Donato Dozzy

It has actually been a dream for me to see Donato play for a long time now, missing out on his night at The School last year has always been a big regret. I find his sets quite trippy and very thoughtfully chosen, they feel like a Dutch dropping for me. You go to a spot and need to find the way back, but during this trip you experience different side notes that stop you from focussing. Yeah, this set definitely brought me to the other side of the moon.

Orpheu the Wizard

I can be short about this one. I didn’t shoot any videos because it was too good to whip out my phone. Even though I saw him play a lot, he still surprised me with new music. Like Donato Dozzy, he played at the super cozy and beautiful Selectors stage. Definitely my favorite stage, it was intimate and the beautiful trees where the perfect hangout for the climbers between us.

Ambient Church

I thought I was a somewhat familiar with the church because of Lente Kabinet, but I discovered that this one is a real ambient hot shot. For me this was the perfect hangout to chill or do a little slow dancing. Local hero Rik Payne definitely caught my attention!

King Shiloh

On Sunday I started my dancing day at Red Light Radio with some sizzling, dubby reggae sounds. I think the Red Light Radio resident is the perfect match with the Krackfree Soundsystem, feel the vibration!

Alexander Robotnick

And then something else happened. One of my favorite movies, A Space Odyssey, came across. Alexander used the soundtrack by Richard Strauss in his set, followed by some real electro-disco vibes. This was a moment that many people will never forget. Real goosebumps.

Tzusing

I ended my Dekmantel adventure at the Greenhouse with Taiwanese hero Tzusing. This was just amazing. Lots of heavy machinery, hip-hop and steamy sounds. I think I worked my hamstrings a lot and flew almost onto the stage in the end.

All I can say I had a mind blowing Dekmantel experience, many thanks for this and special thanks for the app. This really made my life easier and helped me discovering lots of new favorite artists. Only love and hopefully till next year!

Photography by Tarona Leonora

Pharaoh Sanders Quartet

Let’s start the festival with a breeze, with the concert of Pharaoh Sanders Quartet. Maybe you’re already familiar with him, one of the greatest jazzy saxophonists. But if not, this concert is really a must-see if you’re interested in a new, deep musical adventure, or find some inspiration for your own music.

Cybotron

After this legend you can spend your time with some others, like electro-bosses Cybotron. Their type of music is quite populair at the moment. For example, their song “Clear” is for me a great track to get in the party mood.

Wally Badarou & De Ambassade

When you had a good night sleep, you can make yourself ready for another day of Dekmantel pleasure. On Thursday there’s quite a big program going on but I will select my favorites to keep it easy. I think the program of Tolhuistuin is really nice. For example synth magician Wally Badarou will perform there and later that night De Ambassade will do a live performance with loads of new stuff. You might know him from the Dutch band Dollkraut, you can expect some nice synths and wavey sounds.

Shinichi Atobe

And last but not least you should end your day with the mysterious Shinichi Atobe. He performs at gloomy Shelter, so get ready for some real house clubbing with some raw edges to make you totally ready for the weekend buzz. See you there!

Dekmantel Festival 2019

When: July 31-August 4
Where: Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, Tolhuistuin, Shelter, Bimhuis, Amsterdamse Bos
Tickets: Here
More info: Website & Facebook event

Photo by Bart Heemskerk

What to expect at SSFB

Every year I discover a new favorite artist, last year I got super excited by Lanark Artefax for example. The stage was not that crowded but I still had goosebumps all over my body. I’m sure something like this will have happen this year as well. But who it will be, that’s the surprise. Who are my favorites for now? I am deeply excited about Mutant Beat Dance, local pride Gesloten Cirkel and big boss Joy Orbison. I think I never saw Mutant Beat Dance on a festival, so this will be a great experience, they always make me dance behind my laptop!

The last time I saw Gesloten Cirkel was at The Crave in The Hague, which was a crazy experience. It was the first time I visited a festival alone. Of course you’re never alone at a festival, but in theory I was. In the beginning it felt a bit awkward but as soon as I started dancing it all was fine. How special it that music can give you that safety net?

