The final evening of The Redlight was also a night of celebrating those monumental to the 2015 season. For the second year running Mancunian club brand and venue Sankeys brought the Sankeys Awards to end the Ibiza season with. It was left to us to decide which name uses a crossfader to the most devastating effect and whose music collection you would chop your arm off for. Honouring selectors across the dance spectrum, in Sankeys and beyond, gongs for best newcomer and resident DJ were also up for grabs.
After a bite to eat we took to the cinema to watch a short film on Sankeys building their foundations here in Ibiza. Sankeys main man, David Vincent then took on the 2015 awards with the winners of each category being listed below. After they were given out to winners or representatives we preceded downstairs for some suitable dancing to the closing party of Sankeys' first season run of The Redlight, which has been delivering house and garage frequencies since May.
Preditah has enjoyed his first summer of playing in Ibiza at various venues, and for this one there was no end to diving head first into the bass goodness. Mixing his own production Selecta into Disclosure - What's In Your Head, chopping up the vocals with syncopated rhythms. Later letting SBTRKT's Living Like I Do remix by Lil Silva do its thing, dropping in his remix work on Lethal B's Fester Skank. DJ Q then took control, feeding us a similarly upbeat mix. After all that jumping around I took the chance to have a breather upstairs checking in on how long until Crystal Waters' live set. Using the platform stage as her play park, she engaged us all with her presence and microphone use, preforming Gypsy Woman twice.
Miguel Campbell then put on a display of why he'd won Best House DJ three hours earlier. Mixing in Halfway Crooks with little bits of this or that. There was an immense anticipation in what he would do next, or when he'd chuck us the next resonated bass line. The energy inside was bursting at the seams, four limbs put into motion, as closed hi-hats smashed us into 4am. The Lab and Basement acted as the perfect spot for us raving on, dark ambience lit up with red beacons glowing upon us all inside, bringing home the spirit. The sets were making me feel right at home, shouting out in joy when a particularly deep or obscene bass line is introduced.
The hefty lineup meant for a lot of switching from room to room, which although can be somewhat stressful, it confirms the quality of the bill. Next it was about time to check out Matt Jam Lamont, and heading downstairs to the Basement was a thought many of us had. The night was also Lamont's 25th Anniversary Party, an experience shown as he bled three tracks through the mixer simultaneously for much of it. Sending out the vocal to Freak Like Me, breaking off to racing drum rolls. Classics sat with more contemporary sounds fairly well, demonstrated with current banger, the Flowers remix by Curtis Gabriel and Sam Divine. The set left me wondering how he can cue and cut so on point, leaving no doubt that him winning best resident was a genuine result of him doing this all season for The Redlight.
Sankeys gave the bass treatment I had been craving, bunny hopping along to the beat-skipping drums. A night of impeccable mixing and blends of solid tracks - if only a spin-back could take us back to the start of the night. My energy had been depleted though so I departed with a joy only quality nights can give. Outside a similarly electrical storm was brewing, possibly from all those currents that had been ejected.
WORDS | Emma Gillet PHOTOGRAPHY | Justin Gardner
2015 Sankeys Awards winners
Best Techno DJ
Adam Beyer
Best Tech House DJ
Steve Lawler
Best Resident DJ
Matt Jam Lamont
Best Garage DJ
DJ EZ
Best Sankeys Night
VIVA Warriors
Best House DJ
Miguel Campbell
Best Newcomer
Sam Holt
Best Ibiza DJ
Solomun
Best Ibiza Club Night
Solomun + 1
