ADE 2024 – Decoded Magazine Top 10

Amsterdam Dance Event is now in its 29th edition and once again reaffirmed its position as the world’s premier dance music event and business conference for the global electronic music industry. Over 500,000 were in attendance including artists and industry professionals from every corner of the globe. 

From October 16-20, Amsterdam pulsed with energy, encompassing over a thousand events with more than 3,000 artists, producers and DJ’s performing. ADE transformed the city into a vibrant epicenter for creative exchange, industry insights, insider knowledge and immersive performances with hundreds more cultural and conference events alongside live music.

Here’s the lowdown on our top ten highlights and experiences from this year’s ADE:

Ron Trent Interview – Rush Hour Records

This was one of those ADE special moments with only around sixty people crammed in the basement of venerable record shop institution Rush Hour Records for a talk and listening session with the the legendary Ron Trent. Considered to be one of the architects of the Chicago dance music scene, he has remained an enduring influence ever since. Ron talked through so many brilliant and insightful moments and perspectives, which included how great artists should seek to achieve true Mastery of their tools – know your tools, your mixer, know your soundsystem inside and out was Trent’s mantra.

He described the mixer being an instrument and a way for him to embue his feelings and emotions into the ‘live DJ mix’ and the way that the music he plays, uses the soundsytem as a vehicle to create a new language with the music, only achieved through an intimate understanding. The need to learn and understand the tools we use in order to get creative with them is a very apt point in todays AI revolution; and from the very man who saw the birth of acid house originate by pushing a poorly regarded musician’s accompaniment bass machine called a 303 by Roland well beyond its natural purpose and function to produce screaming acid riffs.

Audio Obscura x Innervisions – Raw Factory x The Loft

Audio Obscura throw some of the best parties during the course of ADE and their collaborations with Innervisions are always iconic. This year saw a 24-hour takeover that was simply unlike any other event that week. Featuring label bosses Âme and Dixon, this marathon event started at the massive Raw Factory with a dream lineup including AME & Dixon, AME Live, DJ Boring, Jimi Jules, Modeselekor, Sama’ Abdulhadi, Trikk, Fjaak,Gerd Janson and many more. I mean that in itself should be enough to tell you the gravitas of just how epic this was, offering an immersive soundscapes that kept attendees swelling at capacity and dancing all day and night for over 24 hours.

The Loft was the scene for what came next. This is such a spectacular setting for delivering the most epic parties and a firm favourite, towering high above the backdrop of the city with backdrop of wall to ceiling glass. It is basically the penthouse on the 16th floor of the monumental A’DAM Tower so when the next leg kicked off after the Saturday night at 7AM its fair to say this went stratospheric with AME, Dixon Jimi Jules and Chloe Caillet delivering the goods. Simply a breath-taking, stunning close through the early morning and easing you into the Sunday afternoon!

Sasha b2b Patrice Baumel – Het Sierrad

This event is fast becoming become an absolute must-attend at ADE with the most special pairing of two musical craftsmen at the top of their game performing in another of our fave venues at ADE; Het Sierrad. Set Against a monumental backdrop of endless brick walls, pillars that seem to end in outer space, a glass roof and humongous stained glass windows, nights at Het Sieraad are capable of producing instant epic memories. If we had one niggle it would be that in the past it has suffered slightly from sound issues with such an impressive and unique towering space but that seemed well under control with all new insulation and soundproofing installed this year for next level sonics. And this certaibly didnt disappoint with these two powerhouse DJs seemingly in total sync and even dropping classic bombs like The Sky Was Pink and Leftfield’s genre-bending Song of Life through to fresh future anthems like Jamie XX ‘All You Children’ and of course so many brilliant, fresh new Track ID’s, soundscapes, and most of all delivering a hell of a journey. Stunning, and all wrapped up by 9pm too!

Hernan Cattaneo b2b Nick Warren – Westerunie

This has become one of the flagship events at ADE for the massive progressive and melodic house crowds as these two titans of the scene craft an epic journey for a huge crowd of over 2,000+ joyous, happy revellers. Westerunie is a large scale industrial club in the heart of Westergas and a landmark venue in the Amsterdam clubbing scene for nearly 20 years. Hernan and Nick certainly brought the magic with an electrifying set that locked in a real flow state and camaraderie between them behind the decks. They just made it looks so easy having fun, interacting with the crowds and at all time being locked into the energy; interweaving so much fantastic new music I barely recognised a track. Simply Amazing – never fails to blow me away!

Jon Hopkins ‘Rituals Immersive Experience’ – The Other Side

Jon Hopkins can deliver a totally different experience being so multi-faceted whether leaning into classically trained roots, being a rugged techno DJ, acting as a super producer to the stars like Coldplay or crafting deep, ambient, psychedelic records. Here he seemingly brought that knowledge together to produce something totally different that I’ve ever experienced. I was slightly skeptical with the ambitions here of breaking down ones ego to its core, connecting with primal feelings and rebuilding you back again. However this listening experience really grabs you and takes you on a mental and emotional journey all supported by the way the soundscape works on a fully immersive 22.1 surround sound system. It shakes you hard to your core, makes you feel warm and fuzzy, trip out, disorientates, deconstructs and then leaves you feeling whole again. It was basically a playback session and talk for Jon’s latest album produced with 7Rays ‘Rituals’ and was life-affirming for the lucky few who experienced it as I spoke to a number of people after having had similar experiences.