Joy Orbison is one of the first DJs I saw playing, that was during Pitch festival in 2014. After that epic moment I saw him again in London but never more than those two moments. I am quite curious what he will do this Saturday, so let’s count the days and see. I am excited for sure.

Strange Sounds From Beyond 2019

When: June 22, 12:00-23:59
Where: Noorderlicht, NDSM-Plein 102
Tickets: €43,- | Here
More info: Website & Facebook event

Paradiso is at the heart of the city’s music scene, its counterculture, and it’s one of the coolest venues in Europe. Located in a converted 19th century church with towering ceilings, stained glass windows and gorgeously intricate balconies, its boards have been tread by some of the most iconic musicians of the last half century. Squatting hippies of the ’60s attracted bands like Pink Floyd to their late night jam sessions, before becoming a transformational place for punk and new wave throughout the 1970s. Now Paradiso houses an eclectic mix of programming from book fairs to EDM festivals, and has multiple venues across the city.

Production manager Ajay Saggar has a contagious passion for the place. Leaving England in the ’80s, not wanting to live under Thatcher, he moved to a commune in Amsterdam with band The Ex. Currently playing, mixing and releasing music with three bands – Deutsche Ashram, King Champion Sounds, and Common Col – alongside his full-time job as at Paradiso, he has an awe-inspiring amount of knowledge concerning what seems to be the entirety of music history, and took time out to tell me about some of the historic performances.

Paradiso changing music

The power of a venue, of the energy between the band and the audience, and the capacity of this energy to create something completely new is so often lost in the mechanical music production business. The cultural and historical energy that Paradiso exudes is palpable, so much so that when Kraftwerk played a five night residency at the venue in 1976, after listening back to their performance tapes they decided to change the mix on Trans Europe Express, an album that changed the face of electronic music, based on the energy that was created in the space of the performances. There’s something cyclical about the notion of a band like Kraftwerk having been influenced by Paradiso, which is then embedded into the cultural history of the venue, which then goes on to inspire even more bands, creating an endless layering of a musical history that is completely alive within this venue as each performance happens.

Music changes Paradiso

The power of Paradiso is that it’s more than just a static room where artists perform, it changes with the artists that play there, so that walking around becomes a whistle stop tour of physical manifestations of iconic bands and performances. The pogo hopping was so extreme at the Ramones’ gig that they had to stop halfway through to tell people that the floor was going to break if they carried on, which of course they didn’t. Since then the floor has been reenforced; the power of performance to break through the floor surely being the epitome of punk rock.

The Rolling Stones’ influence alone on Paradiso is awe inspiring. Walking into the dressing rooms, one of the walls was built just to accommodate Mick Jagger’s refusal to share a dressing room with the other members of the Stones, and when Keith Richards showed up with too many guitars to fit on the main stage, a hole was drilled in the floor so they could be passed up to him. The gorgeous second balcony in Paradiso’s main room looks just as established as the rest of the venue, but was actually only added in after a temporary second balcony was erected so the Stones’s film makers could record their set, following which the venue erected the permanent version.

Paradiso has developed beyond the original converted church, holding thousands of events every year in multiple venues across the city. Their aim is to connect with the community, engaging with multiple areas of Amsterdam so that music and performance can be accessible across the city. The spirit of Paradiso is one of connection and community, cultivated through a passion and love for music, and a belief the power of live performance. It was an insanely cool thing to be able to walk around this venue and hear some of its stories. You can watch many of the iconic performances in the Paradiso archives.

You had a big love for fashion design, or creating processes in general. How did you translate that to your music?
“During high school I always wanted to work in the fashion industry, so after my graduation I moved to Antwerp. After some time I discovered that I didn’t see myself working in that industry. Though I still feel a big love for certain designers, music is my obsession. For hours and hours I can search for tracks or look into labels on the internet. Sometimes I also go record shopping, but funny enough I don’t buy that much in records stores here in Amsterdam.”

