Cover Feature: Loco Dice

It's 7am and light is flooding through the roof of Amnesia's terrace. Dice is rolling deep, the DJ booth packed with friends and crew. Next to him a girl dressed in a green shroud holds up a teddy bear. Amnesia's dancers have retired for the night, so the room's central podium is flooded with fans. For just under four hours Dice has been holding court, flawlessly mixing high-energy house accentuated by double- and triple-kick rolls. There's been a burst of 808 electro, even an excursion into hardcore break-beat, but now he starts twisting minds with whirling noises panning around the room. Out front a banner unfurls, reading 'We Love Loco Dice'. 8am approaches and another cake appears. In the front row stands a bearded, shamanic-looking man, intense eyes fixed on the DJ.

By mid-morning we're at an afterparty, of course. In the front room of a giant villa all the girls look like models, French windows opening out to a patio and a pool beyond. Benny Rodrigues is playing 90s-flavoured house while dancers begin disappearing to the toilets in discreet pairs. It's outside we discover Dice, though, sitting among friends at a long table; nearby, a chef is preparing food at an al fresco kitchen. We've barely been here an hour when he gets up to leave.

In the past it was his mum, who had bailed him out of so many scrapes, who took the most convincing of his chosen profession. Is she proud of him? "She's just happy that I'm healthy and I live from what I'm doing," he replies, getting to the crux of Dice 2.0, the responsible raver intent on confounding expectations. "She looks in my eyes and sees the young boy she raised. That's important to my mum, and that's important to me. The moment I change, I know my mum would kick my ass!"