One of the final techno trucks making its closing stop-off to unload the goods was Hyte at Amnesia. This bad boy, the new kid on the block for 2015 which was led by Maceo Plex and Loco Dice, stormed in and left us on Wednesday after 18 weeks of the savage stuff. I'd not actually been for over a month - totally unintentional - so I was looking forward to filling it in with a deadly line-up that had in Pan-Pot, DJ Tennis, Chris Liebing, Cuartero and the resident up to terrorise the terrace into eyelid shielding hours, Loco Dice.
If the party has teased its fruits with a good dashing of the sweet stuff, week-on-week, the closing should bring in a gust of that voltaic magnetic air that seems to link and lock-in clubber to clubber, B2B as they share one last session with the creators they hail as Godly. Ibiza is noticeably barer, the streets in Bossa are getting ready to roll into tumbleweed territory very shortly, and you can forget how many roaming ravers are left. From a first swatch at the queues and the heads piling in and out, this was the hunting ground where the roamers stalked. Landing as the new guy, Hyte, despite working to gain momentum and riding the expected new party ups and downs on head counts, seems to have ridden through the awkward slot of fighting off pre-pubescent moustache growth pisstakes and has comfortably landed in full-blown face bush beard territory. Everyone knows this is the final stampede before it comes to a big banger of an end and the closing felt different. There seemed to be a fiercer dosage injected into the place and you felt like, this is it…it is ON. Dance or you're dead and your shins are getting it first.
Cuartero, the Spaniard awarded as this year's newcomer at the DJ Awards, was thumping them out in a B2B with Mar-T. Together they brought everything you want techno sets to be; a thick steady stream of drillers that get you right on the jawbone with its incessant 4 X 4's and hissing build-ups. I dipped in between rooms quicker and more frequently than I usually do to get a full on whammy of everything. Both rooms were heaving and as monstrous Chris Liebing took to the stand, the crowd went mental. With Liebing you know what you're going to get out his packaging of techno: sheer animalistic and explosive thunder. His set was ferociously paced with tight and pounding productions, the kind of snappy stuff that brings out that screwed-up rave face as your body becomes physically addicted to matching beat on beat.
From beginning to end, he had his army held to attention. Some of you out here for the season closing holiday back might be spitting at the weak weather but that's not all you lot are here for. Music brings the shine and everyone dove into the terrace for the final set to bring us into the light early hours. I'm a fan of darkness with my techno, but you've got to admit, if you've been on the Amnesia terrace for sunrise, there is something really quite special about be able to see the pure happiness music brings to the faces of the final troopers left around you.
Techno king Loco Dice was on sunset Sally shift and as proof of his rep, the terrace was the busiest I've seen Hyte when the ticker is close to striking climax o'clock. Steve from The Martinez Brothers was in there, up top in for Loco's final gunning which had the tempo of headrock heavy tech house. He dished out fresh production from main room man Liebing, Keep It Low, and that was lathered up gladly. His energy was spot-on. He crusaded through Stephan Bodzin's mix of Marc Romboy's Hypernova and keeping hyperactivity in mind a remix of Faithless' Insomnia went off. Tearin' off tights with my teeth indeed, if I had a pair, the type of techno that pulsated through both rooms that night could have easily resulted in my canines getting caught in a ladder.
BLAH BLAH BLAH until next year.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOGRAPHY | Amnesia