Dekmantel

Amsterdam Bos | 1-3 August

After a series of glowing reviews, Dekmantel returned as one of the most anticipated events of the summer. Founded by one of Amsterdam’s foremost sources for electronic music (they also run the consistently on-point Dekmantel imprint), it once again combined a line-up of forward-thinking house and increasingly diverse strains of bleeding edge techno alongside true innovators of the scene. It’s hard to believe that Dekmantel festival is only in its second year.

Taking place in a forest just 20 minutes from central Amsterdam, a scattering of accommodating stages are held together by lush greenery and incredible attention to detail, meaning you’re never more than a short walk from something impressive. We kicked off Friday with San Proper who played a selection of wigged out everything on the pretty-much-perfect Warsteiner stage – wonky Prince edits and Crash Course In Science’s Flying Turns were particular highlights. Decked out with wooden panelling, its long dancefloor centers around a huge sprawling willow tree that drapes over the crowd. It kept the mood light, easily housing one of the best festival atmospheres we’ve encountered. Over the course of the weekend it prompted unabashed soul and disco anthems from the likes of Gerd Janson, Prins Thomas and Mr. Ties, and provided the perfect backdrop to DJ Harvey’s sleazy, intoxicating selections in his Friday night headline set.

With Dekmantel’s relative ease making it possible to see a satisfying amount of the outstanding line-up, other brief Friday highlights included Intergalactic Gary smashing out electro from under Boiler Room’s charming set-up (in which either side of the crowd faced each other), an hour of mad percussive workouts from Jimmy Edgar in the mammoth XLR8R tent and Can U Dance fulfilling its no-chinstroking policy by playing Lumidee followed by Dizzee Rascal. Nicolas Jaar closed the truly epic main stage with a selection of unreleased material, stringing out an edit of Jocelyn Brown’s Somebody Else’s Guy for over 15 minutes to a twitching crowd.

Saturday’s surprise set from copeland was a refreshingly low-key performance. Running through some tracks from her recent LP alongside deep, dubbier techno, copeland occasionally took to the mic to channel her particularly arresting brand of insouciance. A day for true originals, Joey Anderson’s weird, warping electronics smothered a vibing afternoon crowd, while Traxx’s insanely jacking rhythms amped up a late night Warsteiner stage.

Undoubtedly a highlight, Three Chairs’ six-hour set lived up to the legend that surrounds their tag team excursions through Detroit heritage. As Kyle Hall and Jay Daniel stepped up to the decks after their earlier set was cut short due to severe weather warnings, it felt even more like a family affair. With Rick Wilhite running through milestones of Detroit musical history, Theo Parrish teasing out disco edits, Moodymann throwing curveballs such as Tom Tom Club’s Wordy Rappinghood and Marcellus Pittman jumping on the mic to sing over Flowers, their genuinely elating spectacle had the entire crowd beaming, leaving no doubt in our minds as to who the most charismatic act in electronic music is today.

Indeed, most DJs responded to the favorable weather over the weekend with notably playful sets. Ben UFO’s Sunday slot, for example, was a joyous run from huge, anthemic techno such as DJ Qu’s Undescribed (The Believer) to distinctly UK syncopations with garage classics like Scott Garcia’s It’s A London Thing mingling against grime instrumentals that seemed to genuinely bewilder some of the non-British crowd. Although most DJs had kept it lively to match the mood, Sunday’s barrage of nosebleed techno changed that immeasurably. From Nina Kraviz’s hypnotizing sound to Karenn’s pummeling execution of their live show that improves with every performance and Robert Hood’s biblical mastering of pounding techno, the main stage was the point of call for the day. As the weekend drew to a close, Jeff Mills’ closing slot was the perfect spectacle to highlight the sheer scale of the event. As the seriously-techno Dekmantel visuals morphed on the screens, surrounding a crowd as they worshipped a true innovator, it felt, in that moment more than ever, like the Dekmantel vision had been fulfilled.