Dekmantel 2018. Photo credits: Bart Heemskerk
We arrived Thursday the 2nd of August at the opening concerts and we had already picked four acts that we were going to attend, somehow aware that we might experience ‘fomo’ later on.
The first act was ARE PROJECT featuring Chicago’s Hieroglyphic Being, Shabaka Hutchings on percussion and Sarathy Korwar on saxophone, in the TOLHUISTUIN, a club-like venue with smoke machines, lights and everything. At first it seemed a bit early (19:30) for this kind of act, Jamal Moss was playing some sort of mutant Chicago house while the others were virtuously improvising along. Halfway through all of us were dancing like we had been clubbing all night. It is a great experimental project that unfortunately got booked only by Dekmantel this year, a fact that says a lot about how carefully these guys curate their lineup.
Afterwards we took our bikes and then the ferry from Amsterdam Central to Noord and hurried to see Khidja, the Romanian outernational rave duo, playing live in the small room of the Muziekbrouw, an exquisite location with a breathtaking panorama of Amsterdam. The set was so good that right after it ended a bunch of people rushed to congratulate the boys, Andrei Rusu and Florentin Tudor. Later we took a break on the terrace of the monumental Muziekbrouw where a bunch of artists, journalists and festival goers, alongside a smooth A’dam breeze and prolonged sunset, created a very chill, gezellieg atmosphere. Beer was pouring left and right, loud conversations and colorful laughs, you could cut the excitement in the air with a knife. Amsterdam has this power of sometimes creating the feeling that you are in the center of the world, literally and metaphorically, and that night because of Dekmantel we definitely felt that.
The third act on our list, James Holden and the Animal Spirits was a spine chilling, deep trance performance in the big room of the Muzikebrouw; a highlight of the festival probably seen by many, as it’s been active for a while now.
Volition Immanent, the fourth and final act that we choose to see, was a minute away from the other location in club Shelter. The project comprising of Parish Smith and vocalist Mark van de Maat is like a reminiscence of Laisons Dangerous, brought skillfully in the contemporary with techno cuts and sharp synths while Mark is a force of nature on stage, screaming his guts out and moshing with the crowd at the same time.
