- When I entered Sankeys Ibiza on Thursday, June 16th, the Basement looked transformed. Unlike some of the other super clubs, where production takes centre stage, Sankeys' décor has always been low-key, especially in the dark, low-ceilinged room. But tonight, for new party Unusual Suspects, vine plants hung from the pillars, dimly lit by the warm glow of around a dozen suspended lightbulbs. They gave the usually murky surroundings a fresh, sophisticated feel. As I zig-zagged through the crowd, groups of trendy Europeans danced passionately to Francesco Del Garda's vibrant house. I even spotted a guy in an Underground Resistance t-shirt—a rarity in Ibiza.
Unusual Suspects is bringing a current and exciting sound to the island, but that's not how it made its mark. During the often-overlooked winter months, it hosted a handful of successful events at Sankeys featuring DJs like Carl Craig, Eats Everything and Audiofly. A buzz formed quickly, so when it came to shifting the booking policy towards minimal-minded DJs like Rhadoo, Thomas Melchior and Barac, a solid crowd was already on board. At the season opening on May 12th, the Basement was packed with 2000 people. Numbers were a little thinner when I visited (June is notoriously slow in Ibiza), but the mood was lively and the floor perfectly spacious. For the whole time I was there, the music was excellent.
Del Garda, who's pushing 40, is currently enjoying a golden moment, reaping the rewards for years of hardcore digging and classy DJ sets. You can tell his experience from the way he fearlessly skips from one style to the next, shifting from smooth deep house into tumbling garage-y bits into old, glitchy tech house. At one point, he dropped a noisy experimental club track that mutated every four bars. Much to my surprise, the crowd hollered along in appreciation. Ibiza is typically all about loops and grooves, so to see people getting down to music that challenging felt more significant than Del Garda probably realised. In the four years I've been coming to the island, I've never seen music that strange be so well received.
A lot of ink has been spilled on RA recently with regards to Binh, so expectations for my first time seeing him were high. He was superb. The 90 minutes didn't throw up a single dud track, while the mixing, swift and imperceptible, created a flow that made the listening experience fluid and thrilling. Every now and then, in amongst the waves of rushing acid and tough, bleepy rave, he'd slam in a stripped-back, funky bassline, just to keep things punchy. At points, the music was so absorbing it coloured my surroundings: couples kissed with an almost violent intensity, while ravers busted out dance moves as if they'd lost control of their limbs. For some it was maybe too much—when I went to the toilet, I noticed that the usually-empty upstairs room was heaving—but then interesting, esoteric dance music isn't supposed to work in Ibiza. The ultimate failure of nights like Kehakuma and Next Wave proved that. Somehow, though, it looks like Unusual Suspects has found a way.
Photo credit /
Tatiana Chausovsky