DC10's leading party Circoloco, as always, had the job of closing the season for them. Over 30 names were invited down to play their part in ending 2015, and to make allowances for the strong team, the musical feast opened an hour earlier at 3pm, with the spacious garden a third spot sounding out till 4am. Vibes were set to be scorching. In its 17 years, Circoloco has positioned itself as an island favourite, making household names in the process, gaining the hidden-away venue international attention. On this date the queue wrapped around the building for the duration.
Getting there ASAP was in a lot of our hopes and dreams for the last Monday Dreamin, but the weekend had had other ideas. Not to mention cabs to hail down in October are few and far between, made even trickier when you're clinging onto a beer. Anywho, the bill was like a shopping list with all these different points of interest that needed ticking off, which led to keeping a hawk eye on the time. When the place is more rammo than ram, moving round takes near military planning to navigate; here's a comprehensive detailing on my attempts, with extended journeying in-between.
Under an explosion of fairy lights in the garden, key residents Davide Squillace and Matthias Tanzmann went on their annual closing back-to-back. If they had drawn blood in this versus they would of discovered they're cut from the same cloth, both dispensing complimentary deep grooves. Supporting fresh releases at the end with floorfiller In The Club by Genghis Clan, leaving us with Mendo & Danny Serrano's collab on Frequency. Meanwhile, Dixon was finalising his Ibiza campaign in the terrace, stringing together drawn-out vocal lines and melodies with subtle basslines for an intimate gathering. Something we've come to expect from this dude, who then familiarised us all with Radio Slave's remix of Marvinello, nice one.
Near standstill greeted you in the garden at the beginning of The Martinez Brothers, Jamie Jones and Seth Troxler's set; I wormed through with some patience and skill. Despite the thousand strong crowd between myself and the decks, you could hear it pretty well thanks to some speakers up back. With a firm grip on percussion, the three names were doing what they do best, feeding a heady night with snippets of inciting rhythms and sassy vocals, retaining their individual qualities. Juicing the last bits of life out of us with bumpy rollers, Luca Donzelli and Mar-T's remix of Going Back was teasing us some. DC10 being so busy during the opening or closing is something we've learnt to expect, especially as everyone knows each DJ will bring their A game - by design it's going to be a sweatbox. When comrades leave you to relocate the bar, you're fairly sure that's the last you'll see of them now all year. Still, people were in the party mood, some kitted out in fancy dress. Shout out to the teletubbies.
There was notably more space to be made use of during Ben UFO and Jackmaster's B2B in the main room. No stranger to sharing a slot together, they each had their own moments. Jack threw us Aphrohead - Grown Man Cry, while Ben stepped up with KiNK's Mix of DJ Dozia's Pop Culture. Quickly going through a succession of tracks, jumping across styles, they should consider changing their occupation titles to tune jugglers. A slice of tribal with Dixon's Beat Edit of Âme - Fiori urged me to stay in their clutches, but I'd already set my sights on Apollonia who were in the midst of a two-and-a-half hour set in the terrace. Locking any stragglers in as soon as they passed the threshold, they struck us all with a clean-cut mix expelling a free-flowing movement through those grey areas of deep and tech house.
In the main room it was Nina Kraviz' turn, clocking up eight visits for the clown face this summer, using elbow grease to weave futuristic techno and acid. Turning our attention back to the garden, the princes of DC finished their B2B2B by dropping house record, Kings Of Tomorrow - Finally. And finally, it was time for the crush. As the floodgates opened I managed to slip off to the main room, where all eyes were on the now sole member of Art Department. By this point in the evening, week, month, season you're keeping an ear out for something different, mainly weird, to distract you from your aching feet. More than capable, he enticed us by running robotic spoken word on Foremost Poets - Moonraker over some 303 patterns. A train of people passed through towards the terrace, joined in time for a blissed-out moment courtesy of Apollonia signing off with The Sun Can't Compare.
Having paired up at the opening, Kerri Chandler vs Black Coffee then made a return. Entrusted to go into the corners of their collections to surface some gems and bring them anew, Careless Whisper even getting the treatment. Syncopating to perfection, they kept arms in the air as the new day seeped into the red space. To close out the main room, Seth jumped back on the decks following Damian, and 2015 was officially seen off. Grin and bear the DC10 madness at closings and you may just catch some of the best sets of your summer.
WORDS | Emma Gillett PHOTOGRAPHY | Tasya Menaker
