TuneLab
Adam Beyer
Awakenings x Drumcode ADE 2025
Adam Beyer playing an Awakenings x Drumcode ADE party is about as surprising as rain in Amsterdam, but here we are, desperately Shazam-ing anyway, because the man’s track selection is a relentless assault of surefire weapons. This is for the purists who believe a techno set should feel like being run over by a perfectly synchronized convoy of steamrollers. The venue is undoubtedly a sweatbox, a pulsating mass of black clothing and laser beams where the only reprieve is the next kick drum. Beyer is in full commander mode here, deploying a brutal and unwavering 136.4 BPM attack, with the harmonic tension primarily built between the minor darkness of 3B and the brighter, more open feeling of 12A.
The energy is intensely focused on the low end, with that 0.55 average promising a physical, uncompromising experience where any melodic elements are rationed like water in the desert. His mixing is direct and powerful, using long blends and loop stacking to maintain a tsunami of pressure, with shifts into 7A offering slight tonal relief without ever breaking stride. This is functional, peak-time techno of the highest order. The tracklist reads like a Drumcode family reunion with some glorious interlopers.
He starts with the industrial clang of Thomas Schumacher’s 'Schall' remix, setting a stark, metallic tone. The inclusion of the radio edit of Rank 1’s 'Airwave' is a genius, nostalgic curveball, its trance chords sliced into the techno framework. The cheeky, sped-up sample of Gillette’s 'Short, Short Man' is the kind of ironic crowd-pleaser only a DJ of his stature can pull off, while Faithless’s 'We Come 1' gets a fierce, modern recontextualization. The journey is a linear ascent: from the mechanical opening of 'Schall', through the peak-time madness of tracks like 'Don’t Give a F**k', to the rolling, percussive finale of Nicole Moudaber & Carl Cox’s 'How It Makes You Feel'.