Ibiza 2013 Review
Wrote this a long time ago, meant to do some more editing, but fuck it, it's waited long enough so As promised here is my Ibiza 2013 review. This was my third time going to Ibiza, after 2009 and 2012. Things change things stay the same. Some things better, some worse. Still my favorite place in the world every summer! Even met a couple of TA's along the way!
Vegas the new Ibiza, please. The best day in vegas can't beat the worst in ibiza unless you win big at the tables and pay for your whole trip. Vegas has always been the place for washed up celebrities to go make some cash off tourists and that's still just as true.
All the photos I took http://www.flickr.com/photos/914778...57635640804255/
Videos embedded below, sorry about some crappy audio but you get the idea
Saturday 10 August
Just went and checked out the bars in San Antonio's west end. If you haven't been there, bars in ibiza are more like mini clubs with no cover, cheap drinks, and the whole works sound, lighting, and a DJ.
Sunday 11 August
Full on Ferry at Eden
Last year I saw Ferry at Judgment Sundays, this year Ferry took over the whole night and Judgment Sundays is now Judgment Fridays. This was pretty much what you would expect, trouse. If you don't like trouse you wouldn't like this. I like it when it's well executed, and this was pretty good as trouse goes. Michael Woods did a back to back set with ferry. Not really that memorable of a night, Eden is a nice club by any standard but it's nowhere near the caliber of the bigger clubs on ibiza, and none of the music really stuck in my head like the next three nights. In fact looking back on all the videos i took, which I generally only do for songs i actually like, most of them are quite cheezy. I'd skip it next time and do something else Sunday.
Monday 12 August
Armin van Buuren solo at Privilege
Last year I went to ASOT at privilege and it was my favorite party of the whole time, I didn't get to see armin the lineup was Markus Schulz, Cosmic Gate, Tydi, and Dash Berlin. Slept through cosmic gate (literally slept through it, not like their set was that boring ), Dash was better than usual, Markus and Tydi were really good. This year armin only. I didn't know it but found out right before he was recording part of the set for Universal Religion 7.
Armin played a great set. He didn't play any fluffy stuff and pretty much stuck to trance the entire time, there was no like 1 or 2 hours of trouse and fluff at the beginning he just started off with some pretty banging progressive trance and went the whole way. Really liked most of what I heard of what was going on UR 7, definitely going to pick that up. After that, he played a set loaded with great classic tracks like 7 cities and 1998. There were no bad tracks any time in the night that made me want to leave the room, i thoroughly enjoyed all 6 and a half hours and could have stayed much longer. Also privilege has the #2 sound system I've ever heard and a great laser show.
Tuesday 12 August
Carl Cox at Space
Last year I bought a ticket for this party for 40 euros, and proceeded to crash out at 18:00 and accidentally sleep for 12 hours through the whole thing i was so sleep deprived. If only I knew what I was missing I would have been there. This year I made sure to get enough sleep that this wouldn't happen, and it exceeded its reputation. I had never seen Carl Cox before, I knew he would be good, but I was really surprised by just how amazing he was. I've very rarely ever seen a DJ play a crowd like that. Like a fiddle, and they were loving every minute. Thats what it takes to be a living legend. The guy is 51 and having just as much of a blast as the crowd for his whole 5 hour set.
As for the club itself, there are many good reasons why Space is considered the #1 club in the world now. For one thing it has 4 rooms of great DJs, and each room has its own character. The sunset terrace is just a great place to chill out after rocking it in the main room or terrace. Two of the Djs played Out of Space by Prodigy, classic track, you don't hear enough of that stuff in clubs. On to the best reason, the sound. Definitely the best sound systems I've ever heard in my life, that's sound systems plural. The main room and the terrace just have the most perfectly tuned funktion one sound so every corner of the room is covered in chest thumping bass, while being not at all harsh to the ears.