How did you got involved in the music scene?
“I was always busy with music, and wrote about it on Tumblr or Blogspot when I was younger. Later on I started writing for De School’s blog, THUMP, Crack, and other platforms. Back then I would make mixes with Audacity by just cutting and pasting tracks into one another. Meeting my boyfriend in 2015 brought out the real nerd in me: he was a DJ and we started talking a lot about music. In 2017 I played my first set, after playing some tracks at a party with friends, and later on I started playing at Stranded FM. I started playing quite quickly at certain places, probably because I knew some people that were involved in the club scene through writing.”

I noticed your a big fan of Missy Elliott, so am I! What’s your favorite track, and can you please bring this to Lente Kabinet?
“This is definitely a tough one – I love all her music. But if I would have to choose it would be “Pass That Dutch” and “Get Your Freak On” because of the beats and the video clips are genius. If I ever meet her, I’ll probably die out of excitement. As a kid I often asked my mom to text to The Box to request the “I Can’t Stand the Rain” music video for me. She’s a true pioneer.

With so many good DJs around, are you concerned with creating a specific sound or image for yourself?
“No, I don’t really think about it in that way. Of course I like to discover something unknown but it’s not what I am aiming for when I am searching tracks or records. I do push myself to stay open minded to different genres of music. My parents always listened to bossa nova, samba and cumbia. So I do think that my Argentinian background has some influence in my taste of music. Besides, for me it’s important to play tracks by labels and people I feel comfortable supporting.”

Which labels/artists/EPs do you adore right now?
“One of my favorites is Portugese label Príncipe, I love their focus on strong percussion and most of the artists have a beautiful warm sounds in their music, like DJ Lilocox. Another release I love right now is mixed berries by DJ Haram, she’s great. Next to that the dreamy, new album from upsammy on Nous’Klaer, it feels perfect for my opening set at Lente Kabinet.

How do you prepare for a set?
“I try to create something I would like to dance on myself. Of course I prepare my sets, bring a lot of music (mostly digital) but I also need to adjust to the situation. Most of the times I’m in love with a few tracks, those are the core of my set, then I choose my other tracks around them.”

Do you feel there are changes happening is the industry, for example in the field of sexism?
“The most obvious change is that I don’t get that many strange faces or get asked if I’m the DJ’s girlfriend that often anymore when I come to play. So that’s a good change, but we’re not there yet unfortunately. Women might be more visible nowadays, but that doesn’t mean the way people behave towards us in a club, it’s not always how it should be. The most important change to me is that women support each other. We should support, help and push each other in every way possible.”

Lente Kabinet 2019

When: May 25-26, 12:00-23:59
Where: Recreatiegebied Het Twiske
Tickets: €42,50,- | Here
More info: Website & Facebook event

Photo by Jaimy Gail.

A perfect introduction

Over the years, Anonymous Party People honed in the status of bringing a diverse group of people together on dance floors. Ranging from international adventurers to local music lovers and regional ravers, all bonded over the experiences created during the parties. It’s the perfect gathering to introduce people to the local vibrant party scene.

They encourage party people and punters alike to partake in creating the atmosphere they emulate each event through decorations and, of course, the music. For the upcoming event, they went in big and invited Carlos Valdes, Cinnaman and Some Chemistry to bring their signature sounds to RADION. Throw local crew BON A PARTE in the mix and what you get is a perfect blend of what Amsterdam’s nightlife currently is and will become: top-shelf techno and house, an engaging atmosphere for brightly colored experiences and, above all, a party with people who won’t be as anonymous to you by the end of the evening.

Want to join the rave April 13th? Attend the event, share the post on our Facebook page and tag a friend who you’d like to party with. Winners will be announced next week!

Anonymous Party People

When: April 13, 23:00-07:00
Where: RADION, Louwesweg 1
Entrance: €18,- | Here
More info: Website & Facebook event

Before the events across the city kick off, Stichting N8BM A’DAM plans to host a panel with which they want to take a firm opposition against this marginalization in Amsterdam. As spokesperson on behalf of the city’s nightlife, they want to actively engage in the discussion with the local government and take the initiative to provide solutions to this growing obstacle for cultural spots, clubs, free-minded spirits and nightlife lovers.

