As a city, Amsterdam is an almost overwhelming convergence of the old and the new, the familiar and the foreign. Pristine modern architecture and rustic brick buildings occupy virtually the same space amongst Amsterdam’s cobblestone streets, where a flurry of international pedestrians, scooters, bikers, and motorists somehow manage to shuffle their way through the city day in and day out. In this spirit, the 2011 Amsterdam Dance Event (also known simply as ADE) lineup is completely appropriate, even with its jaw-dropping numbers—boasting over 700 DJs and producers from around the world performing at over 200 events in well above 50 different venues. Truthfully, ADE is not a 100% XLR8R-friendly event, but even a smaller percentage of the aforementioned “700 DJs and producers” proved to be plenty to take in.

Day 1

Pangaea and Ben UFO

Despite there being a number of kick-off events and “official” ADE opening parties to get things in motion for the first night of the annual gathering (now in its 16th year), anyone hungry for forward-thinking bass was bound to find themselves circling around Melkweg for the Planet-E 20th Anniversary showcase. Boasting a lineup that was as strong as it was far-reaching, the three young lads behind the Hessle Audio imprint—Pangaea, Ben UFO, and Pearson Sound—started the night off strong with over two and a half hours of UK-leaning sounds. Armed with two laptops and some combination of turntables and CDJs (the stage was quite high off the ground, making it hard to see exactly what they were using), the trio of tastemakers pushed and pulled on each other’s styles, but never lost momentum. Ben UFO supplied the more dance-worthy/house-leaning tracks, Pangaea kept things dark and gritty, and Pearson Sound brought his noted penchant for maddeningly propulsive tracks that would push the audience over the edge from “dance party” into altogether “freak the fuck out” mode.

Meanwhile, in just the other room, Motor City Drum Ensemble was putting together a set of soulful offerings, beginning with some retro-tinged funk and disco tunes before eventually moving into deeper, Detroit-indebted territory. The German DJ/producer took his time moving from one track to another, mixing his selections with patience and control and making the transitions between tracks almost indistinguishable if you weren’t paying attention or found yourself lost in the warm sounds emanating from the speakers.

Motor City Drum Ensemble

Kyle Hall

Following MCDE on the very same decks was like-minded producer/DJ Kyle Hall, who unraveled a set of percussive, synth-heavy tunes, which were a little more forceful than what I’ve come to expect from the face of new Detroit. Perhaps because MCDE had set the tone, Hall quickly jumped into his heavy set of Midwest-approved house and techno, allowing the occasional piano riff and R&B-indebted vocal track to peak above the brooding mix, only to sink back into the heavy, undulating low-end below, which, of course, we couldn’t resist.

Fellow Detroit resident Kenny Larkin had just begun his live PA set when I made my way to Melkweg’s bigger dance hall. Sitting behind a laptop and a few choice pieces of equipment, Larkin proved he deserved the reputation that comes with his legendary status, presenting fresh interpretations of his productions (both new and old) to the delight of the completely packed dancefloor. In classic Detroit-veteran fashion, Larkin made excellent use of frequency control, coyly taking the bass out of tracks so that you didn’t notice how far it was gone until it came crashing back in, compelling the audience to dance even harder to keep up. And as a special treat for the younger folk in the crowd (of which there were a lot, myself included), Larkin reworked his seminal “You Are” tune, a track which I’m sure many of us had never heard before coming direct from the man who crafted it.

Kenny Larkin

Martin von Oswald, Carl Craig, and Francesco Tristano

Although the original bill in the ADE program featured only the name Carl Craig, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the likes of Moritz von Oswald and Francesco Tristano were to accompany the Planet-E boss on stage. Moritz von Oswald commanded the most space on stage, floating between a Moog Voyager on his left and a grand piano on his right (both of which ran through some spacey processors), while Craig and Tristano used a combination of laptops and hardware to sculpt their sonic contributions. The trio took the crowd through what seemed to be an entirely improvised set, going back and forth between meandering fields of abstraction and thumping, intelligent techno.

