Back to the future in Ibiza with rave legend Slipmatt
SEMINAL rave legend Slipmatt will head to Ibiza again next Wednesday for an epic week featuring the best tunes from across the decades.
Slip Back In Time Presents Old Skool Ibiza 2024 takes place across a myriad of venues and runs until May 22.
It brings together an up-for-it community of lifelong ravers for a week of DJs by the pool, club nights and fantastic tunes. DJs joining Slipmatt include K-Klass, Shades Of Rhythm, Ratpack, Utah Saints, Brandon Block, Alex P, Mark Archer (Bizarre Inc / Altern-8), Rob Tissera, Nicky Blackmarket, Graham Gold, Marcella Woods and many more.
Slipmatt very kindly recorded an exclusive mix for The Night Bazaar Sessions on Mixcloud which you can listen to below and we asked him for his thoughts on raving past, present and future which you can also read below while you listen.
“35 years on and we’re still raving hard! I find it amazing how similar the music is now to how it was back in 1989. In fact even as far back as 1986. House music has reigned supreme in the world of proper dance music for 35 years, and it doesn’t look like it’s ever going to run out of steam.
The ‘rave’ element teamed up with House in a big way in ’89, especially with the rise of the illegal rave scene with parties like Sunrise, Biology and Raindance. The powers that be soon put a stop to that, but we did manage to carry on with licensed events. To be honest, some of the dance music festivals these days are even better than those original parties from back in the day. I remember wandering around Boomtown Festival a few years ago and thinking to myself, this is just like 89/90, but even better!”
“I think we do miss some of the innocence and freshness of those early days, and it’s certainly a lot more money driven now. I never saw myself as a career DJ back in 1989 as I’m sure most other DJs didn’t, but it’s now become BIG business. Modern DJs seem to be paying a lot more attention to how they look these days rather than their musical skills, but things move on and our culture has changed massively over the years. Main thing is, the music is still as good, if not better, and we’re all still having fun.”
“One thing I do love about the scene and how DJing has evolved, is the technology. The big debate between vinyl and digital has be going on for years. I remember how delighted I was the first time I could play CDs at a gig. I specifically remember when Es Paradis in Ibiza installed a set of Pioneer CDJs back in the early 00s which meant I could play my own edits that I’m made at home, rather than cutting one-off dubplates at £50 a pop. It opened up a whole new world of creativity and there was no looking back.”
“Old Skool music and culture is always in the hearts of the ones who were around in the 1990s. What seems to have happened in recent years is the original raving generation from that era have gotten through the ‘raising a family’ stage, have a few more quid in their sky rockets, and have started going out again. It’s amazing the amount of over 40s, and even over 50s that are now out raving again on a regular basis. Even the music has leaned heavily in to the old rave tunes with new remixes of nearly every Old Skool track you can think of.
Events like ‘Clockwork Orange’ that were big in the mid 90s are possibly even bigger today, and I know this with my own ‘Slip Back In Time’ event in Ibiza which mainly attracts people between 30-60 years old. It’s wonderful to see our generation still dancing, smiling and enjoying great music. Long may it continue.” Slipmatt, May 2024