7 tracks that turned Love International into pure bliss on the Croatian coast

Horse Meat Disco boat party and Barbarellas, Tuesday

The disco is strong at this festival, particularly on the boat parties. Everyone returns ecstatic from Sunday afternoon's Futureboogie boat with guests Ron Basejam, Neil Diablo and residents Christophe and Dave Harvey. Of many highlights, Dave's dropping of uplifting 1978 release Tenderness 'Gotta Keep On Trying' (which Joey Negro has re-edited to predictably enormous effect) stands out. Horse Meat Disco's debut original production, a newly released single, is used by the gang as their final track on both their boat party and their all night set at Barbarellas, which Mixmag opts into despite feeling wary of hearing a whole club set of nothing but disco. Our apprehension is completely unfounded and given six hours over which to stretch the music covers enormous ground, as distinct differences between Horse Meat Disco's residents become very apparent.

James Hillard ventures into cosmic disco territory on the boat and offers a completely different deep diggers selection of US vocal disco at the club. Long sections are left in the more than competent hands of Severino, but when Jim Stanton returns to the decks he displays a brilliant enthusiasm for newly released music and veers welcomely into house music. Similarly, Luke Howard's second set, flawlessly mixed and highly distinct, delivers some of the evening's other best musical moments in Sylvester and vintage Chicago favourite 'Peaches and Prunes' by Canadian outfit Nightlife Unlimited. We're left wanting for more.

Jim Stanton, Horse Meat Disco at Barbarellas, Tuesday

Nick The Record, boat party, Wednesday

Though named after the unique multi-genre soundtrack developed in Ibiza by pioneers like Alfredo and Jose Padilla, you'd be hard pushed to now come across many new releases classed as 'Balearic' in the clubs of the White Isle today. Not so at Love International. Though thankfully not so comatose as to be considered 'chill out', there's a certain calmness to sessions which groove along at just the right tempo, either in warm up or in response to the surroundings or falling sun.

A highlight of such moments, aired several times, is this brand new release by Leonidas & Hobbes on Hobbes's own label. Jim Stanton primed the audience with it at Barbarellas before unleashing the aforementioned Gerd Janson & Shan bomb 'Surrender' and on the final day of the festival we hear it again, this time played by longstanding vinyl nut Nick The Record. Nick's reputation as a selector has seen him visit excited Japanese audiences every year for well over a decade, but it's in more recent memory that he's finally becoming acknowledged as a skillful selector and programmer on the European club circuit and festival scene. Not before time. His boat party selections are each expertly timed and wholly accessible, but never obvious. It's a faultless way in which to end a festival of which the same could be said.

Marc Rowlands is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Mixmag