Cocoon in August is sometimes not the most tempting of options due to half the island attempting to get through the doors of Amnesia. But despite being packed in like a sardine Monday night was one not to be missed. My advice is, if you can drag yourself away from DC10, arrive early. At 12.30am you can skip the door queue, find your spot on the dancefloor for the night and hear the first set.
After catching a brief nice and housey ten minutes of Onur Ozer in the Main Room it was onto the Terrace for Stacey Pullen. Starting off with old school sounding Detroit techno, the room was filling up quickly and he had people getting straight into the groove. Adding some soulful vocals to the mix towards the middle of the set then going a little harder towards the end, the energy on the dancefloor was infectious. Throw in some ice canons and a troupe of Cocoon dancers and Stacey Pullen was smashing the Terrace like it was 6am.
I wasn't quite sure how Guti would follow such a high energy set, expecting a lazier, Latin-infused sound. However his forty-five minute live set contained more than enough kick to keep the room buzzing. He kept to his signature jazz-inspired style, added some percussive elements and an up-tempo bassline pumping round the Terrace. Finishing up on his hit track ‘All the Girls' he received a well deserved round of applause.
Loco Dice then came in hard and fast but slightly struggled to engage the crowd compared to earlier in the night. He seems to have moved away from the housier sound he was captivating everyone with last summer, opting for less interesting straight techno sets. Luckily P Diddy turned up to make it memorable, living up to his ostentatious persona with a champagne toast in the DJ booth.
The only thing that really is to be avoided about Cocoon in August – the taxi queue to get home.
