Amsterdam Dance Event 2018 5-Day Diary

October 10, 2019 Off By Editor

Victoria Ball

ADE18 5-Day Diary

So it’s that time of year again and I couldn’t be happier going to my favourite place and week of the year for Iconic Underground. Oh Yes! Amsterdam Dance Event 2018. A week filled with some of the best techno, tech house & house music, awesome events, bars, restaurants, coffee shops and the best bit, the people!!!

Wednesday 17th Oct – Day 1

Flying in with techno warlord Craig Regan (Phutek), this year we’re staying in the DJ Lounge apartment (totally insane) thanks to Dean Vincent, owner of Future Past Clothing: amazing clothing inspired mainly by the dance music culture, so be prepare to be noticed, Superb T-shirts worn by Carl Cox, DJ Pierre and Danny Rampling.

Meeting up with Eric Vonke (Erich von K), the beautiful Yvonne Ubbink from Amsterdam and close friends for an evening meal in the heart of the square and my first time meeting Shahar Melamed (Indepth) from Tel Aviv, Israel who was so much fun and great company; he played some awesome techno too over the following days. A solid producer, one to look up to for sure if the name is new to you. Plus, super excited to meet up with friends Allie & Matthew Lois flying all the way from Miami. My evening ended with a crazy story about me, a toilet and sending an SOS phone and location message?? to my emergency contacts and even the police, by accident of course, and freaking the hell out of a ‘home alone’ hubby and my closest friends in Amsterdam, UK and even Australia! And so my journey begins with a typical ADE start…oops

Thursday 18th Oct – Day 2

So starting the day off firstly with a good healthy breakfast followed by rum and some banging techno at ADE 2018 | M!SF!T/Dynamo Recordings Showcase at Bar Lunar… God how I love ADE. This event was rocking and such a fun crowd. I got to hear roaring bass lines from Lolla Tek, Ronan Teague and a superb b2b from Rodrick & Erich von K who both looked like they were enjoying it as much as the crowd. Also playing, with his hands in the air, one of the people behind this event Stephen Garrett (Fractious) we met last year at ADE and I loved his event then – the vibe of people there and music, so was really pleased to get him for an interview this year…

Victoria Ball: Hi Stephen, so nice to finally chat, please tell our readers who you are and a bit about yourself?

Stephen Garrett: I am a techno producer from Belfast under name Fractious. I have released on labels such as KD RAW, Tronic, KMS Records, Matter, Transmit Recordings, Waveform, Trapez, Gem Records to name a few and when making the productions, I always like to focus on the groove as I feel this is very important to get the dance floors moving!! I’ve been blessed to have been remixed by people like Mr C, Secret Cinema, Luigi Madonna, Frankyeffe, Steve Mulder, Richie Santana, Petter B, Mars Bill, Peter Bailey and Danilo Vigorito. I co-own the labels Dynamo Recordings and M!SF!T so you can also find my music regularly on these!

VB: So I’ve loved your event ADE 2018 | M!SF!T/Dynamo Recordings Showcase which was banging and a great line-up… tell us more about this event, the DJ’s and why do you put these events on for ADE?

SG: We were very pleased to have an official ADE 2018 showcase day party this year at the 50Hertz Techno Cafe, Bar Lunar with artists Asio (aka R-Play), Lolla Tek, Noaria, Rodrick, Erich Von K, Ronan Teague, Tina V, Victor Von Weef and me all playing 1 hour long sets. For me, ADE is one of the most important weeks of the year in this industry and perfect for showcasing the talent we have on our labels. With so many artists, label heads and ravers in Amsterdam this week, I think it would be rude not too!! lol Big respect to the 50Hertz guys for making it happen and a pleasure to work them!! All artists playing have previously released on Dynamo and now will also be joining the M!SF!T family with a really nice release scheduled from all the guys playing over the following months so look out for these coming your way!!

