- Amsterdam Dance Event is primarily known as a business conference, a moment when industry professionals of all stripes have a chance to get together in intimate surroundings and get things done. The key is its concentration: Spread among two adjoining hotels, everyone that you could want to meet is likely just a text and a three minute walk away. It's an ingenious set-up for those looking to network. And with panel discussions and in-depth interviews with people like Richie Hawtin and Derrick May, it also holds more than enough interest for music journalists as well.
Once the conference attendees are done for the day, though, business begins anew. Packing venues throughout the city, ADE weekend is among Amsterdam's busiest. That's why RA sent three of its correspondents to catch as much of the action as possible. Here is their report.
Wednesday
Viral Radio
With Gaslamp Killer, Bibio, Clark, Martyn, Knalpot, Cinnaman and Juha on the line-up, Viral Radio at Trouw promised to be among the highlights of this year's ADE. Great expectations, though, are rarely fulfilled. Apart from Bibio, who played a mindboggling set of cut 'n paste broken beats, and Knalpot, with their charismatic stage presence, most of the artists were fairly disappointing. What might have been an experimental journey into cutting edge beats, turned out to be a rather incoherent sequence of stale tracks. Clark played some uninspiring electronica, Gaslamp Killer dropped Dr. Dre and Jimi Hendrix and Martyn started off with Prince—the latter two doing little to contribute to the bigger picture of the night. It was a pity, considering Viral Radio normally stages some of the most forward-thinking dance music in Holland. -- Aron Friedman
Thursday
Toolroom Label Showcase
The word about town was to get in early for this intimate bash from the UK house label with a soaring global profile. A comfy canal-side hotel complete with carpeted dance floor, The Pulitzer feels like an unusual setting for Toolroom's big room house sounds: Their many branded events are often found in some of the world's biggest, most high-profile venues. But this being ADE, smaller warm-up parties can get a long night off to a good start. Long-time label collaborator Martijn Ten Velden played some nice bumping 4/4 early on, then Dirty Vegas performed a live PA of new and old tracks which was a bit too loud for the early hour and left the assembled crowd a little nonplussed. Funkagenda, meanwhile, took over with a pure '80s set. It was great fun, but seemed a strange choice for a label showcase. -- Tom Kihl
Dekmantel at ADB 2009
Three-room venue Westerliefde - Westergasterras – Westerunie sits among a complex of fascinating spaces outside of central Amsterdam, which on ADE weekend was a good thing and a bad thing. Good: The crowd was decidedly local. Bad: Once you were there, you were pretty much there for good. This wouldn't have been much of a problem if Dekmantel's showcase at the venue had been better attended. That said, it was probably best for the debut of San Proper's live show. He sputtered through an hour-long show that showed plenty of promise once it gets ironed out. The already sparse crowd thinned for Tom Trago, who nonetheless played a strikingly professional and engaging set to the few that remained. Juju & Jordash followed, and quickly thanked the few that remained with a set of spacey songs that often reached ambient house territory, but whose spell was broken each time they cut off to prepare for another journey. -- Todd L. Burns
Diynamic & Freerange
Studio 80, the nicely rough-around-the-edges two-room venue, was absolutely rammed when we arrived, with both dance floors equally jumping. Arrival felt like being thrown into a seething pit of enthusiastic humanity, contrasting with the open space of Rembrandtplein just outside its doors. Stimming had obviously done a good job of whipping up the main room with his live performance, and Solomun and H.O.S.H kept it that way, trading the deep and dirty bombs between them. Manuel Tur completed a well-crafted set in the second room, with label boss Jimpster taking great pleasure in dropping a selection heavily peppered with the label's own excellent tracks. At the pinnacle of the proceedings, an a cappella laid over the music sounded almost live, but this was a pure DJ experience. There may have been rather too many boys in the room, but the party vibe was great and the label boss looked happy, despite the 3 AM close leaving the rest of us wanting more. -- Tom Kihl
