Between the Tracks: Crack Magazine's Guide to Amsterdam Dance Event 2018

BETWEEN THE TRACKS CRACK MAGAZINE’S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT TWO THOUSAND EIGHTEEN

THERE ARE FEW EVENTS IN THE GLOBAL DANCE MUSIC CALENDAR AS COMPREHENSIVE AS AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT. WHETHER YOU LIFT YOUR HANDS TO THE SKY FOR NOTHING BUT MASSIVE TRANCE BREAKDOWNS, OR ONLY DANCE WHEN THE DJ’S PLAYING MID-90S US GARAGE, THE LONG-STANDING FIVE-DAY,FIVE-NIGHT EPIC HAS SOMETHING TO CATER TO EVERY HEAD THAT FAVOURS AN ELECTRONIC SOUND PALETTE.

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BETWEEN WHAT MAKES ADE SPECIAL IS THAT IT REACHES FAR BEYOND THE CLUBS. THE RANGE OF TALKS, WORKSHOPS, MASTERCLASSES AND EXHIBITIONS IS STAGGERING, AND SHOT THROUGH WITH REAL PURPOSE. FROM HOW TO MAKE DANCE MUSIC MORE SUSTAINABLE TO ADDRESSING THE ROLE OF PARTIES IN AN INCREASINGLY VOLATILE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE, THE CONFERENCE CELEBRATES THE GENUINE POWER OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC AS AN AGENT OF CHANGE THAT TRAVERSES CONTINENTS AND SOCIETIES. FOR THIS SPECIAL EDITION OF CRACK, WE’VE TAKEN IT UPON OURSELVES TO SIFT THROUGH AND CELEBRATE THE BEST OF WHAT WE THINK IS HAPPENING IN AMSTERDAM FROM OCTOBER 17-21. THERE’S MORE PACKED INTO THESE 72 PAGES THAN WE HAVE SPACE TO LIST HERE (FEAR NOT, THE CONTENTS ARE OVERLEAF), BUT WE’VE SEIZED THE OPPORTUNITY TO GO IN DEEP WITH SOME OF THE ARTISTS WE’RE EXCITED ABOUT SEEING THROUGHOUT THE WEEK. WHETHER IT’S DJS PLAYING MULTIPLE GIGS AND HOSTING TALKS, OR LIVE PERFORMERS BREAKING THROUGH THE ESTABLISHED FORMULAS OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC, THE FRANKLY COLOSSAL PROGRAMME OF EVENTS HAS GIVEN US MORE THAN ENOUGH TO TALK ABOUT.

THE

TRACKS

ADD TO THAT A DAY-BY-DAY GUIDE TO THE BEST PARTIES GOING DOWN ACROSS TOWN, AND WE FEEL WE’VE PROVIDED A GENUINELY USEFUL SNAPSHOT OF EVERYTHING ESSENTIAL AT ADE 2018. OF COURSE, IT’S NOT COMPREHENSIVE, AND EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN UNIQUE ROUTE THROUGH THE LABYRINTHE WEB OF CLUBS, BARS, CONFERENCE HALLS AND HANG OUTS, BUT IF YOU’RE IN NEED OF A FEW CRACK-APPROVED TIPS, READ ON…

CRACK MAGAZINE’S GUIDE TO AMSTERDAM DANCE EVENT TWO THOUSAND EIGHTEEN

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CONTENTS

P.5

P. 10 LENA WILLIKENS

PERFORMANCE ART AND STAYING AN

AMATEUR WITH THE GERMAN SELECTOR.

P. 15 COLIN BENDERS

& THE METROPOLE ORKEST

MODULAR SYNTHS MEET CLASSICAL MUSIC FOR THE ADE OPENING

CONCERT.

P. 20 MISS DJAX

TELLING

THE

STORY

OF

THE

ORIGINAL ACID QUEEN.

P. 25 ADE HIGHLIGHTS

YOUR

INDISPENSABLE

GUIDE

TO

THE

BEST

PARTIES,

TALKS AND WORKSHOPS AT ADE.

P. 44 SAN PROPER & LYZZA

WORLDS

COLLIDE

AS

TWO

DIS-

TINCT AMSTERDAM ARTISTS WAX LYRICAL.

P. 46 RÓISÍN MURPHY

THE EVERGREEN BRITISH ARTIST MAPS OUT HER LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE DANCEFLOOR. P. 51 RISING FROM THE LOW COUNTRY

SHINING A LIGHT ON PALMBOMEN II, NADIA STRU-

IWIGH, MOODY MEHRAN AND PASIPHAE.

P. 56 BODY IN REVOLT

PERFORMANCE

ART

AND

POLI-

TICS MEET THE DANCEFLOOR.

P. 62 AFTER ADE: REST & RELAXATION

HUGO VAN HEIJNINGEN SHARES HIS TIPS FOR FIXING YOURSELF

UP POST-FESTIVAL.

P. 66 LAST MINUTE TRAVEL ADVICE

A FEW POINTERS FOR THE LATE CROWD.

OLI WARWICK CONTRIBUTORS GWYN THOMAS DE CHROUSTCHOFF · MARTIN GUTTRIDGE-HEWITT MATT ANNISS · THEO KOTZ MAP JUDE GARDNER-ROLFE ART DIRECTION MANU RODRÍGUEZ EDITOR

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LENA WILLIKENS

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FEATURE

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

THE ART ADE 2018

OF

STAYING

AMATEUR

Few people would suggest Lena Willikens is anything other than the consummate DJ. From the deep-cover mysticism of her wide-reaching selections to the fantastic narratives she stitches them together with, Willikens consistently delivers the kind of startling new dancefloor experiences that ravers’ dreams are made of.

It’s little wonder to see her presence soar across the tangled network of club nights and festivals that carry the contemporary electronic music scene – by the time 2018 is out she will have played well over 100 gigs of all shapes and sizes. But the modest, affable artist is far from the established formula of premier league DJs, both in her creative stamp and her consideration of her craft.

When we talk via a crackly transatlantic connection, Willikens has not long arrived in New York, midway through a string of dates for both club nights and her performance art project, Phantom Kino Ballett. In the background at Brooklyn’s ISSUE Project Room, displaced shrieks and scrapes can be heard – it’s quite apt, sounding like a sampler for the kind of textures you would expect to hear threaded into the leftof-centre tracks Willikens has forged her reputation on. Despite a crowded schedule, the onset of a cold and a whole performance to set up, she’s completely at ease in conversation. Given her seemingly whirlwind lifestyle I have to ask, is it hard to continue to treat DJing as an art?

“This is something I really try hard to maintain, and it's really important for me to keep having fun,” she responds. “I have my theory; trying to stay an amateur. Of course, it sounds a bit ridiculous because I play so much, but I really try not to repeat myself too much, to always try things without knowing if they will work out, to throw myself quite often in situations where I might lose control over the mix or whatever.”

The foundations of her craft have given Willikens the tools she needs to maintain this risky spirit. As one of the core residents of Düsseldorf’s famed Salon Des Amateurs, she’s helped foster an open-ended music policy that leans heavily on the legacy of kosmische music forged in that part of west Germany, updating it via the leaps and bounds of electronic music that have come since. Minimal wave, industrial, EBM, proto house, Italo, electro – all these and many more incubators for experimental but groove-oriented electronics meld with the older organic sounds of jazz, post-punk, and other more exotic delights from further afield. Even within those broad terms, trying to pin down the vibe of Salon Des Amateurs, and Willikens herself, seems reductive at best. The rise in interest for such approaches across the dance music spectrum has been palpable in the last five years – her fellow residents Jan Schulte (Wolf Müller), Detlef Weinrich (Toulouse Low Trax), Vladimir Ivkovic and more are all now considered household names in the field of esoteric dance music.

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Prior to life at the Salon, Willikens was studying visual arts at the famed Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf. At the time, her engagement with performance art reached no further than creating a bar on wheels with four friends, which they would cart around the academy and elsewhere in the city, selling pancakes and coffee. “This was kind of considered as young artists doing an art piece, but it was not really a performance,” she admits.

Now though, her forays into performance art are becoming altogether more serious, as Phantom Kino Ballett takes on a touring schedule of its own. When we speak before the New York show, there had been a well-received performance in Montreal, with Los Angeles and San Francisco on the horizon. The project is

WORDS.- OLI WARWICK

PHOTOS.- MIKE CHALMERS

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P.8

FEATURE

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an audio-visual collaboration shared equally between Willikens and Sarah Szczesny, and it took shape following a series of videos Szczesny made for Willikens’ first, and to date only, solo EP, Phantom Delia, on Cómeme. Without a clear goal in mind, around 2015 the pair embarked on a long form music video project that has been evolving ever since.

“The concept is not something we can talk about,” Willikens explains of Phantom Kino Ballett. “It's more like a cabinet of curiosities where we collect everything we like in culture; in movies, literature, poems, fine arts, music, everything that interests and inspires us.

Parts of it can be overwhelming with a

some new video material and made some music for it. It’s really important to us that people to know it's an equal collaboration.

Sarah has musical ideas as well as I have [opinions on] visuals.”

lot of information at once, and intellectual and silly stuff on the same level.”

as an artifact that presents part of the whole piece. While the LP and cassette is partially the result of the three months working in Kyoto, it wasn’t the sole purpose of the residency.

I first saw a Phantom Kino Ballett performance in September 2017, and it was indeed overwhelming – a multisensory scrapbook of gleefully weird, funny or serious fragments of image and sound fronted by Willikens and Szczesny moving in strict choreography through the seated crowd, ghetto blasters in hand. Even since then, Willikens assures me, the Ballett has evolved considerably. In March 2018 they took part in a joint artists residency at the Goethe-Institut Villa Kamogawa in Kyoto, Japan, where they were able to immerse themselves deeper into the project.

“The three months we had in Kyoto we worked a lot on [Phantom Kino Ballett],” Willikens explains.

