Ibiza was amazing (yes, I did not forget that I have pics to upload, sorry!) and this mix is a small 30-minute tribute featuring some of the most memorable tracks I heard during my stay there. This is not the usual “DJ Bammer mix”, but I am quite happy with the end result.

I will probably upload another mix this month, stay tuned.

Download it here or stream it below.

Enjoy!

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1- Swedish House Mafia & Laidback Luke – Leave the World Behind (Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Vs SHM Dark Forest Edit)
2- Michel Cleis – La Mezcla (Original Mix)
3- Joris Voorn – We’re All Clean
4- Chris Lake & Lys – La Tromba (Original Mix)
5- Lee Cabrera Vs Thomas Gold – Shake it (Move a Little Closer)
6- Steve Angello & AN21 - Flonko (version 1)
7- Dirty South, Sebastian Ingrosso and David Guetta feat. Julie McKnight- How Soon is Now

Eden is on the opposite side of the Island, so I went earlier to see Sant Antoni. It is a bit different from Ibiza town / Platja d’en Bossa, not as busy but just as pleasant. Before Eden I went to the pre-party in Savannah, where Pete Tong was doing his radio show in the new 9 pm time slot, and caught Faithless. I also went to Cafe del Mar and Cafe Mambo, important places to visit of course!

A couple of minutes after midnight I was entering Eden, was actually the first person to get in! It is more of a humble club if you ask me, compared to the other 3 I visited, and much more traditional (you can, for instance, be 1 metre away from the DJ, has less pyro and gimmicks, etc). The resident DJs, 3 altogether, did a good job to warm up the crowd, especially Rob Marmot, until 2 AM. And then… well, then it was time for Mr. Eric Prydz…

I am a huge fan of the man as a producer (Eric Prydz is also Pryda and Cirez D) and I have always loved his livesets, but this… well, this one was totally unbelievable! During Marmot’s last track you could hear the trademark “Pryda Synth” coming in and after a fabulous first track, we were in for one hell of a ride. Eric Prydz is working on his new album and judging by what he showed, it will be off the hook! But that was not all: in his 2 hour set, he still played Daft Punk’s “Aerodynamic” (with his synths in the background of course), his remix of New Order’s “True Faith” (amazing!), On/Off, 747 (by Huggy and Dean Newton), his new remix of Pjanoo, Waves and to finish things off, “Leave the World Behind” (Ibiza Special Intro Mix). This was a fantastic journey with different paces and vibes and I loved every minute of it. It was my favorite set in Ibiza and it was kind of funny to hear the Mafia play this same remix of “Leave the World Behind” on the first night and Prydz as the last tune of his liveset.

After Prydz, Faithless Sound System did a small performance (about 45 minutes) singing “Insomnia” or “We Come 1″ and then Pete Tong closed the party with a set very similar to his latest Essential Selection, which was a bit of a “Best of” of what I heard in Ibiza during my stay there. Some encores followed and “Music is the Answer” was the final track of Wonderland.

Amazing night, where Eric Prydz was king and what a way to finish the Summer!!

Here are some pics:

Eden – Wonderland closing 25sept09

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Amnesia has won the award for best global club in recent years and, in my opinion, deserves it judging by this great party that I attended.

Amnesia is near a motorway so I had to wait for a bus to get there. I arrived at about 0h45, with already a big queue to get in. About 20 minutes later I was in and Gareth Wyn was already playing in the main room. Gareth’s set was a very good one, pumping the crowd to what was yet to come. Gareth played some remixes of classics such as BT’s Flaming June and his own productions, much to the delight of the (great) Amnesia crowd, ready to listen to some trance.

Amnesia has a couple of nice features: the DJ booth is elevated but it has mirrors in the rear, so you can see the whole DJ hardware etc easily. And it has a fantastic equalizer (that truly represents what is going on) below it. When I looked at the mirror I immediately noticed PvD’s setup: the 2 laptops, the APC-40, the XONE 3D mixer and the 2 Axiom MIDI keyboards were already ready to go!

At 2 AM came the moment I have been waiting for: Paul van Dyk’s performance. I actually expected for him to play later on, but that would mean Eddie Halliwell would kill the crowd first with his banging trance, so this was a great decision. PvD played for 3 hours, in yet another epic set which consisted of 3 different parts: in the beginning it was mostly PvD’s new productions (kicking things off with the 2009 remix of “For an Angel”), then a bunch of crowd pleasers (like Underworld’s “Born Slippy”, Alter Ego’s “Rocker” or New Order’s “Blue Monday”) and to finish, Time of Our Lives and Home, sang live Johnny McDaid (Vega 4′s singer). 3 hours flew by as Paul played “Kidsos”, 4 String’s “Into the Night”, “Zombie Nation” with “We’re Alive” lyrics and even “Flaming June” (with “The Other side” vocals). Great stuff! Johnny McDaid being there just made things even better and the whole club sang “Time of Our Lives”, which is always a great track to hear live.

At 5 AM Eddie took over and obviously, he did not disappoint in bringing amazing banging tunes, with a couple of epic breakdowns for good measure, such as a some remix of Binary Finary and Sander van Doorn’s Remix of “Spaceman”, by The Killers. The crowd went nuts for the 90 minutes Eddie played. I am not sure at what time Sasha played, if he actually did, since the main room was REALLY busy as soon as PvD started and nobody left afterwards… Sasha joined the main room to say hi to Eddie during his set, so I am not sure if he actually played in the other room or not.