The problem at hand

Commercialism is defining the current (and future) state of the rapid growing city of Amsterdam. The ones suffering the most will are the non-commercial/non-exploiting initiatives, with the closing of free haven ADM being the most recent prime example. Additionally, the temporary nature of contracts for clubs and festival spaces obfuscate the problem even further: De School, De Marktkantine and Garage Noord all are forced to close within the one to three years. With the decreasing amount of new initiatives at hand (provided by the local government), the future of Amsterdam’s nightlife doesn’t look very bright if no one acts up.

General arguments against the problem come in the form of short sided comments like labeling the night(life) and its clubs as ‘just social spots/meeting places’. But the nightlife is not just a meeting place, but rather an important link in the chain of our society which can inspire. It provides a safe haven for experimentation, talent development and –not to say the least– cross-pollination between various cultures and cultural disciplines. Amsterdam always has had rich soil from which its clubs, festivals and platforms can flourish. Nurturing this soil is what the Stichting N8BM A’DAM’s focus point is about in the coming years.

Clubbers, artists, promoters, creatives and all other inhabitants of the nightlife altogether contributed to the free haven Amsterdam has today. These individuals (and collectives) were able to cultivate their craft and results in numerous cultural institutions Amsterdam currently holds.

The healthy ecosystem in which a diverse nightlife can flourish is being undermined by recent political and economically driven decisions. With this degradation will have social, cultural and economic consequences, sooner or later. As said, a thriving and diverse nightlife is important for a lively city.

So, in short; the time to take the future of nightlife culture in Amsterdam seriously is now.

Talkshow

How do you cover the entire subject of protecting the spaces of the nightlife in Amsterdam? How do you keep the city versatile and form a countering voice against the increasingly dominant commercialization? These questions will be central during the Nacht voor de Nacht discussion panel Nachttafel at Radio Radio. Our guests will be Touria Meliani (wethouder Kunst & Cultuur, Councillor for Art and Culture), Martijn Braamhaar (Director Bureau Broedplaatsen), Liese Kingma (Clubcommision Berlin) and Maru Asmellash (The New Originals). The talk show will be moderated by Eelco Couvreur (DJBroadcast).

Hold The Night Tight

In collaboration with Amsterdam-bred clothing brand Patta, Stichting N8BM A’DAM presents the Hold The Night Tight campaign. The brand designed a t-shirt representing the clear message of the campaign – protecting the nightlife of Amsterdam – and will be available and seen in clubs shortly. With the support from friends of the city’s nightlife, the united voice against the current problems stands stronger.

The annual club festival connects and promotes nightlife. With one ticket visitors gain access to all 25 participating clubs and their program for the night. Additionally, 11 participating restaurants keep their doors open until 03:00 for visitors to experience late night dining.

Nacht Voor De Nacht

When: February 23, 20:00-09:00
Where: All over town
Entrance: €15,- | Here
More info: Website & Facebook event

Thursday: Likeminded After Christmas Special @ Oosterbar

The days around christmas up until new year’s day provide an abundance of events set up by some of the Dam’s most interesting promoters. Likeminded is one of them and therefore hosts the cosy Oosterbar for a decent conclusion of a more than eventful year. Playing are Roy ‘Ghetto’ Koch, Jaime Frias, Daan Donk and Atnan.

Friday: The Horrorist & Parrish Smith @ Garage Noord

Garage Noord presents a night of sinister tones and sturdy rhythms to launch you into the year’s final weekend celebration. With a live performance by the one and only Horrorist and a prolonged DJ set by Parrish Smith lined up, lovers of this side of the musical spectrum are in for a real treat.

Saturday: S.A.M., Pieter Jansen & Doris Nicholas @ noorderling

In its turn, noorderling is inviting a tight selection of heads to close off its first year of existence. First up is S.A.M., who’s become somewhat of a production guru as a result of his more than steady flow of extremely atmospheric tracks and reshapes. Complementing him will be local powerhousers Pieter Jansen and Doris Nicholas. Highly recommended!