“We made field recordings, shot

Now the first document of Phantom Kino Ballett can be experienced outside of the performances themselves, by way of an album that has recently been released on Commend, a sub-label of RVNG Intl. Rather than a definitive summation of the project, Willikens describes the release

“During that time I didn't go away DJing so much,” says Willikens.

“Part of the idea of the art residency was to find the time again just to go to concerts, to go out, without being involved.

If you play at a festival or a club night, most of the time you don't have the energy or concentration to check out the entire line up, so I was really happy to do this research, to really check out the scene in Kyoto and Osaka with Sarah.”

This raises the issue that Willikens, like so many hardgigging DJs, faces, where her role removes her from the position of the audience member. Does it get harder to relate to the people on the other side of the booth the busier she gets?

“Yes... it's definitely harder,” she admits. “I try at least to not just come and play immediately, to have some time in the club to breathe the air, to feel the people, to feel the atmosphere there.”

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“I HAVE MY THEORY; TRYING TO STAY AN AMATEUR. OF COURSE, IT SOUNDS A BIT RIDICULOUS BECAUSE I PLAY SO MUCH, BUT I REALLY TRY NOT TO REPEAT MYSELF TOO MUCH… TO THROW MYSELF QUITE OFTEN IN SITUATIONS WHERE I MIGHT LOSE CONTROL OVER THE MIX OR WHATEVER.”

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FEATURE

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

"I REALLY LIKE THESE MOMENTS WHERE I EXPERIMENT WHILE PLAYING, AND I CAN'T PREDICT HOW IT WILL SOUND... BECAUSE THEN THE SURPRISE, WHEN IT COMES, CAN GIVE SO MUCH MORE.”

“I don't want to talk about it!” she adds, laughing. “It makes me a bit sad actually, because I really don't want to become like a routine DJ who just appears, plays a set and then right after

music scene, where they watched and connected with artists such as YPY, Rie Lambdoll and Compuma.

Months later, Willikens was able to surmise what she had experienced by curating a night at Meakusma Festival in Belgium, presenting a line-up comprised entirely of artists she encountered during her time in Japan.

Through the reputation she has engendered as a DJ, Willikens has become a trusted stamp of quality in the field of curation. She

the set goes to the airport to the next gig. Sometimes it’s a bit tricky.”

talks of other potential opportunities to choose the billing on a high-profile festival stage, while earlier in 2018 she put together the fifth installment of the Dekmantel Selectors compilation series. In all instances, the results are highly distinctive, and never predictable. As a mark of taste, it’s a natural extension of her work as a DJ, and likewise the “cabinet of curiosities” that is Phantom Kino Ballett.

During the first month in Kyoto, Willikens and Szczesny were introduced to the local electronic

“Sometimes you are surprised how different elements suddenly make connections you never thought

about,” she says, referring to the collage of material in hers and Szczesny’s project. “You put two things next to each other and they start to talk, and this is also the moment where these phantoms are coming in. It's not always us as artists controlling everything. Things can have a life of their own.”

“It's similar to mixing,” she continues. “I really like these moments where I experiment while playing, and I can't predict how it will sound, and then sometimes something just grows which surprises me as well. I like the adrenaline of not knowing if it will work out or not, because then the surprise, when it comes, can give so much more.”

Aside from her continuous desire to gamble on combinations with the attitude of an “amateur,” it’s also noticeable to anyone who follows Willikens’ DJing, ei-

ther live or recorded, how rarely she treads the same ground. Given the mammoth amount of recorded mixes you can hear online, not to mention her reams of live gigs, that’s no mean feat. I put it to her that she never seems to repeat herself.

“Mmm, yeah,” she ponders, searching for a response. “What can I say? You are right. It's a lot of work!”

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P.12

FEATURE

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“To be honest I couldn’t quite care less about classical, or pop, or any of that. At the end of the day you have your ingredients, the musicians playing. Then you have the construct of what you want to present to people.”

Colin Benders’ philosophy is true to his life in music thus far. With a background including the School for Young Talent, linked to the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, best-selling avant-garde hip-hop albums, leading his own Kyteman Orchestra, and a more recent rise to modular synth stardom, genre is merely an irrelevant distraction to the Dutch maestro.

COLIN BENDERS AND THE METROPOLE ORKEST REVOLUTIONARY RISK

TAKERS

This year’s ADE Opening Concert is another example of Benders’ love for unpredictable, genreshirking performance. Assuming the role of mad scientist in charge of a mind-boggling bespoke electronic system, he’ll be joined at Amsterdam’s Melkweg by around 50 players from the multiple-Grammywinning Metropole Orkest.

The ensemble are no strangers to experiments, either. They have appeared at the festival before – alongside Brainfeeder’s Jameszoo and Henrik Schwarz – and claim a proud history stretching back to 1945, collaborating with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Basement Jaxx in that time. Even with all this experience, though, this latest venture represents an enormous risk for everyone.

this rigid timeline in terms of how they interact with music,” says Benders.

“Then the synthesiser does not really think for itself but, with limited controls, has to do as much as it can,” he adds, nodding to the relative unpredictability inherent in modular systems, now accentuated in the given situation. “So those are two completely different languages that have to interact with each other.

Finding a way to make them work together is the biggest challenge, because there are things we will only find out once we start putting it together. There is a lot still up in the air.”

Using ADE as a testing ground is logical yet bold, sending

P.13

“It’s not going to be dance music, that’s for sure,” Benders says when asked what attendees are likely to hear. “There’s a certain sound I look for when I’m working alone and I’m not really sure where I’m heading with something. It’s basically more of an orchestral sound, which I feel could translate well into an actual orchestra, so I think it’s going to be bigger, more epic stuff.

“Last year [at ADE] I saw a performance of Philip Glass, and Steve Reich was there before that. The experimental borders are moving up and up in everything you can expect from the festival.

Of course you have the mainstream stuff, and the EDM, but I think by bridging over to this sort of thing, it is starting to provide different perspectives on electronic music.”

Besides opening up the specialised world of modular synthesis to an audience less familiar with experimental electronic music, the collaboration also offers an opportunity for dancers to engage with classical music in a way that stretches the possibilities of both sonic realms to their limits.

“I’m still not completely sure whether it will work, because you have all the human interaction and free flow with the orchestra, but then they have

WORDS.- MARTIN GUTTRIDGE-HEWITT

out a strong message about the festival’s current attitude towards programme diversity. The final musical destination for Benders and the Metropole will only become clear on the night, possibly at the concert’s climax.

Nevertheless, this is one part of the annual October gathering that forsakes sweaty mayhem for aural adventure.

PHOTOS.- ISABELLE RENATE LA POUTRÉ & EJAM MAAIL

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P.14

FEATURE

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“THERE’S A CERTAIN SOUND I LOOK FOR WHEN I’M WORKING ALONE AND I’M NOT REALLY SURE WHERE I’M HEADING WITH SOMETHING. IT’S BASICALLY MORE OF AN ORCHESTRAL SOUND, WHICH I FEEL COULD TRANSLATE WELL INTO AN ACTUAL ORCHESTRA, SO I THINK IT’S GOING TO BE BIGGER, MORE EPIC STUFF.”

“You can easily tell when something is a project that just tries to merge things together,” says Benders. “But I think with a project like this one, the way ADE is approaching classical integration, there is a core desire to look around the corner and see what’s there.

“I think what’s happening more and more is musicians are starting to get a wider interest in what else they could be doing.

Look at how the whole neo-classical wave is starting to gain much more traction in the electronic scene.”

The collision of these musical worlds is nothing new, of course. But what makes the ADE gig an evolutionary step forward, rather than simply a frivolous showpiece, are the technical obstacles involved. Rehearsals will be limited to two days prior to the concert. Up until that point, all that has been shared between the two parties are ideas and musical sketches Benders has never performed before, and live recordings of modular sounds he has created on the fly.

The Metropole have been busy dissecting and figuring out how an orchestra could complement and improve upon those sketches. In turn, Benders must be able to recreate his sequences when the time comes, or everything up until that moment will have been for nought. Given the complexity of his chosen instrument, that’s no mean feat in itself. The overall idea has nothing to do with instrumentation replicating existing rhythms and melodies, but rather is entirely concerned with changing perceptions of how two distinct disciplines can harmoniously co-exist. And the process begins with deconstruction.

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“I have always tried to take out the elements of what music represents and what people expect from it,” says Benders. “I’d rather filter it down to where it’s just a bunch of musicians with a logical approach to working with those elements.

“From there, you can repurpose and redesign a lot in terms of how these people work together, to the point where it’s possible to take the score away altogether, and have the group interacting right there in the moment.”

We ask if the audience will recognise any sources of inspiration. Rather than citing individual names, Benders explains how his childhood, and specifically the cinema of that time, will be a larger motif in the score. The Never Ending Story is offered as an example, and you can’t help thinking it’s an apt reference point. A fantastical film informing a fantastical project, which although brand-new, has actually been a long time coming.

“The Metropole and I have talked a couple of times about another project I was involved in, conducting the Kyteman Orchestra.

They raised the idea of doing something collaboratively, but then we decided against it, questioning if it would really make sense to merge the two orchestras together,” Benders explains. His 18-strong Kyteman Orchestra was an ambitious endeavour on its own, featuring opera singers and a choir alongside musicians.

Buckley’s appreciation for the sonic breadth of electronic music has made him cautious about unnecessarily filling in the gaps; he’s mindful that the strength of synth-based soundtracks often comes from the space between the notes. It’s this balancing act that defines how he sees the Metropole’s role in the project.

“Up until now, Colin usually rolls into a venue and does his thing — it’s all fresh. Everything is a one-off,” says Buckley. “So one thing we have to be careful of is stifling that vision by adding us as a second character to the story.

“When you’re really clashing electronic and acoustic instruments together that are so far apart sonically — say the timbre of a French horn compared with the most crushed, fucked up, reverberated frequencies Colin can muster from his machine — it makes for an intriguing partnership. But the challenge is to make that sound feel harmonious to the audience. Like a team, rather than two separate parts.”

