Club review: Space Ibiza 23rd Birthday

We had arrived at the club earlier than usual, anticipating a very busy Space - which it was - so we took some to go chill on the Premier Etage roof terrace before getting down to the nitty gritty later on.

It wasn't so chilling when we got up there however; it was only 11pm and the music was up full blast (I've only ever seen the Premier Etage after the 12pm curfew when the music has to be turned down quite dramatically). Alfredo and his son Jaime Fiorito were smashing out feel good house tunes like DJ Gregory's remix of 'Venus (Sunshine People)' along with all time classics, Layo & Bushwacka's 'Love Story' and Daft Punk's 'Around The World', setting the party standard which would follow for the rest of the night.

Next up, Martin Buttrich began a live set in the covered terrace. It wasn't very busy, as the majority of clubbers were in the main room with Jason Bye b2b Jem  Haynes, waiting ever so patiently for the extra long three hour set that the Chemical Brothers were shortly due to start. They were all seriously missing out – Buttrich's set was awesome.

It was strange at first, as our attention was drawn to the middle of the room where a couple of trapeze artists were getting ready for a little show; they each clambered onto a giant ring and started pulling weird and wonderful shapes to Buttrich's deep and punchy tech house. It lasted about ten minutes, before a woman dressed as a cheetah was carried around the room in a cage, growling and grabbing at the crowd. We were glad when they got out of the way, Buttrich was punching through his groovy remix of 'Around The Bay' and we wanted to get a good dance on.

We had wanted to catch The Chemical Brothers (DJ set) right from the start, but Buttrich had made that difficult for us with his tunes. Eventually, we dashed over to the rammed Discoteca to see some of The Chems. They were playing banging beats, ranging from quite techy to a bit more electro/house – whatever it was, it was bouncing, and we all bounced in unison as they slowly pulled a massive sheet the size of the dance floor above our heads. It got very sweaty very quickly, but it was quite a cool and intimate experience. Then loads of balloons dropped onto the crowd in true birthday celebration fashion whilst sharp lasers pierced the room.

We Love favourite Joris Voorn was already smashing it up in the covered terrace, and although it was tempting to stay and watch The Chems' extended set, Joris is just too good to miss. As usual he was playing top quality house music like Technasia's massive 'Heart of Flesh' and Matador's minimal masterpiece 'Klay', seamlessly working the tunes together with a big smile on his face. We were all smiling with him as he continued to drop tune after tune - including his anthem 'The Tide' and his newly released 'Goodbye Fly'.

Simian Mobile Disco had taken over the main room by the end of Joris' set, so we popped in to see how they were doing. Surrounded by lasers, the duo were on top form laying down bass heavy beats in the form of Nina Kraviz's 'Ghetto Kraviz' and an array of electronic tech house that was being lapped up by the remaining party animals. SMD rounded off the night nicely, and we left the club safe in the knowledge that we had all had a right good knees up that gave Space a birthday to remember and the rest of us, a night to remember. 

Words: Jack Law

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