Page 68 - Zone Magazine Issue 018

Amsterdam Dance Event Techno Journal
Amsterdam Dance Event Techno Journal
F or the third year in a row, Zone Magazine have sent us over to
Amsterdam to cover the Amsterdam
Dance Event, where thousands of industry peers and music fanatics head to Holland to get their musical fix. This year being a bit more chaotic than last year and many more events we wanted to visit meant we were in the Dutch capital for five days.
The first of three visits to the ever impressive Gashouder kicked off our Wednesday night, where Len Faki's awesome Figure label took over. Huge favourite of ours Regal kicked off proceedings, before KiNK, Lady Starlight and Floorplan continued unleashing a monstrous amount of new productions and classics alongside Len himself. Len Faki's own remixes of Radio Slave's Grindhouse and 'Bump Your Head' by Frankie Bones were easily tunes of the night. Lady Starlight's set paved the way nicely for Jeff Mills to close the evening, with a sonic onslaught of turntable wizardry and a Roland TR-909 to accompany. that was not for the faint hearted!
Thursday evening we headed to the Suara party at the H7 Warehouse where label owner Coyu stole by playing a much harder set than we've heard from him before, before Radio 1's B Traits played firm favourites such as Slam's remix of Fur Coat 'Sustain'. Germany's very own Johannes Heil also played a driving harder set which we really enjoyed and Noir teamed up with Oliver Weiter to play quite techy, which pleasantly surprised us. Rennier Zonneveld closed up proceedings and Suara yet again managed to deliver a quality night for Amsterdam Dance Event, following up from their awesome 2016 party in The Depot.
After some much needed rest and relaxation, we were raring to go and check out Tronic's Christian Smith, whose label party initially was meant to take place on a boat. However it was moved to the intimate gathering of Desmet studios. A quick taxi ride there and we arrived to see Christian Smith, Kaiserdisco and Drunken Kong who all lived up to expectations with some high quality music! Christian dropped some bits from his new album and Drunken Kong in particular were favourites, dropping some chunky and percussive techno grooves. It was great to see they were enjoying the night as much as the crowd, being on the dance floor before their set.
After buying a last minute ticket from Ticketswap before the Tronic party finished, we ventured off to the Joris Voorn & Friends night at Gashouder for our second visit. Even so late in the morning it was rammed to capacity and Joris was just finishing off his set, before Radio 1's Kolsch took to the decks. Impressing us with a diverse array of progressive, techno and house, he warmed up nicely for Scotland's Slam to round the night off in style with their unmistakable sound. Ending the night with 1992's Camargue by CJ Bolland. The only down side was that this year Slam didn't do their own party unlike in 2015 when they hosted an event at Macloud.
After sleeping in until quite late on Saturday, we ventured to Dockyard Festival in its new home of N1 Park, near popular Dutch festival site Spaarnwoude. Dockyard have impressed the previous two years we have visited and this year also surpassed expectations. Favourites from the four arenas on offer were
Shifted who was extremely edgy and dark, Ben Sims, who managed to prove his technical prowess yet again with some awesome mixing and tune selection. Egbert, and Eats Everything who both kept things funky and techy with every track they dropped receiving a good reaction, and finally Sven Vath who was as energetic as he was eccentric. Definitely a highlight of the weekend!
We continued on Saturday night by going to the Circoloco x Loveland party at the rather quirky Mediahaven. Walking into the venue to see both rooms packed, we were treated to the sounds of Seth Troxler, Matthias Tanzmann, Rampa - &ME and more. After considerable time searching for Room 3 after a fair amount of beers, we eventually found it (in the Car Park below the building) but were disappointed to find that we had missed Amelie Lens. However, a small mercy is Kettenkarussell who played some twisted techno and house fusions which were just what was needed with the low ceilings and great soundsystem.
We knew Sunday was going to be a tough one after four days and six parties, but we still had time to venture to Elrow at De Kromhouthal (a disused Factory) in the North of Amsterdam. Eats Everything and Paco Osuna it was great to see again, and played considerably different from the other times we had seen them this week. While Michel De Hey demonstrated he can still play techno very well. I must admit by this point we were flagging quite considerably, but the party was sold out and in true Elrow style the decor was sublime.
Secret Cinema's Gem label teamed up with Loveland for the closing party again at Mediahaven. It was a back to back special with the majority of acts playing versus sets. Secret Cinema teamed up with Paul Ritch and they got the place fired. ROD was also wonderful with Juan Sanchez. Drumcode's very own Enrico Sangiuliano teamed up with fellow label mate Luigi Madonna and Christian Smith (who managed to play another awesome set) this time with Karotte, who impressed us in 2015 at Westerunie. What a fun party!
We paid a final visit to the Gashouder for Ben Klock's Photon event. Boasting a stellar line up featuring Dax J, Etapp Kyle, 0 Phase and Rodhad alongside Klock and Marcel Dettmann themselves, this event particularly fascinated us with an awe inspiring light show. 0 Phase played a decent warm up set with notable productions such as 'Mo Del' and 'Obscura'. Rodhad continued in a fine fashion with various cuts from his new album and tracks on Animal Farm and Soma to name but a few. Dax J was up next and destroyed the place keeping BPMs nice and pacey and dropping older tracks from Marco Bailey, Scan-X, The Anxious, Terence Fixmer and more, before ending with his own mashup of his 'Escape The System' and Papua New Guinea by Future Sound Of London. Dettmann slowed things down before Ben built over two hours, finishing with all time classic, the Jam & Spoon mix of 'Age Of Love'.
What a week in Holland, each year seems to improve on the last, can't wait for next year! Thanks to everyone who sorted us entry!
Words & Pics By By Maz Kallis & Louk