Ibiza Review: Opening Parties ANTS & We Love...

Photo: Phrank

The opening weekend of the season - you can't beat it. All the anticipation, all the hope. Will the new signing make an impact on Saturday afternoon at Ushuaia? Can the old-stager at the top club still have what it takes for the big fixture on Sunday?

In order to answer these riddles the opening of Ants at Ushuaia and We Love at Space was on the agenda for my inebriated scouting report… a tough job, but someone's got to do it. 

First up, Ants - the new kids on the block at Ushuaia. Good branding, well executed.  Obviously they've got the music to go with it (Saturday's opener contained the likes of Droog and Los Suruba, alongside resident Deetron, who will be joined by fellow residents Joris Voorn, Reboot, Radio Slave and Uner this summer), but it is the look of the thing that may well make people sit up and take note. 

Upon entrance I was greeted by a gang of people dressed in full-body ant suits.  Literally full-body as well - not sure how they were able to see, but they seemed perfectly capable of dancing in sync around Ushuaia throughout the afternoon, stopping swathes of the dance floor while they were at it… people certainly seemed impressed. More impressed than with Droog I think it's fair to say.

To give them their due, it was early on, and Ushuaia has worked itself into that unenviable position where DJs can play pretty much anything and people are still going to have a good time - the scene, the setting, the sound, the style of the crowd; it's all quality. It would have been nice to have seen Droog hit their straps a bit more and progress the set beyond the modern-day Deep House that was expected of them.

But then Deetron came on and delivered an absolute masterclass. Did Droog take one for the team to allow him to shine? Maybe. Either way, it is utterly fantastic to see someone come on in a cool venue but completely disregard the strait-jacket of what's in at the moment. Sure, he played some of it, as well as some more progressive-sounding techy stuff, as he often does; but this was a proper performance in the Garnier/Tenaglia-style… anything goes but it seems to make sense. Skiddle just can't get enough of this man at the moment.

Bizarre Inc’s ‘I'm Gonna Get You’, quickly followed by George Morel’s ‘Morel's Groove’, belting out to a crowd of scantily-clad women and ants, splashing about in a pool in front of the DJ booth. In 2013. Most of them would not have been born when those tracks were made, making for a set we won't forget in a hurry. Equally as memorable was the commotion on the dance floor during his set, when two guys, just for the craic, pretended to carry a massive object - perhaps a pane of glass or a door, but I stress; pretended - across a large section of the dance floor.

We all had to make way to thin air, and then the inevitable happened, you could see them straining - we looked on, fearing the worst - and then… they dropped it. Some unfortunate patron got blamed for being in the way and knocking over the imaginary object, but fair was fair - it looked like he was hobbling about with a phantom broken foot, so justice was done.

No doubting the sprit in this place - it was a good-looking but also good-natured crowd - and while admittedly, on the grounds of comedy alone, the above scene may have been even too weak to make the final cut of an episode of Last Of The Summer Wine, it is nice to see people taking the piss out of complete strangers on a dance floor with no fear of repercussions.

Then it was time for Los Suruba to finish things off over on the main stage. Again, another nice scene, as the music stops by the pool and people gather in the dark by the main stage, waiting for the finale. And it was certainly a grand entrance.  Trapeze-ants, fireworks, mad lighting; the works. It sounded amazing as well - a quality setup. Los Suruba's first hour built very nicely, possessing the electronic patience of John Digweed at his best, before it ran out of steam somewhat. Not bad though, our final verdict.

Just when I thought I'd had enough ants for one night, imagine my surprise when I am given my change by the driver on the Disco Bus, and fixed to the underside of the coins - and they were real coins - were ant stickers. Ant-themed shrapnel! Love it. Someone's got some good ideas behind the scenes there.

Photo: Phrank

And now to We Love. Beyond such gimmickry but looking at the line ups this summer, still at the top of their game. In only the main room and the terrace, we saw the likes of Henrik Schwarz, Carl Craig, Bicep, Hot Since 82, James Zabiela, Joy Orbison playing back to back with Ben UFO, and Midland doing the same with Paul Woolford. There was that familiar festival-feeling where you know at any one time, you're missing out on something in another room.

It was a good idea to chuck those tag team offerings in there and mix it up a bit as well… it wasn't long before the weird acid techno of Midland and Wooly became peak-time and bangin' courtesy of Joy O and Ben UFO; capped off with Armand Van Helden's evergreen ‘U Don't Know Me’. And there was techno, lots of techno. Zabiela was banging it out as well, but with his customary punctuation giving us a break every so often. He was on fire for the most part - it was a typically enthusiastic performance with a slightly harder edge than usual. Very good.

But the star of the show had to be Henrik Schwarz. Starting in a murky disco led region, it proceeded to tease with the most nagging, melodic, beautiful, and intelligent grooves. A lot of piercing and emotional vocals. To call it ‘deep’ with what the term has come to mean would be to do it a dis-service, but it felt like a more accurate take on the word than most are capable of these days. And then at the end he just went berserk. Another dose of techno. And Lee Cabrera! How he made ‘Shake It’ work I'll never know, but he certainly did. Then Carl Craig rattled it onwards to the finish.  

It's hard to say what the rest of the season holds as far as sound goes. If you watched the combination of straight Deep House and Bassy stuff from Hot Since 82, Bicep and Droog you would say not much has changed since last year; but the craziness of the Techno at times in Space was a nice surprise, although looking at the line up, maybe it shouldn't have been one.

What will be pleasing for both Ushuaia and Space is that despite the island looking a bit quieter than normal for the opening weekend, the promoters stepped up and rammed the places like it was peak season. A good opening victory for both clubs.