The 'drukqs' listening party for Zomba took place on Sunday night, 9th Sept at the Paradiso club in Amsterdam, attended by Warp DJs.

The Paradiso is an amazing venue - an old converted church with a huge PA, a big stage and a balcony running round the whole room giving it a real music hall/theatre vibe, and is one of the best-known and regarded clubs in Holland.

The decor was excellent - a big white tent draped over the dancefloor, plus drapes, projection screens, and blocks and cushions for people to lounge round on. Some VJs called the Stanza Crew (who are also supporting Two Lone Swordsmen on thier Hollnad dates later this month) were doing the visuals, using slides and animations that Warp supplied them with, plus lots of their own work.

Miriam from Zomba had also got hold of a "cerebral wave synthesizer" from a smartshop - a very sinister 1970's French brainwashing device that flashes red and white lights in your eyes via eyepieces you wear, and fills your head with sinewave bleeps and tones through headphones.(very hard to take for more than ten minutes, even worse when fukd and bombd) Miriam rigged it so it was playing 'Drukqs' instead of the pre-programmed tones, and set it up in the corner of
the dancefloor so up to 8 people could listen to it at once sat round on comfy armchairs. wicked.

The attendees were mostly independent retailers, journalists and competition prizewinners - the turnout was good for a Sunday night and people seemed pretty excited.

Warp DJs played the first hour, then the lights dropped, the visuals cut in, and the album was presented - the same 60 minute compilation CD that was used at the planetarium. The soundman hiked the amps up a lot louder than when we had been DJing and we realised how awesome the soundsystem was - on most tracks it brought out whole new levels of sub bass that you never hear at home, especially on 'gwely mernans' (Tr6:CD1) where the whole club was humming and vibrating with well-controlled bass.

The visuals were good - new variations on the piano artwork / animations on the front on the album and drukqs.net, plus one wicked sequence with two overlapping aphex logos arranged in different positions like a weird afx kama sutra. Stanza Crew

All the hardedged tracks went down very well, (it is Holland after all..) especially '54 Cymru beats' and 'Omgyjya-Switch'

Warp DJs then played the last hour - it was a rave. Afterwards we headed off into town to get off our mash on Cake and Klarky kats, seeing a few Jam Wagons on the way..

A memorable night for all those present, plus an ideal venue for future european warp tour adventures...

Thanks : Miriam @ zomba ; Maz @ Paradiso