VB: You’re Co-Owner at Dynamo Recordings, which is doing so well, and you’re a part of MiSFit? Can you tell us more?

SG: Yes, I co-own Dynamo Recordings with Ronan Teague and also the London based label M!SF!T with Victor Von Weef and Paul Butler. Both labels are going great!! M!SF!T is my newest venture and even though it is relatively young, it is getting some solid support from big hitters and the guys are making big waves in London with their MiSFiT parties. I would regularly play for them and recently we were part of the successful Next Step Forward Festival back in September curated by Mr.C which was an honour to be part of and play alongside UK legends such as Danny Rampling, Colin Dale, Mr C, Evil Eddie Richards, Bushwacka and many more!!

VB: So one of my favourite moments at this ADE was seeing your beaming smile and punching arms at Gashouder Awakenings on the dance floor about 5 am lol … I love ADE just for the fact you do dance and in front of the speakers for a change and also end up dancing with DJ’s, producers who usually you only see on the decks, so a rare moment nowadays? What’s your thoughts and feelings of ADE? How special is this place for you?

SG: lol, oh what a night that was Victoria!!! Drumcode at Gashouder always rocks, that club is amazing!! I am a raver at heart so events like that cannot be missed from the front of the speakers too!! Lol, I love ADE, for me, it would feel strange not going now!! Lol this would be my 5th year and I can safely say I will be back next year!! Every year I meet new friends in the industry and I look forward to seeing them again the following year. I have got to meet a lot of people I work with online via e-mail/chat and when you put a face to a name, I think this definitely helps build this connection. The first year I must admit I was a little star struck with having the opportunity to rub shoulders with a lot of the big names but now it’s just like chatting to friends, there is something special about that!!! I am usually blessed with some backstage passes for the big events so this is a very good opportunity to meet so many respected people in the industry. It’s such a special week for networking and making new connections. Also, there are so many amazing parties, so always nice to squeeze in a rave or 2 during the weeks’ madness!! 🙂

VB: So you’ve had a great year, with 2019 approaching what can we expect?

SG: Next Step Forward festival in London this year was one of my favourite gigs so really looking to the 2019 edition which is planned to be much bigger!! I also was chatting at ADE with a few promoters who booked me in the past for Norway (Kinetics) and Paris (Unplug Party) so hopefully will get a trip back to these places! The M!SF!T guys will have a few things planned in London and its always a pleasure playing for them!! Once I get home I will be straight into the studio to harness my inspiration from this week and cook up some techno weapons!! After a nice meeting with Ramon Tapia this year he has asked me to send tracks for his label Say What? Records so that will be my first goal of 2019!!

Coming soon from Fractious…

Fractious – Surreal Life (inc. Tom Laws & Patrik Berg Remixes) [TRAPEZ]

Fractious – Movement EP [KD RAW]

Fractious – Violent Suspense [WAVEFORM]

For more details follow: https://www.facebook.com/fractiousmusic/

Next… I was lucky enough to be invited on a boat trip by Henry Cullen (D.a.v.e the Drummer) and his awesome wife Justine Cullen (JustineCullen.com) with Ant Wilson (Chicago Loop), Craig Regan (Phutek) and if you’ve been living under a rock and love your techno, you need to google those names right now! Also on board Alli & Matt Lois, new found friend Maxi Hager and the winner for the best personality of ADE18 our ‘Captain’ Robert! (Instagram @sloepinamsterdam) Again, one of those true to form ADE moments, not planned almost wetting myself from laughter with amazing personalities, music, canals, views and even some giraffes & zebra’s (true story): and people ask me why you love it so much here? For moments like these and meeting new people, within one beautiful boat ride down the canals to music and drink, I came back feeling I was with family…

So from sunny skies into the dark, lasers and lights of club John Doe for Minitech Recordings Presents ADE 2018 and what an energy change, the techno was insane in here and took you straight onto the dance floor with no problem leaving the outside behind. This was pumping, deep, dark, electric and just plain banging!!! Techno & Tech-house to name a few Agent Orange DJ, Becka, Ricardo Weber, StoKed, Mark Mywords just some of the amazing talent blasting pure techno energy into an excited crowd and the man behind this great event, Faroukh Hasham (Minitech Project) played a pumping set himself, and at many other events over ADE this year. As I attended one of his events and chat panels only last week at London Music Conference, it was time to grab this guy for an interview and spill the beans more…

Victoria Ball: Please tell our readers who you are and a little bit about yourself?

