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Oh, check btw ook dit report op Xpander.nl. Hier kan ik nog wat van leren als 'reporter'. Supergoed geschreven in het Engels.
Overigens, de conclusie die hij maakt is precies hetzelfde als mijn report, dus denk niet dat mijn report toch 'te negatief' etc wat zoals vele mensen hier zeiden. Smaken verschillen nog steeds...
Sasha Involver Album Release Party, Amsterdam
DJ's: Sasha, Sander Kleinenberg, Matthew Dekay, Stef Vrolijk
May 22, 2004
Powerzone, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Rating : 8.0 out of 10 Xavier
Comment: Get Involved! That's the buzz which was clearly going through ones mind when discovering that Sasha would return to Holland for the promotion of his new album "Involver". The involvement of the biggest venue in Amsterdam was a fact as soon as the Powerzone was confirmed to be the location of the release party. Even though the name sounds a bit silly, I find that it's one of the coolest venues in The Netherlands. The interior is all insanely white, and extremely stylish with top notch design bits and pieces. For instance, there's a huge built in horizontal aquarium in the middle of the wardrobe section, through which you can take a peak inside the "other" aquarium inside (some would call it the dance floor)!
I've never seen the big room so packed before so early on, but then again Sasha was due to play a 4 hour set. I had figured out that Sander Kleinenberg was hitting it off from the start. You never quite know what to expect of this visionary dance dude, except that he will always bring musical quality to wherever he's sharing his music. I was lucky enough to have heard him spin a couple of days ago at Revolution party. A new DVD gadget was introduced at Revolution, synchronising visuals with the music. Again Sander performed with this tool, which gives you a chance to chant along with some lyrics if you can't hear them very well. There weren't any noticeable Japanese clubbers present, therefore the karaoke option wasn't used to the full extent (actually only by myself).
As Mr. Little Mountain kept the groovy clubby vibe going via unbelievable straight mixes, the tension was gradually growing when the reason of this release party was appearing behind him. Throughout the main room there were a few graphical images of Sasha looking down at you. And there he was in person, the man himself finally got involved in this festivity.
Sander stopped the music for a brief moment, screamed out the name of his well respected colleague causing the crowd to go berserk and off he went with the beautiful short trancy tones of Invisible Inc. "Stars" (an unreleased intro mix I presume) steadily causing an emotional ambient atmosphere accompanied by very relevant visuals of sunflowers, vanilla skies and soft blue, pink and turquoise energy explosions.
This vibe was quite a different one than Sander's groovy stuff, which caused a minor set back in the audience as the contrast was fairly unsettling to them. Sasha was clearly going the built up in a very smooth and dreamy way, and he did so by presenting stunning spherical landscapes, many down tempo and vague breaks, fresh sounds and of course his renowned magical mixing skills. As the crowd was somewhat involved, they were lifted up to a higher (paced dancing) level because of Sasha playing Stellar Project's "Get Up, Stand Up", quite an applicable song title for that moment as hands were reaching to the sky.
Gradually the groove and energy came back as Sasha became ecstatically drawn into the music according to the intense expression of his face. I think it is amazing how this guy can twist and turn so subtle without losing touch with the consistency. The Matthew Dekay Band "Higher Thoughts" paced things down again slightly and Sasha was looping it in an appealing musical way, as he did with other records. Near towards the end Sander and he got to play back to back again. All of a sudden, the awesome breakbeat tunes ruled again for a while. In my opinion Sander and Sasha match each other perfectly although Sander records didn't fit all the time this night.
Although the musical presentation of this night was merely outstanding, the attendees weren't quite involved to the max. Sasha's distinctive proggy dreamy sounds with a lot of spacey breaks weren't appreciated by one and all. I kind of knew beforehand that. The Powerzone venue isn't the ultimate venue for such an event, as it usually gets drawn by a mainstream crowd.
I think a lot of people just wanted to experience this big name for a change, without being very passionate about the man's music. If you are, then I can only state one thing when it's on the subject of his new album. Get involved!
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"Life is all about choices & respect"
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