Euromasters – Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan?

The first few notes of Amsterdam Waar Lech Dat Dan are to the tune of ‘Tulpen uit Amsterdam’; tulips from Amsterdam. This track relies heavily on the sample from Rexanthony - For You Marlene.

Early 1992. Not sure if it was the January or February issue of Disco Dance, but I recall several articles written by Amsterdam resident Ad de Feijter (a.k.a. Mr. Fact or DJ Murderhouse) about the then current house tunes. First, he disqualified Apotheosis - O Fortuna (okay, in my opinion, he was right about that) but favoured C&C's version of U2's "Pride In The Name Of Love". In the house music reviews, he started with criticising releases like "Birds Dance", "Who The Fuck Is James Brown?", "Rode Schoentjes" and more of this kinda downright shit. He continues by saying that the gimmick was laughing, but he could not understand why there was something to laugh about "De Stukgedanste Schoentjes", "Who Is Elvis?" and "Michael Jackson Is In Heaven Now".
It would not have been so bad if he were only a reviewer. However, he was also a musician himself, making rave tracks as Sequencial ("Death House", "Cycades"). And just as a butcher cannot judge his own meat, these tracks were reviewed by his colleagues, and they received positive reviews without exception. Coincidence...???

Of course not. Can't be.

Rotterdam was where it all was happening regarding Dutch dance those days. Ronald Molendijk, the one behind "Rode Schoentjes", was resident deejay of Nighttown in Rotterdam. Leading record companies like Hithouse Records, Stealth Records and Mid-Town all had their headquarters in Rotterdam. All major club hits were made there, including many of the records dismissed by DJ Murderhouse. The overall feeling (including that of myself, and I was not even a hardcore person) was that DJ Murderhouse was taking house music far too seriously. Did he actually listen to the B-side of "Rode Schoentjes"?

So this is more or less why this EP was made. Please Mr. Murderhouse, do not murder house by taking it too seriously.
It had nothing to do with Ajax or Feyenoord, or Amsterdam being a tourist city and Rotterdam being a city of hard workers. There always was a rivalry between Amsterdam and Rotterdam, but not because of the music. Rotterdam people went to the Mazzo, Amsterdam people to Parkzicht. And no-one complained.

As a matter of fact, Rotterdam producers helped their Amsterdam colleagues with shaping Hooihouse - Pien An De Eure. If there was a rivalry regarding the music, then it was a healthy one. Because Mokum also found its way into danceland, and when Mokum was hitting big with Technohead in 1995, no-one was talking about Amsterdam or Rotterdam, but about a hardcore record being number one in our country.

A legend for the genre although I prefered Mokum (Sorry guys :p) . The Main Synth is a shrew, its a mix between annoying and genius at the same time. Who else can say that in todays world ?

Who is DJ Murderhouse then? I never knew how bad the rivalry was until I went to Rotterdam to watch Feyeonord against 020

I am a big Ajax fan, also in those days but over the years i bought 32 Rotterdam records records. The hate to Amsterdam out of Rotterdam is a kind of jelousy cause Feyenoord never wins from Ajax. Sorry guys.
It's all about the music.
Except ROT 01 of course ;)

Rival between Rotterdam and Amsterdam? Such was not the case.
Rotterdam and Amsterdam were rivals and they still are. Football hooligans are feeding this hostility. There was always these clashes between the 2 biggest towns of The Netherlands.
I was a football hooligan from Amsterdam, ing AFC Ajax Amsterdam just in the period this record was made. In the years 88, 89, 90, 91 I was going to illegal houseparty's. So on friday and saterdays raving and on sunday to Ajax.
In the beginning days (88-90) there were few house party's. Most of them being in Amsterdam. I that there were big groups of Hooligans going to Amsterdam for these raves. And we were with a big group. Was there any fighting? No because we wanted to rave. There was no hostility between the 2 sides on these raveparty's.
The fighting was on sunday at the football games.
this was all before gabber/hardcore existed. So this was all pre gabber. We weren't bald (long hair instead) but we were wearing trainingssuits.
So music did put people together like house music is and was intended. The hostility was introduced again with records like this. Not that it is wrong because it was going to happen anyway at a certain time. So yes there was and is rivival between Rotterdam and Amsterdam house music but before records like this such was not the case.

First release on Rotterdam Records. The figure you see on the sleeve was the logo of Parkzicht (the famous club in Rotterdam) pissing on Amsterdam. It represents the 'Euromast' witch is a high tower in Rotterdam. As said before the record itself stands for the rival between the scene in Amsterdam and the scene in Rotterdam. DJ Murderhouse was a DJ and Producer in Amsterdam (Track A2 F..k DJ Murderhouse).
3 years after this record DJ Murderhouse was responseble for Hakkûhbar with their hit 'gabbertje' (number one in the top 40 of the Netherlands). This record (witch made fun of all gabbers) destroyed the underground gabberscene.
'Amsterdam waar lech dat dan?' has been repressed in 2003. The original pressing has a yellow label with different drawings and text on it. The repress has a black label with text on it.

The titles means: Amsterdam? Wheres that then?

Perfect foot stomping bouncey record. And so it was the first record from the then nascient gabba scene, there were others but no one took the cake like this, complete with rude cover work.
I later sold my copy for some good cash. now I wish I had it again.
funny stuff.

In the beginning of gabber there was (and sometimes there still is)rivival between Rotterdam and Amsterdam house music. This record was the answer to Amsterdam, that Rotterdam gabber was harder and still alive.
I when this record came out. I waited 1 hour at the recordstore to open, to get a copy of this record.