- My Strange Sounds From Beyond experience began with a short ferry journey from Amsterdam's city centre to the trendy and secluded NDSM docklands in the north. I was heading to Noorderlicht for the inaugural edition of the Dutch one-dayer, devised by the crews behind Outsiders Festival, Red Light Radio and Muziekgebouw's The Rest Is Noise. All three share an affinity for globetrotting alternative music, and as soon as I disembarked, I became a cultural castaway in their bizarre and beautiful experiment.
The three promoters hosted a stage each. The main one, run by The Rest Is Noise, was painted an exuberant shade of yellow and decked out with palms and other exotic fronds. It set the tone for the afternoon's musical offering, which, for me, began with Awesome Tapes From Africa. Watching Brian Shimkovitz play his beloved tapes was pure joy, as the grassy open-air dance floor steadily filled with revellers. It was an eclectic set that saw Shimkovitz cutting roughly between tribal and more acoustic fare, throwing in African pop songs like Yvonne Chaka Chaka's "Sangoma." There were also airings for Penny Penny's "Zirimini" and DJ Katapila's "Zoomlion." Another artist from the ATFA roster, Ata Kak, followed with his band, entertaining with his buoyant and bubbly brand of rap. Former wedding singer Omar Souleyman knows how to get any party started, but onstage the Syrian is stonily composed. Compared to band member Rizan Sa'id's fiery synthesiser playing and the overall jubilance of the music itself, Souleyman was an icy presence amongst so much warmth. On the grass below, the crowd went buck wild.
Red Light Radio's programme was the most experimental. Their plot was a miniature dirt amphitheatre right on the river, draped in bunting and hemmed in by picnic tables, a food stall and the Noorderlicht Café building. Here you could eat a hotdog with red cabbage and gaze out over the water while taking in a variety of oddball sounds, from the psychedelic drones of Bear Bones, Lay Low, to Vangelis Katsoulis's soothing New Age keyboard compositions.
The Outsiders stage, housed in a steamy greenhouse-type structure, picked up the majority of the DJ bill. I caught the dubby beginnings of Vakula's set before he eased into Italo and other dusty, wayward forms of dance music. Things got even steamier over the course of Gilles Peterson's diverse, colourful performance, with the place packed wall-to-wall with punters. Beating down from above, the sun slowly cooked the tent's plastic casing, as Peterson pulled treasure after mysterious treasure from his record bag, grinning from ear to ear.
As for the native talent, Young Marco and Antal repped for Amsterdam, with Intergalactic Gary and Legowelt repping for The Hague and that glorious West Coast sound. Performing live on the main stage, the latter's surging acid and electro provided a welcome break from the house and disco relentlessly dished out by the Rush Hour pair. The crowd couldn't get enough of their sun-kissed jams, though for me it was all about Gary's darker flavours and stolid demeanour. By the time Chicago's Traxx took over on the main stage, the sun had begun to set. He signed off in a blaze of lasers, but it was French duo Acid Arab's melange of Eastern party music over at Red Light's amphitheatre that soundtracked my final hour. The crowd, feeling the burn, had piled onto the stage. I lost my friend in the scramble, but found myself part of a homogeneous, shoeless, glitter-throwing movement. I looked around and realised I had indeed been stranded in unfamiliar lands, but actually it wasn't so strange after all.
Photo credit /
Eva de Korte
As for the native talent, Young Marco and Antal repped for Amsterdam, with Intergalactic Gary and Legowelt repping for The Hague and that glorious West Coast sound. Performing live on the main stage, the latter's surging acid and electro provided a welcome break from the house and disco relentlessly dished out by the Rush Hour pair. The crowd couldn't get enough of their sun-kissed jams, though for me it was all about Gary's darker flavours and stolid demeanour. By the time Chicago's Traxx took over on the main stage, the sun had begun to set. He signed off in a blaze of lasers, but it was French duo Acid Arab's melange of Eastern party music over at Red Light's amphitheatre that soundtracked my final hour. The crowd, feeling the burn, had piled onto the stage. I lost my friend in the scramble, but found myself part of a homogeneous, shoeless, glitter-throwing movement. I looked around and realised I had indeed been stranded in unfamiliar lands, but actually it wasn't so strange after all. Photo credit / Eva de Korte