#7: The intention of music (+ top ten tracks of 2025)
Welcome dancers! I am back on track and will be able to do more dances from February on. See my schedule at the end of this letter and I hope to will see you at a dance.
For this news letter I was writing about some posture problems that I had as a child, and how they made me develop a bit an obsession and fascination for the way humans move. But the piece got long, and I also wanted to share my top ten tracks of 2025. So this month, then, is for the music nerds. And I will save my personal posture journey for February.
<3 de Nachtpapegaai
Finding the intention of music
Selecting music for my dances is an intuitive process. It is a strange mix of working the music platform algorithms, personal preference, musical upbringing and just plain experimenting. You can't really put it into words, but I'll just write down some thoughts here and then show you my exquisite taste in music with the ten top Nachtpapegaai tracks of 2025 💃
Music has some objective qualities to it. A track has a certain timbre, rhythm and intensity that is conveyed to dancers. Some music is in major (happy), some music is in minor (sad), some music is aggressive, some music is sensual. Moreover, music usually can be seen to have a certain intention. Cumbia is meant for swaying sensually, reggeaton gets at your sex, and the rhythms of drum 'n bass and psytrance aim to make you move. These qualities of music reflect more or less 'measurable' organic processes: it is the vibration of the music that quite literally touches the body and mind of the listener.
But not all music, in my view, does what it intends to. Not all drum 'n bass is actually successful at making the body move, and all tracks with sound bowls in it make you want to sit or lie down in genuine stillness. An important part of finding new music for me is a kind of deep listening to tracks, and selecting the ones that I feel do what they are supposed to.
And here we have already entered the murky waters of subjective experience. My own taste is not unique or universal, of course. And there is also the taste of the dancers, and their mood. How open is a crowd to certain types of music in a given moment? What expectations and experience to they bring? What is their culture? How are they feeling? I think researching this subjective experience of music and playing with it makes being a dj into an actual art form.
Musical upbringing
Everyone has their own musical upbringing and develops their own intuition, which is why different dj's do such different things. Now, I'd like to think that my experience with music is pretty deep - I have had a headphone on my head since I was a toddler listening to my parents' Supertramp and Abba records. I was doing 2 Unlimited concerts in my bedroom as a 7-year old. When I was 11 I had my first mixer, and for my birthday I hosted a dance party in our garage. And in my teens and twenties I have been to mostly every sort of party in any subculture that you could think of. Also, I love to dance myself.
And even though I considered myself pretty proficient at the dj thing, when I started out playing Ecstatic Dance, it took me a year or 2-3 to get the hang of it. It turned out I needed to learn many new things, about what resonates at an Ecstatic Dance, about genuinely being present as a dancer, and about the actual danceability of certain music. I learned all of this at Odessa Amsterdam, and I thank everyone who put up with my crazy experiments in the first years there.
Long story short: the objective qualities of music reflect its intention. But not all music is successful in achieving its intention. Understanding and developing a feel for 'good' music in this sense is part of being a dj. But the subjective experience of music, in the end, has more weight to it, and developing a sense of this subjective experience is what makes being a dj into an actual art form.
So here's some of my favorite tracks from the past year, which, by my standards, all more then succeed in conveying their intention!
My favorite tracks of 2025
Dominik Eulberg, Henrik José - Abtauchen
I opened many a dance with this. Dominik Eulberg tries to get closer to the natural world with his music. This takes us right into the deep sea, where mystery and weirdness awaits. But it takes us safely, and not even in a steel submarine, but in a magical protective deep sea mermaid suit, so we can enjoy all pleasures of the dark ocean, freely moving.
Kr3TURE - Watch it Grow
"Give it time give it space gonna watch it grow". The lyrics on this song are very empowering. I use this track to slow down after a wild peak, it is still very danceable but also signifies that we can slow down a bit. The rhythm is different from what alot of dancers are used to, so they get a chance to experiment with their bodies.
Chancha Via Circuito - Encantiamento (re-release)
The first beat at an Ecstatic Dance feels very important to me, and lots of preparation goes in finding this perfect first drop. I usually open with long meditative parts, and sometimes you can just feel the longing for a bassdrum build up in the space. When that bassdrum enters, it should fulfill that longing, and this track does it subtly and sensually. Chancha Via Circuito, like El Buho (whom I already wrote about), is one of those artists who have been with me for a long time, since before I started Ecstatic Dance and I went to his concert live in Utrecht's ACU.
Vanco ft AYA. System - Ma Tnsani (Yalla Habibi)
For me this is classic ecstatic dance peaking: take an exotic sample and lay it on top of a four to the floor beat, and what do you get? Tribe vibes! Hands up during the break and dancers yelling and shouting for release when the beat drops. But this one also has the rhythm to use your belly and hips, which is what sets it apart from the boring tribe vibe tracks. Yalla Habibi, Wollah Habibi!
Underworld - Cowgirl
Talk about classic. If you were at one of my sets where I played this you might remember how deep this goes. I would stretch the intro for minutes and minutes until the beat kicks in and dancers would gradually catch on to the pure electronic magic of this track, until the whole room would turn into a nineties rave but without the MDMA.
Sub Focus - Miracle (VIP mix)
If you read my news letter, you know about my crush on Sub Focus. My news letter got me some (friendly) backlash from a drum 'n bass lover, who calls him the 'Martin Garrix of drum 'n bass'. This may be case, but I don't really care, his productions (well some of them anyway) are of exceptional high quality, doing exactly what they intend to do: opening hearts and make people shiver with ecstacy. Sometimes you want to surf a big and easy wave, and Sub Focus helps us get there.
Cheetah, Nia Archives - Get Loose
Get Loose! I love jungle, but it is hard to find really good tracks. Alot of jungle is either to dark and mechanical, or too lyrical. This is very well-balanced, and positive, and you can properly swing your hips on it. With a lovely female vocal. I find Nia Archives a very edgy producer for Ecstatic Dance, but I like her originality in her productions and try to play more of what she makes.
Sammy Legs, Kaipora - Sideways Lean
How I wish more dancers understood this track. Somehow everyone dances to this track as if it is a four to the floor stomp-your-feet kind of thing. But it is not. "Jiggle with a little bit of bend in the knee", they instruct you: this is a jiggly tune so you are supposed to use your jiggly buttocks. But anyways, I will keep on playing it, maybe one day we will all understand.
Jinjé & A Brief Utopia - Submarino
This is also from 2024. I haven't played this as much as I would like to, because it's funky 145BPM rhythm makes it hard for me to connect it with other tracks in my collection. But it is so so good and also unique. I recommend listening to this at home from beginning until end and appreciate the heart-opening, danceable psychedelic qualities in it.
Mason & Princess Superstar - Perfect(Exceeder) (1991 Remix)
This is from 2024 I know, but it is so poppy that I only dared to play it at Ecstatic Dance a year after I downloaded it. I am glad I embraced it. The track is wild and sensual, and makes everyone want to take their clothes off and grind sweaty body parts against each other. It resulted in a -conscious- moshpit more that 50% of the times I played it.
Upcoming Events
January
31 Ecstatic Dance Witte Kerk Zutphen
February
6 Utrecht, Bar Beton
10 Amsterdam, Loods 12
12 Avani, Helvoirt
March
1 Ecstatic Dance Gathering, Ottermeerhoeve
That's it for this month! Please send me a reply if you feel like connecting or if you want to talk to me about anything!
Download this set
For this month, I've selected an old set, from 2023. To be honest, i haven't listened to it. I just took the oldest recording that I had lying around. I don't know where I played it either. But anyway, here it is, for your enjoyment.