After Eddie, Gareth Wyn returned to finish off with Flaming June (yes, again) and a couple of tracks more, constantly pointing to his watch (maybe telling the people to go home?) and at 6h45, that was it.

Unbelievable night. Great atmosphere in a great home, awesome music and I never thought Trance would be so much fun in a club- maybe because I am from Portugal and no one cares about Trance here… but this was just incredible!

Here are some pics:

Amnesia – Cream closing 24sept09

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Space is billed as the club with the most awards won in Ibiza and it is indeed a great club. In comparison to Pacha, Space does not use as much pyro, crazy lightning, confettis etc, but that never stopped them to be a major player for 20 years in the Island (and at least the speakers don’t kill you). It also happened to be the club on the other side of my hotel’s street, which made things even easier for me. Now, I am not a Cox or Tenaglia fan, but I have always wondered what the fuss was about these 2 and this was the perfect chance to kill 2 birds with 1 stone – we are talking about 2 big veterans of the dance scene.

I arrived at 11PM and, again, in a couple of minutes I was inside the club. Club was already rather full (doors opened at 9PM), at least the Terrace, which was the one I visited first. Some DJ was just taking over when I showed up, I did not get his name and that’s a shame because he really delivered for 1 hour. Then the MC showed up and said “everybody, Carl Cox will start in 5 minutes in the Main Room” and the crowd IMMEDIATELY left the Terrace. In a couple of minutes about 75% of the people left… wow, that DJ must have felt heartbroken. So I joined the trend and stayed in the Main Room for 2 hours. Carl Cox’s set had its moments but overall wasn’t that good. Obviously, we are talking about a scheduled 7 hour set, but I am keeping that in mind and still found the set rather dull. I went back to the Terrace and to my surprise Giles Petterson was playing. He was not scheduled to be in this night by the time I got my ticket, but I was aware he would be there. I just thought it was still early for him. Guys in Ibiza are too busy promoting their parties and selling their tickets and club security just knows how to say “keep moving”, so basically you have to pray to be lucky enough to listen to your favorite DJs from the start.

Petterson’s set was amazing and very eclectic, but I only caught 50 minutes of it. Too bad, as it was by far my favorite of the night. I have heard him before in Portugal and found him impressive and again he didn’t disappoint. Tenaglia took over at 2h30 and 1 hour and 30 minutes later, I was not impressed. He creates a great connection with the crowd and has a lot of fun while playing but his style of house is just not my cup of tea, I guess. So I went back to the Main Room.

Or should I say… tried to go? The place was PACKED and I couldn’t even see the booth from where I was. I stayed for a little bit more but since Cox’s set wasn’t changing much, I decided to leave. I usually stay until the end of the parties, but this time I didn’t think it was worth it. Not to say it wasn’t a good party, it just wasn’t my style and already knew that beforehand but wanted to go for the reasons mentioned above.

Here are some pics:

Space – Carl Cox closing 22sept09

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My flight got delayed 1 hour but I still managed to arrive to Pacha on time- I was there by midnight and a couple of minutes later, I was in. Beautiful club and the Dark Forest theme looked great. The club was predictably empty when I got in, but in a couple of hours it got PACKED. It was very hard to move at times, but eventually everyone found a good spot.

One thing I noticed instantly was that this club is LOUD. Even with my earplugs (which are pretty good) I felt the ringing afterwards, not to mention that the bass tickled my hair several times! I do not have a problem with that but I feel sorry for the rest of the clubbers who probably were half deaf before the Mafia actually started their set.

Sarah Main was a great opener, playing dark, interesting beats warming up for 1h30 before AN21 took over. I have never listened to a set by this guy and I am glad I did, as I found his style to be very unique and fun- he will probably get much bigger in years to come. 2 hours later, it was all about the Mafia, playing from 3h30 till 7AM. I am a big fan of Ingrosso, Axwell and Angello so I was not surprised with the tunes they played or by the fact that they put on one hell of a show. I have seen Axwell before in Portugal and he caught my eye there, but this was something else.

I think they played the perfect set, which was a mix of old classics (like Modjo’s “Lady” or Stardust’s “Music sounds better with you”) with their current productions (such as the great “Leave the world behind”, which opened and closed the night with the special ibiza intro mix and the original mix) and plenty of mash-ups (such as Show me Love/Satisfaction). All flawlessly mixed of course. There were too many highlights to mention as the set was pretty much banging all the way till the end. I was especially happy to get to listen to Angello’s new track “Monday”, with the acapella of “Finally” layered in. Angello took the MC role too and did a great job to keep the crowd ecstatic, which was frequent throughout the night.

The fact that Erick Morillo showed up just to give some love to the Mafia made the night even more special. A legend in house music showing respect to these bunch of newcomers who truly deserve the success they are getting. In the end, the Mafia thanked everyone for an unforgettable Summer and I have no doubt in my mind that next Summer they will have a residency again. You could tell they were genuinely happy and flattered to be a part of Pacha this year and without a doubt they were more than up for it!

Here are some pics:

Pacha – SHM closing 21sept09

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