Earthdance Amsterdam 2001
Review by DJ Satyr (NL) & DJ DR. Daggla (NL)
(Published by www.goatrance.net)

Yayayayayayayaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! U guys survived 1 of the coolest (figure of speech, cause it was pretty darn HOT inside) parties ever in Amsterdam?

I think I did..What about U Satyr?

Mos' definitely! Will reserve a nice page for this one in the Big Book. So many pseople , also faces long gone from the trancefloor. Haven't seen a cue like this at the door on any psyparty in Nederland lately. Any busier than this would've been a trip into a barrel filled with herring. The Loos got pretti swetti like spaghetti. Hot-n-wet indeed. I think i lost at least 2 kilos (counting in streams of sweat, that is) yet gained a ton of bass .. which reminds me about the sound technician leaving early in the evening after tuning up the sound for the party...bass in yer face?! nah man, all the way thru the stomache and back!!

For me the weird day starded in the afternoon..I got there @ 3 p.m. to help out a bit..And then "it" happened..Paul (Zebra-N) came to me and asked if I would like to show HUX FLUX around in the great city of Amsterdam..Ppl that know me, know what I think about Hux Flux..They are my favourites, so 4 me this came as a pleasant SHOCK, and had no clue where I should take then..Well,where do you go if you're in Amsterdam..Exactly..THE COFFEESHOP :)

What were you guys doing @ that time, besides running like idiots to be ready on time?

Well, for me it was more like biking blind-idiot-style, through the maddest part of town -damstraat, 16.30 on a saturday afternoon .. u dig?!- making noise like a crazed rikshadriver whilst avoiding imminent collisions with tourists, traditionally unaware of the most lethal phenomen around in amsterdam : thee bicyclette. Manyways, i was on my way to another coffeeshop to pick up Chiara , miss Shaktycat.

When we got to the Loos , it was still two hours till "kick on". The day before i helped out a little like with picking & putting up the stage , but in the 24 hours that followed most of the work on decoration, visuals, sound and light and all that, had been done.

The Children of the Fluo Forest arrived just before we did. Chiara started to check out the mixer while i helped the Children out, putting up the chaishop. After that, some stuff stashing and floor clearing, and the rock was ready to roll!

The party itself was GREAT & CROWDED (around 1250 partyppl)..The music was okay (Had my doubts about the sound though)..The atmosphere SUPER...But itwas just too goddarned HOT!! Especially upstairs where 9loh & Surya behind the fence provided us with SOME REALLY EXCELLENT VISUALS...GREAT SHIT!!

What about U Satyr..Any comments on the party & the visuals?

Have to second you on both your words on the upstair activity & humidity. Already after the steps of the spiral stairway, it started running down my back. Mostly because of that, i didnt stay around there for long. Went there twice just to check out Stef & Cees and both the Nielses at work. They produced some very nice stuff for the eyes. Would very much like to have a Hofmann screensaver .. in the movie, we see dear Uncle Albert riding his bike between the Alps, the Sun and the Moon rising and setting behind them. Where do i sign up for one?

As for the sound, well .. that's always one of the hot topics, er? One of the untouchable forces on this planet that bind us together. IMHO, I think none of the dj's nor one of the acts got the best out of the 16K stashed on both sides of the hall. The speakers were readywillingandable to blast their waves towards the walls but got them bounced right back. It prooved once again how hard it is to get an indoor system to come across crystal clear in all corners and from all angles across the room. But so much for the aural attention and on with the dance!

I was really surpirised with Shaktycat her skills because within 3 weeks she learned how to spin on cd-players..AND SHE KICKED ASS!! Well, she learned it from one of hollands finest (butt in: Two of 'em , by the way;-) ..I was happily surprised..
Yes, heavily surprised! only three weeks ago, she crawled behind the cdecks for the first time after completing the upgrade from minidisc to compactdisc. Mission accomplished , i would say. Some very nice & tastey psychedelic cookies came by
I think she played two and a half hours, from the moment the last blacklight was attached to the lightrack till just over a few hundred pseople were inside.
Looking and hearing forward for her next appearance behind the console. Aum Shakti.

After Shaktycat came the Frequensqueeze. They were good as well! After that I think it was Pena..He was good, never heard him b4....

