Review: Sasha and John Digweed's first Ibiza b2b since 2009

It’s the clubbing resurgence everyone is talking about. Privilege – the biggest nightclub in the world – and its return to the big time. But wait. Let’s not get carried away just yet. After two huge sell-out parties earlier this month, headlined by the legendary Carl Cox, the smart question on everyone’s lips last Tuesday night was whether or not the Privilege could sustain the momentum. It’s all fine and dandy being the talk of the town for a few weeks, but one of the fundamentals of any great Ibizan nightclub is consistency. You have to keep knocking out amazing events week after week, for the entire summer, fostering a stable, coherent message that ravers everywhere can understand.

Riding the Discobus towards San Rafael on July 25 for the highly anticipated Resistance Opening Party headlined by Sasha and John Digweed, these were the core considerations dominating our conversation, fuelling our anticipation.

Here are 10 tracks that guided us through another momentous night at Privilege...

We step inside the Main Hanger just before 11pm. This is the biggest Void Acoustics system in clubland. Dark. Menacing. Loud. That high ceiling. Those fat chrome girders. The sweeping mezzanine balcony held aloft by a galvanised rack of six or seven or eight gigantic fans, the huge rotor blades working overtime to prevent this great venue from overheating.

It’s a raw scene, made all the more industrial by the Funktion-One Vero system over in the Vista, which right now might just be the biggest, baddest sound rig on the planet. A thundering monster held in place by gigantic military specification bolts that reach down into the earth’s core. It has to be this way; otherwise the system will take off, lifting Privilege into the furthest reaches of the cosmos like some creaking sci-fi spacecraft designed by Hollywood director Ridley Scott.

A few weeks ago, for Pure Carl Cox, the DJ booth was located beneath the VIP balcony. Tonight the stage is situated at the opposite end of the dancehall, in its more traditional position, facing the main entrance, which further improves the sound acoustics inside the venue. “I’m really pleased,” says Funktion-One loudspeaker boss Tony Andrews. “Right now, we’re standing on the VIP balcony about 100 metres from the main stage, yet it feels like we’re only a few metres away. The major difference from my perspective in having the stage positioned where it is tonight is that we’ve been able to position the speakers wider apart. That way we get a bigger stereo image. We were a little constrained by the balcony for Carl’s parties, although I must admit, I did like the way it worked with the audience.”

Midnight and Matador is playing live. Most of the DJs on tonight’s roster are playing back-to-back with another top artist, but the nature of Matador’s performance means he gets the booth all to himself. He’s fusing an assemblage of his own released work with a sprinkling of unreleased edits and one or two acidic classics from yesteryear. The Irishman delivers plenty of serious techno, but his performance is also laced with melody. He’s composed, assured, his sound rich, classy and rolling.

Where Pure Carl Cox at Privilege was stripped back, almost to the point of resembling an illegal rave, the production here at Resistance is slightly fatter, the vibe more superclub than warehouse. A series of light boxes flicker red in front of the DJ booth. A posse of illuminated arc panels swing down from the ceiling. And yet, compared to the production levels we’ve seen at Ultra’s sister events across the globe, the overall visual aesthetic here remain minimalistic.

In the Vista Club, Canadian DJ B.Traits is performing back-to-back with Brazilian producer ANNA. The two played together a few months ago on B.Traits Radio 1 show and their synergy between them is apparent from the outset. Both artists are in sync, vibing off each other, dancing around behind the decks to a barrage of tough, funky tech basslines, while a crowd of just of over 1000 stomp around on the dancefloor. The dynamic in the booth is as vibrant as the atmosphere in front of it.

“The radio show was the first time that ANNA and I had even met,” B.Traits explains after coming off stage, “but it went amazingly well. So when this gig came up it made total sense to play back-to-back again.”

“Sometimes when you’re playing back-to-back it can become a bit of a competition,” ANNA adds. “But in our case it didn’t feel like that. Neither of us were trying to out do the other. Our styles blend and mould into something else entirely, which is really nice. I think everyone enjoyed it!”

