Epic dance floor stomper Spaceman thrills

WORLD no 1 DJ Hardwell played to an absolutely jam-packed Wave House on Thursday night (5 December).

His 90-minute set was a tightly controlled audio expedition that began with an epic mix of his 2012 dance floor stomper Spaceman.

This sound soon progressed to become much heavier and fuller. Many of his other singles, such as Never Say Goodbye, Dare You and the amazing Apollo, were soon pounded onto the dance floor much to the excitement of the sell-out crowd.

The fact that Hardwell, real name Robbert van de Corput (25), could start with the crowd already in a dance-frenzy is because of the dazzling work done by the three other international DJs on the bill. Juicy M (Ukraine) and Tony Cha Cha (Holland) are currently touring South Africa for the Matric Rage season and making a good deal of it. If you’re unfamiliar with these two I strongly recommend you listen to them on their soundcloud profiles.

Then, 8.30pm saw the arrival of Hardwell’s childhood friend Dannic (they both hail from the Dutch village of Breda, as does the legendary DJ/producer Tiesto – something in the water perhaps?). DJ Mag’s hallowed Top 100 list puts him at no 74, so he knows his way around a mixing desk. He is famed for mash-ups, which is essentially playing one track over another, but he does it with three or four tracks. One thing Dannic did particularly well was holding his harder drops back. Whereas Hardwell would have dropped a metric-ton of bass, Dannic was more reserved, allowing the young and enthusiastic crowd to develop with the set so that Hardwell could deliver later. Both seemed to have underlying themes to their sets surreptitiously put across with many tracks instructing the crowd to “Put Your Hands Up” (Dannic) and “Everybody Jump” (Hardwell).

Hardwell is literally the biggest thing in dance music these days. His near-flawless sets at Ultra Miami 2013 and Tomorrowland 2013 (arguably the two biggest Electronic Dance Music festivals on the planet) have been viewed on YouTube an astounding 17 272 686 and 60 399 times respectively (his Tomorrowland 2012 set is at 19 007 899 views). He is a very hard-working DJ and producer, with a weekly podcast and one of the most sought-after record labels, Revealed Recordings, but it is his enthusiasm and approach that is refreshing.

During Dannic’s set, Hardwell could be seen jumping around and dancing off to the left-hand side of the stage, grinning ear-to-ear and sussing out the energy levels of the crowd. During his performance he was still jumping and dancing and he looked genuinely upset when he had to finish after an hour and a half. Its just a pity Durban wasn’t hosting his IAmHardwell tour, as those in Cape Town and Jo’burg got three hours from the maestro. Nonetheless it was an extremely entertaining evening and hopefully it won’t be too long until the next superstar DJ graces our city.