It’s nothing short of an honour and a privilege to be permitted to dance on the tip of Dalt Vila with views overlooking the ocean and the old town. With a state of the art set up contrasted against the backdrop of Dalt Vila, the epicentre of Ibiza’s history and a Unesco World Heritage site since 1999.
The line-up for the IMS grand finale is a surprising one for Ibiza standards, with Thalab, Kidnap Kid, Zhu, MK, and Rudimental closing the show. Although these acts are as good musically, an Ibiza puritan might be missing its heroes of the night before – the Lucianos, Pete Tongs, Solomuns and SVENS - but instead a predominantly English line-up is announced and the crowd follows trend.
I miss Thalab’s performance due to my tour of Ibiza town to hungrily hunt down a parking spot - only just to catch a surprise act by Harley Maxwell performing their yet-to-be-released-sure-to-be-a-hit track, Chased Lines. Kidnap Kid keeps it a little bit deeper and darker than the pop natured songs we are used to but keeps his signature female vocals weaving through the bass line. As he comes to a close we make way for newcomer Zhu.
There’s a break in the music as a white screen comes down in front of the podium - shrouding Zhu in anonymity, an act he has kept up since his rise in 2014. His set is eclectic with deep house tracks like Super Friends mixed with vocals reminiscent of Little Dragon to an instrumental jazzy break with the saxophone reverberating through the crowd whilst the silhouette of a sexy dancing female saxophonist finally does justice to the screen in front. Zhu even throws in a Michael Jackson favourite Thriller with the skeletons on screen persuading the audience to join in on the infamous dance moves.
After Zhu’s feel good set MK comes on a little too fast and too strong but soon manages to focus it into a groovy deep house set that stays steady until it’s time for what I have most been looking forward to – Rudimental. Before they even come on stage the silence is broken by fans screaming the name “RUDI WHAAT?” “RUDI –MENTAL!” A short silence continues, as the band sets up, and then as the first beats drop there’s a unanimous sigh of “wow”. A full live band set up with sax, keyboard, drums and backing singers opening up the show with their hit song Right Here with Anne Marie taking over on the vocals. The band move effortlessly from dub step to R&B to dub and each genre gets the crowd to bounce and get loose – quite a feat for a partly IMS delegate crowd.
It’s a treat to end the International Music Summit with such a spectacular live performance and shows originality and creativity in the programming. Interesting things ahead for 2016!
WORDS | Maya Dupont PHOTOGRAPHY | James Chapman