The main room also had one of the best lighting shows ive seen, lasers, lights, fog, all perfectly timed with the music, the guys running the show were really getting into it. The crowd and overall vibe are great, everyone is there for the same reason, the best music and getting down, there is no pretention here whatsoever, nobody cares how good lookin you are or how many bottles you can afford. The club is big enough that even with a large crowd there is always "space" to just chill out and listen to the music. Fucking GO, JUST GO.
Wednesday 13 August
Wisdom of the Glove at Pacha
Went here expecting some tripped out techno, and got some really tripped out techno. My favorite techno DJ Maayan Nidam was opening, and she played an awesome set, which was extended by 45 minutes because the next DJs were not prepared to play at their starting time. They finally went on and were pretty good, but their set got cut short and they were clearly not happy. Hey it's Guy Gerber's night and you should be ready to play on time. I have to admit Guy Gerber is not really my style of techno, he did play some really good stuff but I was getting sleepy by the end, and there was some really crazy stage show going on in the club that I can hardly make any sense out of.
As for the club, this was my first time going there, the sound is very good, but I would call it third or fourth out of Space, Privilege, and Amnesia. Not sure if it's just me but I really prefer funktion ones over anything else. Thats still as least as good as any sound i've heard outside Ibiza. It has a really cool chillout smoking terrace on the roof, get some fresh air, sit down, eat some food, yes they do have food and it is reasonably priced and pretty tasty.
But we haven't got to my favorite part of the night. That happened in the much smaller funky room, the second room which is located between the main room and the terrace. To close out the night, Maayan Nidam and Sonja Moonear did a back to back set of really funky techno that was one of my favorite techno sets ever. It might not be everyone's style but that's the kind of techno i can sit there and listen to for 7 hours like armin or carl cox.
Lee Burridge closed out the night, due to being stuck in the funky room I didn't hear much, but the few tracks I did hear at the end were very good and I didn't want to leave.
Thursday 14 August
I had one of the best nights of my life at Cream in 2009, that was the best night of that Ibiza trip by far. So I really want to like Amnesia and Cream but unfortunately when I went last year it had clearly taken a turn for the worse. The music on the terrace (Super You and Me) was intolerable, the place was WAY too crowded, I couldn't even get in during Paul van Dyk's set, Gareth Emery played a stinker and Giuseppe Ottaviani played a good set but not one of his better. Also they seriously downgraded the lighting in the club, in 09 they had all these full color lasers on the terrace and replaced them with a single green one, and also in 09 they were selilng nitrous on the dance floor for 5 euros a hit, not anymore. Nitrous is a horrible toxic drug that I cannot recommend in good faith for anyone to use ever, but i have to admit just for one night huffing it on the dancefloor was insanely fun.
I was hoping it would be better this year, but it was not to be. They upgraded the lighting and added a bunch of very impressive lasers in the main room, so the club itself, is still great by me. As for the terrace, I don't know what the lighting looked like because the music was so fucking bad I couldn't stand being in there for more than a minute. Mixmag terrace featuring Calvin Harris. I wouldn't expect something like that to be any good, but what a shit fest.
I was really there for Anjunabeats in the main room. Gareth Wyn opened and was cheesy. Above & Beyond played next, they played a decent set but not one of their better ones. The worst part was yet to come, Mat Zo. I've heard a lot of negative feedback about him, and I have to 100% totally agree. He was absolutely dreadful. The few tracks he played that I did like, I have heard 50 times in clubs over the past 4 years, and he has no clue about how to progress a set in track selection. He should stick to producing. I stuck it out to see what Norin & Rad were like, but their first few tracks didnt impress me and finally said, fuck it, i'm leaving early. Standards at Cream and Anjunabeats have gone WAY downhill. Anjunabeats parties in Miami at Nocturnal and Karu & Y for WMC were some of the best nights of my life and its sad where they've ended up. Next time at Amnesia I will check out Music On or Cocoon
The End, caught a flight out at 10 am to go to Amsterdam, so tired I cant remember the two flights at all I just crashed out the whole time, flight attendants had to wake me up, for LUMINOSITY . Which is quite a story in itself. Maybe I will get a chance to tell it sometime!
Last edited by Ronald Ravin' on Nov-27-2013 at 03:28
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