Caribou

I finished my night with a final DJ set by Canadian producer Dan Snaith (a.k.a. Caribou), and although I should have known not to worry, I wasn’t exactly sure how the multi-instrumentalist was going to be able to translate his penchant for dense—at times psychedelic—productions to the late-night club atmosphere. But after only a few minutes behind the decks, which Snaith used to filter and tweak through a manic edit of his own tune “Sun,” it was clear that the man was more than capable of cultivating the proper vibes for his time slot. While the room began to fill with a never-ending supply of fog, Snaith dropped edit after edit of his own material (from both Caribou’s and Daphne’s catalogs), and even managed to sneak in a few appropriate tracks, most notably bringing in Joy Oribson’s “Elipsis” from a wall of textured noise so that you weren’t quite sure what you were hearing until the first “We just used to like…”

Day 2

Rebolledo

Thursday night found me stretching my legs a bit more in an attempt to navigate through the many showcases ADE had in store, but I began again at Melkweg, this time upstairs in the beautifully designed Rabozaal Hall where the Kompakt showcase would be taking place all night. When I arrived, our most recent podcast contributor, Rebolledo, was warming up the crowd with a DJ set of slippery techno, with touches of funk, Latin rhythms, and brief moments of intriguing weirdness wedged between its steady kick drums.

Kompakt staple Matias Aguayo was next on the bill, and the native Chilean delivered an invigorating performance that found the producer/DJ utilizing a laptop, CDJs, and more gear to effortlessly build a collection of rhythmically irresistible beats. With microphone in hand and a beaming smile on his face, Aguayo directed and lured the crowd with a generous helping of his own voice, as he sang, shouted, and even whistled into the mic.

Matias Aguayo

LBS

I shuffled out of the showcase (with plans to return later on), and headed to the once-orante theater-turned-techno club Paradiso to catch French techno veteran Laurent Garnier‘s newest collaborative performance project, LBS. Joined by frequent collaborators Benjamin Rippert and Scan X, LBS moved the absolutely packed, two-story venue with elongated pieces of anthemic, improvised techno. The atmosphere was absolutely electric. It seemed that every time the trio pulled back the four-on-the-floor kick drum for the occasional moment of mounting anticipation, the droves of techno heads would explode with elation when the performers finally brought back the thumping, rolling techno in full force.

But as much as Garnier and company’s colossal set tried to keep me (not to mention the impossibility of making my way through a crowd that large), there was yet another Midwest legened in town for ADE who I had to see, Frankie Knuckles. The surroundings were much cozier than the Paradiso, with a dancefloor that could maybe hold 50 or 60 people (although my guess is there were considerably more than that), giving Knuckles’ set a focused, intimate feel. The Chicago native represented the homeland of proper house behind two CDJs, dropping some of the funkiest, feel-good tracks that I’ve heard at the festival so far, and the crowd reacted exactly as they should have—smiling, clapping along, and dancing their asses off.

Frankie Knuckles

John Tejada

I finally returned to the Kompakt showcase (after a failed attempt to see Maya Jane Coles, whose showcase had reached capacity long before my arrival—I think it’s safe to say it was probably great) just in time to catch the last half of a live PA performance from Los Angeles producer/DJ John Tejada. The recent Kompakt signee sculpted pieces of bouncing, melodic techno behind his chosen array of gear, from which no shortage of gliding bass, popping bells, and detailed micro-sounds kept the crowd moving.

Michael Mayer and Tobias Thomas

For the last endeavor of my night, I stuck around to see a back-to-back set between Kompakt label head Michael Mayer and long-time DJ/occasional producer Tobias Thomas. The pair’s all-vinyl set began with a bit of a slow start, with both DJs taking some time to gauge the audience and get comfortable behind the decks, but once they locked in, it was worth the wait. There’s a reason Mayer’s label has garnered such a solid reputation. The man (along with his co-label heads) has great taste, and his selections throughout the night only solidified this fact, as he and Thomas dropped track after track of lush, sophisticated techno, most of which I had never before heard. But what better place to have two of Cologne’s finest share the bounty of their musical explorations than a modern, European-designed performance space with a cold Heineken in hand?