Faroukh Hasham: My name is Faroukh and I have been a professional DJ since the late 90s in various styles of music. With an extremely international background, I happily call Amsterdam my home since 2007. I have been releasing as Minitech Project since 2010 and had my tracks played by the likes of Richie Hawtin, Joseph Capriati, Karotte, and at iconic venues such as Awakenings festival, Time Warp, and Fabric. I have held residencies in Amsterdam since 2012 with some great venues and organisations including Melkweg and Sugar Factory, as well as over 50 monthly performances for Techno Tuesday Amsterdam and was awarded Amsterdam’s coveted Golden Gnome (Gouden Kabouter) award for favourite DJ in 2017. I’m now busy with my own imprint Minitech Recordings which I launched in May 2017.

VB: So today I attended your event Minitech Recordings Presents ADE 2018, and what an event my darling, some outrageous techno coming out and as usual with your events, an awesome vibe in there… tell us more about this event, your DJ’s and how important are these events at ADE?

FH: The event actually left me speechless having so much talent and fun people from around the world in the room and all the mutual respect and appreciation for each other. Along with a top-notch lineup of artists performing to celebrate our ADE compilation release, I also had a “meet and greet” artists in attendance along with some of my regular fans from Amsterdam and several of our artist friends from around the world in attendance. It basically kind of ended up like a party I would want to have at home but just wouldn’t fit my apartment lol. My DJs are mainly great talents that I also know personally and so I’m happy to get them all together and know each other as well as they will most likely get along and even have quite a few friends in common already in the scene. Of course, ADE is a very important place to have presence and a very good networking opportunity that only comes once a year, and after hosting events for the past couple of years, and also attending and performing at ADE annually since 2008 I guess I’m managing to successfully put my own take on the experience as well as do what I can for people I believe in. I’m also super proud to have so many established AND rising stars happy to support and be a part of my vision.

VB: So, I have already asked this to Stephen Garrett as one of my favourite moments at this ADE was seeing his beaming smile and punching arms at Gashouder Awakenings on the dance floor but he was not alone and I do very much remember dancing with you too lol … my point is you never usually do this, all dance together in front of the decks and not behind them, and I feel this is one of those special ADE moments… What are your thoughts and feelings of ADE? How special is this place for you?

FH: ADE is really special in creating these moments. As artists, we usually tend to collaborate all year round, remix each other’s work, release on each other’s labels, support, play, and enjoy each other’s tracks and encourage and follow each other’s progression and social media even though we are physically scattered across the globe and rarely get to actually cross paths due to our individually hectic lives. Even with society getting so virtual, there is still nothing quite like real interaction, giving someone a hug and fist bump while making some eye contact especially knowing how much of ourselves we all put into music. Also, before anything else took off we all probably started off more or less the same, people losing it on a dance floor somewhere and it’s lovely to revisit the simplicity of freaking on the dance floor with your friends and ADE gives us all a reason to gather in the same place. Awakenings at Gashouder is also my favourite techno venue which I’m sure a lot of artists share this opinion.

VB: I also got to hang out with you last week at the first London Music Conference the weekend before ADE. Personally, I thought it was a great start and again, enjoyed your events. Please tell our readers a bit more about this and do you think this is going to be the new warm-up to ADE?

