You could hear Gesaffelstein hammering Privilege a new one from the carpark. The French producer and Kanye West's Yeezus collaborator was holding nothing back, blasting his weighty electro into every lofty corner of the Privilege main room and even beyond its walls. Once inside we headed straight to the front, where the crowd was concentrated in front of the stage, thrashing it out to the deliciously gruesome bass lines Gesaffelstein was tossing out like scraps.
The crowd was dwarfed by its vast surrounds and probably would have been perfectly at home in Vista Club instead of Main Room. Mass Bass is brand new to Ibiza and doesn't have the following to fill such a massive space… yet. The upside was that there was a great sense of community amongst the crowd. Punters were here for the music and as long as that delivered, they stuck it out, and were rewarded by monster tracks like New York Transit Authority's Swarm and Maelstrom's Discord.
Four Tet, one of my favourite artists ever, took over at 5am and paired back some of the aggression of the music, replacing it with groove whilst still maintaining a very bass heavy sound. Meanwhile antics on the floor had become pretty silly, as people draped each other in the mountains of confetti and streamers that had floated their way down from the ceiling and were now threatening to swamp the remaining dancers. We settled into Four Tet's charismatic groove quickly, the remarkable producer getting us on side with old favourite's from his buddy Floating Points like ARP3 – a more subtle form of attack than his predecessor Gesaffelstein.
It wasn't busy enough last night and we can't pretend otherwise – but it should be. Musically speaking, Mass Bass is ready to go off. The season line-ups are adventurous for Ibiza and great quality. They're bringing artists that may be massive overseas, but aren't the usual Ibiza suspects and therefore need some time to percolate. Mass Bass just needs to fine-tune a few things about the way it presents itself in the club – smaller space and fewer production theatrics for example. And lastly, Mass Bass is a new party and needs a bit of attention – that's where Spotlight steps in.
So we're spreading the word: Mass Bass is onto a good thing! Some personal highlights over the season for me will be next Thursday's drum'n'bass showcase with Caspa and Friction and the return of Four Tet on the 14th of August (this time a live show!) supported by Pretty Lights. Get involved (its BYO Monster Bass Face).
WORDS | Jordan Smith PHOTOGRAPHY | James Chapman
