Darkness. Cheering. Chanting.
"Armin! Armin! Armin!" Two hooded figures stepping on stage.
Clapping. More cheering. A piercing, high-pitched static like noise. Twisting.
Bending. A deep, low string tone. A loud, pulsing bass stab, decreasing in
pitch in its final tones. A string arrangement following the second stab.
Supportive whistling. Murmuring. Red lights. Subtle addition of extra strings.
The initial static lurking in the background. And then... The first melody.
Mystic. Ancient. Ambient. Tristese. As if it were a song reminiscing a
civilization long gone. Clicking percussion. Slick, crisp. A beautiful
Atmosphere.
You'll be
forgiven for thinking this was the intro to a Jean-Michel Jarre concert. It was actually two fans of his
performing under their Gaia alias at
Paradiso on that chilly October 18th. Armin van Buuren and Benno de Goeij's
producing partnership celebrated its 10th anniversary this year and in a way it
was fitting that possibly the best live performance they've ever done together
would be a decade after the "Imagine"
album. Heck, in the nine years since I’ve started going to Dance events this
might very well be one of the very best performances I’ve ever experienced. I
will get into more detail about that in a bit but first I want to give an
applause to the warm-up DJ.
I got to
drag one of my best friends to this event at the very last minute after a
certain kind soul arranged two guestlist tickets for me. As we made our way inside
the Paradiso and unto the dancefloor, we could already hear some great music
being dropped by Tinlicker. Slick,
dreamy and groovy Progressive which got beefier as we approached 01:30. I heard
some cool melodies, some tasty synths and all-in-all he was setting the perfect
mood for Gaia. I wasn’t going all out yet but was moving my feet as I got eased
into that sweaty, nightclub atmosphere. It was weird to dance towards an empty
stage (Tinlicker was spinning in a corner in the back) but since Gaia generally
don’t really interact with their crowds anyway, this was of minor concern. I
grew more and more excited. Then the music stopped. People started cheering and
clapping. Two cloaked figures made their way on stage and started playing
around with the synthesizers. Showtime!
Moons Of Jupiter
So we find
ourselves surrounded by an incredible trippy and mysterious atmosphere as Gaia
guide us through their unfolding journey. The first beat of the night drops and
it’s a breakbeat! Indeed, the following minutes are all about breaks: I don’t recall
ever hearing that live but I started grooving to them with a big grin on my
face. I gaze over to the left and my best friend is having the time of his
life, truly feeling the beat. I can’t help but smile even more. He’s been
getting into dance music over the past few years and it wasn’t until this year
that we started visiting events together. This was the third event we attended
this year and though he had a good time during the previous two, he was REALLY
feeling this one. Can you believe it? In the nine years since I’ve started
visiting these type of events this was only the third time I was accompanied by
someone who was actually a good friend unrelated to my music taste: the guy was
going nuts, how awesome is that?? Goes to show that best friends with good
music tastes DO exist. :P Back to the music now, I’m digressing (as usual!).
The first breaks tune really brought me back to the Shivers era of Armin’s
sound / my first few ASOT episodes. Dreamy, right in between Progressive and
Trance sound-wise, with a gentle continuous lead being backed by simple melody
with a hint of melancholia to it. Things turn a bit darker with the next one:
heavier bassline, deeper breakbeat and a background choir that remains present
throughout the tune. Then suddenly this infectious badass lead starts demanding
attention. My best friend looks at me in delight, this music is what it’s all
about! Another lead is introduced and this one has a bit more of a trippy feel
to it. So melodic and deep, not quite ominous but always keeping a bit of
suspense as if it could go sinister at any moment… After the brilliant
atmospheric intro this is without doubt the next highlight of the show. And
we’re only fifteen minutes in!!
The
breakbeats make way for 4x4s as we head into a more Progressive Housey direction
now. The deeper kind, not the happy summery “Prydzy” type (which is delicious in its own way of course). This
track could very well have been dropped during Tinlicker’s set, it has a similar
vibe to the tunes he dropped. It gives me a bit of Classic Dance music vibe but
it also reminds me of Nick Warren’s ASOT
#317 guestmix in 2007: very trippy synths and short melodies on top of heavy basslines
with rich percussion. This is some serious Dance Music from Armin and Benno. No
gimmicks, no bullshit. It’s the good
stuff. Sweaty, peak-time club night Dance music, not that noisy Festival
music. Praise the Heavens. We get a few more tunes in this direction when
suddenly the first typical Gaia melodies start popping up, you know, the sweeping
sad/dramatic Tuvan / Aisha / Status Excessu D arrangements. However, rather than being anywhere
as energetic or pumping as those earlier Gaia tunes, the current crop of tracks
Armin and Benno drop remain in that Progressive realm. They have a minimalistic
air to them build-up wise and the main synths they deploy don’t get a lot of
back-up pads or strings but the synths themselves are really powerful. Check
out the breakdown in Fire Wire (Rank 1
Remix) to get an idea of what I mean. Although the melodies here never get
as aggressive/ferocious as the devious synths in that beyond-underappreciated
gem of a remix, they do have that sort of calm-wild dynamic. Some cool stuff in
this segment of the show and the lights accompany the mood of these tunes with
its warm colors.
