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In about two weeks something special will be taking place in North Amsterdam. The knights of PLAK have claimed a new location to use as their theme park, for their very authentic and industrial ‘BetonCentrale‘. That’s right, the guys have put together a refreshing house and techno get-together called Festival de BetonCentrale on September 8th. There’s a crazy amount of festivals out there this year but if we at Overdose.am have to pick a few to go to we mainly look at two factors: the intimacy of the location and a forward thinking line-up. Well, De Betoncentrale ticks both boxes, and let me tell you why.
A true industrial location
First of all, we have to emphasize the uniqueness of this location. Never before has an event like this taken place besides the cranes and machines in North, on the sand, next to the water. This place has been asking for a festival to capture it for a long time. It even reminds us of one of our favourite German festivals. The funny thing is that it’s only 10 minutes away from the NDSM ferries. You can only imagine what this place will look like at night, when the lights hit the cranes and silos. We’ve been told to expect a different kind of raving atmosphere than you’re used to in this town.Line-up
The line-up is a reflection of house and techno in its purest form. It’s thought out well, in the sense that it will take you through a journey that starts with old school house and subtly moves towards raw and underground techno. If we had to introduce and plug every great artist on the line-up, we would end up writing a book instead of an article. Since no-one has the attention span for that, we decided to go for three big tips:THE LEGEND: GERD
Dutch producer Gerd is a special one, after 22 years of making of leftfield electronic music, he’s still as restless and relevant as ever. The man known as Gert-Jan Bijl has worked under myriad aliases, but Gerd is the one most revered, with releases on Clone, Compost, Ubiquity, EMI and Virgin, all combining experimental ideas that touch on everything from liquid ambience to abstract techno via the deepest forms of house. He is now working on his fourth album as Gerd, and still spinning each week at his Connected club night at Club Waas, Rotterdam and inviting guest likes Jazzanova to play alongside him whilst also continuing to reel in the support of techno titans like Âme, Carl Craig and Derrick May, it seems this most prolific and prodigious producer still has plenty left in his tank.
THE LOCAL HERO: SANDRIEN
Dutchwoman Sandrien has had a very real presence on the international techno scene for over a decade. Starting out simply as a vinyl collecting music lover, she soon progressed into the public realm, spinning her mostly deep, classic house and techno at clubs and festivals around Europe. Now a resident at lauded club Trouw, this lady has also played international hotspots like Berlin’s Berghain and Bar 25, as well as Awakenings, 5 Days Off Festival and Nachtdigital recently. In late 2010, Sandrien started her own club night Imprint. Since then, the heavyweight techno likes of Sandwell District, Surgeon and Marcel Fengler have all headlined, whilst in the same year she also released her own debut production on Dutch label Intacto. It was immediately picked up by peers like Richie Hawtin and Adam Beyer for its classy dancefloor aesthetics, and as such a follow-up is still in the works alongside other remix projects.
THE CO-HOSTS: NEW DUTCH SCHOOL & BLOEMENBAR
New Dutch School is an Arnhem based collective with a big heart for electronic music, visual experiments and the technology behind these two. Their sound is best to be described as a dark kind of house greatly inspired by a minimalistic type of techno. Always deep, often dark and with a never-ending groove to provide the necessary amount of sex on the dancefloor. They recently got to host their own stage at 8Bahn Festival, and they will be doing this again at de Betoncentrale with their residents Frank Haag, Jaime Frias, William Köster, Normano and Jesse Ten. Finally, expect a small stage hosted by the one and only Bloemenbar. This stage will be decorated as a mini-Bloemenbar filled with vintage props and bar keepers with and without talent behind the decks. Our expectation is this will be the festival’s big surprise hit.
Festival De Betoncentrale
When: Saturday September 8th, 12:00-23:00Where: Toetsenbordweg 61, Amsterdam
Tickets: €17.50
Website: www.plakk.nl
Line-up:Gerd, Sandrien, Alex Salvador, Ferro & Alex Supertramp, Schmutz, KlapSandwich, Frank Haag, Jaime Frias, William Köster, Normano, Jesse Ten & more.
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