“I HAVE ALWAYS TRIED TO TAKE OUT THE ELEMENTS OF WHAT MUSIC REPRESENTS AND WHAT PEOPLE EXPECT FROM IT,”

“But

Jules

[Buckley],

the

Metropole’s principal conductor, and I kept in touch, and occasionally would run into one another. At some point he asked me, ‘Why not try something crazy and do it with this modular project you have going on?’ And that was such a bizarre clash of worlds, I thought it would be very cool.”

If Benders is the enigma, and the Metropole’s musicians intuitive players, then Buckley is the interpreter, a vital bridge between the two, so it’s reassuring his own resumé also includes leading dance-classical crossover titans the Heritage Orchestra. And although ADE’s Opening Concert is quite unlike anything he has been involved with before, past efforts can help direct this undertaking to success.

The unity he is referring to may seem unexpected at first, perhaps even awkward given the distant worlds being brought together.

Scratching beneath the surface reveals a very different situation.

Both classical and electronic music are at their best when breaking new ground, whether that’s the anti-establishment ethics of rave, the otherworldly experimentation of IDM, or the rejection of era norms by controversial composers throughout history.

By throwing caution to the wind and embracing the creative gamble this high-profile experiment rests on, Benders and the Metropole have defined what makes both disciplines essential before even writing a single note. How’s that for revolutionary?

“One of the things I’ve learnt is, if I was in the audience I’d want to feel the power that comes with a lot of synthesised elements and samples,” Buckley tells us over the phone. “When that hits you it feels amazing.

And with some orchestral projects that can be diminished. Too much of the role is taken back, you don’t get that kidney shuddering bass or sense of expanse.”

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KLM is official flight partner of ADE — — — the electronic music destination

P.17 THE ACID QUEEN

THE ACID QUEEN

“I don't care if the music is hot or whatever, I don't follow the trends. That's why for more than 25 years I've been playing records from the 90s. For me, those records are still the best!”

WORDS.- OLI WARWICK

PHOTOS.- MISS DJAX ARCHIVE

ARTWORK.- ALAN OLDHAM

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So says Saskia Slegers, better known to the world of underground electronic music as Miss Djax, head of the legendary Djax and Djax Up Beats Records. As much a counter-culture rebel as a hugely successful artist and label manager, Slegers built Djax up to be one of the most iconic Dutch labels of the 90s, and to this day she pursues an uncompromising vision of breakneck acid house and techno, earning her the unofficial title ‘the Acid Queen’ for much of her career.

As ADE gears up to celebrate 30 years of Dutch dance music, we profile a formidable force who has been pushing the culture forwards since before it even took shape.

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“Wherever I play, I don't change my style,” Slegers proudly asserts. “If I’m playing earlier in the line-up I might go down to 132 bpm – as a DJ you have to look at the rest of the night a little bit, but I never play, like, 125, that's really too slow for me. My favourite tempo is 140.”

While the Djax stamp is synonymous with this kind of rabble-rousing, rave-ready tempo, Slegers’ life in music is more eclectic than many realize. Her story as a DJ reaches back to 1979, in her hometown of Eindhoven, where she still lives. Back then, the underground dance music of the day was funk and disco, and Slegers was already collecting records in her mid-teens, scoring her first gig at local club Vox when she was just 16 years old. The emergence of the 12” single was happening right in front of her eyes, and she was spending all the money she could on expensive US imports.

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“For me, as a DJ and music lover there was a logical chain reaction in electronic dance music through the 80s,” she explains, “from funk and disco, to new wave, hip-hop, electro and then house. I was also working in various record stores from when I was 18, playing bass guitar in a new wave band when I was 20, so everything was involved with keeping track with the newest dance music. I was not going much to other clubs actually, because I had to DJ every weekend, but when I had time I went to concerts from new wave and EBM bands in [long-standing Eindhoven venue] the Effenaar.”

With a lack of opportunities to hear the kind of edgy new electronic music she favoured on the

dancefloor, Slegers sought out her preferred sounds herself, via now-notorious radio show Spleen on VPRO, and record stores such as Bullet in Eindhoven. While she was discovering rougher industrial and EBM sounds like Front 242 and Skinny Puppy, she couldn’t often share her love of this music through her regular DJ gigs in Eindhoven. Meanwhile, when she finally got a job at Bullet record shop after many years of asking, she proposed they start up a dance music section, to bring the emergent sounds of house and techno to the record buying public of Eindhoven.

came across Osdorp Posse from Amsterdam. They were rapping in Dutch with very explicit, violent language. There was some resistance from the radio people in Holland saying it was too violent, but I believed in these guys and around them a completely new scene developed, Nederhop.”

Before turning to the house and techno most associated with the label, Djax Records launched in

To this day, Nederhop continues to be a potent force in Dutch music, but Djax moved on from

1989 with the hardcore rap sound of Eindhoven-based crew 24K.

the genre after 10 years as the sound became more commercial.

Meanwhile, the house, techno and acid explosion was taking place across Europe, and around 1990 Slegers was finally getting offered gigs in the Netherlands where she could exercise her love of house music. Six months after the 24K release, Djax Up Beats came to life with 916 Buena Avenue

by Terrace, a techno producer from Eindhoven pushing a raw and wild sound clearly inspired by Detroit. While it was not as fast or frantic as the sound Djax would become synonymous with later, the jacked up energy of the drums and weird sonic hooks set the tone for the label perfectly.

“24K did English language hiphop,” Slegers explains, “and then I released a few more albums from Dutch hip-hop bands rapping in English, but I was looking for something fresh, and in 1991 I

From there, other Dutch house and techno producers came to light on Djax Up Beats, including Trance Induction, Major Malfunction, Edge Of Motion and Acid Junkies. While varying in approach, they were unified by their existence outside the mainstream scene taking shape in Amsterdam and elsewhere.

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“Most of the Dutch producers I worked with were not DJs,” says Slegers. “Some did live acts with analogue machines, but they were just producing music because they loved the process and the music.”

One of the defining qualities

P.19 THE ACID QUEEN ADE 2018

“For me it doesn't matter where I live.

I just do my thing anyway. I always think I'm a little bit on an island. Even if I had lived in Amsterdam or Berlin I don't think it would have made a difference for me, because I don't like to be in a scene.�

P.20

of Djax Up Beats in its infancy was the early connection Slegers forged with US producers such as Mike Dearborn, Claude Young, Mike Dunn, Armando and K Alexi Shelby.

Fed up of labels ripping them off and a lack of a tangible scene Stateside, producers from Chicago and Detroit wanted to link up with European labels, where the industry was strong enough to support them. The first artist to reach out to her was Detroit techno veteran Alan Oldham, aka DJ T-1000. He released Detroit Is Burning on Djax Up Beats in 1991 as Signal To Noise Ratio, and when Slegers invited him to design the artwork for her releases, a working partnership was formed that continues to this day. Oldham’s bold cartoon illustrations have defined the visual identity of Djax.

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The hard and fast strain of acid that Slegers herself was pushing struggled to fit in with the deeper, more accessible sound you might associate with other Dutch producers like Steve Rachmad, aka Sterac, or Jochem Peteri, aka Ross 154 / Newworldaquarium.

In fact, she recalls being more likely to get booked in the notorious Rotterdam gabber parties such as A Nightmare In Rotterdam, spearheaded by the Dutch hardcore pioneers DJ Rob and DJ Paul.

“I think I fitted more in the Rotterdam gabber scene than in the Amsterdam club scene because I played hard fast acid,” she explains, “but I never had a feeling that I didn't fit in Holland. I just got picked up very early in Germany and I was away every weekend playing, and if I got a booking request for Holland I didn't even have time because I was booked in Germany or somewhere else on the globe.”

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As the reputation of Djax Up Beats grew in the house and techno scene, gig opportunities for Slegers were more frequent overseas. Her first international gig came in 1990 from rave promoters in Paris, and she remembers driving to France with future trance star Ferry Corsten coming along for the ride. More gigs followed and she remembers being backstage at the mammoth Mayday event in Köln, Germany in April 1992, when the likes of Sven Väth and Jeff Mills were pressing her for the latest Djax Up promo – the nowclassic hardcore techno track “Set Up 707” by Edge Of Motion.

By the Mayday of December 1992

she was on the line-up, cementing her place in the more open-ended 90s techno scene in Germany.

“Many DJs moved to Berlin ‘cos it's a very interesting artistic city,” she ponders, “but for me it doesn't matter where I live.

I just do my thing anyway. I always think I'm a little bit on an island. Even if I had lived in Amsterdam or Berlin I don't think it would have made a difference for me, because I don't like to be in a scene, actually.”

Even if she maintained an outsider identity, Germany took Miss Djax to their hearts, and she frequently topped annual ‘best DJ’ polls in publications such as Frontpage. “’The Acid Queen’ - I did not say that about myself!” she laughs.

“That's what they started saying in Germany. But that's what people know – Miss Djax is hard acid. Whether you like it or not, you know what you get.”

While she readily acknowledges that the “rave” scene in Germany was bigger than in the Netherlands, the scale of the booming industry folded in on

As well as affecting record sales, the advent of the internet brought with it the means for more people to access music that was previously confined to the physical medium of vinyl. While she readily celebrates aspects of online culture, in the end she feels the effect on the music has been detrimental.

“These records I play now have been all over the world,” she adds. “They’ve been everywhere with me for 25 or 30 years. I think that's cool! It's special.”

Trends in club music are always in a state of flux, and through the mid 00s and the minimal techno boom, Slegers found herself DJing at more streamlined hard techno parties where her rowdy style fitted in better than amongst the clicks and pops of the fashionable minimal scene.

“For a few years there’s clearly been an old-skool acid revival going on,” she explains, “and the promoters want to have the Acid Queen. But then in two years when that acid revival is over and they start reviving breakbeat techno or whatever, maybe I'll get booked less.”

