The speakers yesterday blasted out two of my favourite all-time and every time dancefloor slammers, so I left my first slide through Benimussa Park with a big satisfactory cheeser. The occasion was Corona's Sunset Music Festival and as the big brand's motto is all about experiencing that bit of something extra, you knew before entering that a music festival thrown in its name wasn't going to fall in the dirty realm of being commonplace. A good squeezing of good times to get together, have a dance to a cracking soundtrack and celebrate that orange orb in the sky as it made its descent.
It was wicked what they did with the place - sand strewn across the venue amongst wooden mini bars and chill-out areas injected some of those authentic beach vibes we so love to surround ourselves in for the feel good factor. It was a factor that was eaten up by the bronzed up pack that filled its perimeters and by the time I got there at 7, the perimeters were well filled. I caught a mini last chunk of the Nightmares on Wax funk at the Crown Area before a pair of dancers flexed their inner workings to call for the arrival of The Wolf. Now The Wolf's hat deserves a mention of its own, it was some heavy crafted creation; a wolf's head atop a man who claims the creature as his animal alter ego. He fired in with his deep groove sound with the added weapon of an acoustic drummer and together with The Wolf's body grooving attitude, they made for very entertaining viewing. Now UK garage isn't something I'd consider my modus operandi but a portion here and there of some shuffling hi-hats and beat-skipping kick drums is welcomed to the ear vents. DJ EZ, UK garage master, was the man offering that said welcomed portion at the Sunset Stage and he's another one with a baggage of body grooving attitude behind the decks – good to see a DJ who finds the ammo he plays infectious and isn't confined to just flexing his fingers. It was a Brit heavy day, so of course his set went down an absolute storm as he cut ferociously through the tracks from Neville Bartos and Lorenzo's Coke Diet, Fish Go Deep's The Cure and The Cause before crashing in with some serious nostalgia in T2's Heartbroken. His set was full of absolute peaches which also got in there Cyprus Hill's Insane in the Membrane and De La Soul's Me, Myself and I.
Pete Tong's turn. But before the music held our attention, our eyes were invited for a transfixing on a dance performance as sunset was peaking. This was easy considering the calibre of the beauties that put our pupils through their paces in a performance of what I reckon the guys would simply describe as sexy, but to give a bit more it was 'sensual feminised elegance'. I'd settle for sexy too though. They gave an extra added oomph to the dramatics of a sunset as two gigantic bongo drums replaced two very little ones and it was brought in with a bang. Spirits climbing a notch as the sun took a step down was the vibe left for Tong to fine tune, his house centric set had the whole lot of us singing out Phats and Small's Turn Around. While that's a blast from the past, he took it right the way back with one of my favourites Frankie Knuckles – Your Love. Just AHHHHHH. Bliss.
I licked the plate of the chocolate crepe I feasted on before I was back through to the Crown Area, where DJ Harvey was digging into Âme's electrifyingly hypnotic Tatischeff. He remained in the territory of atmospheric and emotionally dipped drivers from Blakkat's Thirst to Eric Volta's Believe (Tennis remix) and Tube and Bergers In My Dip. And it was he who was responsible for sending the ear drums into pleasure overload with the said second of my favourite slammers – Nathan Fake's The Sky Was Pink (James Holden Remix). Oh ya beauty.
If Corona is a brand of the beach, I washed up with a good shell-load of happiness.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOGRAPHY | James Chapman