Me neither. Didnt get me bouncing too much though , yet the rest of the already big crowd did enjoy it pretty much indeed. I was hoping for some more freaky or spacey stuff from the Flowman (previously unreleased Magus? freshly burnt Reefer Decree?) but he didnt really get beyond the boundaries of techno with a little twist of psy-bass every here and there. Nicely mixed , yet no spark between my ears.
With Frequensqueeze my ears were pretty pleased. Their warm ambient intro was a nice lift from the level where Shaktycat left us , taking us to a more groovy height after some sequences. All their stuff was made without computer, directly from the synth. A very nice first for me.

Pena made a nice connection but didn't really get any higher from that.
His set finished at one o'clock to engage the Prayer for Peace , uniting all people around the world on Earthdance venues. Big bad luck the webcast didnt work out at all. No biggi , for most of the people interested or involved were there anyway. But it would've been nice to see some members of our family of freaks across the Atlantic bouncing their night away. Hope the links will be set up right so we can still enjoy some online action from the other parties.

Taking off after Pena , the long awaited Haldolium (rumour was nobody really knew if they were going to arrive as no phone had been ringing..) started pretty deep & dark as expected. They stayed on a monotonous level during the parts of their set I caught. Missed the middle half an hour or so, as i was moving around a lot during their performance.

Haldolium was good, but I expected a BIT more..Zen played also quite good, but I've heared him better..

And then Hux Flux..Well..They were VERY Hux Flux..These guys are SO UNBELIEVEBLY GOOD!!! They freaked me out..AGAIN!! Just like in Greece! By the way..There new cd will probably hit the shops in March, at least that's what they told me!

Nice one two three!! Curious ears for that one... rolled them a joint halfway thru the night , but forgot to ask who of the two would be referred to as Hux and who as Flux. Very happy they played here, after i slept thru 90% of their set at the Sola Luna (catching some obligatory Z's). Heard some great old and new stuff, synths squealing bass throbbling breaks taking the crowd in and out of trance.
Did keep up dancing for just fifteen minutes but got so wet again i got me some chai and enjoyed most of their set, smiling from a close distance, right across the stage in the middle between the speakers. What can i say .. Goose Bumps!!
They kept the psy up high!

And then the finishing act..Tintal & Nilis. ..The dynamic duo.. they kicked heavy ass!! The 2 guys (amongst others) that made this party possible (THANKS FOR THAT!!) I've never seen them so stressed out, especially Nilis :)

Yeah, shame for them the mildly changed schedule cut up their time. Think they could've played at least an hour more. Would've been well deserved. would've loved to bounce away the last hour but wanted to keep some energy for the after hours outdoor ... 20 till 7 was just long enough in this fluor microwave.

Yes, the AFTERPARTY..(thanks to Dr.Vinni & Heleen that left early to built up the party)

Betty started of the party with a crowd of 250-300 ppl..She played some freaky tunes..After that..Dr.Vinni & Seizure took over and played " a little louder" With some really fine records they took us towords the afternoon...After about 3 hours "we took over"...Sacid & Dr.Daggla :-) @ the beginning it didn't go as planned, but after a while it did and the ppl were really going for it eventhough it was afternoon! Then after around 3 hours Simplex & Mara took over and kept on going and giving the crowd what they came for..I think Tameesh took over after an hour or 2 bringing us towards the end of the party..By that time...the party was till 18.00!!! almost 24 hours of straight full on dancing so most of the ppl turned into zombies, so it was time to go home and chill out to the MAX!

What's your opinion about the after? The time you were awake that is,hehehe??
Very nice how the Sun started shining as we went outside from the Loos. When we arrived at the 9LoH "Rust nodig?" site, Betty almost finished and gave the fire to Seizure. There were still hundreds of pseople out there, some more some less.
Didnt dance that much here also but chat and trip around..

Later on, i crashed just before Stef and you were finished, missed all of Mara & Laurent and woke up when Tameesh set off for the final half an hour. Another dose of obligatory Z's ... and more after the after at home . Just a little drop of rain here and there, only when the soundsystem was packed up and ready to go.

All and all it was an unbelievably GOOD weekend...and I would like to thank EVERYBODY that realised this Earthdance party and the 9loh afterparty! Special thanks to the ppl behind this! (You know who you are!).

I rate this weekend with a BIG FAT A+..On to the next!

Big Sjapoo!! to all who stayed up all nights and all days to make this one happen
Viva Tibet
Keep the Psy vibe alive.....

Signed Dr.Daggla & Satyr (a.k.a. Thomas & Sanne)