In an era where retro-fetishism sees an abundance of acid house and techno parties in most major cities every weekend, people THE ACID QUEEN

“Everything changed,” she admits.

“Can I say that actually it's not special any more? Sorry to say that, but that's how it feels.

You can go to the internet and download all the classics. In

connections or go to very obscure record stores somewhere in the middle of nowhere.”

P.21

itself as promoters strived to outdo each other with more artists crammed into the same running time, and as the 90s wore on it was normal to have as little as a 40-minute set. This culture eventually saw some big promoters going bankrupt in the face of fierce competition. Slegers’ relative independence from these aspects of the industry shielded her in some ways, but her labels were not immune from the seismic shift that occurred once the internet took hold as a platform for sharing music.

are looking backwards like never before. Slegers is enjoying enlightening kids to music that was made before they were even born, but if the scene changes, it’s safe to say that Miss Djax won’t.

After all this time, her commitment to punishing, unapologetic rave music is unrelenting.

ADE 2018

the 90s, you had the records to play or you didn't. It's too easy nowadays. Before, you had to have

ADE

LIGHTS

HIGH

LIGHTS

ADE

HIGH

WEDNESDAY There’s a distinct live theme to the opening night of ADE. Beyond the grand spectacle of Colin Benders and The Metropole Orkest’s official opening concert, you can stun your senses from the get-go with SOPHIE headlining her own show at Tolhuistin. For a more eclectic experience, ADE Live welcomes vital young British singer-songwriter Ama Lou, LA boogie visionary Dâm-Funk, postclub upstart LYZZA and endlessly inventive house chanteuse Roísín Murphy. At Bimhuis, Polish jazz maverick Wacław Zimpel will appear with his Indian-European fusion project Saagara – who said ADE was just about electronic music?

The club nights will be starting in earnest too. CRACK’s own contribution to the bustling ADE programme will be an intimate session at Garage Noord with

P.25

Shanti Celeste, Josey Rebelle and upsammy. At Shelter, Avalon Emerson and Dr. Rubinstein will be rubbing shoulders with Mary Lake and Simo Cell. JACK plays host to esteemed New York techno institution The Bunker with residents Bryan Kasenic and Derek Plaslaiko joined by Esther Duijn and Rrose.

The conference stream kicks off in earnest too with ADE BeamLab, featuring special AV performances from Albert Van Abbe and Oscar Mulero. ADE Green explores the pertinent topic of ‘Rave for a Revolution!’ with representatives from famed Tbilisi club Bassiani, Palestinian promoters Jazar Crew and more. All that, and it’s only Wednesday…

SEVEN– TEEN (17) BETWEEN THE TRACKS

OCTOBER

ADE 2018

P.26

ADE HIGHLIGHTS

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

SOPHIE PHOTOS.- RENATA RAKSHA

SOPHIE TOLHUISTUIN IJPROMENADE 2 1031 KT

ADE 2018

WEDNESDAY

ADE LIVE AMA LOU, DÂM-FUNK, LYZZA, RÓISÍN MURPHY PARADISO WETERINGSCHANS 6-8

SHELTER; ODD FANTASTIC X DANCE WITH PRIDE

ADE GREEN - RAVE FOR A REVOLUTION!

P.27

BOGOMIR DORINGER, GIORGI KIKONISHVILI, JAZAR CREW, NAJA ORASHVILI DELAMAR THEATER MARNIXSTRAAT 402

AVALON EMERSON, CARLOS VALDES DR. RUBINSTEIN, MARY LAKE, SIMO CELL SHELTER OVERHOEKSPLEIN 1

ADE BEAMLAB ALBERT VAN ABBE, OSCAR MULERO DE BRAKKE GROND NES 45

BIMHUIS WACŁAW ZIMPEL, SAAGARA BIMHUIS | PIET HEINKADE 3

JACK X THE BUNKER NYC 15 YEARS BRYAN KASENIC, DEREK PLASLAIKO, ESTHER DUIJN, RROSE JACK AMSTERDAM HOGEHILWEG 20

CRACK MAGAZINE PRESENTS SHANTI CELESTE, JOSEY REBELLE, UPSAMMY GARAGE NOORD GEDEMPT HAMERKANAAL 40

SEVENTEEN

ADE 2018

THURSDAY ADE’s Sound Lab programme at De Brakke Grond starts up on Thursday with a range of essential sessions to provide genuine insight into the working practices of scene-leading artists, from a MusicTalk with Nile Rodgers and Legowelt’s guide to the DIY world of cassette releases to rare peeks into the record bags of NY house stalwart Kenny Dope and Canadian selector Jayda G. Meanwhile you can catch in-depth talks from techno titans Octave One and Dave Clarke alongside the multi-panelist discussion ‘The Pollinating Effect of Music’ at the first round of ADE Pro events at the DeLaMar theatre.

The party programme gets into full swing with wide-ranging Munich label Public Possession taking the reins at Garage Noord, while Reaktor welcomes DVS1 to head up

P.29

a night of cutting-edge techno featuring Electric Indigo, Marcel Dettmann and JASSS. There’s a more minimal flavour on offer from local champs SlapFunk Records with the legendary Daniel Bell at Claire, and Rush Hour present their distinctive take on contemporary house with label boss Antal and Japanese maestros Kuniyuki Takahashi and Soichi Terada.

Following the Body In Revolt exhibition at Mediamatic, Spielraum and Bassiani join forces for a politically charged queer techno throwdown at RADION with Héctor Oaks, Zitto, Polly F and more. If you fancy something more organic, Dutch experimentalist Jameszoo will perform with his four-piece band at Concertgebouw.

EIGH– TEEN (18) BETWEEN THE TRACKS

OCTOBER

ADE 2018

P.30

ADE HIGHLIGHTS

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

SPIELRAUM X BASSIANI HÉCTOR OAKS ZITTO, NDRX, POLLY F, CASHU, KI/KI RADION LOUWESWEG 1 1031 KT

BODY IN REVOLT PHOTOS.- ALWIN POAINA

ADE 2018

THURSDAY

ADE PRO

SHELTER; RUSH HOUR

OCTAVE ONE – UNWRAPPED

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ANTAL, HUNEE, KUNIYUKI TAKAHASHI, SAUCE81, SOICHI TERADA, YOUNG MARCO SHELTER

WHY HAS ELECTRONIC MUSIC NEVER HAD A ‘PUNK’ MOMENT? THE POLLINATING EFFECT OF MUSIC DELAMAR THEATER MARNIXSTRAAT 402

OVERHOEKSPLEIN 1

PUBLIC POSSESSION PRESENTS RON MORELLI, ORPHEU THE WIZARD, OBALSKI, PUBLIC POSESSION DJS GARAGE NOORD GEDEMPT HAMERKANAAL 40

ADE SOUND LAB CASSETTE RELEASE WITH LEGOWELT THE RECORD BAG OF JAYDA G & KENNY DOPE ADE MUSICTALKS: NILE RODGERS DE BRAKKE GROND NES 45

SLAPFUNK RECORDS DANIEL BELL, RYAN ELLIOTT, LEO POL, INGI VISIONS, ANIL ARAS, CINTHIE CLAIRE REMBRANDTPLEIN 17

REAKTOR & DVS1 DVS1, ELECTRIC INDIGO, MARCEL DETTMANN, VOLVOX, JASSS, PARRISH SMITH WAREHOUSE ELEMENTENSTRAAT ELEMENTENSTRAAT 25

JAMESZOO QUARTET JAMESZOO QUARTET, BRUXAS, DJ BERTBERT CONCERTGEBOUW CONCERTGEBOUWPLEIN 10

EIGHTEEN

ADE 2018

P.34

FRIDAY Düsseldorf’s famed haven for adventurous sonic spirits, Salon Des Amateurs, will be transplanted to Garage Noord on Friday night for a guaranteed roadblock party featuring residents Lena Willikens and Vladimir Ivkovich alongside Rabih Beani and Merel.

Earlier in the day Willikens and Ivkovich will also share the records that define their beloved base camp during an ADE Sound Lab talk. You can also catch Bonobo, Afrodeutsche and Jordan Czamanski of Juju & Jordash going deep on various aspects of their craft, and a MusicTalk from UK veterans Orbital, all at De Brakke Grond.

The vibe is sure to be laid back and playful for Young Marco’s annual Safe Grill at SEXYLAND, while just next door at NDSM a gut busting line-up for Into The Woods welcomes DJ Fett Burger, Jayda G, Paula Temple, Optimo and many more. NGHTDVSN invite Berlin electronica party Leisure System to De Marktkantine for an eclectic, left-of-centre line-up including 808 State, Matrixxman and Max Cooper.

At RADION, Tresor, Freerotation and Second Wave join forces, with the likes of DJ Bone, Ectomorph, Peverelist and Steevio & Suzybee at the controls. The first night of De School’s ADE schedule is equally strong, as Batu, CEM, Octo Octa and Courtesy channel adventurous strains of techno and house music.

