October 23, 2009

By By Gary Smith, Amsterdam

The second day of the 14th Amsterdam Dance Event began in controversial fashion during an exploration of the importance of managers for dance artists.

Speaking at a Q&A session, Eric Harle -- who represents Moby, M83, Fever Ray, Royksopp and Swedish singer Robyn -- was vocal in his support for artist managers and criticised proponents of 360-degree deals for failing to "bring anything extra to the party, but [yet] they expect to take revenue from areas in which they have no expertise."

Harle continued, "Ironically now, most of my artists work without label deals, and I find that we are able to proceed at our own pace and I get to do what management does best, which is enabling artists to focus on live performance and recording."

Technological advances were at the fore in a subsequent panel entitled: "App-earance: To App Or Not To App." During it, Canadian recording artist Brian Transeau admitted that he spends more time these days working in X Code, the programming language that forms the architecture of mobile applications, than he does programming songs.

"The application for my last single "Roads Of Jericho" has a back-end feature that enables us to monitor how much time people are spending using the remix app, and the average is 43 minutes, which is incredible given that the app only features one song," Transeau said. "That tells me that people want to interact with music at least as much as, if not more than, simply listening to it."

Later in the day, a panel entitled "Behind The Scenes of the DJ Scene" featuring DJ/remixer Nick Warren alongside Olga Heijns, manager of DJ Roger Sanchez, provided some interesting insights into the backstage reality for top DJs.

"Contrary to popular belief, the era of the open checkbook is not entirely dead," Heijns said. "One of my artists was recently asked to remix a song and we were told that we could name our fee. But we refused because the song was awful and what they really wanted was that DJ's name on the remix to add credibility to a failed project."

The day culminated with showcases from NYC-based label Star 69 Records and Holland's leading dance label Flamingo Records.

Backing up his growing reputation as Holland's next big thing, Fedde Le Grand, whose recently released second album "Output" (Flamingo) has been widely praised for its mix of funky house and up-tempo hip hop, delivered a well-received set. Label mates Funkerman and Shermanology also played tight, syncopated sets far removed from the drab trance sound more usually associated with Holland's dance music scene.

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