Recommendations: September 2024

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Oct 01, 2024

Currently writing this from bed in Tashkent - my final day in the city - wondering where to begin with rounding up September. Probably one of the most inspiring months so far this year for music and overall clubbing/festival experiences. Got such a fire in my belly right now, feels like my creativity has been reignited and have so many ideas I’d like to work on. So much has happened and currently wishing I had made notes as the month went along - time to start doing that from now on.

Going back to the start of September, I went to work on-site at Draaimolen Festival as their external press officer. I’ve said this time and time again but it is my favourite festival I’ve been to so far and when I returned to the site on the Thursday before the weekend begun, I got goosebumps. It was such a familiar feeling of returning to a site where I made so many amazing memories the year before and had started to feel like home. We’ve already covered the festival in great detail via Léa’s review so I thought go into length about my own personal experience as I think Léa’s piece sums it up very well. But what I will say that I have yet to experience another event which perfectly marries art, nature and music so well, with so much attention to detail and incredible soundsystems that allows for the music to perfectly sync up with its surroundings. Some of my highlights from this year’s edition to include Donato Dozzy, DJ Voices & Polygonia, Aaron J & Oberman, Mama Snake & Martinou and the wild, feral closing set from Pariah & mad miran. I’ve especially been thinking about Mama Snake & Martinou’s opening set a lot. It was so so beautiful, hard to capture with words but it perfectly set us up for the Saturday and wish I was able to see more of it.

Next up on my adventures was finally making the trip to Wuppertal for the newish and already widely renowned club Open Ground. After reading so much about how great the space is and its soundsystem, it was about time we went and I’m so so happy we did. The lineup for this night was one of dreams featuring Tikiman, Lil Mofo, Arthur, Blawan and Pariah. Like come on! How could we miss this! Rumour has it, the owners of Open Ground (who are a team of locals and internationals with close ties to Hard Wax) spent seven years building the club which is six metres underground in a converted bunker right outside the main train station in the city. And if I was to ask AI to generate my dream venue, it would probably look very close to what Open Ground is. A very sleek and sexy venue, the space is huge with lots of areas to roam around in as well as chill out in (something more clubs need). The rave reviews were right too, the soundsystem is so crisp and clean, you can hear every intricate detail within the music on it whilst not hearing those around you. Minimalism is key in this space with not many lights to distract you on the dancefloor so you’re able to be completely present. It’s also attracted a very respectful and cute crowd - I guess this is what happens when you put an amazing club in a random city in Germany - those who are committed and really into music are going to be the ones that attend. I haven’t been that locked in on the dancefloor in a while. I barely left the main room, Freifeld, where Blawan & Pariah were playing (both separately and a back-to-back set to end the night). There’s so much potential with this club to do more than a standard club night. I can see it working as the perfect 24-hour venue and potentially expand to do more stuff in the day time or do beyond just music programming with the amount of space that’s on offer. I’m so so excited to return.

After Open Ground, we got the first train to Berlin to head to the first edition of Darwin’s new Sunday evening party series, Abyss. You can read more about the concept and motivation behind Abyss in Darwin’s wav.world feature but essentially, it sees Darwin tapping into her relationship with healing and wellness, bringing it together with her deep love of soundsystem culture. The party started with a meditation and breathwork session hosted by Bodily founder FYI Robyn for an hour to set an intention for the party ahead and create a more open atmosphere. This was followed by a short opening set by FYI Robyn to continue warming people up with a beautiful and soothing ambient session before Azu Tiwaline & Tikiman performed. There was a proper sense of togetherness on the dancefloor during this party as everyone was facing the huge soundsystem that was driven over by the Digital Steppaz Soundsystem instead of the DJ who was playing behind the crowd. A refreshing take on the dancefloor experience. It was also a full body experience, being completely immersed in the low end dub-focused sessions, including sets by Darwin, V.I.V.E.K and Phrex, where your body was completely immersed in the bass. Full body vibrations. It was crazy. There was moments where I was left in tears on the dancefloor, due to the powerful vibrations that allowed me to open up to my emotions and just have this real cathartic moment that felt so safe and vulnerable. Such a special way to round off a weekend in Berlin - a city that needs spaces like this that offer an alternative way of approaching parties with more mindfulness.

Lastly, the reason why I’m in Tashkent right now. I was invited by the Sublimation crew here to contribute to their first-ever festival in the city with a talk at their conference on the Friday about PR and our work via Boiler Room as well as play a closing DJ set on the Saturday night. I’m not going to go into too much detail about this week just yet, I’m planning to do a long-form piece about Sublimation, the wider scene in Uzebkistan and my overall time in the city as there’s just too much to talk about. I’ll also be interviewing the co-founders Sabina and Madina about their Sublimation journey so far and what it took to put on this festival. However, I will say for now, that I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have been invited to experience the first ever Sublimation festival. The tireless work that put in to make this happen is so inspiring and I’m left in awe of their commitment to creating an electronic music scene in a place where it’s not really accepted. The past week has one of my favourite week’s this year with the best crew of people including new & old friends, amazing food, stunning sightseeing, incredible music and much more. Also played one of my fave DJ sets to date with the crowd in the room being so reactive, it was so moving. More on this very soon!

Honestly been so spoilt with the best dancefloor experiences this month, in perfect settings where everything works so well that it’s going to be hard to just go back to your average club, lol. It’s also been so nice reconnecting with so many friends last month, so many people I hadn’t seen in like over a year too. Heart is very full <3

Additional bits:

Third episode of spiralling, naturally on Netil Radio is archived here. A 85/170 special featuring tracks from A Strange Wedding, Vel, Beatrice M., Hysteria Temple Foundation, Jan Swam, Donato Dozzy, upsammy and more.
New edition of wav.world with Darwin - one more episode to go before Season 1 finishes and we take a little break.
I’ll be returning to Corsica Studios next month for Wigflex’s Exxxtra Long party where I’ll be opening room 2 for Olof Dreijer and EMA - super excited for this one. Tickets here. Also two gigs to be announced for October - more news on this soon.
G-FORCE finally returned with a new edition from Elissa Suckdog to tie in with the Singapore race.
Tracklist from my closing set at Sublimation below.