, while Boddika and Joy Orbison recently played Circoloco for the first time. Ben UFO is scheduled for a debut show at the end of August. In what would once have been the unlikeliest of pairings, Skream brings his Skreamizm venture to DC-10 in under two weeks, adding to gigs for Defected, Carnival Cities and Hypercolour. Appealing to a more international audience, few outfits can claim to hold as widespread and vibrant a presence this year as team Desolat. Despite early predictions of incongruity, Loco Dice's Used + Abused events have worked well at Ushuaia. Pumping and appropriately production-heavy, an endless flow of break-dancers, blue-lipped gyrators and ice-cannons merge with the music to produce an often electrifying energy. A few doors down label mate tINI is pushing ahead with her free beach party at Sirocco, further cementing herself not only as a great DJ, but a seasoned curator. Completing the trio is Guti, who without his own party to occupy him, has taken to playing as many events on the island as possible—from Sasha and Cocoon, to Carl Cox and ViVA Warriors. Those that caught it still say that his three-and-a-half hour warm-up for Carola at Music On was an early contender for set of the season. Elsewhere, Carl Cox and Richie Hawtin continue to consolidate their grip on Space. Unflagging in his enthusiasm and passion for the game, Coxy has been turning out the kind of performances we all love him for. By inviting the likes of Andy Stott, Recondite and Demdike Stare to man the ENTER.Mind room, Hawtin has opened up the island to a previously lacking breed of artist. After their split from ENTER., Saturday night party Kehakuma has been doing the same, unafraid to book the most uncompromising of house and techno talents. Some of their turnouts suggest Ibiza isn't ready for the deeper shades just yet, but with a flurry of interesting bookings on the horizon, perhaps we'll finally see a shift. And finally, the music. By far the most widely played record has been Ten Walls' "Gotham," with Sven Väth, Mano Le Tough and Tale of Us all indulging. Jimmy Edgar's "Strike" has shown its malleability, used both by Maceo Plex to keep the energy at a peak and by Dixon to move his dreamy fare up a notch. Cajmere's "Satisfy", Paul Woolford's "Untitled" and Tale of Us's remix of Mano Le Tough's "Primative People" have been the most favoured party-starters. And the mid-season award for the recycled classic goes to Green Velvet's "La La Land." Interview: Skream Skream, once the leading UK dubstep light, is now a full-time house DJ. Rather than starting again from scratch, however, the South Londoner has quickly found himself as one of the more in-demand DJs on the circuit. In the midst of his busiest Ibiza schedule to date, which includes a Skreamizm showcase at DC-10, we caught up with Skream to discuss his musical reinvention. This summer has you playing all over the island like never before—Defected, Hypercolour, Carnival Cities and of course you're hosting Skreamizm at DC-10. Was it a goal to play as much in Ibiza as possible this season? The interesting thing is I used to come and play here before and hate it, because I was playing an alien music. I mean, I used to love coming here, that's why I took the gigs, but it was different when I was playing dubstep. Now I'm currently having one of the best summers I've had in five or six years. And yeah I guess it was a goal all the way back from last summer. Since meeting Elliot [Shaw, booker for Circoloco] and Seth [Troxler], who I always have to mention because of how he's looked after me and introduced me to everyone, it's gone insane. The best thing is just coming out here and feeling so comfortable. Just how important that is for me is not something that a lot of people understand from the outside looking in. I was playing the same music from age 13 to 26 and now I've moved in a new direction and I feel great. I'm happy. And the DC-10 thing... Well it still doesn't make sense to me; I can't get my head round it. It certainly must feel like a milestone moment. I mean, you're taking over one of house and techno's most iconic clubs. Man, you don't have to tell me. I've been working in record shops since I was 14 years old; I'm a music head. I know music and I know where the best music is played. And DC-10 is one of those places. How did the whole thing come about? [Laughs] I'll have to give you the PG version. I'd met Elliot out and about a few times and we bumped into each other backstage at Brixton at the first Hot Creations Paradise night in April. This was the first time the idea was raised and then we also hung out in Miami and in Detroit, where I played for Circoloco. That was a crazy gig, actually. It was a stressful night. I turned up at 11 PM thinking I'd be on in a few hours and Elliot told me I was on at midday. I spent 13 hours in the club. I slept once, nearly had a breakdown. We got there in the end, though. But back to Skreamizm: it just all happened really organically. In the end, it was a bit touch and go whether it would come to pass but thanks to Elliot's and my own will and perseverance we were given the green light. It's unexpected, but that's always the best way. Joining you on the lineup you've got Matt Tolfrey, Simon Baker, Hrdvision and Loefah. I was so happy to get Simon on there and Hrdvision, and all of them actually. Hrdvision is a total genius. He's just done a remix for my next single that I've not actually heard yet. The way it was explained to me says it all though: Mr Oizo on ket. Did