Dimensions is Croatia's most assured house and techno festival

Celebrating its fifth year in 2016, Dimensions Festival can rightly claim to be the leading festival of underground house and techno in Croatia. Depending on where you like to rave, the site is arguably also the best currently used by any event in the country – or even the world. The fort at Punta Christo is a spectacular location, with plenty of interesting features and performance areas, and close proximity to the beach. Located on a peninsula several kilometres outside of Pula, Istria, there are few neighbours to disturb, although festival goers staying in the city itself face a not cheap cab ride to the locale and those staying nearby pay premium rates to do so.

Local buses, private accommodation prices and the dusty ground (which is complained about in Mixmag's earshot by trainer wearers and those with more fragile respiratory systems) are out of the festival's control, but everything within its remit Dimensions gets absolutely right. The sound on site is fantastic at every stage. Even on boat parties the sound is sufficient (and that certainly can't be said of all festivals). The lighting and other installed elements range from the proficient to the impressive, the latter particularly on the larger stages. Staff are plentiful, helpful and courteous.
Perhaps the best thing about Dimensions though is the line-up and the programming. This lot really know music and they really know how a night should flow. Their ability to offer a perpetually cool line-up of well established names and fantastic, lesser known talent (including a wealth of Croatian DJs) is perhaps their best attribute.

There are a few uncomfortable shifts from DJ to DJ and line-up clashes occur purely because there's just too much good stuff to check out. It's difficult to take everything in, not only because the site is quite large and can be exhausting to traipse around day in, day out, but also because this festival is much more than a weekend affair. The opening concert happens on Wednesday and from then to the early hours of Monday there is good music to be heard (mostly on site, but also at some spectacularly located unofficial afterparties).

The crowd is largely British, but there are many Spanish, Italian, German and French speaking youths in the audience too. Best of all, Dimensions boasts a large percentage of Croatian festival goers and, in general, their helpfulness and local knowledge, should you seek it out, can greatly benefit your experience there.

Massive Attack, The Arena, Wednesday

Both of Pula's big festivals, Dimensions and its parent Outlook, are incredibly lucky to be able to use the city's Roman amphitheatre as a venue for their opening concerts. This is perhaps one of the most spectacular performance spaces you will ever visit and the likes of Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, Elton John and Manu Chao have played here. Hundreds of concert goers congregate in the pit, but many more still watch from the terraces, surely making the spectacle just as impressive for the performer as the audience.

Dimensions really pulled it out of the bag this year with their most impressively billed opener to date. American saxophonist and ensemble leader Kamasi Washington kicked things off with a set that was flowing with funk and grooves and at times wild with jazz. Headliners Massive Attack were up next and provided a set that was stunning in the visual aspect and at times heartwrenching in its message. Heavily political, it was thought-provoking and motivating, but like a two and a half hour movie at the cinema it certainly wasn't something you'd be advised to try and revel in after sinking several pints of beer. Plenty of their 'hits' were missing from the show and uplifting moments were sparse, but the correct translation to Croatian of their messages appearing throughout on a video screen backdrop was a nice touch (even if over half the festival audience couldn't understand it). After the dub and downbeat drenched bulk of the show 'Unfinished Sympathy' sounded almost as glorious as it did when sung by original vocalist Shara Nelson.

It was a big ask for any DJ to follow these two seasoned live performers and within moments of taking the stage Detroit's Moodymann acknowledges that he's far from the world's most 'shit hot' DJ. And perhaps that's why it works? Instead of losing some of the crowd with a specialist set, he tours his record collection, rapidly switching tempos and occasionally addressing the vast audience on a mic between tracks. The eclecticism and relaxed approach provides a levity lacking all night and the audience laps up his selections which are, as you'd expect, all on point and cover soul, hip hop, reggae, funk, disco and house.

Dan Shake, Midland boat party, Friday

Thursday was the true start of proceedings on the main site and Moodymann again provided another great selection, as did fellow Detroit artists Kyle Hall and Marcellus Pittman, with The Moat area being another highlight as it showcased Pearson Sound, Ben UFO and DJ Qu. But it was an early rise for Mixmag on Friday to catch the first boat trip of the day, so we kept a lid on it. The aforementioned boat featured Andrew Hill from fantastic Liverpool night Abandon Silence plus Dan Shake and Midland. Andrew seemed to have brought a large, very vocal fan club all of his own and played great records, as did the other DJs. Ranging from disco through house to techno is Midland's forte, but his fellow DJs matched the mood perfectly and this trippy disco bomb, dropped by Dan Shake, sounded as perfect in the sunshine as it would in the darkened small hours.

Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers and Mr White, The Clearing, Friday

Aside from the opening concert and a good show by Detroit veterans Octave One, many of the live acts at this year's festival were disappointing, even the previously impressive Hiatus Kaiyote. The hands down, stand out live performance from the main site came from deep house originator Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers. It's been over half a decade since his debut in Croatia, at the much smaller Suncebeat Festival, and Croatians who missed him on that occasion seem to have been determined not to pass up another opportunity. The open air field in which he plays is full, with many Croatians in attendance for this performance only. As this Mixmag writer witnessed a similar live show from the legend at Sankeys Soap in Manchester in the mid 90s at which there were less than 100 people in the audience it is truly heartwarming to see this giant of soulful, moody house music receive the appreciation he truly deserves. Visibly nervous at the start and obviously touched by the outpouring of love for his music by the end, it is as special a performance for Heard as it is for the appreciative audience who lap up many of his original Chicago hits. His later material, such as 'Deja Vu (musaria mix)' and this track, sung extremely well by original vocalist Mr 'Chad' White sounded just as good.

