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Amsterdam Techno Sessions is a weekly Techno event, held every Thursday, in Amsterdam.
Every week local and international artists are invited to showcase their work and personal interpretation of Techno.
For the last day of 2023, Sunday 31st, we prepared a stellar lineup to kick off the year in the best possible way!
We invited two Amsterdam Techno legends, Industrialyzer and Ritzi Lee to headline our event.
Our resident Marco Ramos will be responsible for the warmup.
Join us at John Doe from 23:00 until 05:00.
Tickets are now available at Resident Advisor.
INDUSTRIALYZER:
No need for an introduction when it comes to Industrialyzer, in our humble opinion, Ricardo is single-handedly responsible for re-booting the Techno sound after his collaborations with Cisco from the Advent made him what he is today, a non-stop techno machine, His sound could be described as Minimal, but Dirty and Fast, Heavy but clean and bursting with crazy production and musical ideas, he has sent crowds wild all over the globe. With releases on Drumcode, MBElektronics, Kombination Research,1605, Bush records, Credo, Mote Evolver, Patterns, and remixes for, Umek, Green Velvet, The Advent, Pig&Dan, Alex Bau, Tom Hades, A.paul, will show his diversity in sound. Ricardo Rodrigues was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal. At the early age of 14, inspired by his father's profession, started taking guitar classes. Two intense years later, he would already give classes in scales and music theory to young talent. Over the years to come, Ricardo joined several bands and performed at bars, concerts and festivals. At the age of 17, he discovered his true love was electronic music.
Starting as a bedroom DJ, he gradually started performing in Portuguese clubs as well. In 2000, Ricardo moved to The Netherlands to take a course in electronic music production.
Amazed by the local techno scene, the decision to be made was quite simple: he decided to stay.
New doors would open in 2003 when he became second at the I Love Techno DJ contest, and then again in 2005, by winning the Dance Parade Rotterdam DJ contest. Parallel, Ricardo was also busy producing. He advanced and refined his sound, which didn't go unnoticed. In 2007 Cisco Ferreira aka The Advent discovers Ricardo's talent and takes him to a whole other level, together they formed the act The Advent & Industrialyzer and a few months later they started Codeworks which would with its first release immediately prove to be successful—selling out in one week in 2010 Advance Intelligence was born, a new digital label specially made for the softer ideas of the partners in crime truly they’re sound became to be an inspiration for artists to follow.
RITZI LEE:
It’s all about the moment. A certain record is played at a certain time and place. For sure everyone who’s ever been at a techno party knows about the excitement taking hold of a crowd when a DJ is in full control of this talent.
With this in mind, it’s a small step for an artist like Ritzi Lee –a DJ who lives for these kinds of moments.
Working his craft for many years now, this Dutch techno phenomenon was already there in the early days. Making his way through the Amsterdam nightlife, where he witnessed the euphoria in famous clubs like RoXY and iT, he discovered his love for pure techno music. Winning a DJ contest held by dance magazine Basic Groove he caught a wave, getting to play renowned events like Dance Valley and the FFWD Dance Parade.
Even though Ritzi Lee had already spinning records for a couple of years, a bigger audience noticed his talent. A flawless technique and recognizable straight techno sound made him one of techno music’s underground stars –things started to roll.
Especially when the Dutchman launched his Underground Liberation imprint, where he’d be releasing some of the most successful techno tracks, Ritzi Lee became a household name on the international scene.
He was omnipresent throughout the 00s, playing the largest festivals, performing at Awakenings, doing club gigs supporting DJs like Jeff Mills and Ben Sims, playing ADE on Dave Clarke’s night, and gaining fans everywhere. A solid reputation he’s kept until today.
Back to the source
Something noteworthy, with a career that started in the late 90s, up to this day Ritzi Lee has stayed true to the unpolished techno music he fell in love with. Just listen to his 2013 release The Next Genesis, still being played by the majority of the techno scene.
Or check out his releases at Ben Sims’ label Theory Recordings, these are the tracks that define him as one of the techno originators of this new decade. DJs like Luke Slater, Dave Clarke, Ben Sims, Marcel Dettmann and Ben Klock still play Ritzi Lee’s productions. No doubt it’s the result of the Dutchman always staying true to his ideas.
“There’s a fine line between all the music I ever released”, Ritzi Lee explains. “A kind of tension building up, using different layers before reaching a climax –just as with my DJ sets it’s something of a trademark sound. I don’t want to follow a formula or do what everyone else is doing, I try to follow my path without getting distracted by hypes or trends in the music.”
So, this is an artist not afraid to go back to the source, getting inspiration from Detroit to Tresor, while always renewing and finetuning his music. Perhaps difficult to pinpoint from a distance but, as said before, it’s all about the experience. Being there at the right moment, when music, venue and DJ fall into place.
“For me, that’s an important reason not to place my DJ sets online too often. Techno should be felt and the only place for that is the dancefloor. That’s what it’s always been about for me, creating those moments at an event. These days I feel that vibe coming back again. A new wave of pure uncut techno music is upon us, and you can be sure I’ll do my share of creating some dancefloor madness.”
That’s only half the story. Ritzi Lee is about to unleash more of his trademark productions on labels like Klockworks, MORD, and BEK Audio. Things have never been more exciting, and that’s something after an already more than impressive career –Ritzi Lee is just getting started.
