TuneLab
Awakenings Festival 2018 Sunday - Liveset Ilario Alicante
Area V
Awakenings Festival on a Sunday afternoon: a collective of slightly sunburned ravers who have run out of clean socks but not stamina. Ilario Alicante at Area V in 2018 understood the assignment, delivering a peak-time techno set that’s equal parts muscle and mischief. The vibe is industrial-strength fun, with lasers cutting through the haze and a crowd riding that second-wind energy hard. Technically, it's a relentless 130 BPM march, predominantly in the driving key of 12A, with an energy profile that cleverly balances a solid low-end foundation (0.61 avg) with aggressive mid-range percussion and well-timed high-end strikes.
This is functional, peak-hour mixing—long blends, tension-building loops, and drops that feel earned. His track selection is a riot. Kicking off with Gigi D'Agostino's 'Bla Bla Bla' is a gloriously cheesy power move that immediately bonds the crowd. He then weaves in Andrea Frisina & Irregular Synth's 'Dub City' for its raw, percussive drive, and the edit of ZHU's 'Risky Business' shows a keen ear for a sleazy, mainstream hook reworked for a warehouse.
The true highlight, though, is dropping Rank 1's trance anthem 'Airwave'—a moment of pure, unadulterated euphoria that temporarily turns the techno bunker into a 1999 superclub. From the italo-disco opener, through the euphoric peak of 'Airwave', he lands us safely on the timeless techno bedrock of Oxia's 'Domino'.