TuneLab
Awakenings ADE 2021 - Adam Beyer
Adam Beyer at Awakenings ADE is a ritual. It’s the sound of several thousand people agreeing that the perfect way to spend an evening is being slowly compressed by a pneumatic press of kick drums. This is peak-time, industrial-strength techno from the Drumcode patriarch, a set designed for vast halls and even vaster sound systems. The vibe is immense, dark, and relentlessly physical, a celebration of pure rhythmic power.
Beyer navigates a 135-158 BPM range, though the average sits at a driving 137, using the dominant 12A key as an anchor for a journey through pounding grooves and soaring, dystopian synth lines. The energy balance is classic big-room techno: a solid low-end foundation, aggressive mid-range stabs, and cinematic high-end sweeps for drama. He opens with the ominous toll of Remco Beekwilder’s ‘Call Upon The Shivers’, setting a foreboding tone. The digs are heavy: Mark Reeve’s ‘Let Go’ remix and Veerus’s ‘Yard’ provide unrelenting forward momentum, while Joyhauser’s ‘Lysergic Acid’ and DJ Akshun’s ‘Jittin’’ deliver the kind of raw, percussive energy that defines the underground.
The inclusion of Jamie Jones & Darius Syrossian’s ‘Eyes of the Night’ is a surprising but effective nod to a groovier, tech-house flank. The journey is a relentless climb from that ominous opener, through the introspective depth of Dave Leyrock’s ‘Introspection’, to the epic, ten-minute finale of his own collaboration, ‘Your Mind (Epic Mix)’.