We went into this new nightclub space removed our shoes and laid out on the floor which was new to me. The album had been mixed in fully immersive 22.1 glory and ow presented on one of the best systems I’ve ever heard in a club space by L’Acoustics using their L’Isa system. It was out of this world on this system in a new space (the Other Side only opened a few years back) – cathartic and life-affirming are the only superlatives to describe this which I know sound strong but its one of those where you have to be there; I’ve even struggled explaining this to even close friends in the industry but isn’t that true of the best experiences in life?  

Seladoria – Loods12

Loods12 was a new venue for us this year but was a truly fantastic end of the week ADE event. We are very familiar with Selador nights which are some of the best in the House and Techno scene. However this year felt different. It was hosted in a warehouse which offered boho-chic aesthetic and setting and madly interesting decor including airplane toilet cabins (yes – real, actual ones), six foot padlock birthday cakes and more – super quirky and with the feel of an old skool sweaty warehouse rave up but in a more intimate space. Casa Productions party ringleader cris-H was co-promoting and kicked off the show.

We arrived to witness Dannny Howells warming up the crowd and building into a frenzy for Anthony Pappa to take the reigns and deliver a stunning progressive house tinged trip up to the main maestro and Selador boss Dave Seaman; who delivered a deadly closing set of house and techno bangers which tore the roof off. Too many highlights to mention from this one and a lot of familiar faces were in attendance but included Dave’s new single Two By Two which is a recent Decoded fave and a few unreleased track IDs Dave’s been busy road-testing. This really was the coming together of three of the best to ever do it. Hardworking unrelenting DJ’s working seamlessly together locked into a unified groove. The crowd, atmosphere and energy of the room were fantastic; impressive to see them at the top of their game after so many years of success and relentlessly touring the world.  

ADE Lab

Amazing to get hands on with all the latest gear from pioneers in the tech software and hardware space like Novation, Ableton, Arturia, Native Instruments, Allen & Heath alongside new players like Modular Synths were we even bumped into Kerri Chandler road-testing this exciting new concept, through to the passionate DJ Studio team who seem to be garnering a lot of interest showing off their DAW for DJ’s . All in a cosy space decked out like a bachelors living room. Exciting to get hands on with gear like the new Adam A3 close range monitoring speakers, new Ableton Push Controller ‘Move’ and brand new Synths and software from the music making masters Arturia.

Afterlife & Tomorrowland – Ziggo Dome

Afterlife & Tomorrowland are two titanic brands at the top of their game, so to see them combine and come together for two spectacular nights during Amsterdam Dance Event was a must-see. We opted for the opening night with Tale of Us, Chris Avantgarde B2B Massano, Colyn and recent signee SCRIPT rounding out the night at Ziggo Dome. This was an essential highlight of this year’s ADE at a cavernous venue which was transformed into a real audio-visual extravaganza including Anyma’s mind-blowing Genesys visuals which are quite frankly head and shoulders above most others. Afterlife is always an incredible spectacle on the cutting edge of visuals and electronic audio trends with Tale of Us and Anyma and this did not disappoint!

The Bonanza ADE Mixer – Hotel De L’Europe

This was a serious line up of heavyweights from the industry throwing one hell of a mixer which included Media Nanny, The Brand Father, Circulate, Entourage, Spike Management and Audio Obscura, in partnership with Audemars Piguet and Armani Exchange. And boy did they host a kick-ass party at this rather luxurious hotel setting in a beautiful intimate function room with stunning backdrops of canals and winding historic streets and buildings. We walked into the room to experience Seth Troxler in full effect – the ultimate party starter, he was dropping bombs left right and centre getting the party moving in every direction with everyone locked to the same good groove.

Next rising super star of the moment Mochakk took to the decks and we were excited to see him as hadn’t witnessed a live DJ set yet. He certainly didn’t disappoint and went charging through so many bangers from Latino-tinged tech to booty shaking house – he certainly knew his music and was up for a party jumping, moving and snaking around behind the decks cooking up a frenzy without ever stopping for breath. We missed our next event this was so good and stayed on to catch NOYA close with a more hypnotic trance leaning set. It was certainly an unforgettable party and so much fun in a stunning intimate space with a beautiful backdrop. We also found out about and caught Seth’s book launch the next day which is now firmly on the reading list too.

straf_werk presents Folamour – De Kromhouthal

This event goes way beyond exciting taking over a large warehouse space and turning it into a real communal happy place which is no easy fete at such a large scale, transient event as ADE. Folamour was clearly ready and fully prepped for this one and it felt very personal and emotional for him this year; visibly seeing him break tears of joy and happiness through key moments of a faultless eight hour set. Apparently, pretty much everyone was there from open to close for what is clearly becoming another regular annual congregation and mass at ADE. Building a magical feeling of all being together, dancing in unity and sharing the experience as one with each other, the energy was off the charts.

This is a blueprint in how to host an unforgettable party in todays saturated market! Everyone was so mesmerised and harmoniously together – there was no need for phones, instagram posts or distractions and it felt fantastic and liberating that all recognise what you can only feel in a collectively shared live experience in a room full of people on the same journey and living in the moment. Bravo Folamour – one of the best to do it currently for us – this man clearly knows his music – a real player and at the top of his game!

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