FG: I think London Music Conference is a great initiative, therefore, I was also more than keen to get involved with a Panel and a showcase of my own. Even though in my opinion I thought it was put together a bit late for a lot of people to properly schedule it in their plans, I’m still happy the organisation went ahead regardless. I found that it definitely succeeded in giving the London scene a seemingly much-needed sense of community and if handled well, this should extend outward incorporating the rest of the UK more and then further out internationally becoming a proper ADE warm up. I was also pleased with the outcome of my panel and event as we managed to bring a great crew together which I was also happy to have you a part of!

VB: So this year has been a big birthday for you? Tell me more about your amazing year, what has happened? You do seem to have a great gift bringing like-minded people together with superb techno?

FG: Every year has been getting progressively more amazing year after year. In fact I had the most awesome birthday ever this past year in February which started with an amazing weekend closing my tour in India at the mega VH1 Supersonic festival where I played the massive Awakenings stage for the first time on the same day as Joseph Capriati and Enrico Sangiuliano, then I also got to play closing set at the official Awakenings after party and spend 2 days at the festival with so many friends, and flew back to continue the celebrations playing a 5 hour set with my crew and supporters at our label night back home later that week in Amsterdam! Some other highlights from the year included hosting my first label showcases internationally in Goa at Chronicle, in Malta at the iconic club Clique, in London at LMC, and also back home in Amsterdam in the legendary Paradiso where we celebrated the label’s first birthday. LMC and ADE were both also magic so it has been quite the year!

VB: What can we expect from yourself in 2019…? Any dates yet?

FG: I really want to prioritise some more studio time in 2019 as I really miss it so hopefully you can expect a few more releases. Also, some very interesting events in the pipeline that I cannot disclose yet so make sure to follow my feed in Instagram and Facebook for both Minitech Project and Minitech Recordings to stay in the loop 🙂

For more information www.minitechrecordings.com

Photos credit: Salomao Nunes – sa.lomaonun.es photography

What day is it? Wow still only Thursday, I only got here yesterday? Another sure sign of ADE and still one more to go today/night? Awakenings x Adam Beyer presents Drumcode ADE (SOLD OUT) at the iconic Gashouder. I do rave on about this place every year, but it still impresses me and I do love the vibe in here, the visual effect are on point. Getting there for midnight, I got to dance to Enrico Sangiuliano, Adam Beyer, Dubfire B2B Nicole Moudaber and Amelie Lens brought MORNING!!! I can totally understand the excitement around her at the moment, she woke up the room at 6 am sharp with her instant banging techno with force and solid energy. A pinch-me moment, meeting Danny Rampling for the first time and us both Stomping! to Amelie Lens but at 7am, as much as that totally ‘rocked’ my world not one of the best ‘looking’ moments I feel, meeting one of your heroes with 7 hrs of stomping sweat over yourself lol…but a total pleasure.

For all Awakenings events: www.awakenings.com

Friday 19th Oct – Day 3

Today was always going to be about this event, FR Showcase – Meet & Greet ADE 2018 50:Hertz Techno Cafe at Bar Lunar. Midday until 10 pm of great, familiar faces coming in and out all day, superb vibes with big smiles everywhere and one top line-up of techno DJs. Just some of the talent playing and I got to hear Erich von K. B2B Bas Albers, In-depth, Aurelio Mendoza, Jon Connor, George Makrakis and closing with Phutek. Pumping underground, above ground, insane ground techno for an impressive fun-loving crowd. Some amazing new releases and promos were played, I always feel at ADE at these more friendly small locations, the DJ’s always give you more of a personal touch to their music and style and almost make you feel they playing just for you. Keeping to the personal touch, this event organised by Record Label owners, Craig Regan (Phutek), Erich Vonke, George Makrakis & Jon Connor added a special touch to their event. Advertised on all FR Showcase promotions was this message, ‘‘Demos can be brought on a USB and have a chance to be released on one of the labels: ‘Liquify, Bubblejam, LAYER 909 and Distortus Music’ and I watched many DJs/Producers finally feeling more comfortable handing over a USB. Nice touch! And what it’s all about, I feel, and what ADE is especially about.

