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Walking around the Felix Meritus, badge surfing is easy and I ran into all kinds of interesting characters - Sebastian Leger (who mentioned another Justin Timberlake remix he is working on that features a superstar female vocalist,) Stonebridge (who previewed his new artist album,) Leonid Rudenko (the quirky Russian producer behind Summerfish,) among many others. Even without meetings setup, you could sit in the lobby and meet lots of incredible industry people.


I made a quick trip to the hotel to drop off a stack of CDs before meeting up with the Fans of Jimmy Century for a lovely Thai dinner. Have I mentioned lately how much I love their CD? They are definitely a band to watch - sort of like Garbage with a more powerful female vocal. They are quite excited about having their music licensed for a recent episode of Ugly Betty and the new Christina Applegate tv program.

We started the night at the ElectroNation /Great Stuff party at the BG. Somehow, I always end up doing house parties every night - so this year I am making a major effort to expand my repertoire. The party was just getting started with Oliver Klein finishing his set and Martin Eyerer getting started. I was quite excited to finally meeting Tomcraft who I recently interviewed as Dusty Kid began his live set. The minimalist electro music built from DJ to DJ - with increasing levels of energy and a gradually filling dancefloor. Halfway through Dusty Kid's set was the tipping point and by the time Tomcraft started, the dancefloor was packed.

As much as I would have loved to stay the whole night bopping to the cutting edge electro, I knew tonight would be reminiscent of WMC with extensive party hopping.

Next up was Club Panama where Strictly Rhythm, Defected and Too Dutch presented a "Strictly in da house." After an intense security check through a metal detector, I entered the main room to find Todd Terry driving the crowd nuts. His mix of old skool classics with fresh sounds was making the people scream. "Plastic Dreams" alone was enough to send me over the edge. Todd was the most energetic I have ever seen him - hyping the crowd on the microphone and dancing along. I was getting sweaty bopping along though the crowd. Another club that I could have spent the night in heaven dancing but there was one more stop.

Launched last year at ADE, Mark Knight's Toolroom Knights party was being presented by Chemistry at the Cineac. One of the many things I like about clubbing in Amsterdam is that just about every club sounds incredible a full bodied sound that is not too loud. I find that American clubs often make the mistake increasing the volume to compensate for a weak sound - the Europeans definitely expect more from their soundsystem. The dancefloor was packed so I headed up to the second floor where I ran into the Robbins crew who were hanging with some very pretty ladies that looked so familiar. I was so incredibly excited to meet Camille Jones ("The Creeps") and Ida Corr ("Let Me Think About It," "Mirror") - the ladies who have worked with Fedde Le Grand. They are both incredibly nice and were quite excited about their gig tomorrow night at Melgweg as well as Gabriel and Dresden who were about to take the stage.

Do you ever have one of those nights where every DJ is amazing? Yeah, its a rarity but Gabriel and Dresden made the night a perfect trifecta. They were on. On fire. On course. On top of their game. On their mark. With the help of a laser light show and CO2 cannons, the energy of their set was mindblowing. Dave and Josh are one of the few DJs who can translate the power of a laptop/CD set with the showmanship of true entertainers. If it wasn't for an 11am meeting the next day, I would have happily danced there all night.