TuneLab
Alan Fitzpatrick
Awakenings Summer Festival 2022
Alan Fitzpatrick at Awakenings Summer Festival 2022 is a refreshing reminder that big-stage techno can have a heart, and sometimes that heart beats to the rhythm of a 90s trance anthem. The vibe is pure festival mainstage: huge, confident, and unafraid to trigger a mass sing-along amidst the pounding kicks. This is driving, muscular techno with a strong melodic and trance influence, pushed to a brisk 136 BPM average and often colored by the uplifting, major-feeling 7A key.
Fitzpatrick’s style is direct and powerful, using the contrast between the driving 7A passages and darker 12A sections to build and release energy in satisfying waves. The tracklist is a clever blend of new school and nostalgia: dropping ‘Energy 52 - Café Del Mar’ is a breathtaking, hands-in-the-air moment that re-contextualizes a classic. ‘Armin van Buuren & Perpetuous Dreamer - The Sound of Goodbye’ gets a similar treatment, while ‘Rank 1 - Airwave’ is pure euphoric release.
For the heads, ‘Rebūke - Dystopia’ provides contemporary bite, and ‘Henrik Voght - Drafted Role’ is a sleek, modern roller. He builds from an unknown opener through the trance-indebted peak of ‘Airwave’, before guiding the crowd home on the atmospheric, driving pulse of ‘Ander vM - Humancity’.