Breaking the mould: Maceo Plex's Mosaic is bringing something different to Ibiza

Agents Of Time, Main Room

Having just been turned away from the VIP section because one of us was wearing shorts (schoolboy error, Dave) we head onto the main floor for Agents Of Time. Playing live on the looming turret-esque stage in the corner rather than the booth in among the crowd, a massive LED screen looks down on them along with a dancer on the level above. Surrounded by a sprawl of musical equipment, the three-piece from Bari, Italy has the audience in the palm of their hand with upbeat techno tunes and acid-infused basslines. ‘Lower World’ from their ‘Day One’ EP on the trio’s newly founded label Obscura, is a particular highlight, squelching its way into dancer’s hearts. And it’s always fun to see someone rock a TB-03.

Maceo Plex, Main Room

An early track in Maceo Plex's set and a signal as to how hard he'd be taking things on opening night, with the crowd absolutely lapping it up. Even 15 minutes into his set it's obvious how much of a rockstar he is. The Texan has complete focus of everyone, to the point that no one is in in the Prism room for much longer.

Maceo has a penchant for tracks with tripped-out vocals over the top of them. They nicely weave his set together, creating a theme that hot-wires together his set, one that's a bit harder and darker than usual. It’s an absolutely enormous track from Rekids boss Radio Slave. A slow-burner that opens up the set, the first 909 open hat poking through after an hour of more straightforward tracks to start the night. The club shows it’s appreciation as that staccato synth riff comes in and Maceo Plex appears fully in the flow.

Maceo Plex duly followed Radio Slave up with this beaut from 1993. With its organ stabs and jacking drums, the track has the crowd positively jumping. A bronzed duo in front of us begin grinding on each other with wild abandon and the fist-pumping Italians down the front start their chant of "Maceoooo". Meanwhile, Maceo Plex is going for it in the booth, all rolling shoulders and excited hand claps. He's so in the zone he takes awhile to even register his friend come into the booth. He's a master at connecting with his crowd.

Maceo Plex b2b Joy Orbison, Main Room

It’s 5.30am and someone has sparked up a joint in the club. The DJ booth and VIP areas are still swinging and the crowd is witnessing a Joy Orbison and Maceo Plex b2b unfurl into banging electro and ragged techno. Everything gets a little hazy when Maceo Plex drops this number, a bumping vocal track from Green Velvet that is just the kind of tune that keeps the dancefloor bouncing without needing to think too much.

It's just past six and it's clear the night isn't ready to end. The crowd is still up for it and Maceo Plex is really start to test us with some interesting tracks. The loping bassline of the Âme remix of Etienne Jaumet's 'Repeat After Me Again' comes at the perfect moment for the final push. It builds the tension back up and manages to squeeze a saxophone sample in there at the same time. Win-win.

After almost a full night of 4/4, Maceo drops this during his b2b and it's a true highlight. We’ve gone past the original closing hour of 6am and are headed for 7, Fred 4’s ‘Do it From The Back’ is a divine intervention that bangs as hard in the club tonight as it did on its release in 1995. After handing the headphones to Joy O, Maceo Plex turns to Mixmag and exclaims “nobody plays this stuff in Ibiza!” We are fucking glad he did.

Louis Anderson-Rich is Mixmag's Digital Intern. Follow him on Twitter here