NINE– TEEN (19) ADE 2018

OCTOBER

SALON DES AMATEURS PRESENTS

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VLADIMIR IVKOVIC, LENA WILLIKENS, RABIH BEAINI, MEREL GARAGE NOORD GEDEMPT HAMERKANAAL 40

VLADIMIR IVKOVIC PHOTOS.- TANJA SIREN & ALICIA CARRERA

ADE 2018

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ADE HIGHLIGHTS

FRIDAY

HET WEEKENDFRIDAY NIGHT

ADE SOUND LAB

SAFE GRILL 2018

THE RECORD BAGS OF THE SALON DES AMATEURS

BATU,

ADE MUSICTALKS: BONOBO

YOUNG MARCO, JAN SCHULTE, MAX ABYSMAL, WOODY’92 SEXYLAND MS. VAN RIEMSDIJKWEG 39

CARISTA, CEM, COURTESY, LYZZA, MAIRO NAWAZ, OCTO OCTA DE SCHOOL DOCTOR JAN VAN BREEMENSTRAAT 1

MASTERCLASS WITH AFRODEUTSCHE

BY ABLETON IN THE STUDIO WITH JORDAN CZAMANSKI ADE MUSICTALKS: ORBITAL DE BRAKKE GROND NES 45

TRESOR X SECOND WAVE DJ BONE, DJ STINGRAY, ECTOMORPH, PEVERELIST, STEEVIO & SUZYBEE, ERIKA, MERCAL RADION LOUWESWEG 1

ADE PRO NGHTDVSN PRESENTS LEISURE SYSTEM 808 STATE,MATRIXXMAN, MAX COOPER, MOUNT KIMBIE DE MARKTKANTINE JAN VAN GALENSTRAAT 6-10

U DON’T HAVE TO BE MAINSTREAM DELAMAR THEATER MARNIXSTRAAT 402

INTO THE WOODS FRIDAY DJ FETT BURGER, JAYDA G, KINK, OPTIMO, PAULA TEMPLE, PRINS, THOMAS, RED AXES NDSM TT. NEVERITAWEG 15

ADE 2018

NINETEEN

SATURDAY / SUNDAY

P.37

TWENTY & TWENTY ONE(2021) As the weekend digs in its heels, there are some key parties sure to keep your energy levels peaking. For those still rolling from Friday night (or even up bright and early) Breakfast Club at RADION is a smart choice, with Peggy Gou, Dorisburg, Marco Shuttle and Efdemin among the trusted guides to your Saturday morning.

If you’ve got the motivation to stimulate the mind in between dancefloors,ADE Sound Lab wraps up with a Studio XL workshop with Colin Benders.

On Saturday night, Nina Kraviz and her Tрип label take over the striking prison environs of Bijlmer Bajes. Over at the Melkweg, Dave Clarke will be indulging his love of electro with a deadly line-up including Umwelt, Ultradyne, Sync 24 and DeFeKT.

Mask and Mor Elian. The smart choice for whiling away Sunday afternoon is the ADE Hangover at NDSM, where a host of remedial delights await, from saunas and hot tubs to arcade machines, crate digging and excellent food and drink.

For those with any energy in reserve, you can see out ADE with a bang at nooderling, where Gerd Janson, I-F, Moody Mehran and Pasiphae will be exploring the underbelly of electro, house and techno. In the intimate surroundings of OT301, Orson Wells and Aroma Pitch will round the weekend off in typically subversive style.

At the final furlong of a marathon five days and five nights, Hypercolour will see you into Sunday with Zenker Brothers, Skee

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

OCTOBER

ADE 2018

P.38

ADE HIGHLIGHTS

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

(SUN) NOODERLING GERD JANSON, I-F, MOODY MEHRAN, PASIPHAE, SOLAR NOODERLING NDSM PIER 1

(SAT) BREAKFAST CLUB PEGGY GOU,DORISBURG, ROI PEREZ,CARLOS SOUFFRONT, MARCO SHUTTLE,EFDEMIN RADION LOUWESWEG 1

ADE 2018

SATURDAY & SUNDAY

SAT

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ADE SOUND LAB STUDIO XL: COLIN BENDERS DE BRAKKE GROND NES 45

SUN

LONELY PLANETS X EIGENGRAU ORSON WELLS, AROMA PITCH, INERTIA, JACK ROLAND MARK ANTONI, ROELOF KUIPERS OT301 OVERTOOM 301

SAT

AUDIO OBSCURA X NINA KRAVIZ PRESENTS TРИП AT THE PRISON NINA KRAVIZ BIJLMER BAJES H.J.E. WENCKEBACHWEG 48

SUN SAT

WHIP IT DAVE CLARKE, UMWELT,ULTRADYNE, DEFEKT,SYNC 24, JENSEN INTERCEPTOR MELKWEG LIJNBAANSGRACHT 234A

ADE HANGOVER NDSM TT. NEVERITAWEG 15

SUN

HYPER COLOUR & FRIENDS ZENKER BROTHERS, DANNY DAZE, SKEE MASK, BLOODY MARY, MOR ELIAN SUGARFACTORY LIJNBAANSGRACHT 238 NES 45

TWENTY & TWENTY ONE

ADE 2018

P.40

DOCS

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

SOUND IN VISION: ADE DOCS From an intimate portrait of a modular synth pioneer to a gripping documentary about dancehall pageantry, the birth of techno behind the Iron Curtain to a thoughtful exploration of kosmische soundtrack titans Tangerine Dream, the ADE documentary programme at LAB111 adds another dimension to the festival in between the thump of the soundsystem and thought-provoking discussions.

BRUK OUT! A DANCEHALL QUEEN DOCUMENTARY(2017) 18/10 - 21:15

SUZANNE CIANI: A LIFE IN WAVES (2017) 17/10 - 19:15

ERA OF DANCE: THE STORY OF SOVIET TECHNO REVOLUTION (2017) 19/10 – 19:00

TANGERINE DREAM: REVOLUTION OF SOUND (2017) 20/10 – 16:30

ADE 2018

LAB111 | ARIE BIEMONDSTRAAT 111

SOUND IN VISION:

P.41

EXPANDED In addition to the extensive documentary programme, there are also chances to see artful combinations of electronic music and moving image in a variety of formats. Japanese audio-visual visionary Ryoji Ikeda will be presenting his inimitable fusion of science, noise, and visceral multi-sensory impact during a day-long presentation at the EYE Filmmuseum. Later in the week there will also be a special screening of William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, famously soundtracked by Tangerine Dream, while Dutch artist Torus presents a live soundtrack of Tarkovsky’s Stalker at the Melkweg Cinema.

TANGERINE DREAM SPECIAL: SORCERER (1977) LAB111 ARIE BIEMONDSTRAAT 111 19/10 – 21:30

RYOJI

IKEDA EYE FILMMUSEUM EYE PROMENADE 1 17/10 – 10:00

TORUS LIVE SOUNDTRACK:

STALKER MELKWEG CINEMA LIJNBAANSGRACHT 234A 21/10 – 19:00

ADE 2018

P.42

INTERVIEW

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

AGAINST THE GRAIN: SAN PROPER & LYZZA IN CONVERSATION At ADE, groundbreaking upstarts and established veterans rub shoulders daily. We decided to introduce two locals at either end of the scale to talk about the nature of being immersed in Amsterdam’s electronic music scene in 2018.

Maverick house troubadour San Proper is synonymous with institutions such as Rush Hour, Dekmantel and Red Light Radio, while Brazil-born LYZZA’s adventurous, hyper-modern style has seen her play at some of Europe’s most celebrated clubs since her teens.

L: We haven’t met, but we're simi-

L: You talk about not needing

lar the own mix

boundaries, but are you not limiting yourself with a certain amount of choice?

in that we don't really follow grain of music and we do our thing. My music is a kind of between trance and ghettotech.

pletely different - then again these are just names. People should stop defining shit too much. It just creates boundaries.

S: I like the limitation of the bag. This limitation makes you jump crazy leaps – it challenges you. If I have too many options it becomes a bit too much of a big sea of music. That’s just

L: I always tell people, 'Do you

my way though. Do you play your own tunes?

S: Wow, that's something com-

always ask people to chew your food before you eat it?' It makes life more boring if you want the answer to everything.

S: This is a cool first date by the way.

L: Yeah it is [laughs]. You play

on vinyl sometimes don't you?

S: Yeah mostly, I happily break my back for all these records!

Really though, I love collecting them and it wouldn't make sense if I just kept them in the house.

L: I don't actually. I prob-

ably should. They’re kind of two different projects. I have this barrier I've put up – seeing people's immediate reaction to your music is scary. The music I make is music I would listen to in my bed. And when I DJ I just want to lose my fucking head.

Do you play your own music out?

S: Yes, I like to test it. I

think all the music I produce fits with the stuff I collect from the shops. That might just be in my head.

L: In my case it probably is. I always feel like my music isn't for the club, and then I see videos of it playing out.

S: Yeah, that's also cool. It’s

surprising when artists play your music in a totally different vibe.

L: Yeah! So how has Amsterdam

been for you as a DJ? S: Well in the beginning everybody was pissing in my face.

In the mid-90s what I played wasn’t hip, but I just kept on

ADE 2018

WORDS.- THEO KOTZ

doing what I do. Because of this persistence I feel like I can do whatever I want now.

L: Do you feel like Amsterdam is a different place for a young DJ than it was for you?

S: Yes, very much so. I think it’s more open-minded. Freedom erupted from the persistence of the organisations out here. You create the place for it to exist by being real and sincere. Do you feel like being in Amsterdam has helped you along?

L: Yes and no. Amsterdam is quite

rigid and initially I didn't really fit in anywhere. When I was 17, I remember I took a bus to Berlin because an online friend of mine was throwing a party there. From that I got booked in

London and Barcelona. When I came back to Amsterdam, people were like, 'Oh you’re LYZZA, that's so cool.'

S: It's kind of like me when

S: Yeah, and there's always a

P.43

money side. It’s good to manifest it just over a few days.

L: I feel like ADE has managed to pull it off in a nice way.

I first started, without the bus thing. So were you born and raised here?

L: I was born and raised in Brazil.

I moved here when I was eight.

S: Oh cool. [Brazil's] one of

my favourite countries in the world. Each time I try to make it to Salvador but I get sabotaged by the coolness of every other place, but I want to grow old jamming with the people in the streets of Salvador.

L: That was definitely one of the

social clashes I got when I moved to Amsterdam. Europe is very like, everyone for themselves.

I remember when I finished my first day of school here, I went home and there were no kids playing on the streets. It felt so weird. I grew to like it though.

I'm actually moving away for the first time in a couple of weeks.

I'm moving to London.

Compared to the fact that music events and conferences usually have so many super serious people in attendance.

S: People who take themselves

too seriously are very dangerous.

