Written by Izzy Seddon, 22nd May 2016
After a gruelling 4 hour delay at Gatwick where we did the only thing Brits en route to Ibiza could do – a disco nap then cocktails! There was a sense of camaraderie on the flight that could only be felt with a plane full of people anticipating the magic of their “so close but yet so far” impending trip to the White Isle. I think Mark (Uneek director), our newly adopted friend Rob and I were the only ones crazy enough to still be heading to Pacha from our flight considering our new arrival time of 03.30! There wasn’t a chance in hell I was missing the Solomon +1 party! Having done a season in 2012, I had been lucky enough to head back to my favourite place on earth exactly 3 years to the day for the Solomon +1 party 7 months ago, coincidentally just hours after I had met Mark in the very same waiting room in Gatwick!
I bundled myself into the airplane toilet moments before the captain switched on the fasten seatbelt signs for descent to squeeze myself into my Pacha ready outfit because of the sheer buzz of ex-citement and wanting to miss as little as possible, much to the amusement of the other passengers! With a quick dash to drop the bags at Rob’s Playa D’en Bossa hotel room (definitely no time to go to our San Antonio one!), we jumped back in the car to make our final journey to Pacha. The warmth of Ibiza town soaked our skin and as we got in the queue and I could hardly contain myself! Coming through the entrance to the wall adorned with a picture of the King of Ibiza himself and a crowd which just got more and more beautiful as you walk through.
We sadly missed German DJ Butch’s solo set and Solomun was already pounding the white walls of Pacha with his heavily tech influenced Balearic beats. One of the first tracks I remembered to film for later Shazaming was fellow Hamburg raised DJ and Producer, Matthias Meyer’s ‘Voltage’, a stunning track from 2011 and a sign of what was to come with Solomun never straying from be-tween 121 and 129 BPM. The next significant track was Moloko ‘Sing it Back’ (Mousse T’s Feel Love Mix), released on Defected last year. It takes you back to school disco’s where we first heard Róisín Murphy’s distinctive voice on the original. The whole crowd sang along to the vocals while I took it upon myself to sing Donna Summer’s lyrics for “I Feel Love” over the top, much to the crowd’s bemusement – I’m sure!
The whole vibe was just perfect, with palm trees adorning the central DJ booth area and that infa-mous Solomun + 1 sign. There is something so uniquely beautiful about Pacha with it’s incredible history and this party is everything that Pacha is still getting right 43 years on. You could feel the love in the room for Solomun, and his big crew of beautiful women dancing in the booth beside him proves his hero status, not to mention the robot adorned dancers either side! He played classics like Cocoon Recordings ‘Subtellite’ by Timo Maas and more recent epic bangers like Pig & Dan’s ‘Growler’ from his own Diynamic label.
When Butch joined Solomun again to go b2b, the duo did not disappoint and they looked like they had the most fun up there! Nothing is better than seeing two DJs bouncing off each other, the crowd were totally buzzing at this point from the joint effort. The confetti cannons were used for tracks with season stealing potential such as last year’s Numbers release of DJ Deeon’s dec-adesold ‘Freak Like Me’ reinvigorated with Lee Walker’s 2016 remix on Defected.
One of the best moments of the night was when Solomun dropped his epic remix of Whilk and Misky’s ‘Clap Your Hands’ released back in October. The entire room was entranced as the lights flicked on and off for to the music and each time they came back on, the crowd raised their arms in unison in a blissful moment of ecstasy!
Somehow we managed to push through the tiredness and made it to the very end. The last track Solomun dropped was The Doors ‘Riders on the Storm’, which I had great memories of from his 10 hour set at Sankeys closing party back in 2012, ending his first season of Diynamic Neon Nights. This was a perfect end to a perfect party! I am so excited for the rest of the season of + 1 parties, with an incredible line up of guests including Canadian born, Ibiza veteran Richie Hawtin (28th August) who makes his very first appearance at +1 and last year’s DJ Awards “Breakthrough DJ Of The Year” award winning South African DJ Black Coffee (7th August).