Midway
through the whole the guys drop a track with some piercing and powerful synths.
What makes this track stand out is their live manipulation of its rhythm/note
pattern as it progresses: this, my dear friends, is why live performances are
two tiers above the regular DJ set! It’s incredibly infectious and groovy,
relying on its live interpretation rather than aesthetic beauty (since there is
no real melody to it). Very dope stuff!
At some
point a voice echoes through the hall saying something along the lines of “Sine.
Square. Noise.” I assume this refers to the
mathematical aspect of sound(waves)/music but you’re probably better off asking
Armin and/or Benno since they are the sound geeks. I’m just a passionate n00b
after all. :D Anyhow, the Progressive vibe gets increasingly beefier and more
dancefloor-oriented. I grab my phone to film a little bit once I hear Acid
synths, as I mistake this track for the one you hear at the start of Armin Vlog
#069: Benno and Armin are tweaking it in the (latter’s?) studio. Which is not
to say this isn’t a very cool tune to dance to but somehow I feel a little…
Disappointed? I was sure the tune from the vlog had a more relentlessly drive,
surely this wasn’t it? Or was it still supposed to show up?
Dear reader,
as it turns out, it still had to make its appearance. I don’t recognize it
right away, which is a bit stupid on my part: the bassline and main acid lead
in this track follow the same melody pattern. Said main lead is eventually
strengthened by an extra synth in a higher octave range. As the tune
progresses, the screen reads “Europa” as a robotic generic Google Translate
voice utters “Eu-Ro-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa-Pa”. Meanwhile the kick falls away as the Acid lead
and its accomplice swell intensely and the kick and bass slam back in to
release its energy. I am SO delighted to hear this one, what an incredible
drive!! Then the bass drowns into the background as a short breakdown reveals a
bit of sad string play… It’s incredibly short and more of a teaser to enhance
the mood but you can still hear the “Whoo!”s being shouted in the background. Bass
and main lead start swelling back as the crowd clap to the rhythm, they grow
more intense again for a second powerful drop. What a rush! As I write this I
can only pray this one made it on the album despite sounding like a pure
dancefloor beast! Without doubt another highlight of this show.
With about
20-30 minutes left on the clock, one hell of a massive bassline makes its way
through the speakers: HOLY SHIT! The lights turn red and slowly this ominous
lead is introduced. Containing a quick note succession, there is something about
this track that vaguely reminds me of Oxygene
(Part 19) by Jean-Michel Jarre, albeit darker. Suddenly this SICK ASS
breakbeat is dropped and somehow the whole track suddenly sounds like
instrumental Hip Hop, and I mean that in the best conceivable way possible, it
was massive. Completely unexpected but it works so well! Then, that insidious
bassline returns and is unleashed upon us once more. Incredible!
“What if we told you, there is no ‘EDM’?”
The gents
drop Inyathi and Saint Vitus which are happily received
by the crowd, including the ones that refused to get their groove on all night.
I really enjoyed the live iterations of both, and I consider these singles to
be Gaia-On-The-Right-Path, even if both lacked the longevity of Tuvan or Status
Excessu D for me. I can’t help but feel a little annoyed at their reception as
opposed to the reception of the unknown tracks we’ve had all night. It’s
frustration I’ve had most often during moments that Rank 1 either perform live or DJ: they drop some of their delicious
newer/newest works: medium(/mediocre) crowd response. They drop Airwave: everyone loses their shit.
It’s like some people can’t possible ever go beyond “the known” during events
like this and it annoys me to no end. I suppose I should bear in mind that in
general Dutch crowds are spoiled as f*ck. Furthermore, the majority of these
crowds are usually people heading towards their 50s and beyond: more often than
not they either treat these events as reunions with friends or some sort of
high school prom reenactment with their partners. I am not going to tell people
how to party because who the hell am I? But sometimes I wish I could be
surrounded by that passion you see in Latin-American / Eastern European crowds.
Or at the very least surround me with people that want to hear good Dance music
and don’t give a f*ck if it’s new, old, Trance or non-Trance. *sigh* Sorry
about that, it’s something that’s frustrated me for a long while. Anyway, back
to Gaia.
We hear the
all-familiar end-of-the-set BPM decrease which is received by massive roars,
clapping and whistling when Gaia decide that an encore would be appreciated.
And thus Crossfire is dropped and
greeted by massive approval. At this point my lower back is really starting to
kill me so I can’t quite set myself loose as I intended but I can say it’s a
cool tune to hear live. More experimental in nature than Inyathi and Saint
Vitus, who were clearly intended as a nod to Millenial Anthem Trance, I find Crossfire
the weakest of the three but still enjoyable enough. And a live setting might
be the best place to really appreciate it. The music ends once more, and this
time the Gaia set is over for real. Benno and Armin turn towards each other and
clasp hands in a brotherly shake, one that seems to be saying “we f*cking did
it”.
