The first day of Amsterdam Dance Event yesterday as an especially busy one. The Wednesday was added a few years back as a sort of “soft launch” day, but it seems that this year people are making the most out of the conference – some citing over 50 meetings over the week.
What did we learn? We heard about how huge dubstep and drum & bass are in India at the moment from a Bombay-based promoter and producer, and how dance music in general is exploding right now like it did in Eastern Europe a few years back. There’s a focus on India in some special panel discussions and networking events, which really shows how much confidence ADE have in the nascent scene out there.
The D25 Detroit techno talk was inspiring, with Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Kenny Larkin, Carl Craig, Monty Luke, Al Lester and Greg Gow talking about how they first became inspired by electronic music, and what they feel about Detroit in this day and age, with the hilarious May moderating. We found out about Saunderson’s shelved American Football career (figures seeing how huge the guy is) and how he once referred to himself as “Chocolate Sensation”, Kenny Larkin’s love of bacon and erstwhile stand-up comedy career, and about the pivotal moments in their formative careers.
"If it wasn’t for Juan's grandmother, I would have ended up dead or in jail” recalled May about the importance for him of moving to Belleville after he left home as a teenager. “I was basically a kid on the street. I wasn’t a criminal per se but…." Carl Craig remembered how "hearing 'Beatbox' by Art of Noise for the first time blew my mind”, while Juan Atkins cited getting instruments for his 10th birthday and Christmas as the turning point – along with hearing Detroit radio DJ legend playing one of his earliest productions when he was 16. "None of us would be up here if it wasn't for The Electrifying Mojo” someone recalled, underlining the importance of this eclectic broadcasting legend how held so much influence in the city in the early-to-mid ‘80s. Second wave star Kenny Larkin’s epiphany was later: "the moment I decided I wanted to do music was listening to Derrick on the radio while driving in my car with Richie Hawtin" – back when Richie was just “a nerd”, as Larkin jokingly recalls.
The socio-economic fate of Detroit was inevitably discussed, but not all these local legends still live there. "Would I go back and live in Detroit?” said Larkin, “No. I will never not love Detroit but I'm happy in LA”. Pullen meanwhile says it’s a matter of contrast: “I don't think I'd be able to live in Detroit if I didn't get to travel. It makes me enjoy coming back to it more" May was probed about his lack of production output since his early heydays, to which he sounded uncharacteristically guarded and overly-humble perhaps. “I’m the biggest procrastinator in the world. Why don't I make music? I think I peaked in those 2 years. If I could focus, then yeah I'd make a record.”
After being taken to a local pub for some deer and beers by an employee of EMI Holland (who tells us about the difficulty the label faces in making a success out of its credible releases), we head over to the D25 party at Melkweg. I hadn’t heard of Underground Resistance DJ stalwart Al Lester until this afternoon, and it’s a real shame as he really is an excellent DJ – whipping through chunky, groove-led house music via high-impact mixing and some rather charismatic dance moves. Youngun Kyle Hall steps up next and sticks to his rumoured style of excellent old house and garage flavours with poor mixing, while Greg Gow delights in the main room by dropping Julien Jabre’s sumptuous war. Stacey Pullen went big with Carl Craig’s huge At Les: a timely reminder as to what we’re all doing here and why the spirit of Detroit is so enduring.
A relatively early night in anticipation of more meetings, panels, cocktail hours and all-night partying….