you put Loefah on there as a reference to your past? No, I put Loefah on there because I think people are going to be fucking surprised when they see how hard he smashes it. He's created his own movement. It sounds cliché but he's a leader. You have to realise that he took himself out of a scene at its peak, at a time when he could of earned the most money of his life. Instead he retracted himself and recreated his identity and is completely pushing a whole new movement. He's a stubborn fuck and it's worked. After the party, I think a lot of people are going to be saying his name, especially when you consider how good the system is at DC-10. Of course you'll be topping the bill at Skreamizm, but what's interesting is that you regularly top the bill on most lineups, despite being relatively new to the scene. Is that something that you're comfortable with? Not entirely, no, but I'll do it because it's what's being asked of me. I'm not treating this whole switch as anything other than work; it's just that I love working. I won't accept one hour sets anymore because I want to prove to my fans and to my peers that this isn't all bollocks. That it's not a flash in the pan. So no, I'm not comfortable, but then that's what's driving me. The other week I played a four-hour closing show at Dour Festival in Belgium. I didn't know until the day that I was playing that long, and was totally panicking, but in the end it was one of the best shows I've done all year. Once you're completely comfortable, that's where complacency creeps in. Your sets still have that strong high-energy, party factor to them, but we all know how deep you can go. Do you think you will eventually push things in that direction? One of the biggest lessons I've learnt DJing this past year has been how to cater to the room. Before, with dubstep, I was put on bills simply to tear it out, to smash it out for whatever crowd was put in front of me. After a while, that becomes a very easy rhythm to fall into. That's the whole reason why I made this shift because after a while I started to feel... not like a puppet because you are your own maker, but it just became the easy option. With this new sound, I've found that it's not about simply playing as high-energy as possible but about using records more subtly, about making people feel a certain way via your selections. That said, I am a party guy. I love a good party and everyone knows that about me. Any chance I can get to make people jump about and have fun, I'll take. At the moment, though, I'm working on the dips in and around those moments. I assume there will be people who still only know you as Skream the dubstep artist. That's the thing, as an artist you forget sometimes that people don't follow your every move. Take that show in Belgium at Dour: that was my first not playing dubstep, which was part of the reason I was so stressed before. Some people in the audience probably only knew me from playing that same festival four years previous. I like that bit, though. What have people's reactions been like since the switch? To be honest I've tried not to take too much notice, especially since that bullshit article misquoted me saying "dubstep is dead." The people close to me know that I never said that. From a personal perspective, however, I can't ask for it to be going any better. Without meaning to boast, some of the parties I've been invited to play at, and the reactions I've had from my sets, have been amazing. Having a crowd react to my music in a similar way to how they react to other, more fully-fledged artists, is great. I mean I can't look at Facebook anymore—the amount of people I've had asking when I'm going to give up this disco and house shit. But I'm having a great time. I'm still so delighted to be able to say Skreamizm at DC-10, because it's not normal. It's not—you and I know that, the general public knows that. But I can fucking say that I'm doing it. It's basically going to be the best party of the year. This week on the island
    Of all of Pacha's acquisitions in 2013, Solomun was always going to prove the most easily assimilated. The Diynamic boss has carved out a clever niche for himself in recent years, commanding that line between underground and mainstream. That said, his Solomun +1 venture was a bold conceptual move. Instead of bolstering his brand with the customary list of supporting acts, he chose to sharpen the focus on himself, accompanied each week by only a single guest. But it's a gamble that appears to have paid off. His most recent party saw him partner with the idiosyncratic DJ Koze, his most leftfield invitee to date. Coming on slightly later than billed, Solomun announced his arrival with a complete change of pace, cutting from Angel Linde's frisky closing track to a slice of poppy electronica. From here he stuck closely by the more commercially viable side of his repertoire, keeping the basslines plump and the vocals pervasive. A brief interlude into darker, more driving selections harked back to his formative years, before he returned to the here and now with remixes of Foals and Noir & Haze. Whatever you may think of Solomun, his crowd adore him. Koze astutely followed the main man's lead, starting with upbeat, disco-geared records before beginning a rapid-fire run-through all manner of feel-good house. As Nina Simone edits ran into Charles Webster's touching remix of Justin Martin's "Sad Piano," the Pampa Records man made light work of what on paper must have felt like one of his more challenging gigs.