Yeah, you
f*cking did!
Wow…
Man, what an
incredible ride that was… Completely centered around own productions of which a
few (according to Armin in his 69th vlog) were created in the past half
year or so, things slotted in seamlessly, both mood and mix-wise. The addition
of live manipulation of synths and pads made the experience authentic: one can
only wonder how much they strayed of the productions’ original form to tease
the crowd on the spot. It was two hours of venturing across a wide spectrum of
Dance Music styles. From Ambient to Breaks, to Progressive (House), to Tech, to
Acid, to Trance, and back. Heck, there was even that segment that could serve
as the instrumental for a sick Hip-hop track! All of these genres flowing into
each other, back and forth, whilst maintaining a consistent flow and drive for
the majority of the night is something I really want to applaud Armin and Benno
for. About the content of this show Armin said the following:
“Throughout the years we created a
variety of synths, beats and loops that were more underground and not always
useable for my sound and genre and we always had so much fun exploring
different genres we felt it was time to combine this under the name Gaia.”
They truly
delivered on that and if their handshake at the end of the set was anything to
go by, they had as much fun performing for us as they had piecing together all
these tracks in the past few years. Mission accomplished.
Following
nearly 2 hours of intense dancing, my body demands refreshment and rest so I
leave the main hall. My friend decides to dance until the event is over and
during this timeframe I get to meet suzich_Q and Sven Liefting whom I got to
know via Twitter. Always cool to meet people you speak to online and both were
as delighted with the show as I was, which was cool to see/hear. We talk about
our experiences, expectations/hopes for the future for a while. Then the two of
them leave and I wait a bit for my best friend to get his coat so we can leave.
Once outside, we talk about the show and both of us can’t stop praising Gaia’s
efforts in what was undoubtedly one of my best clubbing experiences ever. It was
about as pure as it gets from two people who’ve formed the vital foundations of
my venture into Dance Music. It’s a pity I didn’t get to share this with my
brother since if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t even have been here on this
epic night… I say goodbye to my best friend who can’t stop thanking me for
dragging him along and I make my way home, satisfied and happy.
What's Next?
This show
was the promotion gig to announce the release of the long-awaited Gaia album
which will be called “Moons Of Jupiter”.
In Armin Vlog #072, which covered the Gaia set, Armin seems anxious about the
response to the set since a day after the show there were no reviews online
yet. He also said something rather interesting, how this show was “a new step
in his career”, does that mean that this new direction with Gaia is something
that he intends to explore further in the future? I most certainly hope so, he
has my full support.
To provide a
bit of context for my experience of this show: I used to be a huge Armin fan
from 2005 to 2010. However, the dreadful 2011 “killed” a lot of my idols as one
by one they abandoned ship to make the same Festival oriented sound. Armin was
no different sadly: I slowly lost interest in the majority of what he and Benno
were doing together. 2012 more or less stands as the year I officially stopped following
ASOT and the AvB brand in general. If music no longer brings you joy, why
torture yourself by following something you don’t like? I didn’t like the path
they chose to walk at all but at the time I also stated on the ASOT forum that
if Armin ever decided to pour all his genius and experience into some serious
Dance Music again, you could sign up me anytime. Who would have thought that
this speculative Best Possible Scenario was to come true in such a glorious
fashion?
When one
loses their appetite for an artist, duo or band, it’s tricky to gain back that lost
excitement. In some cases you remain convinced that they still have the talent
and know-how to rock your world music-wise but
their priorities simply do no longer match your needs as a fan. Sure we can
shout “sell-out!!” but since few fans stand on both sides of the Creative
Divide (e.g. creators on one side, fans on the other) it’s hard to ever truly
grasp what drives an artist. It’s easy to accuse: it’s much harder to empathize.
So as years go by and you listen back to the tracks they made in the past,
those tracks that brought you so much joy, you keep wondering “What If?” What
if they took a different path? Years pass by as this question pops up in your head
every now and then. And suddenly, one day, you are there in front them as they
blow you away and you can’t help but be flabbergasted at how cool it all was. How
much fun you were having. How it just felt right. How, after so many years,
this was indeed The Best Possible Scenario come true… Furthermore, it was pure delight to finally hear Armin and Benno productions sound like Armin and Benno productions again (rather than sounding like Guetta/Hardwell/Garrix/ViniVici clones).
From the
depths of my Dance Music loving heart:
Thank you, Armin.
Thank you Benno.
Thank you, Gaia.
This was one for the ages. Bring on
the album! Kind regards,
Razormane
*Disclaimer: criticism and praise
are purely my own opinion, they are not
factual. If you feel offended by things you don’t agree with in this post,
then go fix yourself and don’t blame it on me. Peace out.
==============================================================
Whata Nice blog :)
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