L: Sometimes I see people who take

S: Oh, you’re leaving us! Not cool!

life so seriously and I just want to shake them up. We're all gonna

L: I'm just ready to put myself

die anyway! I'm here to live a good life, not a long life.

in a slightly uncomfortable position. I hate being too comfortable. So are you going to be in Amsterdam during ADE? S: Yeah, of course. I'll be do-

ing some stuff for Rush Hour, Red Light Radio and Shelter.

L: I'm premiering my new live

show with this audio-visual element. I've been working with this designer called Pepapuke from Brazil. It’s really pretty but also fucked up. What do you make of ADE? I feel like it’s quite a business-minded promotional thing, but the venues and promoters are able to make it into something progressive.

ADE 2018

P.44

FEATURE

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

RÓISÍN MURPHY

ADE 2018

DANCEFLOOR DEDICATION

Róisín Murphy is buzzing. When we talk, she’s just finished shooting the video for her latest Maurice Fulton-produced single, a duet with Ali Love entitled “Jacuzzi Rollercoaster.” The video is the third in a row in which Murphy has set inside a club, with fans recruited to play the role of turn-of-the-90s ravers via a call-out on social media.

“It’s a different kind of video to the last couple I’ve done, but it has the same soul,” the former Moloko frontwoman says. “It has got the same type of people in it and they’re in the same mood.

Basically, they all look out of their shithole!”

She laughs uproariously, before opining on the difficulties she faced capturing the ecstasy experience on film, something that has stumped filmmakers for decades.

“I recently stumbled on something on Facebook that focused on ‘20 great films about club culture’ or similar, but when I looked through all of them, there wasn’t very much that looked like the clubs I’ve been to,” she sighs.

“It looked like a lot of attractive actors and actresses running their hands through their hair, and posing, honestly.”

What Murphy was looking for was “authenticity,” a subject she returns to several times during our 90-minute conversation. Before shooting this sequence of videos, she not only spent weeks searching out grainy VHS video footage of old clubs and raves, but also spoke at length to her friend Elaine Constantine, a former Face magazine photographer turned movie director whose surprise 2014 box office smash Northern Soul won praise for its accuracy.

“I’m really inspired by her fantastic attention to detail and the sheer authenticity of the way she went about researching and making the movie,” Murphy says.

“I wanted that kind of authenticity when I made these videos.

It’s my authenticity, though, about where I come from. I’ve been going to clubs since I was 14. I continued on that journey and it’s still a part of me.”

Murphy goes on to cite an example that runs throughout the sequence of videos: a deliberate lack of shots of DJs in the various party scenes. “When I used to go to clubs in that acid house period, you couldn’t see the DJ – he was in a cupboard at the back of the club, basically,” she says. “These videos are about the people in the club. They’re not about the people who run the club or the commerce of the club. They’re about the soul of it, which is the crowd.”

she asserts. “It will eventually die if that’s not prioritized.

It should be about the people who go to the club, not the DJ. Anybody can be a DJ!”

P.45

Murphy does take the time to talk about her love for revered, cult DJs such as Sheffield’s Winston Hazel and Pipes, and Manchester’s Electric Chair co-founder Luke Unabomber. Even so, she’ll always side with the dancers, because she remains one of them. “I’m a 45 year-old woman but I still go to clubs – sometimes – and I need that part of myself,” she asserts.

“It doesn’t die when you hit 45, it keeps going.”

Murphy’s memories of clubs and parties past and present are vast

Murphy’s passion for championing the role dancers and club-goers play in club culture is obvious, and undoubtedly a by-product of a 30-year love affair with the dancefloor. By her own admission, when she moved to Manchester from her native Ireland in the late 80s she lived to dance, surrounding herself with others who were obsessed with Britain’s growing dance music revolution. Before she’d ever considered singing or making music, she was a regular fixture at clubs, not only in her adopted home city, but also across the Pennines in Sheffield.

It’s because of this that Murphy is passionate about championing the role dancers have played dance music’s continuing evolution. “There’s no club culture without the soul of the dancers,”

and detailed. During the conversation, she recalls a particularly wild night out at Stoke-onTrent’s acid house-era hot-spot, Shelley’s. She also complains about the quality of the sound at the Hacienda and tells a particularly hair-raising story about being in the middle of a gunfight at a club in Manchester.

“It was in the late 80s at this place called PSV in Moss Side,” she says. “The club was evacuated because there were bullets flying everywhere. I love all

“THERE’S NO CLUB CULTURE WITHOUT THE SOUL OF THE DANCERS. IT WILL EVENTUALLY DIE IF THAT’S NOT PRIORITIZED. IT SHOULD BE ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO GO TO THE CLUB, NOT THE DJ. ANYBODY CAN BE A DJ!”

WORDS.- MATT ANNISS

LIVE PHOTOS.- CAROLINA NIKOTIAN FOR THE405

ADE 2018

P.46

ADE 2018

FEATURE

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

that. I love a few bullets flying around!” She’s had to duck flying bullets in clubs on other occasions, too.

“We had to run out of this place in Jamaica when a big shoot-out started happening. We went to see Beenie Man but he never came on.

Jesus, people were hiding behind other people and shit like that, using them as human shields. I’ve seen the lot!”

Murphy goes on to talk about her love of Jamaican music culture, confirming that she regularly returns to the island for holidays. It was the scene of one of her most memorable clubbing moments. “Once we were in this

Dlugosch and Sheffield mainstay DJ Parrot (now tearing up dancefloors as Crooked Man on DFA Records), to West London broken beat legend Seiji and experimental genius Matthew Herbert.

“I find it hard when producers just say ‘sing on my track,’ but Matthew never acted like that with me,” she says warmly. “He’s a very singular artist but he was able to focus on me as being ‘the project.’ I was involved throughout the process, and he was willing to listen to me.

For him, the recording process is an exploration – a journey through sound where we’re going to explore and have fun. I loved doing that.”

“You don’t work with Maurice to try and change him – you work with him because he’s Maurice Fulton and he does what he does. His sound is great for me because it’s punk, it’s disco, it’s authentic and it’s real. The first day I spent with him, I said, ‘We’re going to make some disco and it will be amazing!’ He said, ‘What are you talking about? I don’t make disco. No, it’s R&B.’ So I shut up about disco after that and just did what I was told!”

P.47

She laughs hysterically again, before offering a rare insight into the publicity-shy Chicagoan exile’s production methods. “He really produces from his gut.

I’m very instinctive in the way I work, too, so that’s great.

Sometimes we’ll be in the studio and he’ll decide we need some extra percussion, so he opens up this black bin bag of percussion instruments. Then he starts playing and, wow, everything just comes alive. When you play the resultant track in a club it just works. His productions have got everything for me musically in terms of what I’d want when making dance music.”

Murphy’s collaborations with

really small, pitch-black place that was lit only by UV lights,”

There was one producer, though, who Murphy was prepared to give

she remembers. “We were the only white people there, we got really mashed and I couldn’t give a shit – I had a brilliant time and it was the best dancing of my life. I got brought out to take part in this dance challenge and I beat this guy. He ran off with his tail between his legs! It was one of the greatest moments of my life!”

total control to – Maurice Fulton.

Before working together on her recent run of four double A-side singles for The Vinyl Factory, she had spent years trying to persuade the maverick producer to work with her.

Such extensive and varied clubbing experiences have naturally shaped Murphy’s recorded output, particularly her solo career after parting ways with Moloko partner (and one-time other half) Mark Brydon in 2003. Since then, she’s worked with an impressively eclectic mix of electronic music producers, from German house veteran Boris

Fulton have been some of the best-received releases of her career, and will naturally be featured in her performance at ADE Live, alongside a selection of classic cuts from her 23-year career. Although she’s never experienced ADE before, Murphy is particularly excited to be returning to Amsterdam.

“From the start of Moloko, we were very much embraced in Amsterdam and in Holland in general. I love it there,” she enthuses.

“Paradiso, where we’re playing at, is really one of my favourites. It's a beautiful venue.

You feel like the audience is on top of you. I'm really looking forward to playing in that place again, because it's been so good to us, through every era. I played there in Moloko, I played there when I came out with Ruby Blue and that was an amazing gig. I’m sure this will be amazing, too.”

ADE 2018

P.48

PROFILE

RISING FROM THE

WITH ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST FERTILE ENVIRONMENTS FOR BOUNDARY-TESTING ELECTRONIC MUSIC, WE SHINE A LIGHT ON SOME OF THE TALENTS PUSHING VITAL NEW SOUNDS FROM THE DUTCH UNDERGROUND. WHETHER IT’S DREAMLIKE SYNTH FANTASIES, DARING SELECTIONS OR WILD ELECTRO RHYTHMS YOU’RE AFTER, HERE ARE FOUR NAMES TO KEEP A CLOSE EYE ON.

LOW

ADE 2018

COUNTRY

PALMBOMEN

KAI HUGO’S WOOZY SYNTHS AND DUSTY BEATS SOUNDTRACK A FANTASY WORLD RICH IN THE TAPE-STRETCHED FUZZ OF 90S CELLULOID CHARM.

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Producer of music, film and videogame soundtracks Kai Hugo is always in control, and in transit.

His Palmbomen alias initially centred on a band he assembled.

They released on Non Records, the label he co-founded, and he programmed a custom-built light show for his first EP launch. He

“I did the music videos afterwards and I saw how nice it was to create a world,” says Hugo.

currently splits his time between L.A. and Antwerp, with a studio in Berlin, and roots in Amsterdam and southern Holland.

With a track re-released by dance/ fashion stable Kitsuné Maison, and the debut Palmbomen album coming out soon after, you might have thought Hugo was firmly on his path back in 2013. Barely a year later, he decided to strip back his approach, reducing the band to an array of machines and relaunching his name as a sequel of sorts. “I wanted to totally restart, and from that moment on, when I started Palmbomen II, that was my rebirth.”

