… ’cos I’m going to Creamfields forever. Johnathan Cilia’s first experience at the international festival turns out to be not quite as mainstream as expected.

I had never actually attended, but even I was aware that the annual Creamfields music event translates into a venture into the state of modern dance music. Names from all shades of the genre, from Tiesto’s trance to The Prodigy’s madness and from Richie Hawtin’s minimal techno to David Guetta’s maximum cheese, could be seen in the many countries that host Creamfields events around the world.

The first Creamfields was held in 1998 in Hampshire, England, and came to Malta a decade later. It started off as an open-air annual event and expanded all over the world – from Argentina to Abu Dhabi, which is pretty rare for a festival brand to do, and do as successfully as Creamfields has.

Dubfire (stock photography)Dubfire (stock photography)

Creamfields Malta is well known among the Maltese and was bringing big name DJs to Malta way before Malta was getting popular internationally. Malta has had some decent names on the yearly line-ups, if you like that sort of stuff – Deadmau5, Martin Garrix, Paul Oakenfold and Swedish House Mafia, among other. But, this year’s line-up took a nice approach of mixing the most current sounds in global electronic dance music with a bit of a more underground touch than usual.

The evening was spread over two stages at the open air Uno Village near Ta’ Qali, with the main stage being headlined by Dutchman Oliver Heldens, the current future house maestro. Future house’s borrowing of tropes from deep house, but keeping a stronger mainstream appeal than said genre, has allowed Oliver Heldens to straddle a very fine line to notoriety in both worlds.

Malta isn’t exactly a bastion of electro-house fandom, preferring their dance music to have either the more subtle aggression of techno, or no aggression at all

At just 21, he is currently ranked number one by DJ Mag Top 100 DJs. His music is typified by a thickset, but very melodic and warm, bassline, with sprinkles of dubstep wubs and housey vocals for that extra contemporary feel.

He was supported by Robin Schulz, whose 2015 hit Sugar probably defined half of Malta’s 2015 summer, with its typical soft, easy, guitar-string house practically created to be played on a Sunday afternoon driving on the sunny Coast Road top down on the way to Cafe del Mar.

The second stage was decidedly different. Iranian American house and techno DJ and local favourite Dubfire had a two-hour set, and was followed by German techno DJ Chris Liebing. This wouldn’t be Liebing’s first Creamfields in Malta, having played here in 2013. Israeli techno deejay Guy Gerber, known for his use of live instrumentation on stage, would then take over the decks.

Dubfire came on at 10pm, following local DJ Carl Bee. Dubfire is known in techno and house circles for his consistent live performance and his sometimes incredible stage setup, with Pete Tong mentioning him repeatedly at the recent International Music Summit Malta.

This time round, he opted for a more low-key visual approach, with black and white glitchy imagery as a backdrop. This suited his melodic, yet dark, techno well. His use of loops was interesting, sometimes looping the same sound(s) seemingly endlessly, to positive effect.

Chris Liebing took the techno up a notch as soon as he started, with a much more straightforward pounding kick in his set. In contrast to Dubfire, Liebing had a more colourful glitchy display on, and its reflection on the random teepee in the middle of the crowd was awesome, as I’m sure the people inside the teepee would agree. Liebing sparingly used synthesizers, bringing them in for a bar or two for a nice touch, then getting rid of them. In the second half of his set, he brought in elements of psytrance and 1990s rave, which is always going to go down well in Malta.

Guy Gerber (stock photography)Guy Gerber (stock photography)

On the main stage, Robin Schulz was going a bit harder than expected, bringing in electro-house remixes of popular songs like Calvin Harris’ This is What You Came For and How Deep Is Your Love, allowing the crowd to sing, then hitting them with the unexpected synths. He also provided the most unforeseen and, assumedly, the only trap drop of the night, which I appreciated.

His overall mix of known summer tunes, with electro-house that’s just the slightest bit out of a mainstream crowd’s sensibilities, showed that even Robin Schulz may be responsible for expanding someone’s tastes. Being accompanied by dancers with water pistols on either side also helped him win over the crowd, probably because most people like to see women being soaked with water.

Oliver Heldens then took the main stage, quickly revealing his tender age by doing the Egyptian within a minute of being on stage – a dance move I hadn’t seen done since that 1980s video by The Bangles. DJ purists will say that that is unbecoming of a real DJ and that any DJ worth his salt should be focused on mixing. But, clearly, this one didn’t seem to mind, constantly jumping around as he mixed, just happy to be playing to a few thousand people.

This year’s line-up took a nice approach of mixing the most current sounds in global electronic dance music with a bit of a more underground touch than usual

His modulated synth and bass leads are pretty much the definition of modern future house, the likes of which Tchami and, to an extent, Martin Solveig purvey. He added touches of electro-house for good measure – it seemed foreign DJs used to the European festival circuit assume electro-house will always go down well, but Malta isn’t exactly a bastion of electro-house fandom, preferring their dance music to have either the more subtle aggression of techno, or no aggression at all.

Either way, his energetic set was a crash course in what’s hot right now in dance music. He was making a strong case for it, with his quick mixing giving the crowd a large selection of tracks to ‘Shazam’.

Halfway through his set  dropped his other deeper DJ outfit Hi-Lo’s (Oli. H. in reverse – deep, right?) track Renegade Mastah, which hyped the crowd, before, unfortunately, going into Daft Punk and some disco. He was playing main stage, after all.

Back on the second stage, Guy Gerber was in classic techno territory, as the crowd clearly wanted at this stage. He replaced the oomph of Chris Liebing with the rolling rhythm closely associated with techno, building on the previous DJs’ work to create a rave atmosphere that would make classic 1998 Creamfields proud.

He brought in some house vocals here and there to add a bit of clean sheen to his sets, and kept the non-stop percussion pounding. Back on the main stage, Oliver Heldens was back with the metallic future house leads, and held the crowd in his sway into the night.

The outdoor summer festival atmosphere of Creamfields is always going to be great and its international recognition means it’ll consistently attract big, modern names to Malta.

Creamfields has been keeping Malta in the loop since 2008, and this year it brought one of the top rated DJs currently, along with some returning techno guests, ensuring the balancing act that is the international dance scene is also heard in our fields.

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