Eric Prydz is one of the most successful electronic producers on this planet. As his first residency came to a close, here's how it all went down.
Looking at his long career you cannot deny that the Swedish craftsman is able to do it all. His music style varies greatly, a truly diverse producer of dance sounds. First, you have the popular releases under his own surname, notably the chart topping 2004 hit Call On Me. Then you have the trance stylings of Pryda, releasing huge tracks like The End, under a progressive house infused label named Pryda as well. He delves even further into the music with Techno projects like Cirez D moniker and his other label, Mouseville. Truly a man of many talents. In previous years on the island of Ibiza, he has played at Amnesia, gathering many fans whilst doing so.
This year, there has been a shift in the Ibiza clubbing world. Many events have changed venues, some new events have been formed. The Ushuaïa Entertainment owned, Hï Ibiza was built over the winter of 2016/17 and stands in place of where Space was. The brand new venue is like something out of a science fiction movie, unbelievably cool and crisp decor with fantastic sound and lighting production inside.
With such a high profile venue fresh on the White Isle, all that was left was to book great artists to play over the summer season. The booking of Eric Prydz's 10-event residency was a brilliant choice. Prydz has been recently amazing audiences with his globally successful 4.0 show and electronic music fans have pretty excited, filling the venue every week.
Over the past 10 shows, we have seen a massive amount of fantastic artists come and feature alongside resident Prydz. Matthew Dear, Kölsch, Pig & Dan, Agoria, Catz 'N Dogz, Tube & Berger and Dusky have all featured on the island, with some memorable sets. But the act for me stood out from the all rest of them over the season was deadmau5.
I went to both dates he played. For me, it was the fulfilment of a 10-year wait to see him and he did not disappoint. As his first appearance on the island after two years, it was great to see him at the closing party of the season, first alongside Cristoph in the Theatre room and then a special back-to-back set from Andrea Oliva and Nick Curly in the Club room, the ending of this epic residency was an incredible experience.
Starting off proceedings for the evening, Cristoph, who is newly signed to Pryda recordings played an atmospheric techno set with heavy selections such as Receiver by HD Substance and a 2pole remix of Inter Galaxy. The British DJ warmed the crowd ready for the arrival of deadmau5. Inside the Theatre room, you could clearly hear that a lot of time and money has been spent on the sound system, an Adamson system now fitted in the place of a Funktion-One rig.
Just outside the Theatre is a beautifully decorated smoking area, like stepping into a scene from Avatar with its glowing neon trees. Around them are various drink-specific bars serving beer, cocktail, tequila and other alcoholic beverages, each decorated in a different way. My personal favourite is the cocktail bar featuring a pink neon sign and flamingos, looking like something straight out Vice City.
Stepping back into the venue, deadmau5 had begun his set, mixing electro samples with hard techno beats, very different from his usual style of productions, more akin to his Testpilot alias. Dancing along to the thumping beat of the kick drum, he masterfully adjusted his analogue kit to bring in chopped and screwed samples of Sometimes Things Get, Whatever followed by dark techno selections such as Sin Control by Raxon.
The black coated Theatre room is a perfect performance space for the Canadian DJ, with strobes and spotlights flashing in time to the beat, lighting the raving audience. The crowd cheered as he placed on his famous mouse head. Next he dropped Onze by Kiko, and the bass rumbled through the dance floor the music pulsating through everyone in the venue. In true deadmau5 fashion, he added a comedic element to his by adding Armageddon vocal snippets (show me what you got!) from popular cartoon Rick and Morty.
Taking a short break from the Theatre room, I took this time to wander around the rest of the venue, stopping first by the Wild Room, the unofficial third room where the bathrooms are. There Paul Reynolds was entertaining a small crowd with funky house tracks like Most Precious Love by Blaze and The Word is Love by Steve Silk Hurley. This area was a welcome change to the hard beats of the other rooms, a nice winding down area of sorts, where you can stop for a bathroom break and still boogie.
In the Club room, Andrea Oliva and Nick Curly were smashing out a Tech House set in a brilliant b2b unison. The lighting in the Club room is more minimal. In here, strips of blue lights flashed from the ceiling as Oliva dropped in the funky, Barrump by Claude VonStroke. Curly followed this with Disco Rain by Gaetano C & Ninho, a techy track with a disco vocal flavour added, also combining tribal percussion elements for an overall more upbeat offering in comparison to the darker Theatre offerings of deadmau5.
With the end of deadmau5 time on stage imminent, he played Systematika by Guy Mantzur & Roy Rosenfeld, a simple but effective techno track which builds and builds into a peak. At this point, he slipped in the famous Ghosts n Stuff vocal and the crowd erupted, every hand reaching to the ceiling of the Theatre. It was an exhilarating feeling that the whole room experienced as this electronic anthem played out to the end of deadmau5 set.
It was now time for Eric Prydz to take over the room in what was the most anticipated part of the evening. He started off in customary Prydz fashion by playing all of his unknown ID tracks first. These, of course, are always the best, grabbing the crowd's attention straight from the get-go. The rising sounds lifted up the audience, with drops sending them wild, dry ice cannons firing and strobe lights flickering. The scene in front of me was one of Prydz dominating the dance floor, fully in control of his musical arena.
The previous time I had seen Eric Prydz he had opted for a darker set, playing tunes that you would expect him to play as Cirez D, for example, his new release under Mouseville, as well as The Accuser, a dark tech monster which has been rocking dance floors this season. However, for the closing, he opted for a more trance and progressive style of set, which was extremely well received. Throughout his set he was flirting with the crowd, adding in synths very close to some of his signature tunes and raising the elation in the room.
He then rewarded the eager crowd with his remix of Flashback by Calvin Harris. The visuals in the Theatre were vamped up for Prydz set as the ceiling LED roof parts lowered, rotating over the crowd displaying space age visuals. Prydz then dropped in the anthemic Rush, a track from his Pryda project as green lasers shone brightly from the stage. These moments make Eric Prydz shows so special.
As the night drew to a close, one last trip around the venue revealed the secret garden tucked away in the corner of the venue. Similarly decorated to the other outside venue, but with a scattering of Tipis where clubbers enjoyed the cool Playa d'en Bossa evening in comfort. My friend for the evening said, “The future of clubbing is now”. In some ways he is right, Hï Ibiza has gone to a lot of effort to distinguish itself from other clubs in Ibiza and for the most part, they have created a space that caters to a new generation of clubbers very effectively.
Once more stepping onto the Theatre dance floor, I caught another great track by Pryda: Power Drive was keeping the crowd well-entertained with its electro progressive vibe. As a final present, he brought in a private edit of Pjanoo, which was met with rapturous applause by the audience.
The emotion in the room was one of pure happiness, with everyone smiling. The vibe was shared by Prydz who clapped along with the crowd. His persona on stage is of a man who really enjoys his job and he is right to do so, as it is one of the best jobs in the world. Now with a hugely successful season completed, I hope we can expect more of Eric at Hï Ibiza for many years to come.
