Throwback Thursday: Dixon b2b Âme at Hotel Lloyd Boiler Room

The blueprint for a Boiler Room is pretty straightforward - a good DJ, a decent club space, a camera and a (most of the time) up-for-it crowd. Sometimes the formula gets spontaneously twisted, and the result is an enduring set which circulates long after the original broadcast. 

Innervisions bosses Dixon and Âme's Boiler Room from ADE was broadcast live from a hotel room in Amsterdam back in 2012 and picked up a lot of traction, partially because of the location, but mostly because it's one of the most impressively captivating and diverse sets the partnership has ever seen. 

Dixon b2b Âme Boiler Room x Innervisions DJ Set... by brtvofficial

The invite to the party came from Dixon himself on Facebook, "Just realized I forgot to tell you where the party is: It's here. In my hotel room. Room 28 at Lloyd Hotel. So far it’s just me and Kristian from Âme. But if you feel like coming by – we have a soundsystem, a bar and we’ll play music. It starts now."

From then on the people began to pour in, prepared for four hours of arguably some of the best electronic music available, just a fraction of the end was recorded on video (above), but the whole set is available to listen on Soundcloud (below).   

They start off with typical Innervisions-esque sounds, rich with melancholy and nostalgia and laced with haunting lyrics. Dropping the blissful Mano Le Tough Remix of Tyson's 'Mr Rain', before picking up the pace with tickling synths and heavier drums.

The chugging sound of Baikal 'Why Don't Ya?' plays, as you can imagine the hotel room begins to fill with revellers who have travelled through word of mouth to witness a Boiler Room like no other. 

Over on the streamed video, a pillow fight starts roughly three hours in. Feathers are floating around the room, the crowd are grinning, and the DJs continue to flawlessly mix despite the distractions. Whether it was contrived or not, it added to the sentiment of freedom and fun.   

The pair deliver a surprise in the form of Frank Ocean's 'Lost'. It's a testament to the DJs, although they are considered to be the world's best, their ability to read a crowd trumps all. A house party set up like this is never going to be about pushing boundaries with obscure tracks. It's just about good music, and Frank is exactly that.

The set finishes with an edit of Paul Simon's 'Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes', as even more feathers fall onto the equipment and the crowd absorbs the last of what we can only imagine is a once-in-a-lifetime sort of moment. 

This set is a reminder of why dance music is at times admirably unpredictable, and why it takes a certain DJ to pull it off. It was a journey and one that you felt fully involved in, behind the screen or simply listening through headphones, and it's one that you can relive again and again. 

Dixon and Âme play all night long at Manchester's Albert Hall on Friday 25th March.

Check out the rest of Dixon's upcoming gigs 

Or view Âme's next events