    Way back at the start of the season, Guy Gerber hinted that Nicolas Jaar would at some point be making an appearance alongside him at Wisdom Of The Glove. As it turned out, Jaar brought his celebrated live show not to Pacha, but to its newest venue, Destino, on Wednesday. The performance would be Jaar's only show in Ibiza this summer, serving as the third in a six-part series of free Destino events. For all its blatant opulence, the space was hard not to like, oozing all the class of Pacha's flagship club. Palm trees led the way through to an open, well-lit courtyard, where Guy Gerber was spinning catchy, progressive beats from a carbon copy of the Ushuaia stage. After a slight crossover delay, Jaar took to his position, starting off with a selection of new, R&B-infused material. Despite the slo-mo grooves, he kept the vibe upbeat and summery, forging a powerful interaction between visuals and music. A puppet-master of intensity, Jaar fused disco licks with his trademark, low-slung basslines, maintaining the gaze of the crowd at every move. Towards the latter part of his set, he brought out the hits with a live fusion of "El Bandido" and "Mi Mujer." Despite the nonchalant surroundings, the entire set was captivating, with Jaar expertly conveying his knack for conjuring up feeling and atmosphere.
    Of all the island heavyweights, none can claim to be putting in as much of a shift in 2013 as Loco Dice. By far the most active member of this season's DJ swap phenomenon, Dice would preview the Kiesgrube Open Air special of his own Used + Abused party with a set at DC-10 the night before, his first since 2006. Given the relaxed manner as he entered the booth at Ushuaia on Thursday, one can assume all went by without a hitch. As Dice laughed and joked with friends, Dixon stood glued to the CDJs, spinning an hour of his signature dreamscapes. As he crossed over into his final hour, the Innervisions boss injected some fire into his selections, dropping Cajmere's "Satisfy" as a marker of intent. A saunter through some of the season's biggest records followed, including Jimmy Edgar's drums-heavy "Strike." Never one to shy away from an entrance, Dice blended his way from Dixon's tender last track into something equally emotive, if a touch tougher. Once the first kick drum hit, Dice was off, laying a path of cantering basslines. Keeping the sounds heavy and housey, he seemed to be carrying his form through from the night before, instantly raising buoyancy levels and making the party his own. On reflection, it was the best I've seen Dice play in a while.
    Elsewhere...
    Richie Hawtin lights up the main room with his headline set at last week's ENTER. Earlier that day, the Minus boss had played an unannounced show at a bar in San Antonio.
    Los Suruba spin for the worker ants at last week's in-house affair at Ushuaia. Andrea Oliva, George Fitzgerald and Martin Buttrich also played.
    The Martinez Brothers get into the swing of things at the 15th anniversary on Monday. In what was described as the best Circoloco of the season, Kerri Chandler, Dyed Soundorom and DVS1 put in stellar performances.
    Loco Dice joined Jamie Jones on the Terrace at DC-10 for some light-hearted fun (and his first show there since 2006). Richie Hawtin will play for Jones next week.
    Photo Credits: ENTER. - Igor Ribnik Music On - Vision Hype Photo Team Destino - Marcel Hohenstein ANTS - Roberto Castaño All others - Tasya Menaker
RA