Dance Like It's Ok 3: New Music From Netherlands Belgium & Germany
Theo Ploeg , January 30th, 2014 04:24

This is The Dutch Master Theo Ploeg’s ongoing search for the best new (electronic) music in The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium: to the lowlands and beyond!

Mouse On Mars portrait by Sebastian Szary

2013 was an interesting year for electronic dance music in the region I am covering. The Cologne based record label Kompakt turned 20, film maker Jozef Devillé made an excellent documentary The Sound Of Belgium about new beat (more about that soon) and The Netherlands celebrated 25 years of Dutch dance. Dance is big business. The annual Amsterdam Dance Event is a five day glorification of dance and business. Dutch house is a huge success, thanks to its popularity in the US.

Dutch dance is, of course, more than Afrojack, Tiësto and Armin van Buuren. But, perhaps with the exception of Noisia it lacks more mainstream acts with underground sympathy like Netsky and Paul Kalkbrenner. That doesn't stop Amsterdam based record label Basserk from coining the term Dutch Bass: bass driven music from The Netherlands. Tambutronic from KiT (Kuenta i Tambu)is the first album the label releases under the Dutch Bass moniker. Kuenta i Tambu means stories and drums in Papiamentu, the native language of Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire. The Amsterdam based band makes some damn hot and groovy global bass mixing, elements from traditional Afro Caribbean Music with electronic pop. Just dance your ass off to 'Nightswitch'