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Overdose.am doesn’t just report about art, music, fashion and food. We get involved too. Under the name Next Monday’s Hangover (named after our weekly night life guide) we host electronic music festivals. Here, we offer a platform for local music and art talents with whom we try to create a different world. Next up: Buiten Westen, NMH’s new summer festival. In the coming weeks we will interview all the creative parties that we will work with for the festival to give you a small preview what is to come.
Part 6: Rekorder – stage host
Rekorder has a history of 52 parties in the past 5 years. Right after his high school exams, Tom van Wijk decided to be responsible for the school’s final party. Something that would determine the rest of his professional carrier. The whole purpose of throwing these Rekorder events was to bring the house and techno scene together back in the day. Techno had a reputation of parties being held in dark basements, while house lived in the upper ground of the scene. Rekorder’s mission was to give techno a bit of more colour and sex appeal, and make it walk hand in hand with the house scene throughout the major cities of our country.
“Back then we were probably the only organization that actually toured through cities like Rotterdam, Utrecht, Amsterdam, the beach and even towards the infamous Cocoon Club in Frankfurt with our concept. Musically, our parties took you through the whole spectrum of quality house and techno. In the end, people just wanna have fun, we felt techno dance floors could use a bit more sex on the dance floor.”
Rekorder brought many top of the bill DJs and producers to the Netherlands such as Kollektiv Turmstrasse, UMEK, Gaiser, Marko Nastic, Nôze, Aril Brikha, Marc Houle, Andre Galluzzi, Petter, Fairmont and many others. Sticking to traditional dates every year like Queen’s night and Hemelvaart.
“We booked many international artists that had ‘momentum’ but never underestimated local talent, the ones who help you build up a community and complete the vibe of an event. Throughout the years we built up good relationships with artists like Wouter de Moor and Prunk.”
So what was the most memorable Rekorder get-together?
“There are a few moments that I can name, like one of the last editions at the Puma in Utrecht featuring Gaiser which was really cool. Also having Nôze play in Amsterdam was pretty memorable and our beach parties were always successful and packed. And finally, the Rekorder excursion to Cocoon Club in Frankfurt was one to remember.”
Moving forward – Plans for the summer
After a sabbatical of almost two years, Rekorder is back to take over the world, or at least Amsterdam for starters. They had the privilege to host a stage at last Queen’s Day’s Qday Festival which sold out. This Friday they’ll be hosting their first club edition of 2012 at AIR and the festival season also welcomes them back with a stage at Amsterdam’s hottest festival Buiten Westen.
“Like I said before, we always threw events around Queen’s Day and Hemelvaart. We’re doing our best to bring back the feeling of unity and love on the dance floor. That’s why we chose ‘You’ve got the love’ to be our anthem. Qday festival was all about house music with no borders, featuring none other than Max Cooper live, Alex Under and local heroes Juan Sanchez, Olene Kadar, Wouter de Moor & Prunk. This Friday will be more house and tech orientated with Kenny Larkin from the US and Matt Tolfrey from the UK, supported by our usual suspects. We’ll be playing a lot with next level visuals by Escapation as well.”
What about your stage at our festival Buiten Westen?
“You could say Rekorder’s stage will take you from melody to beat to funk and tech during this day. Especially if you want to go space out, our stage will provide with the proper dosis of melody and space. A place where you will want to go wild with your eyes closed, and get the old ecstasy feeling back, just like at that time when you did your first pill. Our ‘resident’ visual specialist Escapation will strengthen this effect. And of course the line-up is sick featuring names like Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Max Cooper, Einmusik, El Mundo & Satori, Wouter de Moor, Miss Melera, Prunk and Some Chemistry. Buying a ticket for this one is going to be totally worth it, I hope we get to inspire a lot of people to enjoy every second of it as a collective on the dance floor.”
Wanna join in and check out tomorrow’s club edition + limited NNICHI Rekorder T-shirt? Tell us who you’d like to share the love with and take out to Rekorder @ AIR by commenting below this post on Overdose.am’s Facebook wall. Winner announced on Friday in the afternoon.
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