Named "New Names to Watch in 2017" by Pete Tong, OC & Verde have come quite the way since their release of Symphony and Maasai in 2016. Championed by the likes of John Digweed, Hot Since 82, Solomun and Tale of Us, these tracks have thrown the duo into the spotlight.
Their recent releases include Navajo and Mañana on Steve Lawler's new techno label ViVA Musc. They also have releases and remixes on Coyu's imprint Suara, John Digweed's Bedrock Records and Glasgow Underground, among others. Drumcode boss Adam Beyer played the duo's track Solstice, featured below, to close his set at the opening of Cocoon at Amnesia earlier this summer.
This year has also seen OC & Verde touring all over the UK and beyond. On Ibiza, they have played ViVA Warriors earlier this season at Sankeys, Do Not Sleep presents Cuckoo Land at Ibiza Rocks this month and Faction at Eden a few times this summer, including their final date Thursday 14 September.
Here are their favourite Ibiza tracks of the past two decades from some of the most significant Ibiza nightclubs and parties throughout the years. Get those headphones on and get ready to fly. If you want to catch them live, see below for full details and tickets.
Pete Heller - Big Love
This reminds me of one of my very first trips to Ibiza back in 1999. It was a massive track on the island and back home. We still play it today. Frankie Knuckles and David Morales were playing back-to-back at Pacha that summer, the first time I had ever heard them play, and this was one of the tunes of that night that I'll always remember. When we played Café Mambo for the first time last year, this was our last tune so it will always be a special one for us.
Ricardo Villalobos - Baila Sin Petit
This track always reminds us of DC10, such an odd track, classic Villalobos. It's not to everyone's taste and not the easiest track to play either, but it reminds us of a really funny drunken day on Ibiza. I kept playing it on repeat on a YouTube clip back at a villa after party, a pretty long session. We chucked out some silly dance moves to this one haha.
Matador - Kingswing
Last summer we were playing for ViVa Warriors at Sankeys Ibiza and we'd been hammering this track in most of our sets that summer. It's a massive favourite of both of ours, so during our set at Sankeys we dropped it and the place went mental. It was a real moment for us and probably the best set we played last year. We stayed on Ibiza for a few days as it was gonna be our last trip of the summer and we really wanted to say our goodbyes to Space in its final year. The night we chose to do that on was for elrow with Matador playing the main room. We were absolutely steaming, standing at the side of the main dance floor next to a big red cow and some dwarfs when Matador dropped Kingswing and all the confetti cannons went off. It was absolute pandemonium and a great final memory to have of that amazing nightclub.
Michael Jackson - Billy Jean (Bushwhacker Remix)
This is another memory from Space Ibiza, around 2001/2002 back when Erick Morillo and Steve Lawler used to absolutely smash the Terrace to bits before they put a roof on it. There was no better place to be in the world than on that Terrace, so glad we got to experience it. Can't remember if it was Lawler or Morillo who dropped this on the day, but it was back at that time when people just danced before everyone started facing the DJ with their phones out haha.
OC & Verde - Solstice
This summer at the Cocoon opening party at Amnesia, Adam Beyer dropped our track Solstice as his closing track which for us was just unbelievable. He is one of if not the biggest techno DJ on the planet. For him to close his set at, in our mind, the best techno party on the island Cocoon was such an honour and another great Ibiza memory for us.
Paul Woolford - Erotic Discourse
We have loved this track since we first heard it at Circoloco at DC10 years ago. It is bat sh** mental still to this day. We actually dropped it this year at Sankeys Ibiza for ViVa Warriors back in May. It always does the business of tripping people's minds out and that's what we like to do.
Amê - Rej
When the sun goes down in Ibiza, there's no better track to switch from the happy daytime vibes to the darkness. This track has always worked perfectly for us doing that job, an absolute masterpiece that never leaves our record box.
Booka Shade - In White Rooms
One of our go-to tracks for when the sun comes back up, incredible track. We actually got to see Booka Shade play at Pacha last summer for one of the Knee Deep In Sound nights with Hot Since 82 and they played this amazing the place went nuts!
Microfunk & Dave Ellesmere - Pecan
Back when minimal was the dominant sound of Ibiza, this was one of our favourites. We absolutely lost our minds hearing Richie Hawtin drop this at Cocoon and still play it a lot, always digging this out at Ibiza after parties when it all gets a bit wonky haha.
Santos - Hold Home
We discovered this track from Luciano playing it on the beach at Ushuaïa before the hotel was there, one of the best parties we've been to as punters. It's 11 minutes of repetitive magic that is seriously hypnotic. We bring it out quite a bit at day parties or when we have early set times, a great track to groove a room out to.
OC & Verde's New EP Beat That is out on Yoshitoshi now.
