There are few clubbing spaces in the world that present such a spectacle as Ushuaïa does; we've said time and time again across our various reviews from the season how we love the whole setup at the venue. Admittedly the whole VIP focus of the place is undesirable for those not well known or rich enough to savour its champagne-on-ice characteristics, but then that's old news now. No expense is spared on production value, with the closing offering up a veritable feast of eye watering entertainment, and a very generous helping of delicious sounds courtesy of Luciano and a bunch of his mates.
Although the party had been going on since around the 4pm mark, I arrived an hour before sunset to see the place lit naturally for the last time this year... Alright, alright, I arrived in time to take photos of the lovely lycra clad ladies (a fine example of which can be found below) - strutting and flexing has never looked so good! Andrea Oliva, a former podcaster of ours HERE, provided the soundtrack of the early few hours, with Rozzo's 'Meta001.1' being one of more memorable musical moments, and a blast from past seasons with the track released in 2008. This track was pretty indicative of the style and tempo from Andrea's set, before self proclaimed 'migrant worker' Frivolous, of Berlin residency, took things up a notch with an hour long live performance. Resembling some kind of giant with his seemingly 7ft tall stature, with trilby atop, Frivolous - real name Daniel Gardner - had an absolute blast presenting his live show to a crowd that was feeding off his enthusiasm and circus sounding music. If only all DJs looked like they were having so much fun performing, perhaps the world would be better place... next stop? World peace, perhaps.
Next up we had surprise addition to the lineup - Solomun. Being the absolute event whore he is, I've seen him more than anyone else this season I would say. He is the in-demand DJ of the 2012 season, of which there is no doubt, but that is for good reason. His blend of old school dance music re-imagined with vocals and sexy synths aplenty conjures up these feelings of pure joy... Even as I write this review a few days after the closing weekend in my weakened emotional state, I find thinking back to the list of tracks which Solomun blazed through brings me back to my happy place. Just listing off a few of them from his set (which if I could would take up several paragraphs alone) leads me to wonder that if I paid him enough, would Solomun follow me around and provide the soundtrack to my life? Wouldn't that be lovely...
Back to the tunes though, we had one of my tunes of the season in Sharam Jey's 'Like Nobody Does' (a perfect example of the sound the Diynamic crew love), The Chemical Brothers' 'Do It Again' (particularly cool after watching their 'Don't Think' movie with the director at Pikes earlier in the week), a remix of the Classic Bowie track 'Let's Dance' (video of the moment here) and Solomun's own 'Kackvogel'... which not only boasts an amusing title, but also the kind of bass licks to get sexy to AND a funny German guy dancing for a video. In my eyes, Solomun can do no wrong, even if his mixing isn't quite up to the standard of say Coxy or Sasha. The fact is his music appeals to lovers of many different genres, old and new, it's accessible and fun, and what more could you ask for?
Enough Solomun loving though, onwards I go to Cadenza favourite Reboot. The set built very nicely throughout, with plenty of recognisable tracks, none of which I know though unfortunately. But Reboot moved things on from the deep-house/disco sound of Solomun to music with a decidedly more techno edge to it. It was the perfect introduction to the main man of the night - Luciano of course. Pink hair highlights aside Luciano has come in to his own this season at Ushuaïa, with the party having an entirely different feel to the Cadenza Vagbundos parties at Pacha on Sundays.
The set was book-ended by two outstanding moments. At the start we were all treated to an entirely unique performance from a choir of unknown origin (please comment below if you know who they were!) in tandem with Luciano; you can have a look at the video here and share in the pleasantness of it all. Then towards the end Luciano has dropped this unreleased little gem during most of the sets of his I've seen this season. Titled 'Rise of Angel', it's a long, beautiful, piano heavy piece of music that everyone should enjoy at some point in their life, and made for one of the more perfect moments of the night.
Luciano's love affair with Ushuaïa has gone from strength to strength over the course of the summer, so it will be interesting to see what the next step will be in their working relationship in to 2013. Already looking forward to it...
