WE DANCED TO D&B AT INNOVATION IN THE SUN
And loved every second of it!
The airstrike in France has sent Innovation in the Sun 2016 into chaos before it has even begun, cancelled flights have a knock on effect on resort transfers, leaving puddles of slightly intoxicated ravers in hot, sticky taxi queues at Spanish airports. Arriving at the club to check-in, we discover two Australian girls making an extremely polite and strangely happy complaint. They couldn’t get on to one of the sell out boat parties, it seems the Azza & Grima nautical excursion had been oversold, however rather that kicking off, would be punters stood gleefully sipping giant cocktails on the beach, waving off the party yacht.
In the midst of this organised bedlam, we stand in the centre of a dark and sweaty pit of sin, feeling surrounded by drunken youngsters, maybe even feeling a little past our sell by date for a jump up holiday — we begin to question why we have come back to Innovation in the Autumn of our raving days. Should we have stayed with the memories of our golden years at the longest running drum and bass holiday? Then Ed Rush plays Chase & Status’ ever famous ‘Take Me Away’. And the entire club erupts. We’re reminded this is why we are here, we want to be taken away. And right now Innovation in the Sun is the only place we want to be. We love the chaos, it echoes the clientele, and it’s a good job everything’s just that little bit late, because there’s no way we (or anyone else) would have got there on time anyway!
In the daytime old school jungle plays gently in the background at the Innovation bar on the beach front, we sit talking to new friends from last night’s antics and the group snowballs as more and more randoms join the conversation. You can see the scene growing and developing as people make connections over their love of jump up, it's humbling to watch. Walking back to our hotel a group of lads spot of our bands and instantly, more connections are made.
The hotel is full of Inno heads, chilling by the pool and basking in the sun; groups take it in turns to play Macky Gee or Shadow Demon sets from tiny portable speakers, which do nothing for the low end. Nearly every set we hear seems to include the ‘Dominator & Logan D’ remix of ‘Ready or Not’, and we hear a lot of sets! In fact throughout our time at Inno we hear so much jump up that walking down a quiet street on a balmy evening scores of crickets being to sound like shuffling snares, and a lonesome dog barking is easily mistaken for one of Skiba’s signature sound effects.
The day continues and people chat about whose set they are most looking forward to this evening, the overwhelming consensus is Voltage is the one to watch. The man of the moment has just become the new SDC DJ, and the buzz around the new coalition is intense. Speaking to Voltage about his set he said; “For my first time at innovation the vibes were immense, me and Bassman bought them Shadow vibes! The moment of the set was definitely bass over ‘Bou & Solix- Bumba’... 3 reloads is not a joke!”
DJ Guv’s set gets an honourable mention, the highlight set of the weekend for us. Thrashing through some of the dirtiest, grimiest jump up this summer has to offer he got the crowd hyped to the highest degree. Then flipping the script with Break’s ‘Slow Down’, it’s an amazing time to be in the dance. There’s always a point in the night where you drop which ever random mate you’ve been chatting shit to for the last hour and run to dance with your actual mate it could be DJ Guv dropping Jenna G ‘In Love’ or Hazard playing his very own ‘Bricks Don’t Roll’. It’s these moments that really make a rave, when everyone comes together for the love of a track, and at Inno these moments are plentiful.
People say a lot about jump up, people say a lot about Innovation. To some, it’s seen as a less intelligent, more aggressive, Jeremy Kyle sub-genre of D&B. But we say is it intelligent to judge a whole sub-genre on a preconception which is decades old? Innovation has the sun, sea and sand. It has the beach parties, the boat parties, a castle rave, a waterpark all-dayer (where this year, someone proposed to their girlfriend on stage, and she said yes to the delight of the soaking wet crowd who went wild, the energy was close to electric.) It has a phenomenal line up, atmosphere and sense of community which is close-knit and loving. It has it all.
For more information on Innovation events — head here.
WORDS: Whisky Kicks
PICTURE CREDIT: Jonathan Owen
