Supermartxe Goes Wild For Steve Angello

On July 30 Supermartxe, the biggest and the longest serving party at Privilege, enjoyed a very special edition, none other than Steve Angello was presenting his new ‘Wild Youth’ show, named after his freshest artist album. Normally, Supermartxe is a large-scale affair with dozens of dancers and performers – this night, however, the hottest part of the night was a one-man show. And this one man managed to totally steal the attention of the audience just by standing on stage and playing music – what charisma, what a talent, what glory!

His former brothers-in-arms from Swedish House Mafia, Axwell and Ingrosso, are holding a weekly residency on Wednesdays in Ushuaia: no need to say, it’s a very popular party that attracts thousands of revellers each time. But Steve Angello went a completely different path and limited his Ibiza gigs to a minimum, thus making each one of twice as precious. On July 30, the crowd turned up very early, dreading to miss the moment he appeared behind the decks. He didn’t do that until 3am, however – for the first few hours the colossal stage of Privilege was mysteriously draped in black, and the center of the action was the smaller DJ booth in the middle of the dancefloor. Brian Cross and Heren were invited as special guests to help the main headliner soundtrack the night, and the gorgeous resident DJs of Supermartxe were on hand as well.

At 3am, a solemn silence took over the room, and the huge curtain finally opened. The main DJ booth was installed in the middle of the stage, on an elevated platform. Steve appeared in dark clothes, with his hair in a bun. He greeted the crowd and asked the people about their mood (which was, predictably, full of admiration and anticipation), and then concentrated on music rather than on showmanship. Serious and focused, he kept his eyes on the equipment constantly – but instead of being motionless, bobbed around the booth, joining the massive crowd in surrendering to the intense vibe. Now, in an age when so many prominent artists consider it their duty to entertain the public by jumping with their hands in the air and practicing cheerleading in all possible ways, such an approach to DJing looked very impressive as the contrast.

Wild Youth is Angello’s second album, released on his own Size records in January. Its predecessor, Tracks, first saw the light as long ago as 2003 on Konvex / Konkav – and you can imagine how much things have changed since then. Instead of plunging headfirst into the purest EDM sound and developing the tracks on builds and drops mostly, Steve opted for a much richer and more diverse sound, nodding to pop music and recollecting all the most important musical influences that he had gathered during the two decades of his career. While the release is quite obviously aimed at a young and active audience first and foremost, Steve himself has proved once again that he is a very mature artist – both while recording the album and during the gig at Privilege.

The trademark sexy show of Supermartxe started much later than usual that night – it was nearly 5am. The crowd was still bursting with energy – both the main dancefloor and the VIP area. In the VIP, there was hardly a spare table to be found, which is quite a regular situation for Supermartxe. In the coming weeks there will be a few more big international headliners gracing the stage at Privilege on Saturdays: Afrojack on August 20 and Chuckie on August 27, September 10 and October 1, which is the grand closing. This season has been big and beautiful so far for Supermartxe – and promises to continue, it’s a party you have to experience to fully understand.