James:
Such is the magnitude of closing weekend with Privilege, Ushuaïa, Amnesia and Space closings one after the other that I pretty much fell into Space at some point around the 7pm mark. Honestly, I was pretty much running on fumes at this point, yearning for a slightly longer taxi ride from San Antonio so I could sleep a bit more. Alas, the pace had long been set at 'full speed' and lets be honest, if there is to be one party that has all the ingredients to pick you up in to party mode again - it's the Space Closing Fiesta.
The early hours are, of course, all about the Flight Area, sponsored once again by Ultra (Ultra Music Festival), whereby the car park to the rear of the club is transformed into what could easily have been a purpose built clubbing space. The main stage seems to become more and more impressive each year I go, with the design and lighting becoming progressively bolder. Clearly some effort had been put in to the design of the DJ booth, with some entirely unique graphics flashing across the huge LED screens - often resembing the Terminator. The look on a good portion of peoples faces was that of confusion, excitement or emotion only seen after a good few days of non-stop partying. I felt for them, bless them, I could only hope they made it through the whole night...
With long serving Space resident Remo warming things up for two of the most loved DJs of more recent years - Joris Voorn & Nic Fanciulli B2B - things kicked off pretty quickly. There was no time to chill or relax, simply straight to the front, down my drink and savour the sounds of one of the most unexpected musical moments of the season. I'm talking about a Joris Voorn remix of a Swedish House Mafia track. So shocked was I at what tune I was hearing that I had to check it on iPhone music app Shazam to be sure - three times! 'Don't You Worry Child' is a commercial dance music hit, of which there have been many this season, but in its stripped back form, minus the vocal, and a deeper bassline, the track is great. Fair play to you Mr Voorn.
Following Joris and Nic we had another B2B session from Carlo Lio & Dubfire, taking things on a slightly tougher route, but not all that different in style to the previous set. At only around the 10pm mark we were already well within 'DC10 sitdown' mode, with at least one or two moments occuring that I can recall. Yes, admitedly it is slightly over done now, but the moments like this are still cool. At the very least it's the perfect excuse to sit down and rest your feet for a minute, eh?
Before Carl Cox took his turn, I had chance to have a quick scout about the rest of the rooms before they packed out at the midnight - 2am mark with the car park closing. 17 year old Spanish wonderkid Danny Avila has had a big season, with residencies across Space and Blue Marlin to show for his efforts. In a brief few minutes in the Sunset Terrace with him he rolled his way through several classic tracks like 'Beachball' and 'Rhythm of Life' thrown in with that track (Gotye... **shudder**). Huge crowd pleasers, clearly, but he knows what the crowd want from him and he delivers.
Over in La Terraza, Saytek was kicking off proceedings with his full live set. Rolling with a classic Roland 909 drum machine and a plethora of other part analogue, part digital components, Joseph Keevil did a fine job in what was certainly not one of the easier set times to have. With just enough time to sample Nina Kraviz over in the Discoteca I parked up behind the booth to just take in the attitude she brings to her performance. Honestly, I'm not as much of a fan of her as a lot of other people seem to be, but there's no denying she's a cool kid and knows her music. The room was far from busy, but those in attendance were loving it.
My last stint of having to pay attention to what was going on around me came with Space legend Carl Cox. Of course, there were the obligatory "Space!", "Oh yes, oh yes" and "Fantastic, faaaantastic" shout outs from the guy, which will honestly never get old for me. But, interlaced with current and absolute classic tracks that we have all come to expect from Coxy it felt as if the entire crowd had turned up to see him play until the new later finishing time of 2am, officially this time round anyway.
Jordan:
My record begins at the traditionally tricky part of Space Closing, when the Flight Area closes and a huge car park full of people all try to squish themselves into an already busy club and for the first few hours everybody is getting to know each other a little more intimately than anybody would quite like… That’s the tradition anyway, but in a pleasant twist of fate it simply wasn’t the case this time. None of the major club closings this year has been as busy as usual and whilst club owner and promoters might be grumbling, for the average clubber it has been a blessing. Instead of the usual two hour squeeze-a-thon to get to the bog or otherwise, we were able to move reasonably freely around the familiar dark caves of our beloved Space and flail upon the dance floor at our leisure, but still with enough people for a great atmosphere and full room.
Most of my time from this point was spent in the Terazza, with Joris Voorn and Nick Fanciulli providing a most excellent soundtrack and festive company, energetically bouncing off each other as they played back to back for the second time that night. It seems there were no rules to this set, the pair was throwing everything and anything at us, from old classics like Lil Louis’ 'French Kiss', to recent gems like Emannuel Satie’s 'Old School Is The New School' and Joris Voorn’s own mildly controversial remix of Swedish House Mafia’s 'Don’t You Worry Child'. Jury is still out on this one, but it popped up a few times that night and is worth a second mention.
Later in the Discoteca, Matador played a more straightforward banging techno set, which was perfectly suited to the dark and aggressive flashing lighting of the main room. I only caught the first half however, as I, like most workers who have been here since the start of the season, was in a rather silly mood and strayed in search of adventure, ending up trying to kick down solid doors backstage with Magda … sorry Space, no harm done, eh? My wanderings eventually took me into El Salon, where a small but dedicated troop of clubbers was having an epic disco rave with Paul Reynolds chucking out funky classic after classic. The atmosphere in this little room was hilarious, and boogying down to Chic 'I Want Your Love' with a smattering of other weirdos was probably the highlight of an already great night –closings are full of little surprises like that.
Hannah:
With the crowd firmly instated into the Discoteca the man of the season, Richie Hawtin took centre stage where he began to play on the cusp of tech house and techno with tracks like Enfants Malins & Haze-M - 'Sweet Heart' (Juliy (Italy) Remix) easing the euphoriant crowd into his forthcoming techno realm. Rolling percussion flowed through the tracks later to be embraced by a fierce pumping bass bringing the shuffling sounds of drums into a new rhythm.
Richie's set continuously took the room to the edge of a drop, teasing excitement from clubbers until it arrived and landed everyone into his futuristic world. Featuring a lot of poignant drums which escalated loud echoes of a marching band. With claps, teasing electronic rewinds noises and deep droany vocals he kept his famous rolling bassline alive throughout the 3 hour set. Playing a recent favourite unreleased track - Séjon - Unknown Entity, Richie worked the crowd keeping the atmosphere adrenaline fuelled and fresh.
Joined by an excitable Danny Tenaglia who adopted a crazy gnome-like bounce next to Hawtin in the booth the party really came together as one, creating a seamless path from the dance-floor. You could feel that this party was not like any other and that it was the letting go of a revolutionary summer season for techno and its musical brothers. It was great to not only be experiencing gripping sounds but also to visually see artists such as Hawtin playing for the moment, one last time.
