Review: Electric Island at Cottesloe Beach

Electric Island at Cottesloe Beach
w/ Sasha, Roger Sanchez, Armand Van Helden, Franky Wah, Kristen Knight
Sunday, March 10, 2024

We really do live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, and it’s great to see when our great outdoors is embraced and utilised brilliantly to host an amazing world-class event! Electric Island this weekend saw thousands of old-school ravers take over the picturesque Cottesloe Beach. Featuring a giant stage and huge crowds sprawled out across the sand and hills, it was one massive beach party!

Promoters T1000 Events are like the Terminator model; they’re an unstoppable force. Growing bigger by the year, they’ve put on huge events featuring the likes of Fatboy Slim and Eric Prydz at venues like Belvoir and Red Hill, then sat out for a few years during COVID times before returning with a bang last year, securing Cott for the first time, and bringing over Roger Sanchez and Basement Jaxx. This year, they outdid themselves with a stellar line-up and not just one, but two days of world-class talent.

A large-scale party brand, T1000 has roots in the UK, hosting big festivals, which then bloomed in Sydney. They’ve built a brand and reputation for quality events with all killer, no filler line-ups, top-notch audio-visual, and unique locations, and Electric Island has fast become a favourite national tour. With all the issues with festivals of late, they’ve shown that if you find a niche, do things well, and have good line-ups, the people will come!

The line-ups at these events feature more legacy and legendary acts that attract an older crowd that can afford the price tag. This boutique festival ethos may be the future, with a focus on quality over quantity and one or two stages rather than huge multistage events with 20 acts, which splits the crowd.

The Sunday show was announced first and was a bigger draw card with three undisputed heavyweight legends of dance music in Sasha, Sanchez and Van Helden. But after that was on track to sell out, a Saturday show was also put on, with a solid but not as star-packed lineup. It was apparently a great day as well, as overheard from some mad punters who were doing ‘a beach weekender’.

But for many, it was all about the Sunday. It was very hot early in the afternoon, with Perth turning on a scorcher that hit 37 at its peak. With the sun beating down, many took shelter in the shadows of the giant trees on the grassy slope. There wasn’t any shade for those braving it on the sand, where the sights and sounds were better in front of the big stage set up at the base of Cottesloe’s iconic groyne. There were some mats placed on the sand near the front, making it easier to dance.

Kicking off proceedings around 1pm was Kristen Knight, the Miami-based DJ who has also produced a few tracks with her husband, Roger Sanchez, whom she often tours with. Knight may look great on Instagram and have a superstar DJ partner, but she’s no slouch behind the decks. Technically capable, with taste and experience, she has a rolling, upbeat, mashup party style that was easy to get into. She set the scene early on as the punters rolled in.

Following on from Kristen was Franky Wah, a rising star on the scene from the north of England, and he delivered on the hype with a cracking set. He’s also been fortunate to have Sasha take him under his wing as a bit of a protegee. The two have toured together and collaborated on an EP, Haunted, in 2020. Franky has an Ibiza residency at SHÈN and recently played an epic b2b set with Sasha—a fine example of the two’s synergy.

Those in the know got down early to check out the young gun, and he had a small crowd gathered around the stage, braving the heat, with many more looking on from the hill. Pretty soon he’d drawn more of a crowd with the quality of his tunes. This man is the goods—a future star for sure—dishing up a smoothly mixed blend of modern techy house and classic progressive Balearic sounds. Starting with a melodic, pulsating, very danceable sound, he wound it up in the last half hour with a deeper, darker edge, priming the crowd for Sasha.

He dropped his wicked, funky house remix of Pink Floyd’s classic Another Brick in the Wall Pt2 and a stomping unreleased tune of his own, as featured in his SHÈN mix. After bringing things to the boil nicely, Franky handed over to Sasha and left the stage, though he appeared again later behind his mentor, watching on, dancing and laughing with him.

Much has been said of Alexander Coe, Welsh native, UK and Ibiza legend, better known as global superstar DJ Sasha for over three decades. Once dubbed ‘the son of God’, his many accolades could sound like hyperbole if it weren’t so on point—the man is an absolute legend, an enigma, a magician behind the decks, and one of the greatest to ever do it. He’s evolved over the years but has maintained his unmistakable sound, drawn-out, seamless mixing style and epic builds. He’s a master at work and he proved it once again with the best set of the day.

Many seemed surprised he wasn’t headlining, but playing the afternoon set to a dedicated and dancing crowd as the sun shimmered off the water was a magic moment, which he seized, taking the crowd on a journey with a joyous set of melodic, progressive house with heavy, driving basslines and big breakbeats. Despite it not being dark yet, the cool layered design of the triangular LED panels framing the stage were illuminated enough to add to the performance. Sasha seemed to really be enjoying himself on the last show of the tour.