So from a techno frenzy to now something completely different and a personal favourite of mine some soul, funk, disco and house! iCulture presents iDisco ADE Hangout at the Victoria Hotel. Scott Diaz, Richard Earnshaw played and I especially loved Flambé Boumier set. I not only got to dance disco snake-hips in a beautiful deco room, full of fun and uplifting smiling faces but thanks to Habs Akram (Hab2ci & DJVJ) I met the true house legend of them all Lenny Fontana, also playing and dancing. Lenny Fontana was a true pleasure to meet with an infectious smile, really interesting to listen too, and then he introduced me to the amazing Christine Wiltshire (more to come). So was more than honoured when he agreed to do an interview for Iconic underground. Check out the Full interview on page 68

Saturday 20th Oct – Day 4

The sun is out, shades are on, and walking the streets to ADE 2018 InDeep’n ‘Dance Records Release Showcase at InDeep’n’ Dance Records shop. This record shop is just too cool for words, quirky decoration with a badass mini club at the back, and quality T-shirt printing service. I highly recommend a visit. Owned by Linda & Dejan (Dexon) Milojkovic the strong duo behind Kraft Amsterdam events & the famous Techno Tuesday Amsterdam and warm-up to ADE. Techno Tuesday Amsterdam has been building an amazing reputation now for bringing top line-ups every Tuesday held at Melkweg with great local & worldwide techno DJ’s to a hard-core following of techno base fans. Playing today was an amazing lineup of DJs from Rick Dyno, ANNA V, Dexon, Richard Cleber, Sisko Electrofanatik, Spektre, D-Unity, Drumcomplex, Tomy DeClerque & Alexander Madness the list goes on and on, and these guys put on gigs every day in their shop throughout ADE including Todd Terry popping in and playing. Linda & Dejan (Dexon) Milojkovic are an amazing, hard-working duo and a pleasure to meet but start on a Tuesday remember so make sure you look them up for next year, they have all the levels of music for everyone and a T-shirt to match. Today I was there to see Phutek bringing the technofire before he flew home, but again saw so many familiar faces. This place is such a networking heaven, with DJ’s, producers, promoters all popping in at some point, chatting and dancing great friendly vibe all day and night… Looking forward to visiting a Techno Tuesday in 2019. For more information on InDeep’n’Dance Records www.indeepndance.net

Photos: InDeep’n’Dance Records

Thanks to Greg Stadwijk (Goodlife) & Guillermo Fijnproevers (EightiesVision), I started Saturday night at JILLA x ADE \Club ABE Takeover at ABE club & lounge. What an explosive night of raw talent being blasted out across the dance floor from hip-hop soul to tech house, with some pretty awesome dancing and shapes being thrown back from a friendly and up for it crowd. I loved it here and a well set-out and respectful club. With V.I.O, Rayzir, Menesix, Shahrooz & Pinto again just some of the DJs playing, I added them to my list to check out more once home. One of my favourite things you bring home with you from ADE are new DJs to follow and more music to be found, heard and felt and so much talent in here tonight. So before I left I had to meet Eve Konings and Bas Vos who host JILLA together and grabbed Eve Konings for a quick update on JILLA.

Victoria Ball: So Eve tells me and the readers more about JILLA as I’m loving it here…

Eve Konings: Thank you so much Victoria, JILLA is an Amsterdam based Tech house concept with influences and vocals from the oldskool house and urban decades. This combination gives us that funky and soulful sound that makes us so refreshing. We invite the best of our Dutch local talent and a selection of international artists to convey that JILLA sound and bring it to the people. Also (street) art and fashion are in our interest to create an experience. We love to combine forces because we believe that by working together as a collective we can create so much more.

VB: I love that approach and how do you bring them together then?