Hugo wrote the Palmbomen II album “on my way to LA,” starting the record in his mother's attic while his visa came through, and finishing it on arrival. Opening with crashing waves and the cry of sea birds, the music and accompanying videos form a grainy, VHS hallucination of dreamy aspiration and desire. In his music, drum machine house rhythms and oozing acid lines form the structure beneath emotive synth work that's blotchy with longing.

WORDS.- GWYN THOMAS DE CHROUSTCHOFF

PHOTO.- JUAN B CANO

The new approach was all about working on the spot, in the moment.

“I never work on something for more than a few hours,” he says.

The same agile hardware set-up provides both the way to perform live and to create music; in 2016 he squeezed it into a car and spent a week making an album with longtime collaborator Betonkust on location in Center Parcs, where the surrounding aesthetic of sterile, faded convenience proved an inspirational atmosphere.

The second Palmbomen II album, Memories of Cindy, came out in early 2018, and the visuals have become even more entwined with the music. “Now, it goes hand in hand,” Hugo says of the surreal infomercials and woozy daytime TV footage he created, largely in L.A. “I like to play with nostalgia, but if I could call [my video work] anything it would be 'alternative past' or something.

I have a problem with the word nostalgia because I have no longing to go back in time.”

Quite the opposite - now settled in his new Antwerp studio and with further visual exploits in California on the horizon, Hugo is pressing forward with his hypnagogic multimedia fantasies.

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PROFILE

Though she's now based in Rotterdam, Nadia Struiwigh grew up in a rural village, a shy daydreamer immersed in her own world. She would hear ambient rhythms everywhere, even in the sound of a coffee machine. Going to parties as a teenager, she knew there was something more to electronic music beyond drinking and dancing. Everything changed when she experienced a performance by techno artist Estroe.

“She was playing really emotional stuff but with a lot of power, and I saw it in how she performed. I was really mind-blown,” Struiwigh recalls. She expressed her enthusiasm to Estroe – real name Esther Roozendal – who soon became something of a mentor.

Roozendal encouraged and guided Struiwigh, warning that she would need elephant skin in the tough business of electronic music: “I was a shy girl, so it was, for me, a new world,” she admits.

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BETWEEN THE TRACKS

Stylistically, Struiwigh went her own way with her debut album.

Released on respected UK electronica label Central Processing Unit last year, Lenticular comprises nine intricately textured cosmic journeys reminiscent of the early ambient techno of Speedy J and B12.

“Those crunchy sounds and crazy rhythms – that's already going on in my head,” says Struiwigh.

Despite the density and complexity of her sound design, everything is hand wrought and captured in the moment on her predominantly hardware-driven set up. “You just go with the flow,” she enthuses about the expressive, impulsive nature of drum machines and synthesisers, “and that analogue sound makes it real.”

“I was really like a hermit!”

Struiwigh laughs when talking about the hours she spent honing her sound. It was Rotterdam's open-minded music community that encouraged her to leave the comfort and solitude of her studio. Her live sets are harder and harsher than her records, fuelled by gritty electro rhythms but still shot through with dreamy melodies.

HIGH-END PRODUCTION AND SOUL-STIRRING EMOTIONS COLLIDE IN THE DISTINCTIVE STRAIN OF ELECTRONICA THIS ROTTERDAM STUDIO-WHIZZ CONJURES FROM HER MACHINES.

“I wanted to bring my studio out of my studio, that was my intention,” she explains. Her first intimate shows almost drew tears, both from the artist and her audience, and her renown has grown since playing at the most recent edition of Rewire Festival.

From here, Struiwigh is blossoming into an electronica artist with a powerful, distinctive voice. Her detailed approach to texture, rhythm and melody is being applied to collaborations in the electronic and classical worlds – you can expect to hear even more unfamiliar frequencies from her in the near future.

STRUIWIGH

MOODY

MEHRAN

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FROM CLASSIC HOUSE TO THE FARTHEST REACHES OF THE GROOVE, MOODY MEHRAN HAS EVOLVED TO BECOME ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING DJS OPERATING IN THE NETHERLANDS.

“Detroit music played a little bit faster... and then faster, and faster, and faster, and faster.” This is how Mehran Palad describes the musical culture of Rotterdam, the global bastion of gabber. Though he was born in Iran, the DJ is an excellent guide to the city, having danced at its clubs and festivals since he was 15, and growing up around stories of the iconic nightspots where legendary DJs such as Alden Tyrell, David Vunk and Mark du Mosch cut their teeth.

Now in his 20s, Palad discovered Chicago house through the in-game

radio station he listened to as he stole cars while playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. He went deeper into the vibe as he gravitated towards the house-oriented stages at high-speed hard dance parties, finally finding community in Triphouse, a local record label and shop. He went from being a scene kid hanging out after school, to selling records, to DJing for the crew. “But I had a strong opinion about what I liked in music,” he explains.

“I liked to play more vocal and disco house, and all these different genres that weren't cool [in Rotterdam].” It was obvious that he was destined to lead his own path as a DJ. Self-possessed and individual in his style and selection, Palad likes to mix tracks together unpredictably, alternating between long blends and jumpcuts. His diverse take on house brings out obscure tribal, trance and tech-house styles alongside his beloved Chicago and Detroit jams. His regular sets for Dekmantel Selectors and Amsterdam's Red Light Radio go even

PHOTO.- JAIMY GAIL

wider into bouncing South African kwaito and gyrating disco, electro pop and freestyle records from the 80s.

Palad also brings in flourishes of non-Western music, and shades of his Middle Eastern roots. “I grew up with Iranian music because my parents always played a lot of it in the car,” he says.

He's awed by the Iranians' determination through adversity – they escape the ban on dancing in public spaces by holding sit-down events, or turning off the lights. He also expresses a wistful sadness about the country's musical stagnation during turbulent times.Now exploring ways of using his connections in Europe to help would-be artists in Iran find their voice and an international audience, Palad is set to make meaningful impact well beyond Rotterdam with his impassioned approach to the art of DJing.

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PROFILE

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

Fotini Kappa is a Greek producer and DJ who's now based in The Hague, the spiritual home of electro in the Netherlands, and who is flying the flag for the city's decades-old tradition of dark, broken machine music. “I don't want to limit my sets to one dimension,” she says, referring to her open-minded approach towards genre. The ominous techno-funk of her record bag could equally be the soundtrack to a perilous inter-dimensional journey.

Growing up in a small town in the north Peloponnese, where electronic music was almost entirely absent, she would travel to Athens or Patras to experience interesting sounds. She feels like electronic music has an outsider role across the country, with most people's nightlife soundtracked by bouzoukia performing the traditional laiko music, or bars and clubs playing strange neo-folk. She approves of the renowned Phormix nights in the capital, but says only a few “real deal music freaks” are interested within Greece.

The brain “needs some excitement and unpredictability,” she thinks, and it was this drive that brought her to The Hague, where she found inspiration in the vibrant scene – Intergalactic FM, Scheveningen beach clubs and sweaty basements. “The people here are not overthinking or in a constant rush,” she says. Kappa fitted in so well that she

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developed a strong connection with Intergalactic Gary, a legendary figure in the Hague scene, based on endless conversations about music and synthesis. Their jam sessions soon turned into an EP, and Kappa's first release as Pasiphae.

Siphax, her first solo release, also began an experiment. “People tell me often that the more they listen, the more they like the tracks and understand them, and that they need some time to mature in the brain. That they have depth and character. I know they're not easy tracks for everyone to like,” she admits. Building on the promise of this bold start, her upcoming release schedule includes a remix of a song by Lena Platonos, an influential figure in Greece's avant-garde in the 80s.

Kappa doesn't believe in watering down her daring style when DJing, relishing the times she overcomes a resistant dancefloor without compromising on her approach. Indeed, one of her most memorable experiences recently was in Helsinki, where she broke through the reserved nature of the crowd. “Around half-way through my set, they started high-fiving me and giving me fist bumps,” she laughs. “I was not considered a stranger anymore!”

WITH A PRODUCTION STYLE THAT REVELS IN THE NOIRISH LEGACY OF DUTCH ELECTRO, PASIPHAE IS PUSHING THE HAGUE SOUND IN THRILLING NEW DIRECTIONS.

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PROFILE

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

ART

On Thursday October 18, Doringer and Inbar welcome a panel of speakers including Jazar Crew from Palestine, MambaNegra and LYZZA from Brazil/Netherlands, Tijana T from Serbia, and White Noise Movement and Bassiani from Georgia. In the evening there will also be a queer-techno after party at RADION, co-hosted

by Amsterdam promoters Spielraum and Bassiani.

“During Amsterdam Dance Event there are hardly any queer parties or gay parties,” explains Doringer.

Body

In Revolt

As part of the ADE art programme, Mediamatic will host an exhibition curated by Bogomir Doringer and Arad Inbar, exploring the relationship between the body as a social and political entity, and the dancefloor. Dance music and revolutionary politics have been forever intertwined, from the UK rave scene and the techno soundtrack of the reunification of Germany to the recent tension around youth culture and govern-

“It’s very important for us,” adds Inbar, “because [in the exhibition] we contextualise the meaning of Body In Revolt, but in the end it's also about the experience, about the club space breaking this hierarchy between performers and viewers.”

Beyond the panels and the party, the artistic crux of Body In Revolt will be three pieces by contemporary performance artists, which we examine in greater detail on the following pages.

ment oppression in Georgia.

“I learned to dance during bombing and student protests in Serbia,” explains Doringer, whose own ongoing research project is entitled I DANCE ALONE. “For me, dance was always very political.

It was a statement against the regime, against fear, mocking the potential death from bombs that were dropping on Belgrade while we were raving in a basement.”

In recent times, the dancefloor and club culture have become increasingly vital forums for debate around pressing social and political issues. Body In Revolt suggests that how and why we dance is an extension of that debate, and that the debate is what we dance for.

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CORPUS MOBILE

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How does the oppressed body find alternatives to its limitation?