He’s a superb selector who’s always at the forefront, finding fresh tracks. It was hard to ID any big tunes in the mix, but fans would have recognised some from his recent mixes, and there were many huge moments. The euphoric Elation by Marsh got a spin—a recent release on Sasha’s Last Night on Earth imprint. The unmistakable sounds of The Chemical Brothers lit things up with their awesome, scorching new tune, Feels Like I Am Dreaming. Old school rave classic Meet Her At The Love Parade by Da Hool has been doing the rounds lately, popping up in sets under various guises, and Sasha dropped the Safar reworking of the legendary track.

Roger Sanchez came onstage at 5.30pm, embraced Sasha, and got on the mic to show some respect. “I want you to make some noise for this amazing legend. Give it up for Sasha!” It was great to see the mutual admiration. Those two would have played many times together back in the day, though they each have a distinctly different style.

The New York house don, with his always immaculate beard and baseball cap, took over the controls, and you’re always in safe hands with the S-man. Starting dramatically by dropping Chuck Roberts’ classic My House speech with its often sampled preaching “Jack boldly declared ‘Let There Be House’ and house music was born… I am the creator and this is my house.” From there, Sanchez didn’t waste time capitalising on the energy Sasha had generated and launched into his set by dropping a stomping beat, keeping it rolling with his trademark percussive, winding mixing style. Sanchez really puts his whole body and soul into his mixing and shows off his technical skills with cutting and scratching.

As the sun set, the awesome visuals and lighting of the superb set design came to life, enhancing the amazing vibe on the beach. By this point, the crowd was massive, and it was a spectacular 360 vista of happy, dancing people. Roger’s set was a tour de force with familiar tracks flitting in and out of the mix, like Technotronic’s Pump Up The Jam, Daft Punk’s One More Time, and the perennial Born Slippy by Underworld. The joyous Lola’s Theme by The Shapeshifters took us back to the glory days of vocal house, as well as other classics of the golden era like Deep Dish’s famous edit of Sandy B’s Make the World Go Round, Wildchild’s Renegade Master, Strings of Life by originator Derrick May, and Fatboy Slim’s Right Here, Right Now, which is where we were all very thankful to be!

Sanchez bid us farewell with his 2001 smash hit Another Chance, which he built up to an awesome climax, before handing over to Armand Van Helden to take us down the home stretch with an hour of power, featuring a relentless mashup of late 90s and early 00s dance hits. The accessible familiarity of a set of bangers went down a treat with much of the crowd, but didn’t quite hit the spot for some who were craving more underground electronic sounds for the end of the night, rather than a megamix of poppy electro that verged on cheesy at times. But this was an Armand Van Helden show, and being the prolific, successful producer and charts mainstay he was in his his prime, he understandably plays a lot of his own material. There wasn’t a huge amount of mystery or mixing; it was more a well-crafted, sequenced setlist of upfront selections featuring many of his own tracks, remixes and collaborations.

It’s amazing how much he fit in an hour really—kicking off with a couple of his most famous tracks with his trademark, distinctive funky basslines—C.J. Bolland’s Sugar Is Sweeter (aka Sugardaddy) as well as his chart-topping 1996 reworking of Tori Amos’ Professional Widow—a track that is so far removed from Amos’ slow harpsichord-driven original that it’s almost unrecognisable apart from the infamous looped vocal samples, “Honey, bring it close to my lips” and “It’s gotta be big,” which had the whole crowd singing along.

Modjo’s pop house classic Lady (Hear Me Tonight) segued seamlessly into Stardust’s shimmering French house hit Music Sounds Better with You. Armand’s huge collab with Dizzee Rascal, Bonkers, was just that, as the entire beach erupted when the massive drop hit. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Heads Will Roll was a nice change of pace, before more of his own hits, including his 2004 hit released on Fatboy Slim’s Southern Fried Records, My My My, and his collab with Duck Sauce & A-Trak, aNYway.

There were some big tunes, but he lost a bit of momentum with constant breakdowns interrupting the flow, and cutting the sound back so the crowd could sing. It was a fun, funky and fitting finale that pleased many, though it was hard not to imagine how much more epic and mind-blowing it would have been had Sasha finished the night with the full stage production. But Van Helden brought the hit factor and closed the night on a high note with his biggest record, You Don’t Know Me (feat. Duane Harden), complete with fireworks!

It was a magical summery day and night on the beach with great music, great vibes and a great crowd in one of our most beautiful locations. Another brilliant edition of Electric Island, the biggest and best yet, let’s hope it becomes an annual tradition down at Cott.

ALFRED GORMAN

Photos by Nicola Robb