Club review: Enter opening @ Space, Ibiza, 05/07/12

Jack Law is left speechless by the opening night of Richie Hawtin's Enter concept, which has joined forces with Kehakuma for a ten week residency at Space.

Jayne Robinson

Last updated: 2nd Aug 2012

For years now Richie Hawtin has taken his position on the island with Sven Vath and the Cocoon crew, but 2012 marks the start of a new Ibizan journey for the Minus boss as he unravels his new concept, Enter.

Enter has joined forces with Nick Curly's popular Kehakuma night at Space on a Thursday for ten special weeks across the height of the season, and Thursday 5th July bore witness to the opening party.

On entry into Space it was apparent from the off that Enter would provide a unique and magical experience. The Space board in the entrance (where we all get our photos taken) had been removed and replaced by an interactive display that transposed your body into moving silhouettes conjured out of black dots. Two Enter staff were on hand to airbrush the black Enter dot onto everybody who wanted one (I got mine on my cheek). The Sunset Terrace looked like some sort of mystical club heaven, with huge white circles hanging from the ceiling that had lots of long and fine string-like material attached all the way round the circumference, almost like jelly fish, of all different sizes. The DJ wasn't even playing music, just random, minimal bleeps and noises that combined with the jelly fish and the soft lighting to give a truly ambient experience.

We hadn't even heard any tunes yet, and we were already having the time of our lives. So we decided to explore further. The VIP room had been converted to a Sake bar; from the outside it looked pretty cool but unless you're a very important person you ain't getting in. Unfortunately I'm not that important, so you'll have to make your own judgements if you're lucky enough to get in! Onto the roof terrace next, where even the chairs had been rearranged to give a neater floor; Richie really had thought about every last detail. Now, however, we were ready for some music.

Paco Osuna was on in Space's main room, which was the Enter room. Immediately we noticed the white platform shapes that had been attached to the ceiling, another simple but effective change that just made the club look better. Percussive, rolling tech house oozed out of the speakers across the packed dance hall, as clubbers from all corners of the earth settled into their spots.

Radioslave and Nick Curly were playing on la Terraza, which was the Kehakuma room. There weren't many people in there as most of those in the club were engaging in the full Enter experience in the main room, but Kehakuma were certainly still having their own little party. Radioslave played some mood lifting tech house, one particular tune incorporating the well known 'Been A Long Time' vocal for a little sing-along. Curly was up next, and from the off he was smashing out Cocoon stompers from the likes of Maetrik and co, before the techno got a bit more German and fists got pumping.

Gaiser was due to start his live set over in Enter within a matter of minutes, so we ran on through, very keen to not miss a second. The crowd went wild to Gaiser's very unique, rolling techno; you can pick out a Gaiser tune in an instant when you hear it, such a great style. He demonstrated his portfolio to date, working tunes like 'Flashed' and 'Pullpush' together in fresh ways, different parts of different tunes mashed up into each other. Nothing beats a good stomp to the sounds of Gaiser. Apart from Richie Hawtin, but that was to come later...

Next up in Kehakuma was Magda the minimal queen. It was a little busier than before, but there was still plenty of space which was actually really good – perfect for us mincing around thinking we were Magda's minions doing her dirty work (music does strange things to your mind). Magda's sound is quite mechanical, dark and deep, with the odd hint of disco; sometimes it makes me think of gears in machinery grinding together ever so slowly - wicked to dance to. But the main man Richie had already begun in Enter, so we scuttled back through for the last, but by no means least, part of the night.

Richie Hawtin is a genius; the God of techno in fact. He had positioned white circular screens at either side of the stage, with mad, minimal projections from the front tripping the minds of many whilst silhouettes of sexy dancers behind the screens showed through from the back. Combined with Hawtin's minimal techno and the rest of the lights carefully filling the room, all the ingredients were there for an epic experience.

It's hard to give his music the justice it deserves through description alone – the best I can do is heavy bass, the trippiest sounds and lots of effects that Hawtin has personally invented with the best music software hardware companies like Traktor. You just have to go and see him to gauge what it's like; he will seriously blow your mind.

The clock struck 7am, closing time, but it didn't close. Hawtin teased the hell out of the many of us still left, hooked on the music. Every single stomper of a tune slowly came to a close as he clapped to the crowd in appreciation, each time as if it was all over. And then BANG, and he'd drop in another. This happened repeatedly and only made things more and more intense. At one point he was stood up on the decks taking a bow, making the crowd think that this time it definitely was all over. But it wasn't, and as he jumped back down, he smashed on another mid-jump .

When it got to 7:45am, it really was all over. We could have stayed there all day, maybe even all week given the pleasure. We walked out of the highly upgraded Space (Hawtin had turned it into what felt like a completely different club) and into the Balaeric sunshine, completely speechless.

For the bus journey home, we remained speechless. Enter Kehakuma is still (and will remain) top of the topic list of our conversation and there's no doubt in my mind that it is the biggest thing to hit Ibiza in 2012, maybe even for the last few years.

The night has a very strong future, and you would be an absolute fool to avoid it. Please make this night a priority, you will not regret it.