EK: We organise pop-up shops, showcases and label launches during our event. Next, to that, we have had a live tattoo artist and last edition we had live artists painting. We like to think out of the box because we believe that art comes in many different ways and we would like to give a stage to new talent and grow as a creative hub. Same goes for our pick of DJ’s as we prefer to give young, enthusiastic and upcoming DJ’s an opportunity to grow.

VB: This sounds so awesome Eve, and so good to hear events giving younger DJ’s a chance, I’ve written down about 5 names from tonight to google, which is awesome. So where do people find you?

EK: If we are not at our home base in De Bajes we are hosting our JILLA event at different venues like club Abe and AIR in Amsterdam and we are very open to working with different parties. Merging two parties together can be very successful and we are eager to do that in Amsterdam but also in other cities. Looking at the future we aim to host multiple outdoor events or even host a small festival ourselves in cooperation with another concept. Whether you’ve just discovered the Amsterdam Tech house scene or you’ve immersed yourself in this wonderful culture for years, JILLA is the place to be!

It most certainly is, more on JILLA: https://www.facebook.com/jilla.amsterdam/

Being very warmed up now, thanks to JILLA, I ventured onto Awakenings x Joseph Capriati invites (SOLD OUT) at Gashouder. Where I got to see the wonderful Bradley Gunn Raver dancing his stuff #lovelifeandrave he really is such a true inspiration and always a pleasure to see. We arrived late due to JILLA being so good but was there for Laurent Garnier who dropped some serious bombs and Joseph Capriati closing, which was a lot harder techno then his usual style. I’m not saying it was bad, as I power-punched the air with bass-face, but unexpected, but to be honest he nailed the closing just like Amelia Lens did Thursday.

Sunday 21st Oct – Day 5

With very little sleep with Awakenings ending at 8am, getting ready for another large-scale Sunday event was challenging. However, when I walked into elrow goes to ADE – extra Sunday edition held at De Kromhouthal, all thoughts of tiredness went out the window! As “WOW!” was my first thought as I heard powerful chunky, funky tech house basslines filling a room full of ‘Chinese Row Year’ Decorations and an off the chart production being held. I was there to hear FISHER, Patrick Topping and De la Swing B2B wAFF and was not disappointed in any music fashion: these guys took us all on a powerful bassline journey and I danced until my feet just couldn’t go another step. The whole set-up was so impressive and with a really happy vibe crowd. With golden confetti cannons going off, 2 huge scale dancing puppets, Chinese dancing dragons and so many superb outfits, dancers and characters all on this amazing ‘Chinese Row Year’ experience. It was my first visit to an Elrow event at ADE and couldn’t help but think why!? This event ended up being one of my highlights of the whole week and highly recommend a look up next year, I know I will.

More details for Elrow: www.elrow.es Photo Credits: Elrow

Monday 22nd Oct – It’s been emotional

This is the day I love my friends over here as thanks to Peter Swaalep & wife Monique. I woke up after 6hrs my longest sleep to date and they helped me get on my plane. Anyone who has done ADE understands missing flights is very common at this time of year with amusing Facebook posts from many stranded DJ’s and Ravers throughout the week.

Sitting now on my plane (phew), I sat grinning, thinking over my splendid week. I had covered more sightseeing of Amsterdam this year and what a stunning place it is, the boat trips on the canal were very special and totally worth a go and keeping up with the famous culture here. So were the visits to the Coffee shops, and a highly recommend half a brownie and a coffee with friends for a giggle session which doesn’t stop. Popping into the red light area for a naughty nose as never seen anything like it before, and sure I won’t again lol. However every time it’s the people for me here, all joined with the connection of music, it just doesn’t get any better this week for me anywhere. Plus the fact almost all of the Goodness Crew came over this year! From Miami, UK & Amsterdam my very dear, special friends and international ravers, thank you guys for all your love and support on these days. Until ADE19… as I can never see me not going back… ever!