As you might know if you’ve been following Festivalling.com for a while, we encountered Tijdmachine, a concept of the organization Lose Your Mind, for the first time in 2014 at the NSDM werf in Amsterdam. 2 years later it actually moved to the legendary Heineken Music Hall and of course we had to see it. Tijdmachine is one of the classics (2005-2011) concepts out there in the Netherlands but it manages to stand out from the pack by delivering a continuously cool line-up including surprises.
On the 2nd day of Christmas we headed to Amsterdam to experience de Tijdmachine. The queue wasn’t too long, but probably people were still having dinner or on their way. Pretty ideal for us actually, because getting a lockers & some tokens took only a few minutes. Both rooms in the Heineken Music Hall were being used for this event as had been announced by the organization.
Line-up
Room 1:
Room 1 was hosted by MC Villain and MC DV8.
Room 2: The Pitcher vs Ignition, Bakero & Demi Kanon, Jones & Galactixx, Zany & Retrospect, Devin Wild vs Jeroen (CEO Lose Your Mind), B-Front vs Phuture Noize, Frequencerz vs Sub Zero Project. Hosted by MC Tellem
Besides these massive names in room 2, Lose Your Mind introduced a new concept: putting legends together with young talent on one stage. For example, Retrospect with Zany & Phuture Noize with B-Front
Luna & Ryle & Distractor opened the event in room 1, which was a nice warm-up but sadly for them it wasn’t busy at all yet in the venue. We did get a good view of the set-up of the stage thanks to that. The background was covered with LED-screens with a moving clock, obviously fitting to the Tijdmachine (time machine) theme. The Pitcher would be playing twice, so why wouldn’t we check out his opening of the second room too? Once again, there was an LED-screen to create some atmosphere inside the room. Ignition isn’t a big name yet, but that was exactly the concept of this area, putting the talents of 2020-2025 together with big names. Initially, that concept created some discussion on social media because people felt like it would be weird if non-classic tracks would be played on a classic concept. However, if you looked at the atmosphere in the second room, it proved that many people actually liked the idea. The old Fusion tracks like ‘This is who we are’ were really appreciated by the crowd.
The Prophet is one of the artists that is perfect for a classics concept. This year he celebrated 30 years in the scene and of course he’s the owner of the influential Scantraxx label. As expected, his set contained a lot of Scantraxx tunes. Since Brennan Heart was up next they took advantage of being at the same event by playing ‘Wake You Up’ together. Of course, Brennan Heart played a couple of Blademasterz tracks like ‘One Blade’.
Just in case some of our readers aren’t familiar with Michel Pollen, who joined The Pitcher on stage in room 1, it’s probably a good idea to explain who he is. In 2000 the Donkey Rollers project (Zany, DV8, Jowan) was born, remember that name, because it will come back in this report, Michel was one of the producers behind it but didn’t feel like going on stage. He needed a face (a DJ) for his productions and that became Luc van Veghel (The Pitcher). Since then, Michel has produced loads of tracks and revolutionized the scene in the early 2000s. It pretty much never happens (but Lose Your Mind, managed it last year too) that Michel comes on stage, so it was a special moment and clearly both Luc and Michel were very much enjoying themselves.
It’s honestly difficult putting into words what happened next. There was a countdown to announce the next act and to our surprise it was Noisecontrollers vs Wildstylez. A brilliant combination of 2 legends and when they dropped ‘KYHU’ the crowd went nuts. Was that it? No, that was only the ‘warm-up’. There was one legend missing: Headhunterz! At the very second that MC Villain said that one legend was missing the sold-out Heineken Music Hall realized what was going to happen and started screaming of happiness. ‘Tonight’, ‘World of Madness’, ‘The Art Of Creation’.. 45 minutes flew by like they had only played one track. When we wrote about Qlimax we thought that wouldn’t be topped, but Lose Your Mind pulled it off. This legendary combination is something that we’ll cherish for a very very long time. Mind you, of course it’s an impossible comparison to compare Project 1 or Wildstylez vs Headhunterz vs Noisecontrollers, but it’s both extremely memorable. Headhunterz took the microphone and explained that Xmas is a time to be with your family, an emotional moment for sure. He corrected MC Villain about the use of the word ‘legends’. ‘’Legends is a word of the past, we’ve only just begun’’!
With sore legs from jumping and sore throats, we went to get some drinks & food and felt like cooling down with some euphoric hardstyle by Devin Wild and a surprise guest in the second room. The amount of people loving the set in the room prove our opinion that Devin Wild is going to be a really big artist & has a lot of potential. Funny enough Jeroen, the owner of Lose Your Mind appeared to do a back-2-back which the crowd could appreciate. ‘Delay Distortion’ and ‘Back 2 Basics’ by Wildstylez made room 2 bounce like crazy.
We mentioned Donkey Rollers early and they turned out to be another surprise guest during Zany’s set in room 1. They will be celebrating 15 years of Hardstyle in 2017, so you’ll be seeing them on a bunch of line-ups for sure.
When we looked on our watch it was 6 am and we couldn’t believe that there was only 1 hour left so we tried a smoothie (we think it was a combination of banana, strawberry & orange), which was delicious and helped raising our energy levels
We took a quick peek at room 2 and saw that Sub Zero Project were joined by the Frequencerz and the room was completely filled & went downstairs to see Adaro vs Crypsis closing the event. Just like the first time we saw Crypsis at a Tijdmachine event the track selection was top-notch; including ‘Get Hit’, ‘Strike’ and some hardcore to finish up hard & heavy.
Conclusion
What can we say.. this event was top-notch is almost every sense. Room 2 caused social-media discussion, but turned out successful. The line-up hardly could have been any better (well perhaps with an Italian act like Davide Sonar or Technoboy). We must say though that the co2 guns didn’t add a lot of value and confetti would have fitted better. Having said that we take off our hats for the team that was involved in the realization of this event, because it was without a single doubt, one of the best of 2016 in the harder styles spectrum thanks to the artists, the music and the harmony within the crowd that created a great atmosphere. To finalize: ‘See you next year’! This concept is one you can’t miss if you love the hardstyle from 2005 till 2011 so if you’ve never experienced it, please do in 2017!
© Festivalling.com
Reporter: Alexander Bouten