On the Record: Ibiza’s still the place for summer clubbing

The lads are all here. You can’t miss them as you leave Ibiza airport and head off to your finca or apartment. Billboards elsewhere may plug supermarkets or breweries, but the ones on the roads leading to Ibiza Town are decorated with superstar DJs such as Steve Aoki, David Guetta, Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin and the rest of the A team.

Those not plastered with the mugshot of a male DJ hawk such tried and trusted club brands as Space, Pacha, Ushuaia, DC10 and Amnesia.

The Ibiza season has begun. Between now and the end of September, thousands will fly to the White Island for a few nights of prime club action. It looks like every DJ in the big- room club business will be there and they will be getting paid well for their troubles, judging by the prices charged to get past club doors.

You can expect certain tracks to begin their lengthy tenure as ear-worms over the coming weeks too. Miami’s Winter Music Conference may be where many bangers initially come to light in March, but Ibiza has the unique ability to turn such tunes into radio anthems over a summer.

Of course, predictions can always backfire, as those of us who participate in annual bands-to-watch sweepstakes know only too well. Still, we think Claptone's scintillating remix of Gregory Porter's Liquid Spirit has all the makings of a surefire 2015 anthem.

Ibiza clubland is also noteworthy in macro economic terms. It’s a significant player – when you consider the $6.9 billion earned by the global electronic music industry in 2014. This is worth remembering at a time when it seems that all the financial attention is on the EDM scene in the United States.

A large whack of money continues to be generated by the clubbing scene in the Balearic Islands. Beyond the dancefloors, clubbing is a serious contributor to Ibiza’s take from tourism (which industry makes up 85 per cent of gross domestic product), as those taxi-drivers speeding from Ibiza to San An any night of the week will tell you. Tourism is seasonal by nature and those euros from merry, giddy and (sometimes) mad- out-of-it clubbers help when it comes to getting through the quiet months.

What’s also worth remembering is that Ibiza has survived the ups and downs of cyclical popularity. For some, the good times were the halcyon glory days of the 1970s and 1980s, when farmhouses were originally turned into clubs such as Pacha and Amnesia by such innovators as Ricardo and Piti Urgell and Alfredo Fiorito. For others, the money-spinning, glamorous enterprises of today trump all.

But in between, there have been lean years when Ibiza clubs just did not attract much custom or attention, despite its attractions. Such slumps, when it often looked as if other locations were going to take its crown, proved to be temporary. In 2015, when it comes to taking the pulse of international clubland, Ibiza really is the only game in town yet again.

YOU’VE GOT TO HEAR THIS

Various Sounds of the Universe: Art+ Sound 2012-15 (Soul Jazz)
Boss collection of tracks released by the London record shop and label on their Art + Sound series over the past few years. A chance to hear the handiwork of such next-generation electronic music masters at work as Kassem Moose, Heatsick, Ras G, Tevo Howard and others.