A Defected Summer: Closing Party, Pacha Ibiza

Another summer, another notch on Pacha’s jam-packed party belt.

THE Ibiza Town superclub has enjoyed a string of season successes with its 2010 weekly residencies. There’s the riotously popular Swedish House Mafia on Mondays which has earned a succession of support from fans and fellow DJs alike, including Pacha resident Witch Doctor Erick Morillo – whose own triumphant mid-week shindig, Voodoo Nights, featured live performances from P Diddy and Kelis. And David Guetta’s F*** Me I’m Famous fiesta hardly needs an introduction.

But it was Defected in the House, brought to Ibiza by the UK’s Defected Records for the eighth season running, that reigned supreme on Saturday nights. This summer Defected enlisted some of the best in the house music business including Bob Sinclar, Dennis Ferrer, David Morales, Junior Jack and Kid Creme, Sandy Rivera, Riva Starr, the Shapeshifters, ATFC, John Dahlback, David Penn, Copyright, Chocolate Puma, DJ Spen, Quentin Harris and Simon Dunmore to stir up some weekend antics alongside resident percussionist and voodoo warrior Shovell.

Defected DJ and record label boss Dunmore is chuffed with the season’s success. He recalls the moment he played Alison Limerick’s Where Love Lives ‘with the whole club singing along’ as his supreme summer highlight. ‘This year was amazing. Spain was buzzing after the World Cup and people seemed to have a “fuck the recession” attitude. The island was jumping!’

This year the range of artists was significantly extensive too, from the ‘undisputable creators of the old skool to the new innovators of the nu skool and everything in between’. Prolific remixer and Grammy-award winning DJ David Morales was a prominent player on the scene, reliving Pacha’s house heydays with his ’80s remixes which included a memorable reworking of Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy back in August.

So we look ahead now to the September 25 finale which will see Dunmore return alongside Bob Sinclar, Miss Divine and Shovell to send the 18-week Defected season off in style. In tribute to one of their most successful seasons on the island the Defected in the House players will, in true form, dish out a definitive round-up of the summer’s best sounds, from soulful, tech and tribal house to deep and commercial house. But whatever music is on the Defected menu, it will most certainly bring the house down.

First published on I Voice, Ibiza, September 2010.
© Abbey Stirling