Check back on Monday for Part 2 of our Amsterdam Dance Event wrap-up.

After a whole week of back-and-forth between Martyn and Modeselektor, the final chapter of their in-depth conversation has finally arrived. In previous installments (part one | part two | part three | part four) Martyn and Modeselektor’s Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian “Charlie” Szary talked about touring, their new albums, record shopping, their labels, production techniques, and more. Today’s segment finds them shifting gears and getting a little more philosophical, focusing on the changing state of electronic music and clubbing.

Martyn: I’m curious. How has the crowd changed for you over the years? With playing live and stuff? I was doing another interview, and they asked me the same question and I thought it was kind of interesting because I’ve been DJing quite a while, and I know you guys have been playing, and playing live as well, for a long time. Can you tell me how your crowd, and the way you’re playing, has changed over the past few years?

Gernot Bronsert: That’s a good question. I’m going to describe a typical Modeselektor weekend for you. Let’s say we have three gigs—Thursday, Friday, Saturday. The Thursday can be in London with Richie Hawtin, the Friday can be in Paris with DJ Feadz, and the Saturday can be in Portugal with Skream and Benga. I think the people who book us come from all kinds of musical camps, so we can play one day on the dubstep party, we can play another day on the minimal techno or techno party, or whatever. So I think the crowds haven’t changed much to us. We’re more like a band, you know? This is different, so we have a different expectation. For example, when you have a booking as a DJ and you’re booked on a party where some Detroit guys are playing, would you change your set compared to a booking together with some UK funky DJs? Or would you play your own stuff always?

M: I would play my own stuff.

GB: Always, or just since you started playing live?

M: Always. I think what the [interviewer] meant as well was that when I started DJing, it was around 1997 or something. He said that the crowds were more there for the party and the music, to be in that club. And that nowadays a lot of people come to the party, not to be in the club, but to show on Facebook that they are there. That a lot of the crowds are more interested in Tweeting, taking pictures, making videos, all this sort of stuff that’s not really about clubbing. That was his point.

GB: What do you think?

M: I think that if I look at places like Panorama Bar, at Panorama Bar you can’t take pictures, and I think this is very important for the vibe of the club, because people can more easily be themselves when they know they’re not going to end up on the internet the next day. So I do think that it really helps. The people that go to Panorama Bar, they go because the music is there and because they want to be there and they want to dance or hang out with their friends or get drunk, it’s not so much about being there.

GB: I totally understand, but I don’t think too much about it. There are clubs where you are not allowed to take pictures. I think it’s not just because there are all the kids filming for Facebok, it’s also about that you have a lot of people there who have a normal life. They party hard, and when some weird pictures of them partying and doing some stupid things end up on the internet, they can destroy a life. I think it’s just a security thing. It doesn’t have much to do with the vibe, because no one cares if someone is taking a picture with a cell phone or whatever.

What I realized is, during the last tour we were playing with Modeselektor in 2008-2009, people filmed just the peak-time things and put them on YouTube. And all the kids who came to see us for the first time, they started stage diving, even before we started playing. They saw this on YouTube and that was their impression about our live sets. I think this is maybe one of the things that is pretty weird, but [these things] are not annoying me. It’s more funny. You are more related to the club culture than us, we are more in between being a band and being a club act.

I like it private too, I like private parties the most. I really like ending up in private parties with some DJs playing really good music. I don’t need to be in the club anymore just to be in the club, to be seen by others, talk to others, or talk to new people, meet new people. When I go to clubs to see the DJ, I want to dance or whatever. I can understand this [interviewer], but he sounds like one of these angry guys who doesn’t want someone to destroy his spirit of techno, or whatever. I always look forward and not backwards. I think it’s important that times are changing and that the kids are spreading electronic music or the scene or the vibe in their way, with their techniques. I like that, I appreciate that, I’m open to everything.