Sunday: Sleepless In The City by Destructive Creations @ Sugar Factory

The Destructive Creations agency gathers their roster of artists to usher in the year’s last Sunday morning and pull you through the afternoon by any means. The ensemble probably won’t stay quiet for long and might just make some new moves in 2019. Playing are Bertram, Harley Doorson, Jasper Pol, Maksi and Pershian in a celebratory b2b2b2b2b fashion.

Monday (NYE): Reaktor X Dax J @ Warehouse Elementenstraat

Concluding the year with a proper bang will not be done better than at Dax J’s first full-blown Reaktor edition. With both the organization and Dax reigning over everything fierce and powerful for some time now, a collab between the two makes for an absolutely insane line up to take control of Elementenstraat warehouse’s industrial site. Playing are Dax himself, Thomas P. Heckmann, Regis, UVB and many more..

Tuesday (NYD): Breakfast Club Is Burning

After a tiny sweep the same warehouse will be taken over by Is Burning and Breakfast Club to put down another one of their infamous new year’s day parties. As joined forces the two always facilitate a more than interesting selection of sounds and continuously keep the energy flowing in both of the vast rooms. Traditionally, the line up is still to be announced.

Saturday: The Tribe with Mara Trax, Tom Liem & Jocelyn @ Shelter

After two fantastic editions, The Tribe’s third Shelter effort is at the ready to serve two very characteristic performances by two particular duo’s. Mara Trax consists of both Maayan Nidam and Vera. Both heavily affiliated with the pioneering Perlon label, nowadays the two only join forces from time to time resulting in unique prolonged sets of minimalistic yet sophisticated electronics. The other duo is a rocksteady combination of individuals with a bit of a longer history with the Tribe family. After a super slick DJ set at the Tribe’s Herfstdrift festival stage just a couple of weeks ago, they’ll now be debuting their crisp hybrid live performance. Expect a fresh take on the deep and dubby in its most vivid form. Another crucial part of Tribemen will be curating the afterhours just a short bikeride away.

Saturday: Alessandro Adriani, Pasiphae & Jasmín @ noorderling

An alternate route for your Saturday night is provided by noorderling. The ship-turned-club’s continuous endeavors in keeping balance between leading international acts and celebrated local talent is shaping its identity carefully and this night is a perfect example of it. The first guest is Mannequin Records founder Alessandro Adriani. Born in Rome but reigning from Berlin, Adriani has been pushing a distinct strand of wave, electro and industrial for years and is viewed as one of the most influential figures in this niche of sound and its coherent culture. Pasiphae and Jasmín are aboard as well and occupy the other times lots to deliver more of this sneering form of groove that’s been getting its deserved portion of interest in the Dam for some time now.

Saturday: VBX 6YR Anniversary @ Shelter & BRET

VBX is turning 6 years old, therefore the organization picked two of their most beloved locations to gather and celebrate in a more than decent way. Kicking of the marathon bash is another serious Shelter edition where the crew is welcoming Swiss Sonja Moonear, Japanese DJ Masda and their own Ferro to present and highlight the sound in which they’ve become one of the city’s main facilitators. A consecutive session of afterhours will take place in BRET with another selection of label favourites. Here, Giuliano Lomonte, John Dimas and in-house artist Reiss will guide the journey towards the end of the afternoon.

Saturday & Sunday: Het Weekend @ De School

2018’s final School weekender is again co-curated by Objekt and Call Super. As expected, this makes for a well thought-out roster of artists deriving from various corners of the scene that’ll definitely surprise and inspire all who will enter throughout the weekend. Next to the earlier mentioned two, the pretty confusing lineup description presents us with names like DJ Stringray, Pariah, Bass Clef and Shyboy next to a series of seemingly random lines of quotes and information. Getting anxious to know what the fuzz will be all about is something De School regularly awakens in its visitors and is commonly justified afterwards as well. Talks about last year’s edition only confirm this justification so it might be wise not to sleep on this one.