Innervisions
After the legendary night at Melkweg last year where Innervisions Orchestra made their first appearance in The Netherlands, the crowd at Trouw was very excited to visit the sequel. Unfortunately Henrik Schwarz, Dixon and Âme didn't have a whole lot of new tricks up their sleeves. Dixon played on his own for a while, then played back-to-back with Âme, with Henrik Schwarz joining in live towards the end. Quite simply, the night didn't go off in the same way as last year. But even on a mediocre night, Innervisions still rock like crazy. And to see Trouw full with adoring fans seemed like a foreshadowing for many legendary nights to come. If only the club would focus more on dynamic lighting, the dance floor would be even more lively... -- Aron Friedman
Friday
Dave Clarke Presents
Dave Clarke loves Amsterdam, even to the extent of relocating here, and the city clearly loves him right back. This techno-centric event saw him invite some like-minded compadres to play an ADE special, but even with Laurent Garnier delivering the goods to a full house, the proper fans were there for Dave. Estroe's warm up was strongly tailored to the need for the main man to come out all guns blazing, and his more traditional take on techno was suitably lapped up when it thundered out across the vast space. The guy in the furry red peanut costume is raving alongside the heads-down crew. Clarke worked some musical alchemy within the beat barrage, slipping into house just before dropping his ferocious classic "Red 2." In the other room, Joris Voorn impressed with a refreshingly different angle on things, before The Hacker took things into late night mode. -- Tom Kihl
Planet E vs. Rekids
From what we've heard, even Laurent Garnier and Derrick May were on the guestlist for this one. And why not? Where else would they be seeing Underground Resistance icon Mike Banks perform on keys any time soon? It was a nice way to spice up those uninspiring sets of Carl Craig, that's for sure. Granted, the OG from Planet E had one of his better nights, where he was almost half as good a DJ as he is a producer, but he left little room for Mike Banks to add strings and keys on top. You could sense the UR-head honcho wasn't too comfortable behind the keyboard—maybe also because he appeared unmasked for a change. Luckily he got his moment to shine towards the end of the night, with a magnificent solo rendition of "Knights of the Jaguar." Radio Slave topped it off with a driving techno set, but Spencer Parker was undoubtedly the man of the match. His jolly smile was a welcome alternative to the serious faces dominating the stage all night, and his music rocked the hardest. -- Aron Friedman
Saturday
Dekmantel
Another sold out ADE party, with a slightly older but nonetheless seriously up for it crowd filling the cavernous Paradiso for their big Saturday night. Dekmantel residents Casper Tielrooij and Thomas Martojo kicked things off in the main space back-to-back. The music took a noticeably different turn when each of them took to the controls, but it remained consistently deep and emotive throughout. Keith Worthy kept things in a similar vein when he first stepped up for what was obviously a much-anticipated show in the city. He prepared the scene for Derrick May's peak time three-hours later on. Meanwhile, alternative entertainment was around every corner of the venue, including '80s video karaoke outside the toilets. We didn't indulge. -- Tom Kihl
5 Years of Systematic
As we passed through the Systematic label's birthday celebrations, Robert Babicz was smashing the crowd into bits with a live set that had them whooping, screaming and in some cases visibly bumping off the walls at Boom Chicago, a repurposed comedy venue. It was a little too bright, but that gave us a chance to see what everyone was up to, namely welcoming each new track with enthusiasm. Babicz too was getting stuck in and looked striking with his blonde locks flying. As the equally arresting visual presence of Tommie Sunshine stepped up to take over, the focus of the room stayed just as full-on. He didn't mess around, providing a worthy celebration of Marc Romboy's forward-thinking imprint. As one of the few parties around with an 8 AM finish, the festivities continued as we moved on, with Technasia, Phonique and more lining up on stage to see it through. -- Tom Kihl
Photo credits
Wednesday, Friday - Rene Passet
Thursday, Saturday - Gioia De Bruijn