M: I guess you’re right. It’s just a sign of the times. You can resist as much as you want, but it’s not going to help anything anyways.

GB: You know, Charlie and I were both born in Berlin and were raised here and we grew up with techno and saw big changes, how the whole thing changed. A lot of our friends just gave up, just went out of the game and said, “No, that’s not my techno anymore that I grew up with. I’ll do my own thing now.” We were never like this. We always look forward. I think it’s important to develop things and use the new opportunities.

M: I think if you look forward, at least you don’t get cranky about situations. You don’t become elitist. Like, “Oh man, way back everything was better, and now it’s all gone to shit,” and so on. You don’t want to get frustrated by the scene and about music, you just want to look forward and keep a positive attitude. I think you guys as well have a positive attitude towards new developments. It makes it more interesting, and every time you will look for your answer to whatever the developments are. You will find your own way to do a live show or collaborate with other people or do a label or do something new, every time.

GB: We get asked so often why we would start a label now, in these bad, bad times, but we don’t feel bitter, we are not filled with bitterness about the changes and everything [else]. I think it’s important to push things forward and show the young audience to respect music. Music needs respect. All the electronic musicians, they pay for their music with their own blood, they just cut a piece out of their heart and press it on vinyl, or press it into an MP3. [laughs] I think it’s important to show people, especially the young people, the amount of music, the quality, the value of music.

M: What about people that have labels that are vinyl only?

GB: They’re geeks. [laughs] But I like this. I’m a vinyl geek too. I still buy records, even if I don’t DJ with vinyl anymore. We don’t DJ that much anyways, we are a live band, but I like the medium. The 12″. The black disc. It’s amazing.

M: It’s strange. I buy a lot of vinyl still—I never play it, because I use Serato for everything—but the thing about vinyl is that it’s nice when you buy a record and you have something to listen to and something to look at. Like how it was in the old days when you would buy one of the gatefold sleeves and it would have the lyrics in there and you could just sing.

GB: Have you noticed that all the labels are taking more and more care to make nice packaging? It’s just to make it more flavorful and collectible for the people. I really like to buy LPs. When you listen to them, you can sit down and look at the cover.

M: The other thing is that you have labels that are vinyl only, and those people that are against CDs or MP3s and they never want to have anything to do with digital, you also have them coming up to me and saying, “You have a vinyl label, why do you play Serato?”

GB: [laughs] Yeah, why?

M: Because it’s easy and I have a lot of music and I have my laptop so I can travel instead of breaking my back with record cases.

GB: And you want to be quick through the airport.

M: Yes, quick through security with my Mileage Plus card.

Sebastian “Charlie” Szary: That’s the same thing we did with our DJ set in the last year. We use Traktor, but not Traktor with the timecode vinyl, we use it with the S4. We use the MIDI out to plug in a 909 or another drum machine.

GB: I was DJing and Charlie was using drum machines, 909 and 303, just to have more fun, you know. That’s impossible to do with just vinyl. We are not Jeff Mills, you know. But we felt like Jeff Mills!

M: It’s just a bit silly. Even if I use a laptop, I just don’t understand why people think you have to use vinyl if you have a vinyl label. I think someone once told me that if you compare it to a grocery store, that if I had a product that I would want a lot of people to [buy], then I would just sell it at a grocery store, I wouldn’t sell it at the small, tiny little store next door. That’s the same with vinyl and using other mediums like MP3s. If you want people to listen to your music, then you just make sure to bring it to them, you make it available for them. I think, nowadays especially, there are people that just buy vinyl, but there are just as many people that just want the music on their iPod or something. They will not get the nice sleeve and they will not get the feeling of the black vinyl, but if they don’t care about that, if they just want to listen on their iPod and go to the gym, that’s okay too.

All five chapters of B2B: Martyn and Modeselektorcan be found here.