In partnership with Kiril Bikov, Federica Dauri’s Corpus Mobile sees the artist laid in a state of vulnerability underneath a blanket of 50 razor-sharp knives hovering just millimetres above her body.

This tense configuration lasts for between two and three hours in total silence, during which time the performer can immerse herself in the physical and mental limitations of the installation.

“The chair Federica is in follows her curves,” explains Doringer, “so it's in between sitting and laying. The knives are almost touching her body, so the only way she doesn't get hurt is to adjust her breathing to this new system.”

“Enforced inactivity slows down and suspends time,” explains Dauri. “The limits and endurance of this performance, the audience and the space all work together to create an environment of introspection and immateriality.”

FEDERICA DAURI

& KIRIL BIKOV

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PROFILE

THE

OPENING

How far would you push your body for the sake of the idea you believe in? In Julian Weber’s long form installation The Opening, make-up artists progressively cover a static nude body with bruises and scars over the course of many hours.

“For some, this bruised body is artificial or mainly present in the media, while for others, it is a reality and result of a social and political struggle,” explains Inbar. “It's really disturbing to watch. It's very much related to the topic of when the body is in a state of crisis, and the urgency that comes out of it.”

“We're also talking about the space where the events are happening,” adds Doringer. “It was important to have a work that almost transforms into a gallery work, that over a period of time will constantly transition from one image to another.”

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PHOTOS.- HANNE NIJHUIS

MUSEO

DE

AGUA With Rodrigo Sobarzo’s solo and group performance piece mUseo de AguA, bodies and sound become an ecstatic museum in which music fuels movement. A collective synchronized in cyclical motion, channeling and charging the electricity of music in response to the space and other figures around them.

“Rodrigo was one of the first names we came up with for this exhibition,” explains Inbar. “I saw a piece he created in a club space, and it was a collective making one beautiful, repetitive movement. They were really shifting the space, and making time stop.

to be performed in a museum space, but Rodrigo was more interested in putting it in a club context.

Though the research was more layered, it's coming back to this experience of the collective body in the club.”

“His research is not necessarily about club culture,” he adds. “mUseo de AguA was first offered

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SOBARZO

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AFTER ADE

REST

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AFTER ADE: &

AS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF RED LIGHT RADIO, HUGO VAN HEIJNINGEN IS ALWAYS BUSY. THE STATION, BASED IN THE HEART OF AMSTERDAM’S RED LIGHT DISTRICT, AND THE ACCOMPANYING RECORD SHOP, HAVE BECOME CENTRAL TENETS IN THE CITY’S MUSIC SCENE. REFLECTING THE DEEPENING APPRECIATION OF OBSCURE, GLOBAL SOUNDS IN CONTEMPORARY ELECTRONIC MUSIC, RED LIGHT RADIO HAS BECOME A STAMP OF QUALITY FOR DJS, EVENTS AND MORE BESIDES, RADIATING A VIBE OF WARMTH, EXPLORATION AND KILLER GROOVES WHEREVER THEIR DISTINCTIVE LIGHT BOX IS BEAMING FROM.

RELAXATION

WHILE THE SUNDAY ADE HANGOVER SESSION AT THE NDSM WHARF WILL PROVIDE A MELLOW SETTING FOR THE CONFERENCE-WEARY TO WIND DOWN A LONG WEEKEND, HUGO IS THE PERFECT CHOICE TO SHARE HIS OWN INSIDER TIPS FOR REST AND RELAXATION IN AMSTERDAM FOLLOWING AN ACTIONPACKED ADE WEEK.

I moved to Amsterdam 15 years ago from a small town outside Rotterdam. Since then I've lived in this relatively big city... well, the biggest city in Holland, but Amsterdam is still kinda small and cute.

It’s getting more hectic every year though, because there's water on one side and small towns on the other. The city cannot get much bigger. All the people need to be accommodated, so it's really full of people, but you can easily escape by just jumping on a bike. Go riding for 10 minutes, and already you can see sheep and cows.

We're surrounded by water, and in the summer time you can jump in anywhere to take a little swim, or I might take my daughter on a bike to a little farm and see the lambs being born or the cows going outside of their stables for the first time. You don't have to travel far to see that – less than 10 minutes on a bike.

It's even only 20 minutes in a car to go to the beach. Even if I didn't have a kid, I would still have the need to do these things, because my life and my work is a big social, city-focused thing.

We all need time to relax, to see nature, but also to see less human beings! That's very important.

Where I live is in Amsterdam Noord, so every day I have to

During ADE there are many years that the weather's shit, so maybe

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“BUT WHAT'S THE BEST WAY TO OVERCOME THIS BIG ADE HANGOVER? I WOULD SUGGEST MY FAVOURITE MASSAGE PLACE… WHEN YOU WALK IN, WITH THE SMELL OF OIL AND INCENSE AND THAI MUSIC, AND ALL THE THAI PEOPLE WORKING THERE, YOU ARE JUST NOT IN HOLLAND ANY MORE.”

take a little ferry across the IJ to get home. It’s very nice to get the wind and the air and the sun – I try not to

a park is not the best way to overcome it on the Sunday, but if the weather is good I'm a big fan of the Flevopark, over in the east. It's relatively quiet and quite big – people do sports,

look at my phone and just chill for five minutes. The boat leaves from behind Centraal Station, which is maybe one of the most hectic traffic junctions in the whole city. It's madness, and then you're on the boat, and then you get off the boat and on the other side there's more space, it's quieter and within five minutes you can see some nature. If you want more time on the water, you can take another ferry to NDSM that takes almost 15 minutes, where there is much more space.

There’s a cultural centre, and a lot of nice stuff is happening there.

hang out, barbecue, and there’s not so much tourism in the east of Amsterdam. It’s very much for the locals – you can really see the multicultural city that Amsterdam is, coming together in that park.

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In the centre of the city I have my preferred spots to relax, but during the week I stay around the Red Light District, which is not bad at all because it's next to the Zeedijk, the little China Town we have. I'm a big fan of Asian food, and a lot of my favourite restaurants are down there.

But what's the best way to overcome this big ADE hangover on the Sunday or the Monday? I would suggest my favourite massage place, in Amsterdam Noord. It's called Wat Pho, in an industrial area on top of a warehouse. You would imagine it's kinda shitty, but when you walk in, with the smell of oil and incense and Thai music, and all the Thai people working there, you are just not in Holland any more. You get an excellent massage, and included in the price is this very well cooked Thai soup. This combination gets the mind back to where it should be, and you feel much stronger and more relaxed when you come out.

Also around the corner is an Ethiopian-Eritrean restaurant called Semai. Like the Thai massage place, from the outside you think, ‘hmmm, can it be nice?’ because it's also in a warehouse.

They have typical African fur-

even sometimes do concerts of Ethiopian bands in the basement.

I like that not everybody goes there because then it's quiet and not hyped. I should not have said it! But oh well... they deserve good business.

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“AFTER BEING A NIGHTLIFE MANIAC FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS, I’D RECOMMEND YOU EAT VERY HEALTHILY.”

niture inside, and the food is great. After being a nightlife maniac for a couple of days, I’d recommend you eat very healthily,

If after all that you want a perfect way to wind down at the end of the day, I recommend you go to FC Hyena, which is an independent cinema. They have couches instead of regular cinema chairs, and if you’re lucky and there are not too many other people it feels like you are at home on your own couch watching a movie on a big screen. They usually show really great movies, and it's also in a beautiful location down by the water, so it makes a lot of sense to see a movie there and finish off a day of restoring your energy after a week of partying and socialising.

so make sure you pick the vegetarian dishes, because they’re the best in this restaurant. It's not too big, but very spread out, it's run by a family and they

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ADVICE & INFORMATION

BETWEEN THE TRACKS

PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR THE LAST-MINUTE CROWD TRAVEL PLANE – As one of Amsterdam’s busiest weeks of the year, flights tend to get booked well in advance. You can check for the best options directly from the ADE website – head to amsterdamdance-event.nl/flight. Look out for the package deals with KLM too – you can get a discount on your ADE pass.

LEFT IT TO THE 11TH HOUR TO GET YOUR PLANS IN PLACE FOR ADE? MAYBE WE CAN HELP.

TRAIN – Amsterdam Centraal has direct links with most major European cities. It’s six hours from Berlin and less than four from London via a new direct Eurostar connection.

BIKE – The best way to make sure you don’t miss any essential parties is to hire a bike.

There are countless bike rental companies, but due to high demand we suggest you book in advance.

Try bikecity.nl or starbikesrental.com.

PUBLIC TRANSPORT – There’s a great network of buses, trains and trams that can get you around town. Your best bet is to pick up a GVB multi-day ticket for the duration of your time in Amsterdam. If you haven’t visited in a while, the new Noord-Zuid metro line makes it easier than ever to reach the events on the north side of the city.

ACCOMMODATION HOTELS – As with any city, the hotel options for Amsterdam are vast. If you’re reading this, you’re likely to be arranging everything last minute, so a lot of places will be booked up. We’d suggest you head to amsterdam-dance-event.nl/hotels to see what’s left that suits your budget.

PRIVATE LETS – At the last time of checking, there were still plenty of options available on sites like Airbnb, where you can find yourself an affordable deal and still have quick and easy access to all the action.

It’s worth considering Amsterdam Noord if you want more space around you – it’s a short ferry ride to Amsterdam Centraal, but a lot of ADE events are taking place on the North side of the IJ, at the NDSM Wharf and surrounding area.

INFO DURING ADE Whether you have a burning question or want to purchase your ADE card, you can find ADE’s official Info & Tickets centres at the following locations: CENTRAAL STATION

Amstelpassage Tue 3pm-7pm | Wed-Sun 11am-7pm DE BALIE

Kleine-Gartmanplantsoen 10 Wed-Sat 10.30am-10.30pm FESTIVAL HANGOUT

De Brakke Grond – Nes 45 Wed 1pm-11pm | Thu-Fri 10am-11pm Sat 10am-7pm

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