Sasha Launches Ushuaia Tower Residency

Words: Laura Jones
Images: Nic J.

Adorned in his iconic rectangular rimmed glasses and signature smile I had just managed to get a green light for my outfit and successfully strut passed the ‘door picker’ and made my way into Sasha’s ‘Never Say Never’ party at the Ushuaia Tower when I bumped into the man himself. The progressive house music legend was moseying around the pool side dancefloor meeting with flabbergasted die-hard fans and greeting the hoards of industry friends and colleagues who had flocked to the NSN opening, when I (cringingly) asked for a snapshot of the moment. With arms around each other, the totally unpretentious 43-year-old Welsh-born looked delighted to oblige. After I proudly uploaded the picture onto my Twitter feed I saw that Sasha had posted on his at 2.45pm: “F**k the dress code just get here early.” His friendliness, encouragement and ‘stick it to the man’ attitude set the tone for the rest of the evening and the 13 parties to follow. After shifting over from the beach, to the main stage and now to the Tower, the daytime free party started at 15.00pm with a set from Paul Reynolds and after Dimitri took over the event kicked into action during a set by Italian techno groovers Hunter and Game.

One of the busiest and most sought after DJs in the business this summer, Nick Curly was in between ear-ringed bronze elephants and two pink flamingos in the DJ booth when we arrived beneath the mighty flower adorned tower. The ground level DJ booth had been set up in the bottom left hand corner of the pool; it made the most of the state-of-the-art sound system and prevented any wind blasting the sound straight onto Playa D’en Bossa beach. As the sun went down over the growing crowd, Curly’s house driven set infused the air with synths and bass and his ear to ear smile, which was present throughout the whole of his two hours on the decks, and was the perfect way to get feet moving and the eclectic crowd moving closer and closer before Sasha’s took control of the beats.

After watching him storm the huge elevated stage in the car park at Space Opening Fiesta at the beginning of the season, when he disappointingly never played anything at all from his brilliant ‘Involv3r’ project, it wasn’t just me that shrilled with excitement when he dropped his captivating remix of ‘Battleships’. Reaching out and touching hands with his adoring fans before jumping along as the chorus reached its crescendo, the ethereal echo of Abigail Wyles’ voice reverberated through the venue and cast Sasha’s famous Involv3r spell on his beat thirsty crowd. Flanked by his co-producer Grayson Shipley, his wife and dozens of artists, friends and collaborators in the booth, emotions were soaring when arguably the biggest track of the highly acclaimed album, his remix of The XX track, ‘Chained’ had everyone in the crowd and in the booth singing along, even Sasha himself. The epic set was interspersed with his cool, carefully crafted remixes of even more Involv3r tracks plus others during his two hour set which was intimate, finely tuned and enigmatic to say the very least.

In July DJ Sneak and Bushwacka will make their mark at the Tower and in August fans will be able to see the master at work for six hours – the longest he has played in Ibiza in more than a decade. There will also be a Last Night On Earth showcase later that month, Sasha’s own label, and in September, Nic Fanciulli and Guti will feature plus a few surprises along the way. But for now we head out of The Tower, thoroughly satisfied with our musical fix abd delighted to have welcomed the new Sasha residency.