Upstairs in the alfresco Thunderdome the mood is oddly calm, civilised, nowhere near as messy as the scenes we saw last week at Pure Carl Cox. “This is my first night on the island,” says Mark, 19, from Glasgow. “And here I am at Resistance Opening Party. Not bad! I haven’t checked out the whole venue yet, just the Main Room, but from what I’ve seen so far this place looks like a rave club. Big, old and wild. I’m going to come back next week as well.”

Back in the Main Hanger, 3am, and Eats Everything has just wrapped up his groove-steeped back-to-back performance with Cassy. Like everyone else, Eats is now anticipating the arrival of scene icons Sasha and John Digweed. “Compared to those guys, I’m still a young gun really,” he smiles. “They’re amazing. I can’t wait to see them, especially here at Privilege. Tonight is a really good start for Resistance in Ibiza. The way they run their parties is phenomenal. And when you have Sasha and John Digweed as your headliners you’re obviously doing things for the right reasons.”

4.30am and it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for – Sasha and John Digweed playing back-to-back in Ibiza. The light jockey cuts the strobe. Then the first beat drops. Visuals, music. And the Main Hanger comes alive. This is contemporary Sasha, contemporary Digweed – the warped vocal stabs and trance melodies we remember from back in the day replaced by a barrage of tough deep tech, a hypnotic, futuristic sound crafted for big room audiences.

Watching the iconic duo back together in the booth it’s impossible not to feel nostalgic. Twilo, Northern Exposure, Renaissance, even Communicate – an entire generation of clubbers were raised by the records these guys were making. We wonder how they feel, Sasha and John Digweed back together in the booth after all these years? It’s difficult to know for sure. Both artists are stony-faced, concentrating on the job in hand, clinically managing the next mix like specialist physicians hovering over their next incision.

“I’ve been waiting for this night for weeks, years, decades!” says Becky, 27, from London. “My boyfriend got me into Sasha and Digweed when we first met back in 2005. I love Northern Exposure and all of those old Twilo New York sets on SoundCloud. The fact that Sasha and Digweed are playing back-to-back here in Ibiza is like a dream. We booked our holiday specifically to see them play tonight.”

“That was epic,” nods Max, 25, from Turin, Italy. “Sasha and Digweed aren’t just legends in England; they’re massive in Italy as well. The music was a little harder than I was expecting. I thought they might play a few more vocal tunes in their set, but I’m not complaining. This is a big room, you have to respect that. And they were following Nicole Moudaber, who was really boshing it out!”

Obviously it’s still early days for Resistance in Ibiza, but it’s fair to say the initial signs are more than positive. The slick production values, customary at Ultra parties, tendered the event a genuine superclub feel without corrupting the raw, underground vibe of the venue. As for the sound, nothing on the island even comes close to competing with the Funktion-One system currently installed in the Main Room. The crowd was nowhere near as big as it was for Pure Carl Cox, but using Carl as a comparison in this regard is slightly unfair considering the history he has here on the island.

Indeed, pulling in a crowd of 5000 ravers on a busy Tuesday night in Ibiza isn’t anything to complain about – in fact, it’s a total triumph, especially considering this was Ultra’s first ever Resistance party in Ibiza. Nevertheless, we wonder if the event might have attracted even more bodies than it did. Last week, for instance, Carl’s team did a wonderful job promoting his party to the local workers crews here on the island. In the days leading up to the gig, a limited number of discounted wristbands were sold to the most influential kids in San Antonio, who packed out the venue before midnight. But for whatever reason the vast majority of those workers crews weren’t in attendance last Tuesday night. If team Resistance can find a way to price-in those young ravers, Privilege might just have another season-defining party on its hands.

Johnny Lee is Mixmag's Ibiza correspondent

Resistance is on at Privilege until September 12. Line-ups and tickets here