As I lay on my deck chair, sipping a cocktail by the pool, I noticed the temperature drop slightly. I opened my eyes to see a fidgeting waiter holding a tray with an MP3 player on it. “Yes?” I asked, putting on my most penetrative annoyed look. “Sorry to disturb you sir but this arrived for you, they said it was urgent”, he managed to squeak out. “Very well, thanks”, I muttered, taking the player and putting the headphones on. The waiter was still there, fidgeting even more furiously than before. “You can go now”, I said, and he hurried off. I switched on the player and listened:

“Agent Rocca, thanks to your hard work at the Rialto, we have uncovered more leads about the group known as Club Hades. They are holding a Halloween themed boat party Friday night and we need you to be there. Your targets are two high ranked members; we only know them by their codenames; Bill and Ted. Your task is to sneak aboard, find out as much as you can about them and any possible superiors by placing the provided devices. As Agent Mad is on assignment in Ibiza, you will be alone. We have managed to sneak in an undercover agent as one of the DJs, he will respond to the code phrase accompanying this tape. That is all, good luck.” I quickly threw the player away, not wanting a repeat of last time. So, a fancy dress boat cruise, I thought to myself, as cries and shouts went up in the background. This could be fun!

I arrived at the dock in my costume just on 8pm. Looking around, I realised HQ had not exactly provided me with fantastic gear, as the quality of disguises being worn by other patrons was far in excess of mine. Alice and the Mad Hatter, various pirates and monsters, zombies and devils, Jason with a chainsaw were all very well put together. As getting aboard was slow goings, I thought perhaps the security was on a high alert, as they knew they could now be infiltrated after my last mission. I made it through unscathed though, and proceeded below decks where Pete Oasis was DJing, with Toca’s Miracle by Fragma being pumped out of the speakers. Hopefully it wasn’t going to be an omen of the night!

Upstairs Jimmy was playing some deep thumping tunes, I thought I would try the code phrase early to see if he was my undercover help. I walked up to the turntables, caught his eye, and said “Excuse me, can you tell me that track you just played?” he said something sounding like Love To The Music, and that was that. Hmm. This could be tricky! I continued dancing away, thinking there was plenty of time as the party had only just begun and just after 9pm the boat was underway.

Freya took over from Jimmy upstairs, continuing the progressive vibe. I was looking forward to this after the Rialto event, but there was less trance on offer this time. It was still pretty pumping and by the end I found myself enjoying it but not as much as my previous Freya experience. I then took the time to investigate downstairs a bit further. Up the back there was a lounge area setup with rugs and couches, I relaxed and enjoyed the atmosphere, taking in the tunes provided by Kingfisher. With some more housey and commercial sounding tunes, the vibe was pretty laidback, perfect for snooping around. It didn’t go too well however, with one punter in particular actually trying to swap masks with me; he must have thought his was even worse than mine.

Kingfisher built up slowly to some more techno-influenced tunes, and after trying some of the provided finger food I headed back upstairs to see Andrew Welter. He had the crowd rocking with a bouncey set but I was surprised at how proggy and housey the tunes were still. One track I had recognised from research into the Ministry Of Sound, and after hearing something I liked I tried my code, he replied with Dusty Kid The Cat. I hadn’t see any dusty kids or cats around so far, so could only assume I still hadn’t found my contact. Strike two!

After Andrew finished at 11:30, Danny K from Israel took over and then the trance started to seep through into the party. I got into the groove for a short time before decided to try my hand again at locating my fellow agent downstairs. Kingfisher was finishing up with some tech house, but I heard one deeper track I liked and tried the code. He gave me a CD with Hotbox Digital I Like Rhythm written on it and I thought when will this end? However he held my arm, and said I would also like a track by the ‘wild stallions’. “That’s all I can say, I think they are on to me!” he said while looking around and packing up. I nodded and moved away, finally some success! As Ben Evans began his set, starting off with some banging tunes straight away, I had another look around. I wasn’t sure exactly how horses fit in, but then I saw it. Two guys with Wyld Stallions written on their t-shirts. Bill and Ted!

I decided to stay my hand for the moment. Ben Evans was playing some really nice tranced out music, since nobody was going anywhere I could stay and dance a while with the rest of the crowd. At midnight however everything stopped, we were treated once again to an acrobatic performance. It was a Halloween themed battle of good versus evil, with one performer dressed like a zombie and one like a priest. While the crowd and crew watched, I located my targets and skillfully placed my bugs. We all watched on until the show ended in suitably gruesome fashion, with something supposed to resemble intestines or other internal organs mashed and smeared over the floor and performers. With my mission done, I could focus more on enjoying the music.

Danny K continued on after the show and had sped up the tunes considerably. The banging tracks were accompanied visually by lasers and a smoke machine which fit the theme well. He was playing pretty hard stuff, with Koxbox and GMS tunes getting a run and something resembling the Skazi style hybrid of heavy metal guitars and psy trance beats. If anything it was a bit too hard for me, so I went back down to catch the rest of Ben Evans’ set. I really enjoyed his stuff, after being cut short last time he made up for it now with some great tunes. One highlight was Timedrained Alexanderplatz and there were also some nice tunes with great acid lines and chanting style vocals.

When he finished it was up to Suntribe to close up below decks. He played some great sounding psy-trance but the tunes were being played slightly too fast for my liking and his mixing technique was not up to the same standard as the other DJs of the night. I went back upstairs to see Mish Chief take things down with some more proggy beats to finish the night. Shortly after 1am the boat had returned and people began to disembark but there was still a sizeable amount of people still dancing away, until the night came to a close at 2am. Keeping an eye on my targets as we got off the boat, I overheard them mentioning the success of the night, and that Rufus would have been pleased with the way it went. I would agree that it was a success, I enjoyed my time on the boat, and headquarters will be interested in learning more about this Rufus character too. Till next time…