Midland, The Stables, Friday

Without doubt one of this summer's biggest and best tunes is this pacey number from Midland, played by the man himself (to the joyous thanks of his audience) on both of his appearances at Dimensions 2016. It achieved anthem status at Croatia's Love International festival earlier in the summer and has seen arms aloft in response everywhere from Dekmantel to Ibiza. It's a funny old tune if you analyse it, faster than usual house or disco fayre, slightly reminiscent in places of Oliver Cheatham's biggest hit and with a bass sound that periodically threatens to break through the soundsystem. The best part is its nagging, hypnotic loop, echoing the best Chicago or Detroit disco house and sustaining tension effortlessly before the speeded up, vocal sample pay off. One of 2016's best tunes.

Joe Claussell, The Stables, Friday

The official, printed Dimensions line-up tells us that Marcellus Pittman is due to follow Midland on Friday night, but there's no fooling Mixmag (who saw the Detroit DJ the night before). From the off it's obvious who this DJ is. It's obvious in the way he shakes his head, as though the towel wrapped around it is a hive of bees he's desperately trying to break free of. It's obvious in the way his whole body moves when he uses the DJ controls, as though the dials on the rotary mixer he most definitely requested had not been cleaned since they started being used in an opium den 700 years ago. It's obvious in the way he uses the EQ and volume controls relentlessly, as though inhabited by some otherworldly and at times frustratingly annoying spirit of unparalleled passion. Yes, it's Joe Claussell, who mangles every record he plays in a skilful, unique and often totally unnecessary way. The way he does so on this Lil Louis track, one he clearly knows very well, is a showstopper though.

Miss Sunshine, Arija, Saturday

Sunčica Barišić aka Miss Sunshine has had a great year. She released a good remix on Etruria Beat, a great EP on Sweden's Random Island, saw her Traum residency in hometown Osijek, Croatia fulfil a successful season and played universally acclaimed festival sets in Rijeka, Croatia and at Exit Festival, Serbia. She is one of Croatia's best known techno DJs and regularly plays international dates of pummelling techno. Her Saturday night set at Dimensions, which finished with this relentless industrial acid groove, similarly pulled no punches. Along with Zagreb's Ekstrakt crew, who had played before Rødhåd the night before, Sunshine offered the best representation of Croatia's techno scene at the festival.

Hunee and Antal, The Void, Saturday

The Void area on Saturday night is a big space dedicated to Amsterdam's Rush Hour record store/label, but over successive summers its standard bearers like Young Marco, Hunee and Antal have proved their capabilities in front of large festival audiences with their sometimes deep-dug, sometimes classic selections of disco, house and techno. Appearing as first representative is Kai Alce who is based in Atlanta, as is his NDATL label. His productions are superb, deep house and offbeat grooves par excellence that take in both his birthplace of New York and his training ground of Detroit. His label is also superb. However the same high proficiency and standards it would be difficult to ascribe to every DJ set this Mixmag writer has ever witnessed from him. Next up is Soichi Terada, who plays live most of the tracks reissued on his Rush Hour album and does so incredibly well. He's a grateful and enthusiastic performer and alongside the quality of the house music he performs, is capable of winning over an audience with such attributes. Hunee and Antal smash it out of the park, again and among many fast-paced numbers this significantly slower slice of blue-eyed soul stood out.

Intergalactic Gary, The Moat, Sunday

Christ, there's a lot of house and techno in this place. The kick drum becomes numbing and the rhythm uninspiring at some points because you're so overexposed to it. There are moments when a DJ surprises though, moments of inspiration, unique moments provided by special DJs that make you, no matter how weary, fall in love with the dance all over again. On Saturday many such moments arrive, not least from hugely experienced, Manchester-based DJ Jon K, who knows enough about so many genres of music that his knowledge dwarfs that of many of the new school European headliners lauded elsewhere in this review. Bradley Zero provides such moments. Criminally underrated Chicago DJ Gene Hunt provides such moments. And the broken beat onslaught of UK originals Mark Force, IG Culture and Alex Phountzi in The Stables provides such moments. Another comes when Intergalactic Gary drops this melodic and beyond moody Detroit masterpiece in The Moat on Sunday.

Motor City Drum Ensemble, The Clearing, Sunday

Maybe Mixmag is tired from several days of the rave but Sunday's final day produces several 'meh' moments. These come namely from Hiatus Kaiyote (who we'd been looking forward to), Nightmares On Wax, Mood II Swing (whose productions we love), Space Dimension Controller (who would do better to focus his controlling on tune selection) and, most upsetting, from K Alexi, one of the few legendary figures of Chicago house we'd never seen before and a gentleman we have huge respect for (we put his overtly classic tune selection down to the nerves of a veteran completely at a loss to understand the demographic and knowledge of his audience). One virtual guarantee of a good time on this stage though comes in the form of Motor City Drum Ensemble, a Dimensions favourite who lives up to expectations with another enthused performance. “He did some ridiculous thing where he switched a record from 45rpm to 33rpm to construct a breakdown, then obviously pressed 45rpm to switch it back up,” the aforementioned Andrew Hill from Abandon Silence tells me. “I've never seen anyone do that before. It was ridiculous.” This Chicago classic, which sounds like a cross between that city's vintage house and a Sheffield bleep tune, was just one of MCDE's highlights in a set that brought a wonderful end to proceedings.

Marc Rowlands is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Mixmag