Donna in the House: Defected at Pacha, Ibiza

Pacha’s prime weekend party, Defected in the House, could easily have been misinterpreted as a Donna Summer tribute gig on Saturday night. Both of the evening’s main draws – Grammy-award winning DJ David Morales and The Shapeshifters’ Simon Marlin and Max Reich – remixed their own interpretations of the Queen of Disco’s pioneering ’80s anthem I Feel Love to a rapturous response from the packed peak season crowd.

BUT Summer’s track wasn’t the only classic to be expertly manipulated at the hands of Morales, who’s renowned for being one of the most prolific remixers of all time. The American, a valid vanguard on the house scene, threw some danced-up versions of Coldplay’s Clocks and Bronski Beat’s Smalltown Boy into the mix – two highlights in a sporadically cheesy set. Still, all credit due for his star performance as he bounced about topless for near-on two-and-a-half hours, save for a swift ten-minute toilet stop; his dedicated nocturnal following meaning there was barely room to swing your pants, let along your cat.

The crowd seemed to thin-out by the time The Shapeshifters emerged for what was a largely lacklustre performance, their saving grace being a remix of La Roux’s In for the Kill, followed by the aforementioned I Feel Love, which by now the audience had already tasted once that evening, so the reception wasn’t quite as impressive as the boys might have initially hoped.

Brought to Pacha by Defected Records for the eighth season running, and promoted to Saturday’s prime slot in 2009, Defected in the House has this summer boasted some heavyweight players including Copyright, Bob Sinclar and Quentin Harris, as well as Defected DJ and head honcho Simon Dunmore.

Aside from the burlesque pole dancers and the voodoo warrior swinging from a suspended globe – not to mention the ever-charming, bass-heavy Funky Room, lead on Saturday by Mo Funk and crew – I was under the impression Defected was trying to relive Pacha’s old-school house heydays, with its tributes to synth inspired ’80s echoes and ’70s disco riffs. Donna Summer would be proud.

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